Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Their heart is divided...

" For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings." 
Hosea 6:6

Several years ago, I took an online class on the book of Hosea. It was a wonderful class that brought about an understanding of God's redeeming love to a people that have gone awhoring after other gods. It showed me how God loves us...  inspite of our iniquites... and that His love stands firm to the end.

And while the book of Hosea was a blessing to me back when I took the class, I found that God's word never grows old... and I was recently blessed by it once again during my daily reading.

So while reading through Hosea, I noticed the importance of God's desire for us...  How He longs for us to return to Him in faithfulness... and to remember the great things He has done for us.

  • He desires that we be faithful to Him.... 

" For Israel slideth back  as a backsliding heifer... " Hosea 4:16
"And  my people are bent to backsliding from me." Hosea 11:7

  • He desires that we grow in the knowledge of who He is...
                          " My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge... Hosea 4:6
                          " I have written to him the great things of my law, 
                           but they were counted as a strange thing." Hosea 8:1
                      "For I desired... the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. " Hosea 6:6

  • He desires that our hearts be fully devoted to Him... 

" They set their heart on iniquity... "  Hosea 4:8
" Their heart is divided..." Hosea 10:2
"Israel has cast off that which is good..." Hosea 8:3

  • He desires that we have mercy...

" For I desired mercy and not sacrifice..." Hosea 6:6

  • He desires that we sow in righteousness and reap in mercy... Hosea 10:12

" For  they have sown the wind, 
and 
they shall reap the whirlwind..." 
Hosea 8:7

  • He desires that we forget not who our Maker is... 

" For Israel hath forgotten his Maker... Hosea 8:14

  • He desires that we return to Him...
 " Therefore turn thou to thy God: 
keep mercy and judgement 
and wait on thy God continually." Hosea 12:6


As a result, when we acknowledge who God is, when we acknowledge our offences and seek His face, He promises...

--That He will not execute the fierceness of His anger. (Hosea 11:9)
--In Him the fatherless shall find mercy. (Hosea 14:3)
--He will heal our backsliding. (Hosea 14:4)
--He will love us freely...  (Hosea 14:4)

And He will be our dew, making us to grow, helping us to cast our roots, making our branches to spread, making us beautiful, and even making us to smell good.


" I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.
His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. " 
Hosea 14:5,6

I was simply amazed with the wealth of knowledge  and application we can draw from the Word... even from such a small book as Hosea.

It is enough to know that God's love... saves, forgives and restores.


"...   and it shall come to pass, 
that in the place where it was said unto them, 
Ye are not my people, 
there it shall be said unto them, 
Ye are the sons of the living God." 
Hosea 1:10

What a merciful God! We are children of the MOST HIGH.

May you know the power of God's love in your life today... and praise Him for His redeeming love.
~Ellie

2 comments:

  1. hmmmm......I've been reading Ephesians over and over about who I am in Christ......but maybe I need to study Hosea next! ;-) from a fellow original MT gal!!

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  2. Stephanie, Thank you for your tender heart... and for your uplifting and encouraging emails. I read all of them and was blessed by each:).

    May the Lord bless you!

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