We find ourselves on the last Tuesday of September 2021. Hooray! We've made it 9 months through 2021! While the last 3/4ths of the year have proven to have their challenges (insert your own set of concerns) we have persevered and found ourselves on the cusp of a fall filled with fun, fancy, and fortune right at our fingertips. Agreeably, some of this glee and glib will have to be created by our own hands, but surprisingly some of it will come from places where we least expect it. Tuesday's Musical Notes certainly intends to do our part!
Pete Byrne and Rob Fisher formed the combo that was the heart of Naked Eyes. Due to the inability to reproduce their sound in a live setting in the mid to late 80s, they never toured in support of their records. They produced 2 albums together before Fisher's untimely death in 1999 of complications from cancer surgery. Byrne continued to be active in the music industry and has since gone on to create 2 more Naked Eyes albums, the most recent being the June 8th, 2021 release Disguise the Limit. Byrne also continues the band's legacy by touring with 80s revival bands during the summer.
Naked Eyes burst onto the music scene as so many new recording acts do by recording a cover of a previous song. The song they chose was the #49 charter "Always Something There To Remind Me", which Burt Bacharach and Hal David had recorded with vocalist Lou Johnson in the summer of 1964. The Naked Eyes version of "Always Something There To Remind Me" went as high as #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1986 and created a desire from the listening public to hear what the band could do with original work.
The band's follow-up, "Promises, Promises" would not disappoint. It soared up the charts and hit its highest mark at #11 in October of 1983. The song was well-received enough on the radio that 7" and 12" remixes were recorded by veteran producer Jellybean, with backing vocals by another up-and-coming artist of the early 80s, Madonna.
"Promises, Promises" is a song to which many can relate. Have you ever had a promise broken to you? If you just took a breath before reading this sentence, I promise you have had broken promises in your life. Hopefully, you have forgiven those folks and recaptured the relationship that a broken promise can fracture.
However, we probably have all had people in our lives that we can no longer associate with because of their broken promises, promises. It is one thing to make a mistake and quite another to realize that someone is a habitual liar. This is the situation in which we find God in today's focal passage of the Bible. Our prophet 'O the day is Hosea, who also finds himself the brunt of broken promises, promises.
Hosea was a contemporary of last week's prophet Amos. He also served Israel during the time of the prophets Micah and Isaiah. He is part of an elite group of prophets who attempted to turn Israel and Judah back to God before it was too late. Hosea saw the fall of Samaria, the capital of Israel, in his lifetime and as such saw his prophecies fulfilled.
God used Hosea in an illustrative manner to show the divided kingdoms who they were at their core. God instructed Hosea to marry a prostitute. You read that right, a prostitute. Gomer was her name. She was an unfaithful wife from the beginning of their marriage and served as an example of Israel/Judah's unfaithfulness to God. We never read that her unfaithfulness to Hosea ever ended either. Hosea fathered 2 children with Gomer, both of which were given names suitable for the times in which they lived, a son, Jezreel (God scatters), and a daughter Lo-Ruhamah (not having obtained mercy). These children represented the relationship between God and Israel/Judah at the time.
Let's unpack this for just a bit. One of the most important relationships one can have is with their spouse. Please understand that while Tuesday's Musical Notes loves everyone, we believe the Bible is very plain on the fact that a marriage should be between 1 man and 1 woman. (see Genesis 2 NASB/AMP/KJV). This marriage relationship is intended to never be broken. Yes, God does ALLOW divorce, but it is not His perfect plan for the 1 man, 1 woman relationship.
Marriage serves as an example throughout the Bible of the relationship that God has with His chosen people. In the Old Testament, this example was extended to the Hebrew people (descendants of Abraham). In the New Testament, the marriage example is intended to be extended to the church. While this may sound exclusive, please remember that both Abraham's family and the church were to be conduits by which the rest of the world could come to God. They both were given the responsibility as the "brides" of God to go about inviting everyone to the wedding feast and tell others through love and deed about the God they to which they are "married".
Let's go back to Hosea. God instructed him to marry someone who was at the very least steeped, if not addicted to, sexual sin. This was against Mosaic law and one would imagine that Gomer's sin would have made Hosea "unclean" for the rest of his life. Yet, in obedience Hosea followed God.
We soon find that after Hosea and Gomer were married that her unfaithful ways begin to catch up to her. But in a show of mercy and grace, Hosea redeems Gomer (chapter 3). While Hosea continues to prophesy against the sins of the Hebrews, this is where he and Gomer's example ends. Through Hosea, God communicates his displeasure with his unfaithful bride Israel/Judah. His "bride" has prostituted itself with the gods of surrounding nations. God will mercifully redeem them, yet this redemption will come as a future event. The chosen people of God, who are supposed to be leading the rest of the world to God, will suffer for their unfaithfulness before the restorative power of God will come on them. Just like the Israelites who roamed and died in the desert for 40 years after the Exodus, many of Hosea's generation will never see the redemption of Israel/Judah through the remnant that will return.
What God do you serve? I confess, that the god of time/productivity tends to creep into my life very quickly. Perhaps you succumb to the god of politics (BOTH SIDES!). Maybe your idol is whether someone is vaccinated or not. (Listen to the language of the newly appointed Governor of New York... New York Gov. Hochul tells Christian worshippers: 'God wants you to be vaccinated' by Matthew Miller, September 27, 2021, yahoo.com)
The point is this. Whatever takes your focus away from your "bridegroom", God, is an idol. Whatever you spend the majority of your time, talent, and treasure on is your idol. The forms of idols can manifest themselves in a variety of what seem to be good ways. But the results are the same...a separation in your relationship with God.
We recommend that you take a moment or two this week and reflect. Are your promises, promises ones that you can keep? First of all, is God your "bridegroom"? Have you had a restoration of wholeness through the power of Jesus's sacrifice on the cross? Does God as Holy Spirit dwell in you as a result of your belief in Jesus (God in the form of man)? What informs the decisions you make? Is it the other gods of this world that easily redirect our attention from the one true God? Or does the God who created you, who knows you better than anyone, who redeems you with His mercy and grace, who sent Jesus to die for you, who sent Holy Spirit to live in you, and who is waiting for you to come to him either through leaving this life through physical death or Jesus' return, does this God inform every aspect of your life?
Don't be like Israel/Judah. Stand firm with your relationship with God by having a consistent time of reading His Word. Associate with fellow believers by consistently attending a fellowship of believers who can encourage and do life with you. Understand that when you do make a mistake, and we all do, God is there waiting to redeem you just like Hosea did Gomer because He keeps all of His promises, promises...
'Til Tuesday,
Loving HIM by serving You,
randy
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