Enjoy Life, Enjoy God

HOSEA 2

April 12, 2013

I have an assignment for you: Read leisurely Hosea 2; it's as great a passage speaking of God's love as any we have in the complete revelation of the Bible.

She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold--which they used for Baal [another god].
                                                     --Hosea 2:8 TNIV

Hosea had a very bad wife, a prostitute, who ran off into the night, night after night in infidelity. Yet Hosea loved her. But we know Hosea's love for his wife is like God's love for us. Read Hosea 2 as how God loves us.

God does not condemn, but "I am going to allure her...speak tenderly to her." (2:14). Hosea is God. We are the unfaithful spouse. Yet God does not give up on us...read it, really, take a thoughtful look at Hosea 2, and ...learn from it.

Joyfully,

Dale Patterson