APPLICATION: This reading completes the book of Hosea. The book echoes with God’s judgment on His people, but it also includes God’s promise of restoration. God would not forget His people even though He brings judgment and exile upon them for their sin. Indeed, He cries out, “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I surrender you, Israel? . . . I have had a change of heart; My compassion is stirred” (Hos. 11:8).
That compassion becomes that much more amazing when we read of the failures of the Hebrews. Listen to their story, and think with me about how much we are just like them.
1. They elected kings and appointed leaders without God’s leadership. They did not seek His wisdom, for they thought they knew best themselves.
Hos. 8:4 They have installed kings, but not through Me. They have appointed leaders, but without My approval.
2. They ignored the Word of God. God gave them His Word, but they treated it as if it were the laws of some strange land.
Hos. 8:12 Though I were to write out for him ten thousand points of My instruction, they would be regarded as something strange.
Hos. 12:10-11 I spoke through the prophets and granted many visions; I gave parables through the prophets. Since Gilead is full of evil, they will certainly come to nothing. They sacrifice bulls in Gilgal; even their altars will be like heaps of rocks on the furrows of a field.
3. They took the blessings of God and turned them into idolatry. The more blessed they were, the more they turned from God.
Hos. 10:1 Israel is a lush vine; it yields fruit for itself. The more his fruit increased, the more he increased the altars. The better his land produced, the better they made the sacred pillars.
4. They became comfortable in their blessings. In their ease, they forgot God.
Hos. 13:6 When they had pasture, they became satisfied; they were satisfied, and their hearts became proud. Therefore they forgot Me.
5. They trusted in themselves, including relying on their military might.
Hos. 10:13 You have plowed wickedness and reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your own way and in your large number of soldiers . . .
PRAYER: It’s hard not to see ourselves in these descriptions. Choosing leaders apart from God. Ignoring God’s Word. Turning blessings into idols. In our comfort, forgetting God. Relying on self and military strength.
We need to do today what Hosea told God’s people to do: return to Him, forsake our false gods, and fall on His compassion:
Hos. 14:1-3 Israel, return to Yahweh your God, for you have stumbled in your sin. Take words of repentance with you and return to the Lord. Say to Him: “Forgive all our sin and accept what is good, so that we may repay You with praise from our lips. Assyria will not save us, we will not ride on horses, and we will no longer proclaim, ‘Our gods!’ to the work of our hands. For the fatherless receives compassion in You.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Isaiah 28-30
