“I will lead you into solitude and there I will speak to your heart.” Hosea 2:14
Amidst the maelstrom of voices, what, or better yet who is speaking to your heart these days?
It is a dangerous question to consider seriously, as it is not as though the only voice that speaks to our hearts is that of our creator. John Calvin famously warned us that the heart is an “idol factory.” But you don’t need to be a fan of Calvin to hear the warning from Jeremiah that “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.”
Such sentiments are not popularly held in our culture. The heart is, often uncritically, thought of as the seat of all that is pure and noble in us. Yet somehow, despite all that nobility locked away in our hearts, what seems to come flowing out, at least within the context of much public discourse, fails to represent this apparent innate nobility.
Jesus has a more integrated view of our intentions and actions when he teaches us that it is out of the overflow of the heart that our mouths speak. And for that reason, I want to ask the question again: Amidst the maelstrom of voices, who is speaking to your heart?
In Hosea ch 2:14 we see this dramatic shift from much of the earlier portions of the book. Hosea starts rough. Up to verse 14 God is delivering a damning indictment of Israel to prove His grounds for divorce. Much of it has to do with the unfaithfulness of Israel in their worship of Baal, and the implied injustices. It would seem as though something other than God has been speaking to Israel’s heart. But just when it looks as though the case is closed, and God has proven he has every right to offer a certificate of divorce, we come to verse 14, like a glass of mercy in a desert of righteous judgment.
“But I will lead you into solitude (some translations say I will allure you to the wilderness), and there I will speak to your heart.”
The remainder of the chapter speaks of promises of restoration over Israel.
For God, the desert is not some place of punishment. Over and over again the desert, or “deserted places” or places of “solitude” are God’s alluring of his people when they have gone astray. A place where He alone can speak to their hearts. Our places of solitude are our places of intimacy with God. So, what quiet place, amidst the clatter, might God be alluring you to?
One way you might consider cultivating some silence and solitude with God is at our upcoming retreat at Corhaven – Alone With God, Together on March 7-8th. You can learn more & RSVP here.