Today, I am reading and commenting on  Hosea 1-7.

I was struggling with what I wanted to write about today’s passage when I re-read chapter 4 verses 1 and 2

There is no faithfulness, no love,
no acknowledgment of God in the land.
There is only cursing,lying and murder,
stealing and adultery;

I realized this so sums up how things work.  When people fail to acknowledge God, they become faithless and unloving.  It does not necessarily happen right away, and you may see exceptions.  However, over time, as fewer and fewer people acknowledge God the fewer people there are who show love to others or exhibit faithfulness in anything.  Conversely, cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and adultery become ever more prevalent.  As lying, stealing, adultery, and murder become bigger problems in our society, we will not solve it with stricter laws, or more vigorous law enforcement.  We will only solve that problem by acknowledging God and seeking to serve Him.  Which brings me understanding of the names which Hosea gave his wife’s younger two children: “Unloved” and “Not My People”.  When there is an explicit refusal to acknowledge God everyone becomes unloved and no one considers anyone else “my people”.  But in Hosea’s exposition on his children’s names he reveals that God will call people to Him so that they become children of the living God.  When people accept this calling they will come to realize that those who have also accepted God’s call are their people and they will love them.  When people love each other and consider them “my people” lying, cheating, adultery, and murder do not enter their minds.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.