"But I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from slavery in Egypt. And I will make you live in tents again, as you do each year for the Festival of Shelters." (Hosea 12:9 NLT)
Hosea 5-12 is an interesting stretch of scripture. God is speaking through the prophet Hosea about the Northern Kingdom (Israel or Ephraim). Israel had grown up to be rich and independent. The problem was, as they grew in stature, they also grew in idolatry. They were worshiping false gods on high hills and a calf idol in Bethel. They had long forgotten how the One True God broke their bonds of slavery and carried them out of Egypt. They’d lost sight of the way God Himself had sustained them through the desert. They did not recall the conditions of their Promised Land inhabitation and they had begun to credit their success to human ingenuity and the household good of their unbelieving neighbors.
The Lord God was rightly jealous and He would send His people back into tents to remind them just who He was. Desert dwellers cannot deny their dependence on God: they are indebted to Him in every provision and endangered apart from His protection.
In our human limitations, we tend to see this return to tents as punishment. And to a degree, it was. But in far greater measure, the return to tents was an act of love from a compassionate God. His people were bent on self-destruction: their Baal-worship and unholy treaties were corrupting their relationship with the living God and interfering with their eternity. In His benevolence God stepped in to alter their course before it was too late and entire generations were lost.
It’s been a reoccurring theme in my life: living in tents. And honestly, I’m not a fan. Tents blow in the breeze and they don’t hold much. A peripatetic gal gets to feeling like she doesn’t belong anywhere after a few decades of wilderness wandering.
In today’s text, I got a glimpse of God’s concern for His people. He puts His beloved in tents so they continue to know the power of His presence and the awesome nature of His nearness. Those living in canvas and sticks learn to depend upon Him for the most common things: bread and water, Word and Spirit. Tent dwellers don’t make their own routes through the desert, they simply arrange and rearrange their lives around the living, breathing, moving tabernacle of God’s companionship as many times as it takes. They hold the reigns loosely, surrendering anew at every redirection.
Sometimes tent-dwelling chafes as punishment, but truly it’s mercy. We follow after a God who loves us far too much to leave us to our own devices. So much so that He Himself was willing to dwell in a tent to live with us. Will we not reside in tents to remain with Him?
"And the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle." (Exodus 40:35 NLT)
"For He was like a foreigner, living in tents." (Hebrews 11:9 NLT)
Lord, we confess our dislike of temporary dwellings. We long to build brick and mortar like our neighbors. Forgive us for our desire to conform to our surroundings. Today we see tents as invitation; opportunity to abide in absolute dependence upon You. How could we turn away from such advantage? Help us recall that a day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. Amen.