Tuesday
Read Hosea 1:2-10
2 When the Lord first spoke to Israel through Hosea, he said to Hosea,
“Go and get married; your wife will be unfaithful, and your children will be
just like her.a In the same way, my people have left me and become
unfaithful.”
3 So Hosea married a woman named
Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim. After the birth of their first child, a son, 4the
Lord said to Hosea, “Name him
‘Jezreel’, because it will not be long before I punish the king of Israel for
the murders that his ancestor Jehu committed at Jezreel.b I am going
to put an end to Jehu’s dynasty.c 5And in the Valley of
Jezreel I will at that time destroy Israel’s military power.”
6 Gomer had a second child—this time
it was a daughter. The Lord said
to Hosea, “Name her ‘Unloved’, because I will no longer show love to the people
of Israel or forgive them. 7But to the people of Judah I will show
love. I, the Lord their God, will
save them, but I will not do it by war—with swords or bows and arrows or with
horses and horsemen.”
8 After Gomer had weaned her
daughter, she became pregnant again and had another son. 9The Lord said to Hosea, “Name him
‘Not-my-People’, because the people of Israel are not my people, and I am not
their God.”
10 The people of Israel will become
like the sand of the sea, more than can be counted or measured. Now God says to
them, “You are not my people,” but the day is coming when he will say to them,
“You are the children of the living God!”
Think
Hosea is a strange story. To
illustrate the nature of Israel's relationship to Yahweh Hosea marries a wife
'who will be unfaithful' (the Good News Bible is more delicate than other
translations).
How are you unfaithful to God?
Pray
Now God says to them, "You are not my people," but the day is
coming when he will say to them, "You are the children of the living
God!" - Verse 10
Lord help me to be more and more a child of you, the living God.
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