Today, I am reading and commenting on  Hosea 8-14.

I struggle with reading Hosea.  The combination of the poetic form he uses and the metaphors he uses for his message challenge my ability to follow what he is saying.  Yet, for all of that, he uses some phrases which really strike me.  He writes about those who sow the wind and thus reap the whirlwind.  I think we often fail to truly comprehend that message because we do not think like a farmer.  When you sow seeds, say grains of wheat, or of corn, each seed you plant yields ten or a hundred times as much when the plant matures.  In the same way, when you sow sin, trouble, and wickedness, every little bit that you sow yields ten or a hundred times as much trouble and turmoil.  Instead of sowing the wind, Hosea tells us to sow righteousness, so that we might reap unfailing love.  If we break up our hardened hearts and seek the Lord, He will come and shower His righteousness onto us.  Hosea tells us that now is the time to seek the Lord, but instead of doing so, we have planted wickedness.  As a result we are reaping evil and eating the fruit of deception.

If we depend on our own strength, the roar of battle with rise against us and our strongholds will be devastated.  However, if instead we return to God, wait for Him, and maintain love and justice, He will deliver us from the power of death.  Jesus has redeemed us from death so that it no longer threatens us.  Let us follow God’s ways, because they are right.  If we walk in His ways our path will be smooth, but if we rebel against Him, we will stumble and fall, facing constant struggles.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Hosea 8-14.

As I read today’s passage I wondered if Hosea’s condemnation for choosing kings and other government officials without seeking God’s approval might not apply to many countries and people today.  Later in this passage Hosea warns that when our sins become numerous and we become hostile to godliness we see those who speak God’s words as fools and those who act according to the direction of God’s Spirit as crazy.  It is time, and past time, for us to break up the stubborn sins we commit and seek the Lord.  All too often, we refuse to do so, planting wickedness in our hearts and thus reaping evil.  Let each of us resolve to to turn to God and work to maintain love and justice in our own lives, while waiting for God to transform us.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Hosea 8-14.

My lovely wife married me 22 years ago on the 23rd of this month.  So I am going to wish her Happy Anniversary every day from now until then.

Happy Anniversary, Darling!

Hosea continues with his condemnation of Israel in today’s passage using metaphors and images which apply today.  He uses here one of my favorite metaphors:

They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.

As best I can understand, Hosea means that they create some disorder in order to further their goals, then are surprised when complete chaos results and all order is disrupted.  Those who do this consider a prophet of God to be a fool and those inspired by Him to be maniacs.  As the prophet goes on he says something else I believe to have great relevance today:

They make many promises,
take false oaths
and make agreements;
therefore lawsuits spring up
like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.

The context leads me to believe that the prophet means that their promises and agreements are as false as their oaths, or perhaps that they make promises and agreements intending to keep them, but break them when they become inconvenient.  In any case, this reminds me of today where lawsuits have become an impediment to many types of activity.  However, Hosea tells us how to deal with such times.  Instead of sowing the wind, sow righteousness so that we can reap the fruit of love rather than reaping the whirlwind. Seek the Lord so that He will shower us with righteousness.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Hosea 8-14.

I have an idea about what I see in this passage, but I am not sure that I can compose it coherently.  The passage addresses Israel, the Northern Kingdom, but I believe the message applies to many nations and societies throughout history.  God planted them and raised them, asking that they worship and serve Him.  The people promised to do so and carried out the rituals which they thought would show that they did.  But they also committed many sins which they thought they could hide away, or which they thought fell into loopholes in God’s commands.  Going to Church every Sunday and having a fish symbol on your car does not make you a Christian.  In fact those things are useless if you cheat to make more money, if you take advantage of those with less power than yourself.  Our society has become one which views the prophet as a fool and thinks that those who truly believe in God to be crazy.  The wealthy think that the rules do not apply to themselves.  Now is the time to sow righteousness so that we can reap the fruit of unfailing love; it is time to seek the Lord.  If we depend on our own strength, as individuals and as a nation, the roar of battle will rise over us and our fortresses will be devastated.   The ways of God are right.  We can choose to walk in them by faithfully listening to God, or we will stumble about like a drunkard.

I failed to find a way to express the idea which was in my head when I started, but I am satisfied with what I wrote.

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

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

In the year 2000, on the 23rd day of this month, my wife married me.  So here we are on day 18 of the 20 days that I am going to wish her Happy Anniversary for 20 years of marriage.  Happy Anniversary Darling!

Today, I am reading and commenting on Hosea 8-14.

In a passage such as this one I tend to avoid the part that people pull out of it for an easy topic, but in today’s passage that part really is the central point.  Hosea tells us that God has called us to plow up the hard ground of our hearts.  Hosea is not the only prophet to give us this message.  Hosea also tells us that God has told us to plant seeds of righteousness so that we can harvest a crop of love, but instead of doing so we have cultivated wickedness.  Which brings us to the circumstances we see in the world around us.  We have protest and riots about perceived injustice, but no one pays attention that these perceived injustices happened because people sowed crime and hostility.  Rather than encourage people to sow the seeds of righteousness so that they can harvest a crop of love, some leaders are cultivating a crop of wickedness.  I want to point out that for the point I am making today it is irrelevant if the perceived injustices are real or not.  Real or not, acting with righteousness will bring healing and love which will correct the problem.  Our choices in this life are: we can sow the seeds of righteousness and harvest a crop of love, or we can cultivate wickedness and harvest destruction.  You can never build anything with destruction.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Hosea 8-14.

Hosea writes here about those who reject God and that which is good, then cry out to God for help.  He tells us that those who plant the wind will reap the whirlwind.  I find that an interesting metaphor because almost everyone can understand it even though it does not reference something which is physically possible.  For any of my readers who do not know what it means, it references when people encourage rules or laws to be ignored when those rules or laws interfere with their goals.  When you do that rules and laws will not be able to protect your interests later.  If you encourage chaos and confusion to further your own ends at the expense of others (and ultimately, that is the only reason to do so), do not be surprised when everything becomes confused and chaotic.

Later Hosea writes that God calls for us to plant the good seeds of righteousness.  Initially I viewed that as a separate message from his reference to sewing the wind and reaping the whirlwind, but as I started to compose my thoughts on this part I realized they are closely connected.  In fact, Hosea holds planting the seeds of righteousness in direct contrast to cultivating wickedness and sewing the wind.  Now is the time to plow up the hard ground of our hearts and seek the Lord.  If we plant the seeds of righteousness we will harvest a crop of love.  Using lies and power to get your way will not generate anything good.  Let us do what is right so that we can spread God’s love to all and sundry.