The ocean of Self-Rule

Hosea 2:1-13

How far have we drifted in this ocean of self-rule, we want to be the captain of our own ship, to get our wants met outside of the will of God?  We have moved from “In God, we trust” to in wealth and materialism and significance we trust.  No longer do we value truth and integrity, in fact it is stated on a daily basis in our news media that the American voter is not looking for such a person to lead our great nation.  So many who go by the name Christian have no understanding of whom they claim they are following, and I fear we are just like the North Kingdom, the one God is speaking to in Hosea, about leaving their first love, and whoring to get their wants.  America has sinned in the same way as Israel did at this time, they violated the covenants, and they forgot the goodness, faithfulness, and kindness of God and His law.  They went after what the eye could see with no regards that it would bring harm to them, and they engaged in idolatry and prostitution.  They, like the American people put trust in what man can do, in what government promises, and the military, and not in God.  And last, they began to exploit the poor and young into believing they care for them, and would take care of their needs.

God is giving Israel a divorce because they chased after little gods, gods of power and materialism, of greed and selfishness and the question you and I must ask, is God giving the United States of America a divorce decree?  As you read these 13 verses examine yourself before casting stones at your neighbors, for judgment will begin with the Church.

Say to your brothers, “You are my people,” and to your sisters, “You have received mercy.” “Plead with your mother, plead—for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband—that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts; lest I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst.  Upon her children also I will have no mercy, because they are children of whoredom.  For their mother has played the whore; she who conceived them has acted shamefully.  For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’ Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths.  She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them, and she shall seek them but shall not find them.  Then she shall say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now.’  And she did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal. Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season, and I will take away my wool and my flax, which were to cover her nakedness.  Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.  And I will put an end to all her mirth, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her appointed feasts.  And I will lay waste her vines and her fig-trees, of which she said, ‘These are my wages, which my lovers have given me.’ I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour them.  And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals when she burned offerings to them and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry, and went after her lovers and forgot me, declares the Lord.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice