“When I would heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered, and the evil deeds of Samaria, for they deal falsely; the thief enters in, bandits raid outside” (Hos 7:1).
In the New York Times best seller The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt addresses the pandemic of mental illness among Generation Z, tracing it to the shift from a play based childhood (learning to live in the real world) to a phone based childhood (learning to live in a virtual world), a change that began with the invention of the iPhone in 2010. Though the damage to mental health has been most acutely felt by those who have only ever known life in the virtual world, the entire world now suffers from the smartphone’s intentionally addictive effects.
For the cure to work, we must first admit that we ourselves are responsible for our inner sickness, having sought purpose and meaning in all the wrong places.
Remarkably, Haidt also points to the power of the “spiritual reality,” which, though invisible, is no less real and remains essential for true healing. Agreed! The Prophet Hosea also spoke often about Israel’s need for inner healing, but he insists that only true spirituality can bring the cure (Hos 5:13; 6:1; 7:1; 11:3; 14:4 [5]). For the worship of anything or anyone other than the true God is no less a virtual reality, one that ultimately leaves us empty and starving for true and lasting love.
For the cure to work, we must first admit that we ourselves are responsible for our inner sickness, having sought purpose and meaning in all the wrong places. In Hosea 7:1, God makes clear that Israel’s healing (and ours) will come only when our “iniquity is uncovered” and our idolatrous self-worship is truly exposed. For spirituality without repentance is like morphine or medical marijuana: it dulls the pain but does not heal the soul.
And if we think our sinful choices have taken us far beyond hope for a cure, the Prophet Hosea assures us that we have a Great Physician who will heal all our apostasy. He charges nothing for His services but freely restores us by the power of His unconditional love.
“I will heal their apostasy, I will love them freely, for My anger has turned away from them” (Hos 14:5 [5]).
