Hosea 2:1-13 Consequences
Actions have consequences. Israel’s unfaithfulness to God cost her dearly. God is giving her a warning and wake up call through Hosea. Will she listen?
We already KNOW the answer to that question. NO. She didn’t listen, but God called to her anyway. He KNEW what the answer would be before He even called her to Himself in the beginning.
God’s promise to remove ALL the good things HE provided is not mean or vindictive. It is just. Israel is in love with the things God has given her but she attributes their source to Baal. She pours out her thanks to this foreign and worthless god. This is NOT right! Anyone would feel wronged in the same situation. Anyone would STOP the source and see what happens.
“She is not My wife, and I am not her Husband” (verse 2b). This verse HURTS my spirit. It sounds like God is abandoning His wife, but she left Him instead. Even though SHE is the unfaithful one, God STILL loves ‘His wife’. He doesn’t call her His wife while she is playing the harlot. We KNOW that He still loves her though because He still seeks her repentance. If He didn’t love her, He would walk away and never look back.
God made it so uncomfortable for Israel that SHE sought to return to Him. “I will go and return to my first Husband, for it was better for me then than now” (verse 7b). Most men wouldn’t even consider taking back such a wife. God is not “most men” though. It will NOT be an easy road back. Tomorrow we will see that road.
She has taken EVERY GOOD THING ever given to her BY HER HUSBAND and brought it to her lovers. She has credited these gifts to her lovers. HOW?! How does she not remember ALL the wonders God did for her?
I suppose the part that hurts me the most is when God mentions “her children.” God says “Upon her children also I will have no mercy” (verse 4a). Physical children of such unions are innocent of the background of their conception and birth. They had NO say in their situation. It hurts me to hear God comparing an obviously guilty group of people to innocent children.
The people of Israel, not the NAME of the nation were the ones who were committing the sins of unfaithfulness. The leadership, the king and rulers, were the ones who handed down ‘permission’ and even the objects of idolatry to the people. They would be considered the ‘wife’ and the rest of the people would be the ‘children’. On THIS basis, the children were NOT innocent. They were just as guilty because they followed their ‘mother’ into sin.
God was calling for the nation as a whole to repent and return to Him. Today, He calls to each of us individually. Yes, He would LOVE for the WHOLE NATION to turn back to their TRUE source. But we are not held hostage to our ruler’s. WE can choose for ourselves Whom we follow. The individual people of Israel, in Hosea’s time, could too but it was much more complicated then because Jesus had not come yet.
Jesus made it possible for EACH PERSON to have an intimate relationship with Him. He requires the same faithfulness God was calling Israel to though. We can no more worship idols or claim His gifts as from another than Israel could. We will be subject to the same kind of discipline Israel was if we do.
Father God, I LOVE YOU and want to serve ONLY You. I don’t want ANY ‘idols’ getting in the way or getting the ‘glory’ that is due You. I KNOW where my Source is from. Keep me faithful Lord in ALL my ways!
