Images of tenderness that reveal the merciful and compassionate nature of God saturate this passage, which also laments the habitual waywardness of God’s chosen people.
Hosea’s God is like a parent leading a child out of oppressive circumstances (v 1), coddling and healing them as they grow (v 3).
Read More tenderness, restoration, compassionSpiritual blindness and deafness are self-inflicted conditions. God’s people suffer with both. They are blind to the glory of God, and they refuse to hear and obey his voice. God says that it is in this condition that he “gave them up” to the looter and plunderer. This is why they find themselves in exile. Even though God’s people were “set on fire all around,” they “did not understand,” or “take it to heart.”
Read More cross, blindness, deafness, restoration
Read Reflect In the midst of a trial, we’ve all wondered where God was and why he was allowing us to go through whatever we were going through. It can be frustrating, and I’ll admit that sometimes I’ve questioned whether or not God still cares. However, this passage demonstrates that is God always with us […]
Read More assurance, feelings, restoration, doubtRead Reflect Hailing from a subregion of the world that has had its share of horrible political upheavals and atrocious civil wars, I recall my shock when one local missionary I was traveling with, upon hearing me cursorily mentioning the name of a particular military dictator, actually say something to this effect: “I hope he […]
Read More forgiveness, sin, grace, repentance, restorationRead Reflect The Middle East, it seems, has been a battleground for centuries. At the end of the seventh century B.C. three empires were vying for power: Egypt, Assyria and Babylonia. Israel stood seemingly helpless in the middle of it all. In 609 Israel’s king Josiah was killed at Megiddo as he attempted to prevent […]
Read More obedience, restoration, disobedience, prophets
Warning: Trouble WILL come when we commit to serving Christ. And we WILL make mistakes.
No one likes to make mistakes. But the reality is that we will need to be corrected from time to time. It’s how we respond that builds our character and faith.
Read More correction, repentance, restoration, encouragement, accountability“How many times do I have to tell you?” seems to be a standard question in the parenting manual of many families. Parents have their challenges with ‘repeat offenders,’ and often struggle to find enforcable boundaries for their children.
Read More restoration, downfall, destructionThis, the shortest poem in the book, has much in common with the lament psalms. It repeats many of the earlier themes. The dire situation is described: invasion, occupation, starvation, rape, servitude, the collapse of social order, the destruction of the worship centre.
Little wonder that joy has been replaced by mourning (v 15).
Read More prayer, restoration, lament, complaint, way back to God“After Babylonia has been the strongest nation for seventy years, I will be kind and bring you back to Jerusalem, just as I have promised. I will bless you with a future filled with hope – a future of success, not of suffering” (Jer. 29:10-11).
The text above is a very famous message from the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah.
Read More hope, restoration“But, sir, what do these mean?” (4:4). These two chapters of the book describe the fourth and fifth (of eight) visions given to the prophet Zechariah. The style is often called “apocalyptic,” from the Greek word meaning “uncover” or “expose.” The idea is that an image is being presented that has an underlying meaning that must be revealed if it is to be understood.
Read More restoration, visions