November 10, 2019: Day 57 – Hosea 2

We find some hope in this chapter, but not until after we find destitution and betrayal.  We find the prophet asking the children of his wife to appeal to her to turn from her adulterous ways.  Yeah, so using kids as leverage is never a godly thing.  We next find a time in the life of the wife, who is the nation of Israel, when it will be stripped bare and it will cause her to say: “I will return to my first husband, for it was better with me then than now.”  It took getting to the very base, to the lowest of the low before she is able to realize what she had given up.

Once that desolation takes place, once Israel finds itself utterly hopeless, then God will act.  If you look at vs.14 you will see the transition take place from hopelessness to hope.  She will respond as in her youth, when she was taken out of Egypt.  That should be a very direct and familiar reference to the nation of Israel who was led out of slavery in Egypt in order to go into the promised land, where they found themselves now.  But remember, even in that story there was utter betrayal by the people.  

This chapter ends with the words  that we need to hear and that we need to have repeated to us: “You are my people” and then we would respond: “You are my God.”