Sunday 29th June
Read Psalm 115
If you don’t have a bible at home you can find the readings on a website such as www.biblegateway.com or an app such as YouVersion
It’s amazing how at times people do things which, with a modicum of common sense, they would see is ridiculous. In this Psalm the writer tells of people who make idols with their hands, idols who have mouths but can’t speak, hands that can’t do anything, etc. yet pray to them for protection. Common sense has left them. In Romans Chapter 1 Paul speaks of people suppressing the truth and exchanging the truth about God for a lie (Romans 1:25), worshipping their own creations and ending up using their bodies in ways God didn’t intend.
In this Psalm as well as showing the stupidity of the idol worshipper, the writer tells the Israelites to trust in the living God for he is their help and shield and he will cause them to flourish.
As you read the Bible Stop; Read; Ponder; and Pray.
Monday Hosea 2:14-23
After all the verses of discipline that God says he will impose on his people the next verses see a profound change. Verse 14 starts with “I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her” and the next verses tell of a loving suitor wooing his beloved back, giving her the things she lost and making a “door of hope” for a future which seemed lost. When that happens his people will call him again “my husband” and not “my master” which the time of harsh discipline made him to be. She would respond to his love when he says “I will betroth you in faithfulness and you will acknowledge the Lord” (v20).
We then see the names of Hosea’s children changed as he shows his love to “Not my loved one”, and says to those who were called “not my people”, “you are my people” and they will say, “you are my God”. It is a picture of love changing everything and we will go on to see God’s word to Hosea in his own life which is to reflect God’s attitude to his wayward people
Tuesday Hosea 3:1-5
This chapter is such an important one as it shows the relationship of God with his people as like a husband and his wife. Because Israel has left the true obedience and love of God for other gods he commanded Hosea to take Gomer as his wife, either knowing at the time or becoming aware shorty after, that she was a promiscuous woman going after other men whilst she was married to him. (The woman at the well whom Jesus talked to in John 4 is another adulterous woman who had a string of men behind her.). God’s command to Hosea was to go and retrieve her from her wandered life who, by the time he was enabled to do this, was an older woman and possibly less attractive as a dalliance to the men she had been around. There are different opinions as to whether she had become a slave or whether his purchase was to a pimp to recover her from her life of prostitution, but it shows her as in a sorry state.
Hosea buys her back but she is not completely reinstated as she is told she must live with him but her adulterous life is to be no longer – no marriage bed and luxurious lifestyle once more but a time of discipline (v3) – but we note also that Hosea stands similarly in this time of discipline, “I will behave the same toward you”.
The prophecy is that Israel will lose their independence (or dependence on God) and become a vassal state to greater powers, losing their King, losing their place of worship (the temple), losing the priesthood and eventually dispersion or exile. The prophecy speaks of a return however when they seek the Lord their God and David their King which could have more than one reference, it could refer to the return from Babylon but it could also refer to the last days when Israel seeks God through the Son of David, God’s Messiah, Jesus. At any rate we see the pain Hosea goes through in his personal life to act out the pain of Almighty God in his relationship and salvation of his errant people the Church. There is much to ponder on in this chapter.
In chapter 4 we find God making a charge against Israel and it is that there is no faithfulness, no love, and no acknowledgement of God in the land (v1). What there is is cursing, lying, murder, stealing, adultery and everything that is against the commands of God. It is not only the people but their priests and prophets as well which shows how far away the people are from what they were meant to be as God’s children.
Every nation and every body or community of people has to view themselves in the mirror of God’s law. We remember the fairy story of Sleeping Beauty in whose country the Queen used to look at herself in the mirror and ask “Mirror, mirror on the wall who is the fairest of them all?” always seeking the answer that it was her but then the mirror refuses to give her preferred answer and says it is Aurora who after the wicked Queen’s intervention is struck down in eternal sleep so that the Queen can continue in her narcissism. Hosea hols the mirror up to the people of the land and tells them to look and see the contorted evil of their visage.
At the moment it is the Northern kingdom of Israel that is Hosea’s target but he also adds “Though you, Israel commit adultery, do not let Judah become guilty” (v15). He knows how sin spreads and the way Israel has gone could easily be spread to the Southern kingdom of Judah which in due course over the years does indeed happen.
Thursday Hosea 5:1-15
God calls all Israel from the lowest to the highest to hear his word and his judgement is against them all. Mizpah and Tabor were important sites linked to places of covenant or agreement but here they are seen as places to ensnare the unwary. The arrogance of the people testifies against them and God says he has withdrawn from them.
Battles are in the offing and he tells them to prepare (v8). In verse 13 he sees that Ephraim (i.e. Israel the Northern kingdom) sent for help against the Egyptians to Assyria but, as God says, “He is not able to cure you, not able to heal your sores”. God says he will act like a lion towards them and tear them to pieces before returning to his lair wating for them to seek his face. God is strong enough to resist pity when it is required and will wait until we seek him in penitence.
This chapter has given rise to a well known paraphrase known to older generations, “Come let us to the Lord our God, with contrite hearts return; Our God is gracious, nor will leave the desolate to mourn”. Often sung with a thought of wonder and thanks to our gracious God but in truth it has an entirely different background.
Actually it would be better to phrase it with question marks – “come let us return to God won’t he heal us and bind up our wounds?” and the answer would be No! There is an audacity about the expectation that God will respond to their movement towards him, after long disobedience, with a ready warm arm around their shoulders and a “there, there”. Remember Hosea’s buying back of his errant wife; things were not going to jump pack to wedded bliss, there would be a long time of re-establishing a relationship. The first three verses of Chapter 6 are all out of the mouth of the people but there is a large amount of insincerity there which is seen in v4 where God replies with exasperation,
““What can I do with you, Ephraim?
What can I do with you, Judah?
Your love is like the morning mist,
like the early dew that disappears.”
Their expressions of love were just like a mist which disappeared all too soon. It is a warning not to take God lightly, not to play act but to be sincere. If we seek to repent of something let it be sure and not just a quick utterance of what is more regret than penitence.
Saturday Hosea 6:5-7:10
From v5 God tells them his response in rather fierce words “I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth”. God is not afraid to call a spade a spade when he deals with our sin. In v6 he says, “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings”, a verse quoted by Jesus when pharisees began to criticise him for his dealings with Mathew the tax collector (Matt 9:13). “Go and learn what this means” says Jesus so if he said that to his contemporaries, we need to learn what it means too. If kindness and mercy to others is bypassed for religious practices, then we have lost the place. In v11 although most of the condemnation is directed at Ephraim yet Judah is told that a harvest is also appointed for them. Thei time will come.
In the closing verses and into Chapter 7 God tells them that they are covenant breakers, evildoers, thieves and murderers; this is why he calls them prostitutes having left their obedience to him to go after other ways. In v5 he speaks of the sin of the whole people from King down to commoner. It is a terrible thing when leaders of a people become embroiled in the sins of the common man and yet, in truth, it is often the sins of the leaders that lead the way for the ordinary man or woman. Regardless of whare it starts the message of God is that none of them turn to him (v7 & v10). The present day little booklet, “Try Praying” would be a good place for many in our country today to begin.
