06.12.2023 The Lion Retreats to His Den

"I’m a grizzly charging Ephraim, a grizzly with cubs charging Judah.

I’ll rip them to pieces—yes, I will! No one can stop me now.

I’ll drag them off. No one can help them.

Then I’ll go back to where I came from until they come to their senses.

When they finally hit rock bottom, maybe they’ll come looking for me.”

 In today's text, God speaks to Ephraim and Judah through Hosea as if He were a grizzly bear or a lion. While I've never been confronted by either, I can only imagine that they can do whatever they want. Only a huge tranquilizer could stop either, The wrath is directed at Ephraim, an extinct tribe of Israel, and Judah because both have grievously sinned against God in their moral and spiritual perversions. They obviously did not heed Hosea's words nor prophecy because those from the tribe of Ephraim disappear and Judah will become exiled in Babylon.

God goes on to say that He will inflict this pain and suffering. He will do it through others whom He created and has authority over. NO ONE can help them. Sounds definite, complete, with no room for negotiation nor compromise. They will be totally helpless and victimized by their oppressors under God's direction and enabling.

With this dramatic and devastating stage set, God retreats to His quiet place as the people of Ephraim and Judea enter these next chapters of destruction and exile. But their story isn't over. Our all knowing, omniscient, God knows that they will ultimately 'come to their senses' and seek Him out once again. He waits.

The book of Hosea is all about dysfunctional relationships and how we can all become victims of our own pride and selfishness. When we turn toward our own selfish desires and take our eyes off of God, nothing good will come of it. Good is defined in God's terms, not ours. All of our long lists of societal crises are rooted in these wrong, self declared desires and gods (idols). This is NOT what God intended. He allows us limited free will with His hope being that we will desire Him more than any false gods.

Lord, Thank You for the lessons You give me in Your Word, The Bible. You desire to teach me about the difficult lessons in life. You want me to learn the easy way, by knowing the lessons as Your truth, thus avoiding the hard way. Thank You for loving me and showing me Your Godly ways. Amen

The outrageousness of sin and failure was in direct proportion to the greatness of God's intent for his people. Prophecy was always an exercise of love, never of contempt, for those to whom the prophet addressed his criticism.

Hosea discloses a God who is passionately moved by his fickle people. We need to nurture both portraits of God—God the transcendent sovereign, God the passionate person—if we are to be faithful to what the Bible says about him.