November 22, 2019: Day 69 – Hosea 14

Finally we get a picture of restoration.  It looks like we have a vision of what things will be when things get back to the way that God wants them to be.  The first word of this chapter is the word “return”.  This implies that the Lord is asking Israel to come back to him, again much like the father is looking out on the horizon waiting for his son to “return”.  When we return, when Israel returns, when those who have run from their Father return, then restoration is able to take place.  Restoration cannot take place in a way that is one sided and the initiative coming from a single person.  

There has to be a recognition that salvation can come at the hand of the Lord and at his hand alone.  There is no redemption in a country, there is no redemption in the work of our hands, there is no redemption in our equipment for war.  Only the Lord can bring about redemption.  

In the very last verse of this chapter we find a proverb by which we can live: “The ways of the Lord are right, and the upright walk in them…”  That’s a good way to finish this book of the Bible which speaks so strongly about those who have transgressed the ways of the Lord.  We all have, but we have all been called to return.  It is time to return.