Hosea

The words of this precious little book have been as the earth these past days. The warnings and admonitions are as the thorns and brambles which hem a man onto a path, and the mercy's and goodness as the hollyhock and rose of sharon which grow upon both fertile and barren ground. Gomer, and faithless Israel are as the shooting crops of summer, which limp and spring -- live or die, depending upon that glistening orb which is perceived, but can never truly be seen. Covenant mercies are stretched and hung as that elastic, changing screen of sky, which binds and hugs humanity with wispy clouds and foreboding storms, and illumining and granting life to all under its care -- the sun; hung on some great pivot, as a pendulum without swing, the silent metronome which clicks and measures the days, time, and seasons for every creature upon this globe. The word of the Lord tacks up every element of Creation and says "this is why, how, and from whom these things have all come." I must share these verses with you all.

"I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in compassion, and I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness. Then you will know the Lord. " 2:19

"Afterward the sons of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king; and they will come in trembling to the Lord and to His goodness in the last days." 3:5

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge..." 4:6

"and they have played the harlot, departing from their God" 4:12

"so the people without understanding are ruined." 4:14

"Their deeds will not allow them to return to their God. For a spirit of harlotry is within them, and they do not know the Lord." 5:4

"I will go away and return to My place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me." 5:15

"Come, let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, that we may live before Him. So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; and He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth." 6:2-3.

"For your (MY) loyalty is like a morning cloud and like the dew which goes away early." 6:4

"and the judgments on you are like the light that goes forth. For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings."

"Yet they have not returned to the Lord their God, nor have they sought Him." 7:10

"and they do not cry to Me from their heart..." 7:14

"they turn, but not upward..." 7:16

"though I wrote for him ten thousand precepts of My Law, they are regarded as a strange thing." 8:12

"Sow with a view to righteousness, reap in accordance with kindness; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord until He comes to rain righteousness on you." 10:12

"I led them with cords of a man, with bonds of love, and I became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their laws; and I bend down and fed them." 11:4

"...My heart is turned over within Me, all My compassions are kindled." 11: 8

"For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath." 11:9

"Therefore, return to your God observe kindness and justice, and wait for your God continually." 12:6

"Yet I have been the Lord you God since the land of Egypt; and you were not to know any god except Me, for there is no savior besides Me. I cared for you in the wilderness, in the land of drought. As they had their pasture, they became satisfied, and being satisfied their heart became proud, therefore they forgot Me." 13:4-6

"Return, O Israel to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of you iniquity. Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to Him, "take away iniquity and receive us graciously, that we may present the fruit of our lips." 14:2

"For in You the orphan finds mercy" 14:3

"I will love them freely" 14:4

"His shoots will sprout, and his beauty will be like the olive tree and his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon. Those who live in his shadow will again raise grain, and they will blossom like the vine, His renown will be like the wine of Lebanon." 14:6

"Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoeveris discerning, let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right, and the righteous will walk in them, but transgressors will stumble in them." 14:9