Ps 103:10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
Scripture talks of three levels of sin. You have chata’ which is mentioned at the beginning of this verse where God tells us that we will not take on the image or the result of our sin. Chata’ is an archer’s term for missing the mark. This is really not an intentional sin, sometimes as hard as we try, we just don’t seem to make that mark. This is true with addictions, personality problems like being quick tempered or insensitive. I know I am always chata’ missing that mark when it comes to sensitivity, but He is working on me so I do not become a totally insensitive person.
The next level is persha’ often rendered as transgressions. This is bad, here we are talking deliberate sin, sin of outright rebellion. I have to admit that I have been guilty of that one as well. However, there is a third level of sin and that is avon which could come from two possible root words. I think both root words are intended. We render this as iniquity. It could come from the root word abad which means to stray or get lost. Ever feel like you have strayed from God? I know I have and quite recently to be truthful. I strayed so far I really felt I lost my way. It is a very nightmarish feeling let me tell. Avon could also come from the root word avah which means to dwell or set up a permanent resident. Sometimes we wander so far from God that we are in danger of setting up a permanent resident away from Him. I also did that a number of years ago when I crawled under yon rock from whence I came. That was the most horrible experience in my life. You reach a point of no concern. Bad news.
That is iniquity, it is the worst of the three sins for you have left your first love. You have not only left your first love but as I have learned firsthand you also leave your first love you leave Him with a broken heart and I never, ever want to that again. Like everyone I face temptations every day. I faced a real powerful temptation not too long ago, but if it was the enemy whispering my ear, he would be sorely disappointed because all I had to do was think of how yielding to that temptation would wound the heart of the God I love and there was no contest. Resisting the enemy came pretty easy with that thought of breaking the heart of God.
Note what the Psalmist says here, God will not reward us according to our wanderings. Of course that English word reward does not mean getting a prize. I went into that in a previous study. The word that is used in the Hebrew is gamal. It is interesting that one use of this word is to wean a child. That has real significance when you consider that God will not gamal you from your iniquities. He will not wean you off your iniquities. Now if iniquity means to wander away from God or set up residence in sin, God is not going to gradually remove you from sin, He is going to come and get you and take you back to Himself. Like Hosea went out and just snatched his wife away from her fallen state. He did not gamal his wife Gomer. Note there is play on his wife’s name Gomer. Gomer means one who is homeless, because she was gamal or weaning herself away from Hosea. No matter how much we take up residence in sin if we have once walked with God we will always feel as if we are homeless if we wander into sin and longer we wander avon the more we will gamal wean ourselves away from God. Hosea’s wife had wandered away from him for another man. Once that man tired of her she was just cast aside and left homeless, scorned by the rest of the community, marked as an adulterous woman, a sinful woman wearing that scarlet A. She was left homeless, but her husband came and found her, purchased her back, restored her and most important he continued to love her.
Psalms 103:10 is the story of Hosea in a nutshell. It is the story of each one of us. No matter how far we wandered from God, He is searching for us, ready to restore us. I remember a story my father used to tell me. As a child I would always ask him to tell me the story even though I had heard it numerous of times. I just loved hearing him tell the story. My father had one ear that was sensitive to the cold. He said this was because when he was just six years old his ear was frozen in a snow storm and since that time it was always sensitive to the cold.
You see he grew up in the country in a little cabin on a small farm. He and my aunt and uncle who were older attended a little one room school house that they would walk to every day. One winter after a couple hours in the school the teacher saw clouds rolling in and knew they were in for a major storm. She dismissed the students telling them to return home as quickly as possible as there appeared to be a major snow storm moving in. My Aunt was about ten years old and my uncle who was about eight., They did not go right home with my six year old father. Instead they started to play around in the snow that had begun falling. However, the storm moved in very quickly and it wasn’t long before the storm became a blizzard. My father, aunt and uncle were now struggling to make it home. The snow was becoming deep and they were growing very tired. Before long my aunt and uncle could barely go on, my father at only six said all he wanted to do was lay down in that soft snow and go to sleep, which would have been fatal and my aunt and uncle knew this and kept encouraging my father to keep walking. Before long, however, they also desired to lay down in the snow and sleep. When it seemed like they could go no further they saw a giant figure approaching them in the snow. It was my grandfather who was a big, huge monstrous sized mountain man. He had come out into the blizzard in search of his children. He was carrying a big heavy coat and blankets. When he found his wandering, struggling children he gave my aunt and uncle each a heavy blanket to put around them and then he wrapped my father up in that heavy coat, picked him up and carried him home, with my aunt and uncle clinging to each side of him.
That is not gamal just weaning away from the snow, it was my grandfather picking up his children and carrying them safely home . That is what Jesus did with me when I wandered too far away from Him and crawled under yon rock. When I felt I could just not go on any longer I saw Him in the distance, looking for me. When I went to him He wrapped me in His arms, picked me up and has been carrying me ever since and He will continue to carry me until we reach our permanent home.
No matter how far you go in your iniquity, He will not gradually let you wean yourself off of him with your iniquity, but He will pick you up, wrap you in his powerful arms and carry you home. Whatever residence you take up in sin, like Hosea’s wife, He will just come and pick you up and carry you to your real home, because you belong to Him you are married to Him and He will not only restore you, but He will also continue to love you.
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