Reading: Hosea 1 -3
My Verse: "And I will have mercy on No Mercy,
and I will say to Not My People,
'You are my people';
and he shall say, 'You are my God'" (Hosea 2:23)
When I first read this book I was appalled at it - at the imagery. I did not get it. It seemed way too harsh and awful. The bitter and sharp satire was beyond my ability to fully grasp at that time. I now do get the idea, the theme of it, mostly. Even yet it seems a most awful thing that You, LORD God would require of a man - that he marry a women known for her whoring. What makes this so distasteful is that she, Gomer, chose to do this not because she needed to but because she wanted to.
So much in the Bible is unlovely, but that is because we are so very unlovely. We so often choose to do that which is not within Your precepts, LORD God. And anything that is not within Your precepts is by its very nature mean and small and wayward.
Your chosen people, Israel, were often so very wayward that you chose to provide them with a vivid illustration to portray to them what they were doing. You told Hosea.
"Go again, love a woman
who is loved by another man and is an adulteress,
even as the LORD loves the children of Israel,
though they turn to other gods and
love cakes of raisins" (Hosea 3:1).
This verse makes me feel sad because it so aptly describes us. We just don't get it. We don't want to get it - to realize how very base and unlovely we are. We constantly look for excuses for ourselves for why we go astray, when the simple truth is we do so because we want to - just like Gomer. We choose to be satisfied with such paltry, base and pitiful things - things that can never really satisfy. As CS Lewis stated.
"We are half-hearted creatures,
fooling about with drink,
and sex and ambition,
when infinite joy is offered us."
And yet, this book is a most wonderful illustration of how very much You love us. How very much You are willing to forgive us. No sin is too great that You, LORD God, cannot wipe it away so completely that You make us new people with new hearts. You are able to transform the most wayward of us. You can bring us to the point where we can say "You are my God."
Thank You, LORD God, for Your mercy and grace. Thank you for this book of Hosea that reminds me of that. I will never fully understand the hows of this amazing love and mercy. I can only accept it with humility and thankfulness.
How Can it Be by Lauren Dangle
Ditat Deus - God Enriches!
My Verse: "And I will have mercy on No Mercy,
and I will say to Not My People,
'You are my people';
and he shall say, 'You are my God'" (Hosea 2:23)
When I first read this book I was appalled at it - at the imagery. I did not get it. It seemed way too harsh and awful. The bitter and sharp satire was beyond my ability to fully grasp at that time. I now do get the idea, the theme of it, mostly. Even yet it seems a most awful thing that You, LORD God would require of a man - that he marry a women known for her whoring. What makes this so distasteful is that she, Gomer, chose to do this not because she needed to but because she wanted to.
So much in the Bible is unlovely, but that is because we are so very unlovely. We so often choose to do that which is not within Your precepts, LORD God. And anything that is not within Your precepts is by its very nature mean and small and wayward.
Your chosen people, Israel, were often so very wayward that you chose to provide them with a vivid illustration to portray to them what they were doing. You told Hosea.
"Go again, love a woman
who is loved by another man and is an adulteress,
even as the LORD loves the children of Israel,
though they turn to other gods and
love cakes of raisins" (Hosea 3:1).
This verse makes me feel sad because it so aptly describes us. We just don't get it. We don't want to get it - to realize how very base and unlovely we are. We constantly look for excuses for ourselves for why we go astray, when the simple truth is we do so because we want to - just like Gomer. We choose to be satisfied with such paltry, base and pitiful things - things that can never really satisfy. As CS Lewis stated.
"We are half-hearted creatures,
fooling about with drink,
and sex and ambition,
when infinite joy is offered us."
And yet, this book is a most wonderful illustration of how very much You love us. How very much You are willing to forgive us. No sin is too great that You, LORD God, cannot wipe it away so completely that You make us new people with new hearts. You are able to transform the most wayward of us. You can bring us to the point where we can say "You are my God."
Thank You, LORD God, for Your mercy and grace. Thank you for this book of Hosea that reminds me of that. I will never fully understand the hows of this amazing love and mercy. I can only accept it with humility and thankfulness.
How Can it Be by Lauren Dangle
Ditat Deus - God Enriches!
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