Today’s Reading: Hosea 1-3

God gave Adam & Eve an incredible opportunity to live in intimacy with their Creator. He provided generously for them, yet they chose to disobey. Even though He had greatly blessed them, they disregarded God’s plan, ignored God’s purpose in their creation and satisfied their own desires instead of faithfully following God. This began the pattern of sin, generation after generation, until God’s beautiful creation was deeply in need of a Savior — a sacrificial lamb.

God gave the nation of Israel this same opportunity to live in relationship with Him. He rescued them from slavery and gave them Canaan — a land flowing with milk and honey. He showered them with spiritual and material blessings, asking them to stay on His path of righteousness and worship Him only. But they disregarded God’s plan, ignored God’s purpose and satisfied their own desires instead of chasing after everything God desired for them. They messed up God’s perfect plan.

When the Lord first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, “Go and marry a prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the Lord and worshiping other gods.” – Hosea 1:2b

At times God calls us to a higher level of obedience. Occasionally he asks us to do something out of the ordinary because He has something extraordinary to do through us. God told Hosea to marry the prostitute, and Hosea responded in obedience.

The prophet Hosea’s life became an example of the unfaithfulness of Israel to their God. Hosea married a prostitute who continued to be unfaithful to him despite his generous love to her. Hosea’s anguish over his wife’s sins represents the heart of our God who grieves when we choose to love ourselves or something else more than we love Him. There were consequences to Gomer’s unfaithfulness, which came from a heart full of mercy, just as God’s punishment and the natural consequences of our sins come out of a heart of MERCY FOR THE PURPOSE OF REDEMPTION.

She doesn’t realize it was I who gave her everything she has – the grain, the new wine, the olive oil; I even gave her silver and gold. But she gave all my gifts to Baal.
But now I take back…
I will strip her…
I will put an end to…
I will destroy…
I will punish…
But then I will win her back once again.
I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her there.
I will return her vineyards to her and transform the VALLEY OF TROUBLE into a GATEWAY OF HOPE.
She will give herself to me there, as she did long ago when she was young,
when I freed her from her captivity in Egypt.
When that day comes,” says the Lord, “you will call me ‘my husband’ instead of ‘my master.’…
I will make you my wife forever, showing you righteousness and justice, unfailing love and compassion.
I will be faithful to you and make you mine, and you will finally know me as the Lord. – Hosea 2:8-20

God offers each one of us the incredible opportunity to live in an intimate relationship with our Creator – the one who knows everything about us and loves us more than we can imagine. He enters into a covenant relationship with us, requiring us to walk down a path of righteousness — following God’s plan, clinging to God’s purposes, and living fully for Him. When we break that covenant by putting something else or someone else ahead of Him, He allows us to go through a time of judgment or punishment or consequences for our actions out of His great love and mercy for us. This serves as His way of drawing us back to Him in order that He might restore us and reestablish His covenant with us.

GOD’S HOPE ALWAYS FOLLOWS HIS JUDGMENT!

Then the Lord said to me, “Go and love your wife again, even though she commits adultery with another lover. This will illustrate that the Lord still loves Israel, even though the people have turned to other gods and love to worship them.” – Hosea 3:1

Father God, show us the ways in which we are being unfaithful to you. Take our fickle hearts and redeem us for your purposes. May we never take our covenant relationship with you for granted, and may we experience a sense of hope as we look forward to your response. Lord, we are pressing in to know you more. Amen.

“Come, let us return to the Lord.
He has torn us to pieces; now he will heal us.
He has injured us; now he will bandage our wounds.
In just a short time he will restore us,
so that we may live in his presence.
Oh, that we might know the Lord!
Let us press on to know him.
He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn
Or the coming of rains in early spring.” – Hosea 6:1-3