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

Hosea warns that God will punish Israel for the sins of her people, but He will call them back to Him again.  When He is ready, God will pour out His love upon His people and entice them to turn to Him.  He will save His people, but He will not do so with weapons and armies.  He will do so by His own power.  I think the contrast given by Hosea between what we humans see as power with what God will do foreshadows the way in which He brought His salvation through the death of Jesus.  Hosea then returns to prophesying against the sins of Israel which led to her destruction.  It sounds like a description of our society today.  He writes that there is no faithfulness or love, because there is no acknowledgement of God.  When he writes that there is no faithfulness or love, he is not talking just about faithfulness to God, and/or love of God.  No, he means that there is no faithfulness between the people.  Rather than faithfulness and love, there is only cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and adultery.  However, he also tells us not to look at others and accuse them of sin, we need to acknowledge our own sin and turn to God ourselves for forgiveness.  God does not seek a legalistic approach to obeying Him.  He does not want abortion to be outlawed.  He does not seek laws against homosexual behavior, or those who distort gender.  No, He wants us to acknowledge Him, and to show mercy to each other.  I am not saying that those things are OK, but that God desires that we surrender our hearts to Him and invite those who seek to find happiness through self-destructive behavior to know the joy of serving God.  God does not want us to change our laws, rather He wants us to accept His love and to honor Him.

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