Hosea Continued...

Scripture:
Hosea 1:6-11 (ESV)

She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, “Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”

When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. And the Lord said, “Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”

Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.” And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head. And they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.

Devotional:

Gomer bore a daughter after Jezreel.  Hosea was told to name her No Mercie.  God will not show Israel any mercy because they fell away from Him.  In verse six God says I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel…”  He goes on to say that He will have mercy on Juda and that they will be saved not by the bow, sword, war, horse, or by horsemen.  Gomer’s next child was a boy whose name was Not My People.  In Exodus God referred to Israel as “My People” seventeen times.  The Israelites were God’s own.

Through generations of disobedience God had finally had enough.  God’s mercy was no longer going to be with them.  They were no longer God’s people.  They turned their back upon Him.  The message Hosea was giving to Israel is a harsh one.  The end of verse nine says “…for you are not my people and I am not your God.”

God’s warnings are all through the Bible.  He is a jealous God and we are to worship Him alone.  All through the Old Testament God gives His people warnings and a chance to repent.  Time after time Israel slips away.  God gives them messages and wake up calls.  Until finally He had enough, and His people were exiled.

After Adam and Eve sinned, they too were exiled.  We live in that exile.  We are outside of God’s mercy.  God has given us plenty of warnings and plenty of chances.  He is calling.  The question to ask, are we listening?

In Jesus’s time the Jews believed that a messiah would come and overthrow their oppressors.  God made it clear that was not going to be the case.  His plan was different.  He saved in a way no one expected.  Salvation came to us through a baby who would grow into a man.  He lived a perfect life to become the perfect sacrifice for all.  Through Jesus we are one of God’s own.  John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” 

God lets us know when we stray.  He gives us warnings and wants us to return to Him.  Our way to Him is through Jesus.  Our sins can be forgiven.  Even after we accept Christ we can and will make mistakes.  However, we still can head God’s warnings and return to Him.  Once we believe and accept Christ as our savior, we are God’s children.

A friend asked me to do some devotionals on the Book of Hosea.  So, this is the beginning of a Daily Devotional series on the Book of Hosea.  Prayerfully I seek God's voice in writing this series...

A Whisper

Scripture:
Hosea 1:1-5 (ESV)

The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

And the Lord said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”

Devotional:

Hosea was a profit of God in the time frame of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.  His mission field was Ephraim, the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  He was a profit in a time of unrest.  God was getting ready to Isolate Himself from Israel.  Exile was coming.  In our first few verses we are told that Hosea was to take a wife who was a prostitute.  This was a simple of Israel’s prostitution to other gods.  Israel was not faithful to God.  Baal worship had become significant for the Israel nation.  They lost favor in God’s eyes.  Jazreel and the breaking of the bow is a simple of God’s defeat over Baal.

In the opening of the book of Hosea God is using Hosea’s family and his life to symbolize Israel and how the nation was not faithful to God.  Take a moment in your life to reflect on moments, people, places or things God has tried to show you where you have fallen short.  God gives us a chance to correct our ways.  He will help us to refocus on Him.  God’s profits in the old testament were used to warn His people.  To help them see their mistakes and to once again follow Him.  God does the same for each one of us.

We are given the chance and opportunity to refocus on Him.  He will give us messages along the way to try and get our attention.  The question to ask yourself, am I listening?  Do I hear Him speaking?  We can ignore God.  We can get so distracted with things, even things we think are for God, we cannot hear Him.  That is why it is so important to pause, be still and know that He is God.  Psalm 46:10 “’Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth!’”

I am guilty of not being still.  Often times I miss hearing God speak because I am busy and it is too loud to hear his soft voice…  I urge you to pause, take time out to be quite and listen.  You might be surprised to hear a small voice whispering…

Fear, Trust, Hope, Love, Faith, continued

Scripture:

Matthew 14:25-30 (ESV)

And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”

And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.”

Devotional:

Fear, trust, hope, love, faith are all things in our lives.

In the previous Daily Devotional, we discussed faith.  The tremendous amount of faith it must have taken to walk upon water.  Today I want to mention trust.  Is it easy for you to trust?  Take a moment and ask yourself who you trust and why.  What was it that earned your trust in them?  How long did it take to trust them? 

Now think about the one you can always trust.  Do you truly trust Jesus?  How much do you trust him?  We place faith in trust in friends and family.  We place trust in the auto makers.  We trust that the cars we buy will work and keep us safe, well as safe as possible.  Yet, each one of them will fail us at some point.  In fact, let’s face it even you and I will fail someone who trusts us.  Jesus will never fail.  If we step out of the boat and onto the water, you better not trust me to keep you on top of the water…  I may hold you up for a time, from within the boat.  But even I will eventually drop you.  Then down you go… Instead when you step out of the boat you can trust Jesus.  He will never drop you.  He is out on the water walking.  If your focus is truly on Him, you too can be walking on top of the water. 

It all goes back to focus.  If you focus on the wrong things you will eventually sink.  With the wrong focus we will struggle.  Maybe not today or even tomorrow but eventually struggles and hardships will come.  In fact, they will come even with our focus on Jesus.  What’s the difference?  We can trust Jesus and place our faith in Him to see us through it.  We can get through it and even be better for it.  Jesus is faithful and trustworthy.  With Him we too can walk on water.  Do you trust Him?

Fear, Trust, Hope, Love, Faith...

Scripture:

Matthew 14:25-30 (ESV)

And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”

And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.”

Devotional:

Fear, trust, hope, love, faith are all things in our lives.  It seems that more times than I care to count I struggle with my faith.  You would think after all these years of seeing God’s presence in my life I would have the faith of ten mustard seeds.  Instead, I struggle from time to time.  Through difficult times my first inclination is to seek God.  As things progress and an end is not in sight struggle can sink in.

Look at Peter.  He saw Christ walking on the water.  At first they were afraid.  Then I think a bit of doubt.  Peter asks Jesus that if it is Him to tell him to walk on the water too.  So Jesus commands Peter to come to Him upon the water.  Talk about faith.  If I had half that faith I believe I could move mountains.  Look at some facts.  Peter is a man with a bit of weight.  He steps out of the boat and obviously he either starts to swim or he sinks.  What does he do?  He steps out upon the water.  What happens he is walking as if on solid ground.

I don’t know about you but that takes a tremendous amount of faith to do.  Think about different times in your life.  Where have you had to make that giant step of faith?  Did you?  Sometimes I did and in the end it was great.  Sometimes fear took over and I let it pass.  Each of us has the capacity to walk out upon the water to Jesus. 

The question I ask is where is your focus?  When Peter was focused on Jesus, he was walking just fine.  It wasn’t until he changed his focus to the events around him that he began to sink.  Here comes one of my problems.  For whatever reason I change my focus.  I then let fears set in.  Sometimes I let that fear cripple me.  To avoid this trap all I had to do is keep my focus on Jesus.  You would think it easy, but I think it is something we all struggle with at times in our lives, if you don’t please tell me your secret… 

The good news is that Jesus walked to Peter and took his hand.  Instantly Peter was back up on the water.  Even when we are too caught up in what is going on around us and we are sinking Jesus is reaching for us.  There may be times when we do not see it, or feel His hand touching ours.  Be sure to know that He is there.  Peter refocused on Christ.  We can too.  Before you know it you will be back on the water walking side by side with Jesus.  Fear is real.  It can cripple you.  But remember He who is with us is bigger than he who is in this world…

(to be continued…)