Then I’ll go back to where I came from until they come to their senses. When they finally hit rock bottom, maybe they’ll come looking for me. Hosea 5:15 (TM)

I had a teacher once who said, "Be very concerned if and when you realize that God is silent in your life." I think people often see God as the punishing parent who smothers us with judgment, always spiritually sending them to their room or withholding their allowance if they sin. I think God is more like the way He describes Himself through Hosea. He draws off and lets us wallow in our own stupidity and stupidity’s natural consequences until we come to our senses and seek Him out.

They’ll eat and be as hungry as ever, have sex and get no satisfaction. Hosea 4:10 (TM)

When your soul is empty, you’ll try to fill it by indulging all sorts of appetites.

It doesn’t work.

I did it. I paid good money to get her back. It cost me the price of a slave. Then I told her, "From now on you’re living with me. No more whoring, no more sleeping around. You’re living with me and I’m living with you." Hosea 3:2-3 (TM)

You can’t understand the prophets until you understand metaphor. God is an artist and all artists use metaphor. A thing which represents something else without using ‘like’ or ‘as’. What you see is really just an expression of some other idea or emotion. Hosea was asked to marry a whore and take her back again and again because it was the perfect metaphor for God’s relationship, His marriage to Israel.

Hosea needs one heckuva big reward for being so obedient. Not only did he face the social consequences of marrying a whore, but then when she went back to her prostitution and promiscuity – Hosea paid good money to take her back! Now I know the reputation of our Jewish friends when it comes to money. Being a Dutchman, I know a thing or two about being tight-fisted. Wow! Can you imagine that he got a little flack about that down at the coffe shop by the city gate?

Technorati Tags: Hosea, Prophet, Israel, Unfaithfulness, Metaphor

I did it. I paid good money to get her back. It cost me the price of a slave. Then I told her, "From now on you’re living with me. No more whoring, no more sleeping around. You’re living with me and I’m living with you." Hosea 3:2-3 (TM)

You can’t understand the prophets until you understand metaphor. God is an artist and all artists use metaphor. A thing which represents something else without using ‘like’ or ‘as’. What you see is really just an expression of some other idea or emotion. Hosea was asked to marry a whore and take her back again and again because it was the perfect metaphor for God’s relationship, His marriage to Israel.

Hosea needs one heckuva big reward for being so obedient. Not only did he face the social consequences of marrying a whore, but then when she went back to her prostitution and promiscuity – Hosea paid good money to take her back! Now I know the reputation of our Jewish friends when it comes to money. Being a Dutchman, I know a thing or two about being tight-fisted. Wow! Can you imagine that he got a little flack about that down at the coffe shop by the city gate?

Technorati Tags: Hosea, Prophet, Israel, Unfaithfulness, Metaphor

I did it. I paid good money to get her back. It cost me the price of a slave. Then I told her, "From now on you’re living with me. No more whoring, no more sleeping around. You’re living with me and I’m living with you." Hosea 3:2-3 (TM)

You can’t understand the prophets until you understand metaphor. God is an artist and all artists use metaphor. A thing which represents something else without using ‘like’ or ‘as’. What you see is really just an expression of some other idea or emotion. Hosea was asked to marry a whore and take her back again and again because it was the perfect metaphor for God’s relationship, His marriage to Israel.

Hosea needs one heckuva big reward for being so obedient. Not only did he face the social consequences of marrying a whore, but then when she went back to her prostitution and promiscuity – Hosea paid good money to take her back! Now I know the reputation of our Jewish friends when it comes to money. Being a Dutchman, I know a thing or two about being tight-fisted. Wow! Can you imagine that he got a little flack about that down at the coffe shop by the city gate?

Technorati Tags: Hosea, Prophet, Israel, Unfaithfulness, Metaphor

I’ll say to Nobody, "You’re my dear Somebody,’ and he’ll say "You’re my God!’" Hosea 2:23b (TM)

God specializes in forgiveness and affirmation. It’s sad that we’ve been duped into thinking that God is this great ogre in the heavens waiting to stomp on us and send us to hell, or else He’s a stern parent shouting "No! Because I said so!" Yet the scriptures reveal that God loves us extravagantly. He goes, quite literally to death – to hell and back to love us and forgive us.

When I’m feeling like a ‘nobody’ – I retreat to God’s Message and hear Him say, ‘you’re my dear somebody.’

I wonder sometimes what the church would be like, what the world would be like if we truly grasped how much God loves us, how much He desires us, and how willing He is to bless us. A small group of people who truly "got it" would, I think, change the world. In fact, it happened 2 centuries ago.

Technorati Tags: Hosea, Affirmation, Love, Forgiveness