Thursday, July 7, 2016

A Covenant and a New Day



Hosea 2:16-23

“And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.
“And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth, and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel, and I will sow her for myself in the land.
And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”

It is always wise to look at prophecy with this vision, it sometimes addresses what is going to happen soon, and also in the near future, and yet sometimes it is referring to a time to come, a time way out in what we time critters call the future.  The more I read this it seems as if this is what we mention as future, a time yet to happen.

Israel’s people are going to enter into a new covenant and once more God would call them His wife and they would call Him their husband.  It is important to note again that God divorces Israel for breaking His covenant, they rejected His law and even totally rejected the relationship they once had with Him.  The evidence was being filled with self and pride and forgetting the grace that they had lived under.  They went after the gods of their neighbors and engaged in idolatry, and they put trust in kings, armies, and agreements with other nations and not in God.  This lead them on the same road America and the Western world is engaging in today; all kinds of injustice and violence, taking advantage of the poor and like today it brought about lying, stealing, and murder.

Now it is clear that Israel today is not free from war, and as a people and nation, God is not the center of their minds and hearts.  I believe we are looking at a time to come when Israel will experience this, “And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.”

But what a day for the people of Israel to look to and I pray it happens soon, very soon for it is my understanding that Jesus the Messiah will reign over them, and will replant Jezreel.  And will have mercy on No Mercy, and will say to Israel, You are my people, and they shall say, You are my God.

From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice

No comments: