Join us as we take a deep dive into the prophetic words of Hosea, focusing on God’s steadfast love and mercy. Despite Israel’s turning away, God beckoned them to return to a relationship filled with hope and promise. Discover how these ancient truths apply to our lives and the promises of restoration that await when we return to God’s embrace.
Welcome to Add Bible, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. We join Allen J. Huth as he shares Bible passages and comments from over 30 years of his personal Bible reading journals.
SPEAKER 01 :
Today we are in Hosea chapter 2. Let’s listen in to the 23 verses of Hosea chapter 2 from Faith Comes by Hearing.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hosea 2 Say to your brothers, you are my people, and to your sisters, you have received mercy. Plead with your mother, plead, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband, that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts, lest I strip her naked, and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst. Upon her children also I will have no mercy, because they are children of whoredom. For their mother has played the whore. She who conceived them has acted shamefully.
SPEAKER 04 :
For she said, I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.
SPEAKER 02 :
Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths. She shall pursue her lovers, but not overtake them, and she shall seek them, but shall not find them.
SPEAKER 05 :
Then she shall say, I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now.
SPEAKER 02 :
And she did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold, which they use for bail. Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season, and I will take away my wool and my flax, which were to cover her nakedness. Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her out of my hand. And I will put an end to all her mirth, her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her appointed feasts. And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, These are my wages, which my lovers have given me. I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour them. And I will punish her for the feast days of the bales, when she burned offerings to them, and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry, and went after her lovers, and forgot me, declares the Lord. Therefore, behold… I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards and make the valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me my husband and no longer will you call me my bail. for I will remove the names of the bales from her mouth and they shall be remembered by name no more. And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword and war from the land and I will make you lie down in safety.” And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord.” And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord. I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth, and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel. And I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on no mercy, and I will say to not my people, You are my people, and he shall say, You are my God.
SPEAKER 01 :
Remember from yesterday in my first journal in 1991, I had read the first four chapters and summarized them all in one day. So I moved to my second journal in 2007 today. Still in Mobile, Alabama, where I read Hosea chapter 2. We turn away from God to idols, yet it is God who gives us the grain, new wine, and the oil, and lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal. Then I referred back to chapter 1, verse 9 in my journal, which said, You are not my people. Yet chapter 2, verse 23 says, You are my people. God restores. He is the God of the second chance. Hallelujah! In 2012, I wrote, Israel was nothing before God chose her and raised her up like Gomer. Her best days were her first marriage, but she went whoring around like Israel. God took care of Israel, but she went after idols and false gods. Israel and Gomer suffer the consequences of their decisions to leave their first lovers for others. But God doesn’t give up. He allures us back. Hosea displays God’s love to Israel and to us, and you shall know the Lord. Hallelujah. Interesting, in both those journals I finished with the word hallelujah. So let’s connect the dots. God is speaking through Hosea to Israel. As Hosea married Gomer, and Gomer was unfaithful, so God’s bride was the nation of Israel, and they were unfaithful. In the first part of chapter 2, God is begging Israel to stop whoring around or stop going after other gods. Stop idol worship and come back to him. In verse 2, he says, “…plead with your mother that she put away her whoring from her face and her adultery from between her breasts.” Israel has forgotten that God is the one who blessed them. Verse 5 says, And verse 8 says, God is very upset that the blessings He has bestowed on Israel They have used in idol worship. They have forgotten who blessed them. Verse 13 says, Have you forgotten where your blessings come from? Have you forgotten who gives you your bread, your water, your wool, your flax, your oil, your drink? Have you forgotten where your wealth has come from? And worse yet, are you using it in idol worship instead of in the worship of God, your source and provider? But we finished those journal entries with the word Hallelujah. So let’s find out why. Because the tone of this chapter changes in verse 14. Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And verse 16 says, And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me my husband, and no longer will you call me my Baal, for I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. Verse 19 says, And I will betroth you to me for ever. Verse 20 says, And I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord. And finally, verse 23 says, And I will have mercy on no mercy, and I will say to not my people, you are my people, and he shall say, you are my God. That’s why we finish with hallelujah. Though Israel and though we become unfaithful and use the very blessings of God, oftentimes in idol worship, God restores the relationship. He has mercy on us. And that’s worth shouting hallelujah. Father, thank you for not giving up on us. Thank you for mercy. Thank you for forgiveness. Thank you for caring enough to allure us back to you. If we have been away, help our hearts respond to your call back to yourself. Thank you for saying, you are my people. May we respond in our hearts, you are my God. Hallelujah. Amen. Thanks for listening to AdBible today. Maybe you wonder if Old Testament prophecy is true, came true already, or is coming true in the future. First, most prophets had a recurring theme. God loves us. Because he loves us so much, he gave us commandments, rules, statutes to live by. If we live by them, we can be blessed beyond what we can think or imagine. But when we choose to disregard, ignore, and set aside his rules, we are subject to his curses. We live under curses until things get so bad we cry out to God. He’s always there, waiting for our cry. Most often, but not always, He responds with grace, love, mercy, and forgiveness. We get back in line, then the cycle repeats. The Old Testament prophets cover this cycle over and over. Sometimes we wonder how the Israelites could have been so foolish. Yet, in our day, we have the same choice. We know God loves us. We generally know the rules, and we’d know them a lot better if we were more consistent in our time in God’s Word. Yet we decide, like those in the Old Testament, to ignore them and live out our lives. Things don’t often go well, so we finally cry out to God. As we see in the Old Testament, prophecy comes true as God restores rebellious, disobedient people like us back into right relationship with Him. But it is not always the case. Sometimes He has enough and does not deliver them. So yes, Old Testament prophecies are true, they came true, and they will come true in the future as we cycle through the same life choices the Israelites made. Thus, the value of reading all the Old Testament prophets Maybe we will learn what they tried to teach. God loves us. Keep His rules, love Him back, and enjoy His blessings. You might wonder how you could become a member of the Ezra Project’s Club 365. Club 365 is anyone who reads the Bible 365 days in a row, and they will get a free chronological Bible reading journal from the Ezra Project. So how are we going to know that you read the Bible 365 days in a row? We’re going to trust you because you’re reading God’s Word. And when you hit that milestone, contact the Ezra Project at ezraproject.net and tell us you made it through 365 days in a row, and we will send you a chronological Bible reading journal for doing so.
