Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein (Hosea 14:9, KJV).
The Basics of Bad Deals
There are deals in life we wish we never agreed to. If we could, we’d go back in time and reverse the decision, spoken words, etc. as if it had never happened. God teaches the church through His Word that no matter how good something seems, there will always be bad deals.
God hates bad deals (Proverbs 11:1). God knows His creation is eligible for much greater but instead we trade ourselves for much less. He wants us to get the best deal! Our spiritual bad deals hurt the most because they hold eternal impacts; we can’t always recover from them. We trade the eternal for the temporary far too often. Instead of trading, we need to take inventory and see what exchanges we’re making for our salvation and relationship with God.
An Example of a Bad Deal
Hosea was a prophet to Israel when Judah was divided. God asked him take a wife who was a prostitute (Hosea 1:2). His life became a living sermon to God’s people—God was beckoning for His church to return to Him and warning them about the bad deals they made. Anytime we walk away from the Lord and His blessings it will always be a bad deal.
We’re in a Bad Deal When We…
Stop Valuing What We Already Have
Gomer would follow after her lovers to get corn, wine, and flax. She thought they could give her more than what her husband could provide. But, this simply wasn’t true. Hosea could and had provided all those things. He would even buy her back when she was on the auction block many times, but she kept making bad deals. She didn’t realize what she had in her husband’s house was enough to sustain her. The same is true with God: all we really need is found in His house. God will give us everything that we need: companionship, money, etc. He is reaching for us today to keep us safe and to keep us from making bad deals.
Aren’t Honest About Who We Really Are
Israel was hurting God and each other by breaking His laws through setting up idols in the land (Hosea 4:1–2). We can all be guilty about setting up our own idols in our lives from time to time. Our idols might be different, but they’re all driven by the same spirit. We can’t mix God and the world together (Matthew 6:24); instead we must invest ourselves in God’s Kingdom. We can’t tell ourselves that what we’re doing is okay (even if we don’t feel conviction). We cannot mistake God’s grace and mercy for His acceptance.
Don’t Know Who We’re Dealing With
God’s people will be destroyed for a lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). Knowledge in this Scriptural context speaks of relationship. God’s people didn’t know who He was; they had no relationship with Him. This Scripture warns us about how we can be busy about the Kingdom and not know the King (Matthew 7:22–23). The devil can convince us to do the wrong things, cross the wrong boundaries, and believe untruths. We won’t know we’re being deceived if we don’t know God well enough. Those who don’t know Jesus will wind up in the lake of fire, the ultimate punishment for bad deals. There’s nothing in this world, or any deal, worth going to hell over. We must follow God and keep our salvation.
