I have written to him the great things of my law, [but] they were counted as a strange thing (Hosea 8:12, KJV).
God gave the Word and the Word is life. Man turned that Word into death by treating it as nothing more than rules and regulations. Acts, verse thirty-eight of chapter seven, speaks of the Word as living oracles; Moses did not receive rules—he received the words of life!
Man took those words of life and perverted them and this perversion led to death—the flesh (Isaiah 28:9-13). Man counted or regarded the Word of God as a “strange thing.” The Hebrew word translated as “strange thing” means to turn aside, to be a foreigner, to profane, and to commit adultery. When we turn aside from the Word of God, we become a stranger in regards to the Word. We are not receiving the Word; instead, we are disrespectfully looking for another method whereby we can produce fruit. We are betraying the Word when we do this.
When we turn the Word into mere rules and regulations, we are walking in the flesh and will only accomplish works of the flesh.
But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because [they sought it] not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone (Romans 9:31-32, KJV).
Man wanted to execute the law instead of trusting in the Messiah to fulfill the law for him. Man decided it would be better to trust in his own work. We like to feel capable even though God tells us that we are truly helpless on our own. We must understand our need for Christ. We must understand that we cannot serve God. We have nothing to offer Him.
And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else (Acts 17:25, NIV).
Apart from Christ, we are spiritually worthless. We need to stop trying to offer God something, and we need to start receiving what He has to offer us.
God does not need us; we need Him! We can erroneously believe that God would be lost without us, but that is truly not the case. In the book of Luke, we see that the Pharisees wanted Jesus’ disciples to be quiet; they did not want them to shout His praise (Luke 19:39-40). Jesus’ answer was that the rocks would cry out if His disciples did not—He is not desperate for us; He will never be without a witness. The rocks will cry out, but do we want a rock to cry out in our place?
We must understand that God is not “served” by us. He is not desperate for us; we are desperate for Him. We must see that anything we can do spiritually is only because of Him. We are not serving Him in the sense that we are doing Him a favor; He is working through us as we remain focused on the Word. We must keep in mind that everything is about God and every Spiritual fruit finds its origin in God (John 1:3, Colossians 1:17)—and He is the Word (John 1:1)!
