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RE Verse reading–Hosea 11:1-11, 14:1-2 (day five)  “How can I give you up, Ephraim?. . .my heart is changed within me”  (vs. 8)  Parenting is hard work.  There are many hard choices.  Is punishment required?  If so, what kind and how long?  Is leniency better?  For me, the hardest part was often my own inner conflict re. what was best.  It is a strange consolation that God knows this same inner turmoil.  In Hosea 11:8, He says that His heart is “changed” which translates the word haphak or “overturned, upset”.  While I don’t know how an infinitely wise God can experience inner turmoil, I do know that my willingness to embrace the discomfort, the inner conflict, even the risk of making the wrong choice was part of what it meant to love my sons.  We deserve rebuke.  He prefers to bless.  We do not make it easy for Him but He does not give up.  He loves us enough to do the hard work.

RE Verse reading–Hosea 11:1-11, 14:1-2 (day four)  “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.  But the more I called Israel, the further they went from me.”  (vs 1)  Words are inadequate for the tender memories I have of my sons and their early years.  First steps. . .songs and sounds. . .baseball games. . .it is a blur of gratitude.  I can only imagine what I would feel if those early memories were shattered later by a broken relationship.  Many parents face this heart ache. It is what God feels when we drift.  Hosea 11 speaks of the early years of Israel’s salvation.  God remembers the days of their tender trust and liberation.  Later, sadly, they rebelled and ignored His calls. A reminder to us.  Our early experiences of God’s goodness should teach us a lifelong loyalty.  His love never changes.  Neither should our trust.  It is both sin and sorrow to walk away from such love.

RE Verse reading–Hosea 11:1-11, 14:1-2 (day three)  “They did not realize it was I who healed them” (vs 3)  Growing up, my Dad was not very exciting in my opinion.  He was good and generous and faithful, just not very cool. (As a Dad myself now, I realize how easy it is to fall by this terrible sword)  Anyway, it was easy for me to drift from his influence, wishing for something else.  One reason that God commands us to honor our parents (5th Commandment) is that we owe them a debt of gratitude.  Even imperfect parents were used by God to give us life and protection. It is how we survived.  The root of virtue is gratitude.  Not dissatisfaction.   Even more true with our Heavenly Father!  He has been generous.  We have not noticed.  The real story is not my uncool Dad, it is my ungrateful heart. “They did not honor Him as God, or give thanks”  (Romans 1:21)  Time to change!

RE Verse reading–Hosea 11:1-11, 14:1-2 (day two)  “He will roar like a lion. . .his children will come trembling from the west”  (11:10)  I don’t believe that everyone will be saved.  I do believe that some will be.  Given the deep illness of our sin, it will be a glory to God that any are.  I believe that He wants everyone to be saved (2 Peter 3:9) but hard hearts can and do refuse His grace. (John 1:10)  In Hosea 11, God reveals His inner conflict and reason for partial mercy on Israel.  He cannot give up on His son. (vs 8).  Deciding not to carry out His “fierce anger” (the full and deserved destruction of the nation), God expresses confidence that on another day and in another time some will still come.  Disciplined and humbled,  they will come trembling from the west (probably an image of Egypt and new slavery).  Great hope! He will not give up the dream.  His children WILL come.  Some will be saved.

RE Verse reading–Hosea 11:1-11, 14:1-2 (day one) “How can I give you up, Ephraim?. . .I will not carry out my fierce anger” (11:8,9)  For 10 chapters, Hosea has compared God’s relationship with the church to a broken marriage.  In chapter 11, he compares us to an equally familiar and tender human situation–a prodigal son.  It is one of the most beautiful stories in Scripture or literature.  (Luke 15)  An ungrateful and foolish son walks away from His father’s home and values.  The father sees tragedy coming but doesn’t force him to stay.  Eventually, in brokenness, the son comes home to discover the true miracle–the father has not changed! Not His love.  Not His loyalty.  God is the only constant in our stormy and disappointing relationship. We drift.  He doesn’t. Not that He would have been unjustified to do so, but He does not give up on us.  Even in our worst, most ungrateful moments, He is the unprodigal father. What wondrous love is this?

RE Verse reading–Hosea 4:1-13b (day seven)  “But let no man bring a charge, let no man accuse another”  (vs 4)  It is a mistake I have made many times (too many).  Rather than face my own guilt (with all the responsibility for change/repentance it implies) I blame other people in an obvious, if unconscious, attempt to shift the attention off of me.  It is a foolish move.  Remember the Pharisee in Luke 18?  The one who was so aware of the failure of the tax collector that he had no awareness of his own?  I am that Pharisee.  In Hosea’s day and ours, the lesson is clear.  Don’t blame others for your spiritual condition.  Remember the log in your own eye.  Focus there.  Other people are not the cause of my failure.  They are not the cure, either.  May the Lord give us freedom from this common and destructive trap.  It is Sunday!  I will see you in a few hours–Don

RE Verse reading–Hosea 4:1-13b (day six)  “My people are destroyed from LACK of knowledge( yada).  Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests” (vs 6) “One thing you still LACK.  Sell everything. . .and come follow me.”  (Luke 18:22)  The rich young ruler only lacked one thing.  The problem?  It was the most important thing of all.  The eighth century Israelites only lacked one thing.  The same thing.  Intimacy with God.  The Hebrew word yada did not mean “information about”.  It mean’t “intimacy with”.  In Genesis 4 when Adam “knew” Eve and she conceived, the word is yada.  Stange isn’t it?  We can have so much (and do so much) and still lack the one thing that God desires from us–open-hearted, genuine intimacy.  Leave off everything else and gain this and you will be fine.  Skip this and you will have missed the very purpose of life.  It is so good to be home!  I will see you Sunday–Don

RE Verse reading–Hosea 4:1-13b (day six) “A spirit of prostitution leads them astray” (vs 12)  We are more complex than we imagine.  Our actions are not simple outcomes of conscious choice.  Deep within each of us is a very real spiritual battle–or not, for the soul conquered by sin.  Jesus said, “everyone who sins is a slave to sin”.  (John 8:34)  Paul said, “I see another law at work in the members of my body waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner.” (Romans 7:22)  Hosea wanted the people of Israel to look deep within themselves and see a spirit (real, evil and invisible) controlling their choices.  He wanted them to see their actions as rising from the influence of the Evil One.  Much of our failure is not ours alone.  We have been deceived and used.  Watch and pray, friends.  The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.  The enemy still prowls.

RE Verse reading–Hosea 4:1-13b (day four)  “Because of this the land mourns. . .the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea are dying” (vs 3, NIV)  Hosea believed (because the Bible teaches) that creation is connected to the human race.  To the secular mind this sounds like an arrogant myth.  To the spiritual mind it sounds like truth and hope.  When Adam sinned the ground was cursed and death came.  When Adam is redeemed these things will leave!  “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. . .that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brough into the glorious freedom of the children of God”  (Romans 8:19, 21 NIV)  Our sin is of larger consequence than we sometimes think or believe.  Our sin caused the collapse.  Our renewal will usher in a new balanced, beautiful world.  What a great and gracious God!

RE Verse reading–Hosea 4:1-13b (day three)  “they exchanged their Glory for something disgraceful.  They feed on the sons of my people and relish their wickness” (vs 7b-8)  Part of God’s condemnation of Israel was especially aimed at the priests.  Priests were worship leaders, moral leaders–at least, they were intended to be.  Many failures.  They had exchanged their glory (their calling, their relationship with God) for disgraceful things (idolatry and immorality).  They had become co dependent on their sinful people.  In a tragic twist, they “needed” the people to be sinful.  It gave them a reason, a purpose.  Rather than leading their people to wholeness, they were stuck in a system with people perpetually ill.  Judgement is certain at such moments.  Along with other spiritual leaders, I am challenged by the question.  Are we committed to the health and wholeness of our people?  Do we preach sermons or do we make disciples?  Our nation’s destiny depends on the answer.