Hosea 10
COMMENTARY:
: 2 Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty: he shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their images. (2505 “divided” [chalaq] means smooth, slippery, plunder, false, deceitful, or flatter.)
DEVOTION: There are two sides to a coin. We call them heads or tails. We sometimes can’t make a decision so we toss a coin to help us make a decision.
We are born with a sin nature that stays with us until we die. When we reach as certain age we are told that the LORD loves us and has a gift to give to us if we are willing to make a commitment to HIM. The gift is eternal life in heaven and a new nature while we are here on earth. There is a choice to make.
If we chose to become a follower of Jesus Christ we have a new nature given to us to help us with all our decisions. The Bible gives us direction and we have a choice as to whether to follow it or not. Those who want to be faithful to the LORD will follow it. It is not an easy decision sometimes and sometimes we go back and forth in our decision making process.
Why is that? It is because we have the two natures in us that are working against each other. Our old nature likes sin. Our new nature wants us to say NO to sin. The battle is real and is for a lifetime.
Here we find that the children of Israel faced the same challenges in their life. The problem is that they chose the old nature more than the new nature and the LORD had to chasten them because of it.
We don’t usually set up altars in our homes or work places but they had places that they attended to worship false gods. We can go places to worship false gods even today.
As believers we have to avoid making false gods in our home or going to places where we worship false gods. How do we know it is a false god? We want to spend more time with it than with the LORD.
CHALLENGE: Look into your heart to see if it is deceiving you into thinking that you are worshiping only the True God of the Bible when you are really worshiping self or other gods.
:2 The hearts of the people are fickle; they are guilty and must be punished. (NLT)
DEVOTION: As we grow up we change our opinion on almost everything. Girls usually like dolls and boys like cars. Boys like action movies and girls like love stories. Things are changing all the time as we get older.
People are funny. One day they will like you and the next they won’t speak to you. One day they are your best friends and the next they are nowhere to be found.
Now we come to the time period when we think we are in love. One day will be starry eyed over someone and the next we think they are not right for us. Some girls will like boys that won’t like them and some boys will like girls that won’t like them.
The LORD gives Hosea instruction regarding people and their relationship to HIM. One day they like HIM and the next they are going after foreign gods. The LORD wants consistency in our life.
HIS desire for us is that we learn more about HIM each day and then start practicing what we learn. The Christian life is a growing life. We have a goal to be like Christ before we go to heaven. Each year we should do more things for the LORD.
Most of the people in Hosea’s day wanted to just please themselves and not serve the LORD. It is because of this that they had to be punished. God gives blessings to those who are faithful to their growth in HIM. These blessings don’t always include getting rich in the wealth of the world. Sometimes they do. Most of the time the blessings are in personal relationships with other believers.
CHALLENGE: Don’t be fickle!!! Don’t change loyalties every few weeks or years. A divided heart doesn’t work with the LORD.
: 12 Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you. (6666 “righteousness” [ts@daqah] means justice, truthfulness, rightness, innocence, doing right or salvation.)
DEVOTION: There is a book written whose title is “No place for Truth.” It is a good book to read. It states that here in America truth is a lost art. He concentrates on the fact that our leaders are not telling the truth. We find that Israel believes a lie.
The first verse informs us that Israel is an empty vine. It has no fruit. It is lifeless. It is worthless. They are a double-minded people. They want the blessings of the LORD but at the same time they want to worship false gods. They can’t have it both ways. If they want both they don’t have the LORD. The New Testament tells us that a double-minded man is unstable in all his thinking. Israel is unstable.
The LORD gives them a choice to make. They have to change their ways. They have to listen to Hosea. Our verse for today states that they need to sow rightness back into their land. It is a farming term. Before there can be any planting of seed there must be a plowing of the land. The plow breaks up the ground so that the seed can be planted. Once the seed is planted it needs rain to grow.
Just like the ground needs to be plowed, so do the minds of the children of Israel. They have to rethink their priorities. They have to rethink who they are going to worship. They have to get rid of wrong thinking and start thinking Biblically. They have to think Godly. Once this begins they can reap mercy from the LORD. Once mercy starts flowing, they need to seek the LORD with all their hearts regularly. After they have done the right thinking, the LORD will rain more right thinking into their lives. Israel will then be in a right relationship with the LORD.
The same is true of us today. The steps are there. There is always a way to return to the LORD if we take the right steps. HE wants to have fellowship with us. We need to want HIS fellowship to grow in our relationship with HIM. HIS mercies are new every morning.
What are we going to sow today? Are we willing to break up the hard parts of our hearts? Do we want HIM to rain justice down on us? Do we want to be known as a truthful nation? Is our nation able to turn around if all those who are true followers of the LORD seek HIM wholeheartedly?
CHALLENGE: The promise is that the LORD will honor us if we honor HIM. We need to improve on our righteous living.
:13 You have plowed wickedness; you have reaped iniquity. You have eaten the fruit of lies, because you trusted in your own way, in the multitude of your mighty men. (982 “trusted” [batach] means confidence, confident, careless, hoped, sure, unsuspecting, or lead to believe.)
DEVOTION: It is said that a majority of those who graduate from high school and attend college never return to church. It used to be that this group did return to the church. Now however the church seems unimportant or irrelevant to the lives of young adults.
I have known many who have returned to church but again they have to work hard at staying. Sometimes the adult service is not meeting their needs. It is geared for older people who have children that are grown up and out of the house. The sermons don’t get the minds of young adults involved. This doesn’t have to be.
These years don’t have to be a time of plowing wickedness if there are individuals who love them and show them that service to the LORD is worthwhile. Too often this doesn’t happen. The young adults believe the lies of the world that say that God isn’t real and they don’t need HIM.
Watch out for people who say that you have to go your own way. Usually our own way is away from the LORD. We are naturally sinners who see sin as something exciting and church as boring. This is wrong. Retool yourself into thinking differently from others. True Christianity is exciting and worthwhile for those who trust in the LORD to work with their individuals gifts for service.
CHALLENGE: Watch who you have confidence in. It should always be the one that the LORD through prayer instructs you to have confidence in.
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