Love and Forgiveness After Unfaithfulness

O. T. #2033   "Love and Forgiveness After Unfaithfulness"

Sept. 27, 2021

Hosea 2-Part 2

LET IT GLOW

It was difficult for me to correct our children when they were small. However, I realized that because I loved them, they needed disciplined for their own good in order to teach them right from wrong.

So it was concerning Israel. God had given them warning after warning as to what would happen if they did not repent of their idolatry. Discipline was coming in order to turn them back to God.

There are 21 "I will's" that God told Israel would happen if they continued in their sin:

1. He would not have mercy on the children of Israel as long as they were children of idolatry. (verse 4)
2. As they turned to luxurious things, Israel did not acknowledge it was God who provided her essentials and extras, as well as blessed them with all things. Therefore, God was going to fence them in with restraints (slaves to Assyria). (verse 6)
3. God will take away the grain and wine of harvest. (verse 9a)
4. He will take away their wool and linen clothing that He had given to cover their nakedness. (verse 9b)
5. God will discover Israel's lewdness (disgrace) in public. (verse 10)
6. He will put an end to her festivals, celebrations, and Sabbath days that were dedicated to idols. (verse 11)
7. He will destroy her grapevines and fig trees that she claims the idols provided. (verse 12a)
8. God will let them grow into thickets where only wild animals eat the fruit. (verse 12b)
9. He will punish Israel for all those times she burned incense to her images of Baal; when she showed off her jewels to others, thus forgetting about the LORD God. (verse 13a)

[Resource: New Living Translation]

Did God give details of the sins Israel committed or what?

Can we conclude that God desires to be acknowledged for all we have? Do we show ingratitude and hypocrisy as Israel? Are our hearts sincere as we worship God or do we simply go through the motions?

"Be ye holy, for I am holy," appears 8 times in the Bible. God means what He says.

In John 10:9, Jesus said, I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

In that verse, the word door means a compact (as looked upon with approval); agreement; in the Hebrew language.

When Jesus is our Savior, we have a agreement that He will always be our Savior,  will not deny us before the Father, that He will always be with us and never leaving us, gives us peace, and is providing a home in heaven for us. What a Savior!

 

 

LET IT GROW

Do you seem to be in a valley of trouble? God can give us a door of hope in our life as Israel. 

Now we read of God's love for an unfaithful Israel, replenishing their hope:

   10. But then God will win Israel back once again. (verse 14a)

   11. God will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her

         there.  (verse 14b)

   12. He will return her vineyards and transform the Valley of

        Trouble (Achor) for a door of hope and she will sing there.        

         (verse 15)

Do we feel deprived, in sorrow, alone, living in a hopeless world?

These last things mentioned will be granted during the Millennium when Christ reigns as King in Israel and the world. Yet, He can be our hope during this trying time.

 

LET IT GO

Jesus, be our Door of Hope.

Keep us in Your love today.

Change our heart of complaining and criticism into a grateful heart.

I don't want to gain the whole world and loose my soul.