August 7, 2024 - Hosea 4-6

The family matters taken care of, Hosea begins his oracles:  “Hear the word of the Lord . . .” (4:1).  We live in a day in which the Word of God is despised, and anyone who believes it and lives by it is ridiculed and mocked.  Recently, I have heard from naysayers statements about our foolishness to believe in a “heavenly fairy god,” and such.  In Hosea’s day, he could truthfully say about Israel:  “There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land; there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed” (4:1-2).  That description was right on.  In fact, take that description and apply it to today; issue by issue, even the most adamant scoffer, if he is objective and honest in his assessment, must declare, “It’s true!”

Furthermore, the Bible not only rightly assesses our moral and ethical failures, it tells us of the remedy.  Hosea instructs the people, “Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up” (6:1).  Over and over again, the Bible tells us (to mention only two instances of many):  “Turn to the Lord before it’s too late. Call out to him while he’s still ready to help you” (Isaiah 55:6-11) & “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus” (Acts 3:19-23).

God is not mocked – “I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore; Israel is defiled” (5:3) – either then or now.  But he is also patient and gracious.  The call to repent and to turn to the Lord is as valid today as in Hosea’s day.

Return, O wanderer, return,

And seek thy Father’s face;

Those new desires which in thee burn

Were kindled by his grace.

Return, O wanderer, return,

He hears thy humble sigh;

He sees thy softened spirit mourn

When no one else is nigh.

Return, O wanderer, return,

Thy Saviour bids thee live;

Come to his cross, and grateful learn

How freely he’ll forgive.   -- William Bengo Collyer (1812)