Milo

Amos

JUNE 27

Reading 178

FOR THREE SINS Amos 1–2

“They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed” (Amos 2:6–7).This prophet, who spoke out against the corruption that festered in ancient Israel during an age of unparalleled prosperity, reminds us that justice, not wealth, is a measure of national health.

Background

The era of Jeroboam II in the eighth century B.C was a time of unparalleled prosperity in both Israel and Judah. Together the two kingdoms recovered most of the territory held in the time of David’s and Solomon’s United Kingdom. Jeroboam not only extended his nation’s territory, but also took control of ancient trade routes to the East, pouring vast wealth into Israel. This wealth was not distributed equally, a fact which caused great social dislocation. Many were forced to leave family farms and move to the cities, where they struggled to exist. The newly rich used their wealth to create great estates, in violation of the biblical statute calling for families to hold their land in perpetuity. The wealthy controlled the court system, and within years the majority was figuratively ground into the dust, disdained by the rich who exploited them without compassion or concern. At the same time, religion was popular, and many fine homes were constructed at Israel’s major worship centers, Bethel and Dan. There a religion that mixed biblical and pagan rites was enthusiastically practiced—and strongly condemned by Amos and other prophets of the era. It is against the background of a prosperous and complacent society, riddled with injustice and indifference to God, that Amos is to be understood. Was Amos welcomed in Israel? Not at all. His brief months of ministry stirred up opposition and the prophet, his mission complete, apparently returned to Judah and his sheep. Yet Amos’ written words remain an unmatched legacy: a call for justice that is as important for us to heed today as it was for indifferent Israel to heed so long ago.

Word Study

Justice.

The biblical concept of justice finds one of its most powerful expressions in Amos. The prophet cried out urgently against those who “turn justice into bitterness” (5:7), and begged the people of Israel to “maintain justice in the courts” (v. 15). In sharp detail the prophet defined the injustice that marred Israel’s society: “You hate the one who reproves in court and despise him who tells the truth. You trample on the poor and force him to give you grain. Therefore, though you have built stone mansions, you will not live in them; though you have planted lush vineyards, you will not drink their wine. For I know how many are your offenses and how great your sins. You oppress the righteous and take bribes and you deprive the poor of justice in the courts. Therefore the prudent man keeps quiet in such times, for the times are evil” (vv. 10–13). But what is justice? The Hebrew words are mishpat, usually used when the text speaks of doing what is just, and shapat, which indicates the various functions of government. To do justice is to act in accord with one’s rights and duties under law, and implies an objective code against which a person’s acts can be measured. In Israel, as for Christians today, that objective code was found in the Scriptures. God’s revelation through Moses defined the Israelites’ duty to God and to neighbor. This standard was more than a list of rules and regulations. It was a call to love God and others, with statutes that illustrated the practical implications of love in the social sphere. Even more significantly, the code was an expression of the loving nature of God Himself, who is committed to doing right by all in His creation. This law was an expression of God’s own character; a model for all who yearned to be like the Lord. Unredeemed human beings can never be completely just, as justice is ultimately a quality of God alone. Yet the concern we express for others is to demonstrate, in every social relationship and in every social institution, the spirit of love that infused the Hebrew Scriptures. Justice, then, is showing love by doing what is right, as right is defined in God’s revelation of Himself and of His will for mankind. It is just this that Israel in the age of Jeroboam II failed to do. There was no love, only selfishness. There was no concern for others, only a passion for personal comfort. There was no commitment to God’s standards, only social conventions that openly favored the poor. God still calls His people to do justice. We are to show concern for the well-being of our fellow human beings, and to apply God’s standards in our personal and national lives. Only by a commitment to justice can we hope to avoid the wrath that Amos announced must soon fall on Israel.

Overview

Amos of Judah traveled to Israel to announce an imminent outbreak of God’s wrath on Israel’s hostile neighbors (1:1–2:5), and on Israel herself (vv. 6–16).

Understanding the Text

“The words of Amos” Amos 1:1.

Little is known of Amos beyond what is said in this verse. He was a resident of Tekoa, in the land of Judah. He identified himself as a noqed, a shepherd, who was given a vision and called by God to a prophet’s ministry. This is not, however, a common word for shepherd. It suggests a wealthy rancher, even though Amos pictured himself actively caring for his flocks (cf. 7:15). How appropriate that God should send Amos. Someone had to be sent to the prosperous of Israel, to charge them with injustice and selfishness. The fact that Amos himself was wealthy added weight to his words—and showed that a rich man can be truly righteous. It’s one thing for the poor to rail against the rich. It’s something else again for a wealthy man to stand up and speak out against his own class. The man in rags who shouts on street corners is easily dismissed by the proper of society. But the man in a Brooks Brothers suit, the member of the club who stands up and confronts other members with the sinfulness of their behavior, can’t be as easily dismissed. Each of us, like Amos, belongs to a social class. While God may call us to condemn the sins of those in a different stratum of society, we are most likely to be heard—and to be right!-if we take a stand against the sins that characterize our own class. “For three sins . . . even for four” Amos 1:3–2:5. The phrase, found in each oracle that Amos launched against one of Israel’s hostile neighbors, means simply “for repeated sins.” We can imagine Amos, climbing up on some prominent place, speaking to Israel’s “beautiful people.” He began his sermon by pointing to the northeast, toward Syria and Damascus. Loudly he proclaimed his news: for the repeated sins of this nation, so hostile to God’s people, the Lord “will not turn back My wrath” (1:3). Then, rotating slowly, Amos continued to denounce other nations in their turn. He spoke against Gaza and the land of the Philistines, against Tyre, against the Edomites and Ammonites, against Moab. How his listeners must have nodded and smiled! This was the kind of preaching they liked! And then, when Amos had turned full circle, he pointed south and cried out, “For three sins of Judah, even for four, I will not turn back My wrath” (v. 4). And at this, the crowd of Israelites must have broken out in loud cheering! At last their alienated brethren were going to get what they deserved. I imagine the Israelites who first heard this sermon never suspected what Amos was leading up to. They never noticed that in drawing a circle around them, Amos had made Israel the bull’s-eye! Every time you and I rejoice over the troubles of someone who “deserves whatever he gets,” we follow the example of those Israelites. We never stop to think that we too are guilty of faults and failings! In applauding the judgment of others, we condemn ourselves, for we agree that sins and failures should be judged. “I will send fire upon Judah” Amos 2:4–5. Amos was from Judah, but he had no illusions about his fellow countrymen. He knew the mass of the people had “rejected the Law of the Lord and have not kept His decrees.” He knew that many had “been led astray by false gods.” Before we condemn the sins of others, we need to be ready to confess our own. We cannot pronounce judgment, as if we were judges. All we can do is to confess the righteousness of God in condemning our sins, and thus take our place with those we warn. Amos did not come from a just society to criticize an unjust society. Amos came from a society he knew was sick with sin, to urge a nation terminally ill to face the fact that it was dying, and to turn to God for healing. This is the attitude we need to adopt when sharing Christ with others. Not the “holier than thou” attitude of some. But the humble urgency of one who knows how desperately he himself needed the healing he received at Jesus’ touch. “Now, then, I will crush you” Amos 2:6–16. Amos then turned to Israel and held up a mirror so that the people could see themselves as God saw them. He began with a brief catalog of sins that revealed the injustice which marked Israelite society. God is never indifferent to sin, wherever it may be found. Yet the sin that disturbs Him most is the sin found in those who claim to be His own.

DEVOTIONAL

Where Cash Counts(Amos 2)

Prosperity tends to drain the vitality of any people. It happened to ancient Israel. It happened to Rome. It happened to the British Empire. And it’s happening to America too. Why? Because with prosperity comes a subtle change in the values held by citizens of a nation. This was the message of Amos to his contemporaries. Your values are turned upside down. Those distorted values doom you to judgment. Amos identified the critical values which doom a people in his first charge against Israel. Materialism replaces humanitarianism. Selfishness shoves morality aside. And secular religion replaces the revealed faith. Note how each of these is described. The people of Israel “sell the righteous for silver” (v. 6). Old Testament Law called on Israelites with money to spend it to redeem fellow countrymen who had become slaves (Lev. 25:39–52). In Amos’ Israel cash counted with the rich, while poor people did not! This is the nature of materialism. A love for things replaces a love for people as the motivating drive in a person’s life. “Father and son use the same girl” (v. 7). Men selfishly “use” women rather than value them as persons. The drive to experience selfish pleasures stretches beyond the loosest bounds of morality. Traditional moral standards become objects of ridicule and are arrogantly shoved aside. They “lie down beside every altar” (v. 8). They are religious, but practice a religion of ritual without reality. Old Testament Law commanded that garments taken as a pledge to guarantee repayment of a loan be returned at night, for such garments often served as the only blanket of the poor. Yet the people of Israel saw no conflict in being religious, and at the same time being disobedient to God and indifferent to the poor. Secular religion is a tool to oppress or a sop to conscience, while biblical faith is a call to commitment. The point of Amos’ first sermon, and this devotional, is really simple. We need to check our relationship by checking our values. Is profit more important to us than people? Are the standards we live by those of our society, or of our God? Is our faith a matter of Sunday attendance, or that plus week-long commitment to doing God’s will? The way we answer those questions, and the way our nation answers them, may well determine the future of our land.

Personal Application

The difference between God’s people and the world’s isn’t just in what we believe, it’s in what we value and in what we do.

Quotable

“If we have to choose between making men Christian and making the social order more Christian, we must choose the former. But there is no such antithesis. . . . There is no hope of establishing a more Christian social order except through the labor and sacrifice of those in whom the Spirit of Christ is active, and the first necessity for progress is more and better Christians taking full responsibility as citizens for the political, social and economic system under which they and their fellows live.”—William Temple

Amos

INTRODUCTION

Amos was a sheep rancher in Judah whom God sent to neighboring Israel, where he denounced the sins of that kingdom. His indictment of Israel charged the people with turning from God, exploiting the poor, and committing gross immorality. The preaching of Amos was characterized by striking visions of coming judgment, and by a blunt portrayal of the social sins that made the prosperous era of Jeroboam II so corrupt. Through Amos’ preaching we gain insight into God’s concern for social justice, and into the responsibility of God’s own to speak for the poor. As other Old Testament prophetic works, the Book of Amos concludes on a note of promise. Sin must be punished. But afterward a chastened and purified Israel will be restored.

OUTLINE OF CONTENTS

I.	Oracles of Judgment	Amos 1–6
	A. Against the nations	Amos 1:1–2:5
	B. Against Israel	Amos 2:6–6:14
II.	Visions of Judgment	Amos 7:1–9:10
III.	A Prediction of Renewal	Amos 9:11–15

Joel

JUNE 26

Reading 177

DAY OF THE LOCUST Joel 1–3

“What the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left other locusts have eaten” (Joel 1:4).Natural disasters in Israel and Judah were typically viewed in the Old Testament as God’s judgments. Joel raised an important question for us to answer: what should our response to personal disasters be?

Background

Locusts.

Throughout recorded history Africa and the Middle East have been plagued by swarms of these grasshopper—like flying insects. Even in the 1900s swarms so great that they blocked out the sun have been reported. When a flying swarm of millions upon millions of insects lands, they eat every green plant, leaving the land utterly desolate. Even worse, they often lay eggs before they move on, and just as new plants begin to sprout locust larvae attack the recovering vegetation. For a people like the ancient Israelites, whose livelihood depended on agriculture, a locust plague threatened existence itself. Just such an invasion of flying locusts, far worse than any in living memory (1:2–3), devastated Judah in Joel’s day. The prophet interpreted that event as a divine judgment, and called on the people of Judah to repent. But even more, the utter devastation caused by the locusts stimulated a prophetic vision of devastation to be caused by invading armies at history’s end, when the Day of the Lord finally comes.

Overview

A locust swarm that devastated Judah (1:1–12) moved Joel to utter a call for national repentance (vv. 13–20). The disaster prefigured the “Day of the Lord” (2:1–11), and made return to God urgent (vv. 12–17). Yet when that day comes God will save His people, and bless them afterward (vv. 18–32). God will judge hostile nations then (3:1–16), and Judah will know God’s pardon (vv. 17–21).

Understanding the Text

“Has anything like this happened in your days?” Joel 1:1–4 It’s typical of folks today to think that things “just happen.” A personal tragedy is only “bad luck” that “could have happened to anyone.” The same attitude was all too typical among some in ancient Judah. But when an enormous swarm of locusts devastated Judah, the Prophet Joel cried out, “Think!” This is the force of his question, “Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your forefathers?” Sometimes things happen that are so terrible we can’t dismiss them as mere chance. Underlying Joel’s cry was the conviction that God is in control of events in this world. When disaster strikes, an appropriate response is not to shrug and say, “Bad luck,” but to examine our hearts, and to see if perhaps God is crying out for our attention. “Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!” Joel 1:5–12 There’s nothing so frustrating to a parent as indifference. You try to reach your kids, you confront, discipline, even yell. And rather than repentance, or even rebellion, there’s simply the shrug of a shoulder and a muttered, “Oh, well.” That’s what frustrated Joel and the Lord about Judah’s response to the locust plague. They didn’t cry out. They didn’t make a fuss. They just sat around drinking their wine, shrugging their shoulders, and saying, “Oh, well.” How does God want us to respond when we are disciplined? First of all we need to wake up and weep! (v. 5) Discipline is designed to get our attention and to turn us back to the Lord, not just to make us hurt. Waking up and weeping is often the first indication that we’ve begun to pay attention to God’s message. The prophet added more verbs to portray an appropriate reaction to divine discipline. We mourn (v. 8). We feel a sense of despair and grief (v. 11). These emotions are not pleasant, but they are profitable. They show that we’re taking events to heart. A godly sorrow, according to the New Testament, can lead us to repentance (2 Cor. 7:10). “Put on sackcloth, O priests, and mourn’ Joel 1:13–20. Joel called on the religious leaders of his day to serve as examples of how to respond to the national disaster. They were to first personally put on sackcloth—rough garments worn to indicate grief and sorrow—and spend the night in prayer (v. 13). Then they were to utter a call for a national day of prayer, when all would appeal to the Lord (v. 14). As terrible as the locust plague had been, it was only a preview of the terrors of the approaching Day of the Lord. Clearly the clergy of Joel’s day failed to interpret the locust plague correctly. They themselves did not repent and they called for no national return to the Lord. What happens when the clergy are insensitive to the Lord? Just after the locust plague, God raised up another messenger, Joel, who was sensitive to Him! You and I needn’t wait for clergy to take the lead when our own hearts are grieved, or when we feel a burden for our land. What we do need to do is take the situation to heart and express our own grief and sorrow to the Lord. Then, like Joel, we need to speak out! “For the Day of the Lord is coming” Joel 2:1–11. The phrase, “Day of the Lord,” is a technical term in biblical literature. It can be used to describe any time when God acts directly in history. But it’s primary reference in prophecy is to events destined to take place in the years just preceding history’s end. Those years are both dark and bright. They are dark in that they introduce a time of worldwide tribulation, and especially a devastating invasion of Israel that causes intense suffering for the Jewish people. They are bright because they end with the surviving remnant of Israel restored to intimate relationship with God, and endlessly blessed by Him. Here however Joel focuses our attention on the dark face of the Day of the Lord. He sees it as “a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness” (v. 2). An invading army, like the locust plague, would leave the land a waste and overrun every defense. Most awful of all, Joel pictured God on the side of the invaders (v. 11), using them as His instrument to punish His own people. No wonder Joel cried, “The Day of the Lord is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it?” (v. 11) All such Old Testament passages remind humankind that God has fixed a day for final judgment. And that judgment day is rapidly approaching. Yet no matter how vivid the images of its terrors, most humans remain indifferent. Most of us simply don’t want to deal with uncomfortable things until we have to. What Joel was telling Judah was that God’s time for them was just around the corner of tomorrow. And the moment to deal with that very real and present danger had come! This is what the Gospel tells us too. Each individual must face God the Judge, and the time to make peace with God is now, not then! Why wait to welcome Christ into our lives and receive His forgiveness? Tomorrow may be too late. “Even now . . . return to Me with all your heart” Joel 2:12–17. I don’t know how she got my Phoenix, Arizona phone number. But I began to receive calls from her, from Toronto, Canada. She was tormented with the fear that God wouldn’t accept her. What she had done seemed so terrible to her that she feared it was too late. Joel’s message to Judah was the same as Jesus Christ’s message to us today. It’s not too late. “Even now” reminds us that as long as it is called “today,” a person can turn to God and find pardon. Joel, however, warned Judah that God is not interested in any superficial religious experience. It’s not raising a hand, or walking down an aisle, or promising to give up drink. Joel said, “Rend your heart and not your garments” (v. 13). In biblical times people often tore their clothing to express grief or sorrow. Joel cried that any turning to the Lord must be heartfelt and real. What can we expect if we truly turn to God? We can expect Him to act in character! He will welcome us, “For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love” (v. 13). “The Lord will . . . take pity on His people” Joel 2:18–27. The generation that lives at history’s end will repent at last. What is destined for them is an illustration of what you and I can expect when we turn to the Lord. First, God will provide for us, meeting our basic needs (v. 19). Second, God will save us from our enemies (vv. 20–21). Third, He will pour out so many blessings that the hard times we have experienced will seem nothing in comparison—we will be fully repaid (v. 25). Seeing God’s hand in all this, we will praise and bless the Lord, for we will know by experience that God is present, and that He is our God (vv. 26–27). (See DEVOTIONAL.) “Afterward, I will pour out My Spirit” Joel 2:28–32. The primary focus of this promise is on the aftermath of the Day of the Lord. God will then bless all Israel, from child to adult, by pouring out His Spirit on everyone. In Old Testament times the Spirit was given to equip a believer for some specific task or ministry. Now Joel foresaw a time when the Spirit will be poured out on all Israel and Judah. That event, after the judgments of the Day of the Lord, will be linked at history’s end with various signs in the heavens and on earth. But how, if Joel viewed the outpouring of the Spirit as something destined for Israel, and located it at history’s end, could Peter explain events of the Day of Pentecost as “what was spoken by the Prophet Joel”? (Acts 2:16) In the same way that the locust plague foreshadowed the ultimate Day of the Lord, so events at Pentecost foreshadowed the ultimate outpouring of the Spirit. Today you and I possess, with Jesus, the gift of the Holy Spirit. With and in Him we have a rich taste of the ultimate blessing to be given all by our loving God. “I will gather all nations” Joel 3:1–16. The picture of the end given in Joel harmonizes with the picture found in other Old Testament prophets. God will stir up mankind’s natural hostility toward Him and His people. Those who have been enemies of the Lord’s chosen people will again invade. God will let them come, a great horde, and then, when they seem about to triumph, the Lord will judge the nations on every side. “The mountains will drip new wine” Joel 3:17–21. The little Book of Joel closes with the promise of blessedness. The enemies of Israel and Judah will be punished, the people of God will again be holy, and God’s pardoned people will live forever in His presence. The journey we are on may be long and hard. But our destination is glorious.

DEVOTIONAL

The Years the Locusts Have Eaten(Joel 2)

For months she cried every night. Lying alone, her tears soaking the pillow, she sobbed out her “why?” They’d been married for eight years, and she was three months pregnant with their daughter, when her husband just left. He couldn’t stand being tied down anymore, he told her. And so he left her, with a two-and-a-half-year-old son and pregnant. It was so hard, trying to deal with her loneliness, her doubts, her questions of, “What did I do?” and most terrible of all, “What will happen to me now?” She had to live with these questions not for days, or weeks, or even months, but for years. Joel’s warning to Judah of the coming Day of the Lord challenged God’s people to repent and turn to God for healing. The chapter presupposes a people who have turned away from God, and who need to “return to Me with all your heart” (v. 12). There had been years of devastation. But Joel promised even God’s rebellious people that the Lord has good in mind for them. Despite years of devastation, it is within the power of a loving God to “repay you for the years the locusts have eaten.” Today the young woman who cried herself to sleep so many nights is married again, to a husband who loves her. She loves her job teaching, and delights in the times she shares with her daughter, who is now nine. Life is good, and she’s proven that God’s promise to “repay you for the years the locusts have eaten” can be claimed even by those who never departed from Him, and whose suffering was something other than punishment for sin.

Personal Application

Hold on to God’s promise to repay, no matter however long your suffering lasts.

Quotable

“My Good Shepherd, who has shown Your very gentle mercy to us unworthy sinners in various physical pains and sufferings, give grace and strength to me, Your little lamb, that in no tribulation or anguish or pain may I turn away from You.”—Francis of Assisi

Joel

INTRODUCTION

Joel’s vivid and passionate prophecy was stimulated by a terrible infestation of locusts that destroyed Judah’s crops. Joel saw the disaster not only as a contemporary judgment, but as an event prefiguring a coming “Day of the Lord” at history’s end. In powerful words and images Joel portrayed the Sovereign God who will surely judge the sinful. God’s people must repent from the heart to escape imminent disaster.

OUTLINE OF CONTENTS

I.	The Plague of Locusts	Joel 1:1–12
II.	A Call to Repentance	Joel 1:13–20
III.	A Preview of Judgment	Joel 2
IV.	Judah Restored	Joel 3

JUNE 25

Reading 176

ISRAEL TO BE RESTORED Hosea 11–14

“I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for My anger has turned away from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily” (Hosea 14:4–5).There are few passages of Scripture that approach Hosea 11–14’s emotional expressions of God’s love. As we hear His cry, “How can I give you up, Ephraim?” we sense the depths of God’s great love for you and me.

Overview

God’s love is seen against the background of Israel’s rebellion (11:1–7). In the last days God will restore Israel (vv. 8–11) despite her folly (v. 12, 12:14). Israel fell into sin (13:1–16), but will return to God and be blessed (14:1–9).

Understanding the Text

“When Israel was a child” Hosea 11:1–7.

Hosea now pictured God’s relationship with Israel as that of a parent with a toddler. The child runs off; is brought back; runs off again, only to stumble and hurt its knee; is ministered to gently by its parent; and runs off again, completely unaware of the love shown by the parent whose guidance it ignores. What an image: God, “bent down to feed them,” and His people “determined to turn from Me.” Hundreds of years had passed, and Israel still had not learned. Israel’s refusal to repent meant that “swords will flash in their cities.” How many people who have an image of the Lord as a loving God cannot grasp the fact that true love must seek the best for its object? A God of love will punish, even as a wise parent will punish a child who continually goes astray. “How can I give you up?” Hosea 11:8–11 Unlike human beings, who are dominated by strong emotions when these emotions are aroused, the Lord is “God, and not man.” Despite His justified anger against sinning Israel, He also felt compassion. God will be true to His love for Israel. One day He will roar like a lion calling back its cubs to the safety of the den. “According to his ways” Hosea 11:12–12:14. It was not God who had brought the coming punishment on Israel. It was the people themselves. What had Israel done to bring judgment down on her? God’s people had “surrounded Me with lies” and been “unruly against God.” God’s people had multiplied “lies and violence.” God’s people had failed to “maintain love and justice.” God’s people used “dishonest scales” and love “to defraud.” All this had bitterly provoked God to anger. “His Lord will leave upon him the guilt of his bloodshed and will repay him for his contempt.” The passage, however, leaves Israel and us an example to follow. The man Israel, then known by the name of Jacob, “as a man he struggled with God” (v. 3). The allusion is to Jacob’s experience at Bethel, where he wrestled with the Angel of the Lord in a desperate struggle to obtain His blessing (cf. Gen. 32:25–29). Jacob did prevail, and won God’s blessing. The forefather is thus held up as an example for contemporary Israel, to illustrate the intensity with which they must struggle to be blessed. What does that struggle involve? In Hosea’s time or our own, to win the blessing of God we must “return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always.” “I will come upon them like a lion” Hosea 13:1–16. Rather than struggle to obtain God’s blessing, the people of Israel had thrown themselves eagerly into the pursuit of sin. Their craftsmen developed “cleverly fashioned idols,” and they “offer[ed] human sacrifice.” And this despite all God had done for them. This people without gratitude, who had experienced God’s kindness (vv. 4–7) would now experience Him in a different way. “I will come upon them like a lion,” the Lord said (v. 7). “I will destroy you” (v. 9). “I will have no compassion” (v. 14). Yet even when pronouncing judgment the Lord cannot resist a word of comfort. “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death” (v. 14). If you should happen to feel the lash of God’s discipline, remember this chapter of Hosea. The One who acts to destroy is also the One who ransoms. We can turn back to Him confidently, for He will welcome us home. “Say to him” Hosea 14:1–3. Again and again the Old Testament shows us how to approach God after we have sinned. Here the prescription is repeated: Come asking forgiveness. Come trusting in Him only. “I will heal their waywardness” Hosea 14:4. God tells us in advance how He will respond to such an appeal. He will deal with our waywardness and love us freely. He will do more than forgive. God will transform us, so that His anger may be permanently turned away. “He will blossom like a lily” Hosea 14:5–9. Using images from agriculture, the Lord foresaw a time when Israel will again flourish in her land. Her idols put forever away, Israel will again enjoy the blessing of God. The book closes with a question. “Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them. The ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.”

DEVOTIONAL

Never Alone (Hosea 11)

The man was bitter. Life had been unfair to him. He had been abused as a child. Not particularly gifted, he did poorly in school, and had difficulty finding a good job. Though a Christian now, married and with children, he often felt frustrated and angry. A wise counselor opened the Bible to this chapter of Hosea. In verses 1–3 the hurting believer saw that though God’s people hadn’t been aware of it, all through their life as a nation God had been there. God had taken them by the arm, and they hadn’t felt His touch. God led them gently, the leash woven of love. God’s hand lifted burdens from their neck, and He Himself bent over to feed them. The counseler showed him in verses 8 and 9 that God had felt every hurt, and that His heart had surged with compassion at Israel’s suffering, even though it was deserved. And the counselor showed him in verse 11 that even the most vulnerable of beings will come, trembling, when God calls, only to be settled safely in his home. And then the counselor asked the embittered Christian to close his eyes, and to relive those experiences that caused him so much pain. But this time he was to imagine God in each situation. He was to sense God beside him, and that the Lord was bringing him safely through. He was to sense God touching, and healing, every pain. He was to feel God lifting his burdens, and bending down to sustain him when he was ready to collapse in his weakness. With eyes closed, the man did relive his experiences, and consciously invited the God of Hosea 11 to relive them with him. God had been there all the time! And as he became aware of that fact, and let himself feel God’s loving touch, his bitterness was healed and his pain gave way to peace and joy.

Personal Application

The God of Hosea 11 has been with you all your life. Invite Him to heal your own memories, and cleanse you of bitterness and pain.

Quotable

“The happiest, sweetest, tenderest hearts are not those where there has been no sorrow, but those which have been overshadowed with grief, and where Christ’s comfort was accepted. The very memory of the sorrow is a gentle benediction that broods over the household, like the silence that comes after prayer. There is a blessing sent from God in every burden of sorrow.”—J.R. Miller