Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for your sins have brought you down. Bring your confessions, and return to the LORD. Say to him, “Forgive all our sins and graciously receive us, so that we may offer you our praises. Assyria cannot save us, nor can our warhorses. Never again will we say to the idols we have made, ‘You are our gods.’ No, in you alone do the orphans find mercy.” [Hosea 14.1-3]
Throughout the respective histories of Israel and Judah, their collective faithlessness to God was essentially the same: they did not trust in God alone. In Israel's idolatrous faithlessness, many sins were prevalent, but one stands out. In Hosea 9.9 and 10.9, we see references to the town of Gibeah. It was at Gibeah that a horrific and brutal gang rape occurred to a Levite's concubine (eventually killing her) because the Levite would not come out and join the men of the town in homosexual sex (see Judges 19). As depraved as it sounds for ancient Biblical times, modern society is right on the doorstep of the same thing (if not already fully entered in the door).
However, as much as it seems prudent to address the fruit of faithlessness, homosexuality, it makes manifold more sense to address the root of the problem, idolatry (faithlessness to God alone). Romans 1.21-27 offers insight into exactly what I am saying here:
Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles. So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved. [Romans 1.21-27]
Sexual perversion is a telltale societal sign of faithlessness toward God. All the variations of LGBTQIA+ say the same thing: at some point, people began to trust idols instead of God alone.
Now, we are getting somewhere! Knowledge, technology, science, and medicine are the modern idols of the day. Mankind (sadly including Christianity) has so begun to trust in itself for well-being, wealth (food, clothing, shelter), and health that God is hardly even considered (if He is considered at all). How can I say this? It's easy, just look at the prevailing sexually perverse condition of society!
The essence of Romans 1.21-27 is that when man proudly refuses to acknowledge God as Supreme over every facet of life, instead "worshipping" creation and not the Creator (in other words, giving glory to things other than God for that which God said He alone would provide) then, man's condition progresses to all manner of sexual perversion (LGBTQIA+). And, as a sidenote, is it not incredibly ironic that this group of people refer to their lifestyle choice as "PRIDE?"
What is the solution? That brings us back to Hosea 14.1-3. In my own words:
Father, please forgive my sin of trusting in myself and the accomplishments and devices of man. Receive me so that I might praise You. Knowledge, technology, medicine, and military might cannot save me. Never again will I trust these idols because it is in You alone the humble and repentant find mercy.
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