Hosea 10-14; II Kings 15:1-7
As we come to the end of Hosea, what’s our takeaway? It’s one thing to gain an academic understanding of Israel’s idolatrous rejection of God and His subsequent pronouncements of judgment, but letting God’s Word penetrate our own hearts is quite another. How is the Holy Spirit speaking to you personally? Is He convicting you of anything, some way in which you are (or have been) pushing Him aside, looking elsewhere for satisfaction? Is He calling you to repentance? Do you hear His voice, assuring you of His tenderness and compassion, His mercy and forgiveness? If there is anything standing between you and the LORD, now is the time to get rid of it. Only in Him do we have hope.
Sow for yourselves righteousness;
Hosea 10:12
reap steadfast love;
break up your fallow ground,
for it is the time to seek the LORD,
that He may come and rain righteousness upon you.
One more thing…
In his book, Gentle and Lowly, Dane Ortlund highlights Hosea 11:8-9 a couple of times. (pp. 72-75; 141-142) Ortland uses these verses to reinforce his thesis that, contrary to popular belief, God’s heart’s desire is to show mercy. That is a message many of us need to hear, and I think Ortlund is very much on target, so if you have not read the book, you should. But we need to be careful (as Ortlund actually is) not to pull these verses so far out of context as to miss the overall message of Hosea. Let’s not interpret “I will not come in wrath” (Hos. 11:9) as somehow obviating repentance and entirely negating the clear warnings of assured wrath to the unrepentant.