01/09/2021 – Day 237 – Hosea 1 – 7 // “Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry And children of harlotry, For the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord.”
Hosea’s marriage to Gomer is a metaphor for God’s covenant with the nation of Israel. Needless to say, neither Gomer nor Israel lived up to their covenental promises.
Just quickly in passing the other day , I shared with Nancy that: “if I were God, there would be no souls left in this world.” The point: “God’s love is just as unfathomable as is His power. So, once again I am thinking of our men’s bible study again when a brother asked: “If God placed an ad for a prophet, would you answer it?” Right from the start, how would you like to be in the shoes of Hosea? But wasn’t Hosea sharing in the sufferings of Christ, even in a small way?
God keeps His promises! Check this out – 3:4: “For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim. Afterward the children of Israel, shall return and seek the Lord your God and David their king. They shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the later days.” Jonathan Cahn has an amazing testimony, check out his appearance on the Eric Metaxas show in my previous post. But have you noticed the proliferation of Messianic Jewish believers in our day, I’m thinking from the 1950s to here in 2021.
A Call to Repentance: Check out 6:1-2: “Come, and let us Return to the Lord; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight. Brothers, we are talking 8th century B.C. here, just before the fall of the northern kingdom to Assyria. Hosea is one of the oldest books of the Bible.
A note on 4;6 “knowledge” does not speak “ignorance of book learning” per se, but a disregard for God’s Law. And my footnote points out: “if a nation, forsakes the Law of God, it has no knowledge of sin. (See Romans 7:7). Those who have no knowledge of sin cannot repent (how can they, if they don’t know what sin is?”; and if they don’t repent, the Bible warns that they will perish (see Luke 13:3).”
We are spiritually blind if we don’t see ourselves in America today within this picture. But let’s resolve from this day forward to engage with the Holy Spirit’s efforts in restoring our individual souls and being a godly influence in our families and in our local communities.
Soli Deo Gloria!