It’s Word Wednesday again! Hosea is on the books this week. Ah, Hosea. The story of God and His adulterous bride told through the life of His prophet and his adulterous bride. “Go and get her,” God told Hosea. “Love her.” It makes me think of God turning to Jesus one day in heaven–a day in the past and a day soon to come–and saying, “Go and get her.” Doesn’t that just shoot a little thrill through you? I love a good love story, and God’s is the most amazing love story of all. Think we forget that sometimes? Drop a comment below about your favorite Hosea verse, then be ready for Joel next week.
Hosea 6:3 (NAS)–So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; and He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth.
To me, this is another way to say, “Seek and ye shall find.” If we seek God, we don’t necessarily find Him. He comes to us. Isn’t that amazing? The Almighty draws close to us. Why?!? Why would the King of Glory, the unblemished one, dirty His hands with us? Doesn’t that just rock your world to think about it? When we make an effort, He makes an effort. Whoa. I don’t deserve for God to make an effort on my behalf. Not at all.
I think my favorite part is “press on.” It implies that sometimes, the seas are going to get a little rough. Sometimes it will seem like the phone has disconnected. But keep going. Keep seeking Him. Keep searching. He will show up as certainly as the sun rises.
There is an old Burlap to Cashmere song called “Mansions,” and one of the lines is, “Faithful God like faithful sunrise.” The first time I ever heard that I wanted to dance in the front seat of my car. (Yes, I was probably not driving safely at that moment.) It hit me between the eyes (there’s your holy pillow fight, Jen) that God is faithful. I can count on the sun coming up every morning. I can count on God even more. There is a fundamental change in who we are when we truly realize God never leaves.
I watched the sun come up this morning. Every time I see it rise (which is admittedly not very often because I am a sleep-in kind of girl), I remember that line and this truth: God’s not going anywhere. In a world like ours, that’s a definite Hallelujah moment!
-JB
Dawn Lucowitz says
Hosea 12:6 – But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice and wait for your God always.
I guess many of the books of the prophets have showed me the same theme over and over again. That we are a world in trouble! More and more every day I see how as a whole, we turn from God. He continually pursues us and wants to help us, but we turn our backs and slam the door in his face over and over again. Why? We really are babies. Things don’t go the way we want them to, so clearly it must be God’s fault.
One of the fox news anchors on Saturday morning talks about the wussification of America all the time. Think about it. Children play sports now where they don’t keep score, kids all get ribbons and trophies for entering any competitive event. Even most school science fairs don’t place kids. This wussification isn’t just going on with kids either. Test scores are being inflated to make people feel better about themselves! In the years since I’ve been out of high school I learned of the crazy SAT scores that have been “given” away.
Everything always has to be equal for adults these days too, even when it’s ridiculous. Standards are continually being lowered for job placement, college entrance and even for our Armed Forces. Apparently there is no right and wrong anymore. Everyone is allowed to be right and everyone is allowed to do whatever they want, as long as they don’t publically acknowledge the one true God. People are allowed to express whatever religion and point of view they want as long as it doesn’t involve a cross or prayer to our God. Forget about what this country was founded on; let’s throw it all away because we can’t offend anyone ever, even though they are totally wrong.
So anyway, to get off of my little soapbox now…Hosea is very clear that we must return to our God. This starts with each one of us. Then, we need to really begin a movement getting our country to return to God and to wait on all his glorious promises. He is faithful and he will show up in a huge way if we ask him and wait on him. I love that Jodie wrote “If we seek God, we don’t necessarily find Him. He comes to us.” We just need to keep seeking him above all else, and he will show up in ways unimaginable to us!
Jodie says
AMEN! We have definitely become a “me” nation, concerned with our own creature comforts. Don’t get me started. I could “soapbox” all day on that one. The thing is, we as Christians have got to speak up. We have got to start speaking out against wrong, even if we are–heaven forbid!–labeled as “intolerant.” I’ll tell you something, if we don’t start praying soon, much worse things will happen than being called names. Dawn, you hit the point of it, I think, and this is one of the things that makes me passionate. We must turn back to God instead of continuing to pull away from Him. His mercy is great and His patience is amazing, but we only have to look at the Old Testament to see that He is also holy and just, and He will not endure rebellion forever.
Jen says
As we’ve been doing this WW challenge, I’ve tried to go back and reread some of the more unfamiliar books (which has ended up being most of the OT) before choosing my verse. Sometimes I find a new favorite verse, and sometimes God keeps drawing me back to one that spoke to me years ago. With Hosea, the latter was definitely the case. There are several awesome verses here, but I couldn’t get away from 10:13b-14a….
Because you have depended on your own strength and your many warriors, the roar of battle will rise against your people, so that all your fortresses will be devastated
Wow. I don’t know about the rest of y’all, but I sure do rely on my own strength a lot more than I should. I was raised to be a “pull yourself up by your boot straps” kind of girl. Anything else was a sign of weakness. And in those times when I couldn’t get a good enough grip to do it myself? I learned to depend on the people around me. And nearly every time, they let me down…. because they’re just as human as I am. This single mistake of relying on myself instead of God is the root cause of just about every battle I’ve ever fought and is behind every bit of devastation I’ve ever experienced. Thankfully, I started to get the hint after God threw me a cinderblock that crazy night 3.5 years ago, but I’ve still got a long way to go!
Jodie says
I know what you mean! I still struggle with my own strength. I was just thinking about that this morning, how I keep holding up my hand and saying, “I’ve got it, God. It’s not a big enough problem for you to worry yourself with.” It’s the fact that I DON’T take things to Him, because I don’t want to “bother” Him. Where does this come from?!? He said He wants every little thing in our lives. He’s God. We sort of have to believe Him, don’t we?
Jessica R. Patch says
Jodie,
Great post! Hosea is one of my favorite books–right next to Song of Solomon! I’m not sure Ill ever look at a sunrise the same and I’m glad.
I wonder all the time why God loves me. It’s hard to wrap my brain around, but it’s definitely work a driver’s seat disco!! 🙂
Jessica R. Patch says
worth a driver’s seat disco! Ha!
Jodie says
🙂 That made me laugh. All I could see was a disco ball dropping from the ceiling of my car…
Jodie says
Hosea used to be hard for me, because I could not believe all that God deliberately put that poor man through! But it is such a beautiful, touching picture of God’s love for us, that it begins to make sense to me. Wish I knew how to explain that better…