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Hosea 14 - Living Wise

The concluding verse of this book holds a great promise.

Hosea 14:9 Wise people will understand these things. A person with insight will recognize them. The LORD’s ways are right. Righteous people live by them. Rebellious people stumble over them.

If we are wise (by fearing the Lord),

Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.

and we have insight from listening and following shepherds who are after God's own heart,

Jeremiah 3:15 I will give you shepherds after my own heart. They will be shepherds who feed you with knowledge and insight.

then we will understand and recognize that the Lord's way are right.

We know if this is true about us by the way we live.

James 3:13 Do any of you have wisdom and insight? Show this by living the right way with the humility that comes from wisdom.

If we don't live right, it is usually pretty evident.

Father, may I live humbly and follow the path you've laid out for me. Please continue to make my path straight. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Wise up. Jan
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Hosea 13 - Whither Ephraim?

In reading this chapter I see something that I'd noticed while reading the book of Revelation. In chapter seven there is a list of twelve thousand sealed Jews from every tribe. However, Ephraim is not listed. The tribe is gone. Why?

The answer is in the passages below.

Hosea 13:1-3, 12-15 In the past when the tribe of Ephraim spoke, the people shook with fear because the other Israelite tribes looked up to them. But the people of Ephraim sinned by worshiping Baal and thus sealed their destruction. Now they keep on sinning by making silver idols to worship—images shaped skillfully with human hands. "Sacrifice to these," they cry, "and kiss the calf idols!" Therefore, they will disappear like the morning mist, like dew in the morning sun, like chaff blown by the wind, like smoke from a chimney.

"The sins of Ephraim have been collected and stored away for punishment. The people have been offered new birth, but they are like a child who resists being born. How stubborn they are! How foolish! Should I ransom them from the grave? Should I redeem them from death? O death, bring forth your terrors! O grave, bring forth your plagues! For I will not relent! Ephraim was the most fruitful of all his brothers, but the east wind—a blast from the LORD—will arise in the desert. It will blow hard against the people of Ephraim, drying up their land. All their flowing springs and wells will disappear. Every precious thing they have will be plundered and carried away.

They were offered new birth! But they rejected God's offer. Therefore God removed his hand of protection from them and allowed them to be wiped out. In 721BC Assyria invaded and Ephraim was no more.

Interestingly there is a prophecy in Ezekiel 37 about remnants from Ephraim being joined as one with the tribe of Judah.

Father, may I never take your blessings for granted. I do not want someone else taking my place. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Thither. Jan
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Hosea 12 - Confident Dependence

Two words from the following passage interested me.

Hosea 12:6 So now, come back to your God! Act on the principles of love and justice, and always live in confident dependence on your God.

They are "confident dependence". A slave has dependence upon a master for nearly everything that sustains his life. But can it be called confident? I doubt it. So confident dependence must be something more.

I think a more apt analogy would be a dog to a master, he depends on everything that sustains his life, but there is no doubt in his mind that it will be supplied.

If you don't like the dog comparison, then perhaps you could make the case with children. They depend on their parents for everything. Yet rarely, unless something is horribly broken, do they have any doubt that their parent will supply their needs.

We too are to live in confident dependence upon our God, knowing that he will give us everything necessary to sustain our life, now and in eternity.

Father, may my confidence in you grow more each day. May I not doubt, but rather expect. In Jesus' name Amen.

My tail's a waggin'. Jan
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Hosea 11 - Aslan

There is a passage in this chapter that reminded me of the The Chronicles of Narnia. In the series, Christ is represented allegorically by the Lion Aslan.

Hosea 11:10 For someday the people will follow the LORD. I will roar like a lion, and my people will return trembling from the west.

What an interesting clarion call this will be. I wonder if we all will hear it, or will it only be the Jews?

Father, may I be listening for your voice in all of my daily activities, whether it sounds like a still small voice or the roar of a lion. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Aslan is on the move. Jan
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Hosea 10 - Full Circle

I found an interesting closed loop in this chapter.

Hosea 10:12 I said, 'Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of my love.

Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and shower righteousness upon you.'

We are to plant the seeds of a life lived free of moral defect and guilt. The crop resulting from that will be God's love toward us.

We are to break up the dry callousness of sin encircling our hearts by seeking the Lord. When we do so, God will shower morally upright lives upon us, which we can then plant! The circle is completed.

Father, may I plant seeds of moral living. Empower me daily to live in a way that is pleasing and honoring to you. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Hitch up the team, time for some plowin'. Jan
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Hosea 9 - Gilgal

The word Gilgal means "wheel or rolling, or rolling away." It is a variant of the word Galgal, which means "whirlwind, or whirling of dust or chaff".

The reason I'm looking at this word is because of the following verse from today's reading.

Hosea 9:15 The LORD says, "All their wickedness began at Gilgal; there I began to hate them. I will drive them from my land because of their evil actions. I will love them no more because all their leaders are rebels.

That is a powerful statement, "all their wickedness began at Gilgal..." Follow that with, "there I began to hate them." Wow! So what is Gilgal; when was this; what happened to cause God to begin to hate his chosen people?

In doing some research, I find that Gilgal is the first place that the Israelites camped after crossing the Jordan river into the promised land. It was there that the Lord "rolled away" the miracle of manna. They no longer needed his supernatural blessing of food. It was in this place that they reestablished the covenant of circumcision. It was from this place that the conquering of Canaan was staged. It was at Gilgal that the tribes were allotted their inheritance of land.

So far so good right? Jump ahead a few hundred years. Israel is doing Ok; the prophet Samuel is holding audiences at Gilgal on a regular basis - doing the job of a judge. Apparently it is an important historical place. Then something happened.

The leaders of the people came to him at Ramah, near Jerusalem and Gilgal, and said "Appoint us a king. We want to be just like the other nations around us."

Look at the Lord's response to Samuel.

1 Samuel 8:7 "Do as they say," the LORD replied, "for it is me they are rejecting, not you. They don't want me to be their king any longer."

The coronation ceremony, the second one where all of Israel accepted Saul as king, happened at Gilgal. It was at this ceremony that Samuel informed them publicly of the great evil that they had done by rejecting God as king.

1 Samuel 12:17-19 You know that it does not rain at this time of the year during the wheat harvest. I will ask the LORD to send thunder and rain today. Then you will realize how wicked you have been in asking the LORD for a king!

So Samuel called to the LORD, and the LORD sent thunder and rain. And all the people were terrified of the LORD and of Samuel.

"Pray to the LORD your God for us, or we will die!" they cried out to Samuel. "For now we have added to our sins by asking for a king."

But wait there's more. The new king rather quickly disobeys God, at Gilgal - twice!

Soon after his coronation, Saul mobilized the Israelite army to fight the Philistines. The assembled at Gilgal to await Samuel's instruction. Several day's passed with no sign of Samuel. Saul got nervous and sacrificed the burnt offering to the Lord himself - something only a priest was authorized to do. Just as the fire was dying down, Samuel arrived.

1 Samuel 13:13 "How foolish!" Samuel exclaimed. "You have disobeyed the command of the LORD your God. Had you obeyed, the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever."

He had led the army in sin against the Lord. And apparently none of them attempted to stop him.

A short while later, Saul was instructed to totally wipe out every living thing of the Amalekite nation. He didn't. He spared the king's life and kept the best of the livestock "to sacrifice".

God saw what Saul did and spoke to Samuel about it during the night.

1 Samuel 15:11 "I am sorry that I ever made Saul king, for he has not been loyal to me and has again refused to obey me." Samuel was so deeply moved when he heard this that he cried out to the LORD all night.

The next day Samuel went to meet Saul, again at Gilgal, and gave him the following message.

1 Samuel 15:23 "Rebellion is as bad as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as bad as worshiping idols. So because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you from being king."

Again, Saul publicly involved the Israelites in sinning against the Lord. As king, it was within his power to stop them. He didn't.

So, back to Hosea. When did the Israelite's wickedness and Lord's hating them begin? I believe it was with the coronation of Saul. It was there that they rejected God as king.

Father, may I honor you as the only sovereign potentate of my life. Help me to obey your commands. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Crown Him with many crowns, Jan
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Hosea 8 - Sounds like America

You tell me if the following passage doesn't sound like our United States Congress.

Hosea 8:12 Even though I gave them all my laws, they act as if those laws don't apply to them.

Sadly that congressional attitude is starting to pervade the rest of our society. We break speeding laws with impunity, are arrogant, rude, lie, cheat on our taxes and each other, break our vows, and we stand silent when it is within our power to do good.

What will it take for us to get it right? Is there yet hope, or do we have to go the way of Rome?

Lord, please have mercy on us. Revive us again. Please send a wave of your spirit over the land one more time. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Join me and repent, please. Jan
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Hosea 7 - Aging

I'm not sure why, but the following verse from this chapter stands out to me.

Hosea 7:9 Worshiping foreign gods has sapped their strength, but they don't even know it. Israel is like an old man with graying hair, unaware of how weak and old he has become.

Perhaps it is because I'm starting to see the effects of aging more clearly each time I pass a mirror. My hair is thinning, wrinkles are starting to appear in new places, and I'm looking more like my dad every passing day.

It seems like just yesterday that I was a teenager in high school. In my mind's eye, that is who I still am. But that blasted mirror keeps yelling something different.

I don't intend to go down without a fight. My wife and children deserve a man of vitality and strength. I will resist the pull of time and gravity as long as the Lord allows.

Ultimately though, just when we start to figure things out we either forget it all, or lose the strength to do anything with that knowledge. Oh, what price the fall.

But praise be to God! That is not the end of the story. No, the end is the Kingdom restored. And I get a new incredible body prepared for me by my Lord - one that will never age or wear out.

Thank you Lord for the promise of a hope and a future more fantastic than I can imagine. Thank you that Jesus is preparing a place for me. Amen.

I'm not old, I'm just getting started. Jan
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Hosea 6 - What God Wants

I see glimpses of one truth throughout scripture. God wants a relationship with me. Nowhere is that more clear than in the following verse.

Hosea 6:6 I want you to be merciful; I don't want your sacrifices. I want you to know God; that's more important than burnt offerings.

Notice that part of the way to know him is to be merciful.

Could it be any more clear? He wants us to be his intimate allies.

Hosea 6:3 Oh, that we might know the LORD! Let us press on to know him! Then he will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring.

May this be my prayer too.

Lord, may I press on to know you. In Jesus' name, Amen.

He wants me. Jan
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Hosea 5 - Doing nothing

On June 19, 2008, Esmin Green, a 49-year old native of Jamaica, died in the waiting room at King's County Hospital in New York. The incident was video taped by security cameras. She fell onto the floor and writhed and kicked for about 45 minutes while guards, and doctors that passed by did nothing! Naturally there have been several firings, and lawsuits are in process.

The case above is extreme, but have you ever sat by and done nothing, when you knew you could do something to help a situation?

In my children's lives there are times that I know I need to let them feel the consequences of their actions. My youngest, for instance, tends to leave his scooter outside on the sidewalk. Despite my desire to help and save him pain, I do nothing. If it is stolen, he will learn a lesson much more valuable than the $30 scooter.

There are times that my oldest will dive into a project without asking for help or planning it out. Often, I bite my tongue and I do nothing. Failure is an amazing teacher.

In today's reading I see that due to Israel's chronic sin, they are so far gone that they no longer have a moral conscience. God decides to sit back and do nothing.

Hosea 5:15 Then I will return to my place until they admit their guilt and look to me for help. For as soon as trouble comes, they will search for me.

The hard part for me as a parent is to know when to do nothing, and when to come in to save the day. Thankfully God says that if we lack wisdom, we can ask him.

James 1:5 If you need wisdom – if you want to know what God wants you to do – ask him, and he will gladly tell you. He will not resent your asking.

God wants us to come to him. Look again at Hosea 5:15. He wants Israel to come in search of him. I guess as a parent I want the same.

Father, may I learn from you. May I seek your wisdom to know when to act and when to forbear. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Do seek God, Jan
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Hosea 4 - Sounds Familiar

I looked at this dreary chapter and noticed many similarities to our day and age. The following stood out to me.

Hosea 4:8 The priests get fed when the people sin and bring their sin offerings to them. So the priests are glad when the people sin!

Our politicians are more than happy to have people come to them to fix their problems. The more problems they have, the more important the politicians become. Sadly, most of the problems our political leaders are being asked to solve are the results of sin.

Father, please forgive our stupidity. Help us to rely on you, not man.

When will we learn? Jan
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Hosea 3 - Intimate Relations

What an amazing prophetic chapter! God tells Hosea to buy back his adulterous wife Gomer.

Hosea 3:1-2 Then the LORD said to me, "Go and get your wife again. Bring her back to you and love her, even though she loves adultery. For the LORD still loves Israel even though the people have turned to other gods, offering them choice gifts."

So I bought her back for fifteen pieces of silver and about five bushels of barley and a measure of wine.

After four-hundred years of silence, of allowing Israel to wallow in her sin; four-hundred years of being used and abused by conquerors, God sent someone to purchase her freedom. I find it interesting that Jesus was betrayed for exactly double the price of this woman.

Hosea, like Jesus, paid the price, but then he left her to a time of purification and testing.

Hosea 3:3 Then I said to her, "You must live in my house for many days and stop your prostitution. During this time, you will not have sexual intercourse with anyone, not even with me.

She had been redeemed, brought out from under the curse. However, she was not going to experience restoration of fellowship, of intimacy - not yet.

God knew that there would be an extended period of time between the redemption by the Messiah, to the return of the kingdom by the Messiah. If you look you even see that the temple is gone. This happened in 70AD.

Hosea 3:4 This illustrates that Israel will be a long time without a king or prince, and without sacrifices, temple, priests, or even idols!

He did not say forever, he said "a long time". That means that there will come a time when these things will be restored.

Hosea 3:5 But afterward the people will return to the LORD their God and to David's descendant, their king. They will come trembling in awe to the LORD, and they will receive his good gifts in the last days.

Go back to Gomer. What does this mean for her?

It means that after her time of purification, her time of being alone will end. She will be reunited and shown love in every way conceivable. So will Israel.

Father, thank you for such a beautiful picture of restoration wrapped within a prophecy. You are amazing. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Restore the intimacy, Jan
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Hosea 2 - If she doesn't...

I looked at this chapter with a different perspective. I see in it God's compassion, his deep desire to be chosen, to be loved. I see the lengths that he is willing to go to, what he is willing to endure.

The following verses stuck out to me. God is talking to his wayward wife, Israel.

Hosea 2:1-4 But now, call Israel to account, for she is no longer my wife, and I am no longer her husband. Tell her to take off her garish makeup and suggestive clothing and to stop playing the prostitute. If she doesn't, I will strip her as naked as she was on the day she was born. I will leave her to die of thirst, as in a desert or a dry and barren wilderness. And I will not love her children as I would my own because they are not my children! They were conceived in adultery.

Notice what God will do "if she doesn't".

He will, remove her clothing, her sustenance, and himself from her presence. Additionally he will disown the children borne by her.

Jump back a few centuries to the Exodus.

The following verses, in which God is speaking, are referring to when a man marries a second wife, who was a slave, and his obligation to her. The Jewish courts rightly further reasoned that if God mandated these rights for a slave-wife, then surely they apply to a free-born one. Thus all wives were afforded it's protection.

Exodus 21:10-11 If he marries another woman, he must not deprive the first one of her food, clothing and marital rights. If he does not provide her with these three things, she is to go free, without any payment of money.

This is three of the five Jewish legal reasons for a divorce. The other two are infidelity and not producing children within ten years of marriage.

God is talking in the book of Hosea about divorcing Israel!

But notice again that God said, "If she doesn't..." He is wanting, deeply longing for his bride to return. That is why he removes all pleasure from her sin, he wants her to come home!

Hosea 2:6-7 But I will fence her in with thornbushes. I will block the road to make her lose her way. When she runs after her lovers, she won't be able to catch up with them. She will search for them but not find them. Then she will think, 'I might as well return to my husband because I was better off with him than I am now.

I love the following verses. God is willing to fight for her love.

Hosea 2:14-15 But then I will win her back once again. I will lead her out 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.

But unlike many of us, he will not hang her former sin over her head. He will not humiliate her with reminders of her past.

Hosea 2:19 I will make you my wife forever, showing you righteousness and justice, unfailing love and compassion.

Unfortunately, due to her repeated unrepentant sin, God did eventually divorce Israel in the book of Jeremiah; but the day is coming when he will win her back. She will finally turn from her sin and devote herself wholly to him.

Father, thank you that you are the embodiment of a true lover. Thank you for accepting me, an adopted son, as your own. In Jesus' name, Amen.

If she doesn't... He still loves. Jan
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Hosea 1 - What is in a name?

What is in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet; So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called, retain that dear perfection which he owes without that title.

I once worked with a man by the last name of Joerin. He pronounced it like the word tangerine. In fact he often joked about wanting to name one of his sons 'Tan'.

In my immediate area of Tampa Bay Florida there used to be a lady by the name of Mary Christmas. She'd actually married a man with that last name!

I remember reading about one lady by the last name of Hogg whose parents named her Ima. How cruel can you get?

Then there is the singer Frank Zappa. All of his children have unusual names, his first daughter is Moon Unit Zappa.

I think the two boys named Espn, one in Texas and one in Michigan take the cake for bizarre name. Yes, they are named after the popular sports network.

But then I read about Hosea's names for his children.

First there is Jezreel, not too bad. It means, "God sows."

Hosea 1:4 And the LORD said, "Name the child Jezreel, for I am about to punish King Jehu's dynasty to avenge the murders he committed at Jezreel.

So he is to serve as a warning and a reminder of where God did something.

But wait, then Hosea's wife Gomer has another child. This bouncing baby girl is named the charming name of Loruhamah. It means "Not loved or No mercy." Whoa, that is a hideous name!

Hosea 1:6 And she conceived again and bore a daughter. Then God said to him: "Call her name Loruhamah, for I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away.

But wait, there's more! One more son is born. Surely this one will get a name that is at least not going to get him beat up every day at school, right? Nope. This one gets the name, Loammi. It means, "Not my people." Um, thanks dad...

Hosea 1:8-9 Now when she had weaned Loruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. Then God said: "Call his name Loammi, for you are not My people, and I will not be your God.

Names can be whimsical, stupid, mean, and prophetic. And there is one name that changed eternity.

So, "What is in a name?"

The answer is power; for to know something's true name is to know it's essence.

It was by the power of one name that everything that was, is, and ever will be came into existence. That name is Jesus. It means "Jehovah is Salvation."

John 1:2-4 He was in the beginning with God. He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn't make. Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone.

1 Corinthians 8:6 But we know that there is only one God, the Father, who created everything, and we exist for him. And there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom God made everything and through whom we have been given life.

So, Shakespeare I beg to differ with your Juliet. Romeo without his name would be Romeo no more. He would be undone.

Father, may I be aware of the names that I speak. May I not lightly toss them about, they have the power to do good or great harm. Thank you Lord for the name that is above all names, Jesus. In his name, Amen.

My name is Jan - "Jehovah is a gracious giver"
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