Good morning dear friends of Jesus Christ. God is good all the time, all the time God is good. BLESSED!!
These next few days will be in Hosea. An illustration of an unfaithful
wife as related to Israel, and then we can relate this to our own
"unfaithful lives" with Christ/God.
Hosea brings to light the
parallels between his relationship with Gomer (wife) and God's
relationship with the nation of Israel. Even after the people made a
covenant with the one true God, they followed and worshiped false gods.
In the same way, Hosea married Gomer, knowing ahead of time that she
would leave him. Hosea tenderly dealt with his wife in spite of her
sin. Just as God was merciful toward the people of Israel despite their
sins. God has not changed; he is still merciful and forgiving.
As you read you should be able to see a correlation between your life
with God and America's life with God. Do we learn from our past?
Obviously not. Here we go! Who is Hosea?
Hosea 1:
The word of the Lord
that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, (when did this happen) in the days of Uzziah, Jotham,
Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son
of Joash, king of Israel.
Hosea was a
prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel from 753 to 715 B.C. Under
the reign of Jeroboam II, the northern kingdom had prospered materially,
but had decayed spiritually. The people were greedy and had adopted
the moral behavior and idolatrous religion of the surrounding
Canaanites.
So what was Hosea to do? He was to show how the
people of the northern kingdom had been unfaithful to God, their
'husband' and provider, and they "married" themselves to Baal and the
gods of Canaan.
He warned that unless they repented of their
sin and turned back to God, they were headed for destruction. He told
of God's characteristics - his powerful love and justice - and how their
practical experience of these should affect their lives and make them
return to God. Well, that didn't happen as the people had broken their
covenant with God, and they would receive the punishments God had
promised. (See Deuteronomy 27-28)
As we traverse the dialogue between God and Hosea we will see the pain
of the husband married to an unfaithful wife. Just as Israel is to God;
as the United States of America is to God. Even, possibly, our lives to God. Lots of correlation as we
break this down.
What does God tell Hosea. Verse 2:
2 The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord
said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of
whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from
the Lord.
God is telling Hosea who to go and take as a wife what? A wife of whoredoms! Why would God, who
detests such a thing as whores or prostitutes tell Hosea to do such?
God will be showing how Israel has prostituted their 'marriage' to God
by worshiping false gods. Notice the words in blue - the land (Israel)
committed great whoredom (prostituted themselves) - HOW? By departing
from the LORD and following Baal - a false god.
By God's
law a priest could not marry a prostitute, however, Hosea was not a
priest, and possibly Gomer was not a prostitue when Hosea married her,
BUT, she may have had a roving eye. Hmmm!
Well, Hosea marries Gomer. Let us read verse 3 so you will know who she is.
3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son.
Okay,
moving to the future, she's pregnant, has a son. What about the son?
Well, the son was named........oh, let's move on from here tomorrow.
Thank you for reading today. Love you all.
In Christ's Love and Grace
Johnny
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