I have decided to return in my Bible reading for a little while to the minor prophets. Yesterday I read Hosea and it struck me powerfully. This section of the Bible is often overlooked. Hosea is a small book tucked away in the part of the Bible that isn’t read in Sunday School. However, Hosea has one of the most powerful testimonies of any biblical character. Here we have a man who was told by God to go out and marry a prostitute, because Israel had committed prostitution against God. That’s pretty rough. It doesn’t end there; even after Hosea’s wife leaves him to go pursue other lovers, God calls him to go and buy her back; sound familiar? The prostitution that Israel was guilty of committing against God was idolatry. I refer you back to another post, Idols Named Jesus, to figure out what this means today. I would like to take a look at two powerful passages from Hosea, keeping in mind the context of what God has commanded Hosea to do.

“Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. For the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they know not the LORD.” -Hosea 5:4

This is a pretty scary bit of scripture. The people were not able to come to God, because they were too busy selling themselves to other lovers. Now, one problem that we always run into when we study the Old Testament is that people are very quick to say, “well that was the Old Covenant, we are saved by grace now so none of that matters.” However, this is still the word of God, and it reveals something about his heart. Also, I am reminded of a New Testament example that is similar. In Hebrews 12:15-17 we are charged not to be like Esau because he rejected his birthright and went after unholiness. Hebrews tells us that he was unable to find repentance, even though he sought it with tears.

Someone once told me, “God usually gives you what you really really want.” He didn’t mean that if I want a BMW badly enough God will give it to me. He meant that if we desperately seek God and nothing else, we will find him. However, if we pursue again and again our passions and lusts, then God isn’t going to fight with us. He will let us have them. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that God will give you heaven, if this whole time you have been seeking hell. In contrast to this side of things is the next verse:

“Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.” -Hosea 10:12

This is a little more hopeful. It is clear that God has not abandoned us all together. We have been called; it is time. There is a lot in this one verse, so we will take it a piece at a time. The first bit talks about reaping and sowing. If we sow righteousness in our lives God is pleased. Again, people will be quick to shout out, “Grace Alone!” but I will refer you to James 2. Also, although our salvation is a gift from God, as we will see in a moment, it is clear that when we are righteous, this pleases God.

The second bit gives me great hope.  It is a command to break up the fallow ground.  When I first read the parable of the sower I was dismayed.  I saw in my life that again and again the seed had been sown in my heart, but I had shown signs of bad soil and hadn’t born fruit.  I was frustrated because I thought things could never be changed.  My heart was doomed to be bad soil.  I cried out to God, “Lord, can I be plowed?”  The answer in this verse is “yes”.  The hardness of our hearts can be broken up, and we can come to repentance.

The last bit of the verse is also hopeful.  It begins with a call to repentance.  God is saying through Hosea, “Enough is enough.  You have had your time to go out and worship idols.  It is time now to return to Me.”  This repentance is essential for the rest of the line.  This call to repentance is followed by the words “that he may”.  In other words, it is necessary for us to seek God out for the rest to happen.  Now, what God does after we come to repentance is far more than we could ask for; far more than we deserve.  He rains down righteousness upon us, showering us with his very nature.  This is the gift of Salvation.

It is time to ask ourselves, “have we been ‘whoring’ after other gods?  Have we made false gods after what we want?” If we have been seeking ourselves and not God, it is time to repent.  It is time to return to the Lord, that times of refreshing may come from his presence.