It can be shocking sometimes...
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Object:
It can be shocking sometimes what God asks us to do. We have to be careful that we are not interpreting a feeling of lust for some pretty girl we see as a message from God! God would not tempt us in that way unless he knows that our faith in him is strong and complete. God will tempt no one to sin! So what was the point in dragging Hosea through all that pain?
The thing that interests me in this passage is the way God makes his point. Why didn't God just give Hosea the message in a more simple way -- like a quote from his word or even a dream? Who knows the ways that God works? I don't and I have tried to figure God out after three years of seminary and 85 years of life!
What experiences has God given us so that others may learn from them? Some parents have gone through the agony of drug addiction so they could warn their children of its terrible dangers and consequences. In that case he allowed it to happen. I'm sure he did not tell any parent to take drugs!
Was this the only way God could give Hosea a message through the pain in Hosea's heart, so that he could tell the people that God was suffering the same pain because his people were prostituting themselves to other gods?
One lesson from this text is a warning that we should not do anything to make God jealous! Don't put other things before him: money, sex, power, personal satisfaction, and so forth. Don't make anything else an idol in your life.
This episode in Hosea's life foreshadows the life of Christ, who joined himself to us who were unholy to make us holy. He suffered to save the ones (us) whom he loved! It teaches us that God will go through, and has gone through, anything to teach us his feelings (even a cross).
What prophet said these words: "It is the duty of nations as well as men to owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God and to confess the truth announced in Holy Scripture and proven by all history that those nations, only, are blessed whose God is the Lord"? It was Abraham Lincoln! What president would have the courage to say that today?
The thing that interests me in this passage is the way God makes his point. Why didn't God just give Hosea the message in a more simple way -- like a quote from his word or even a dream? Who knows the ways that God works? I don't and I have tried to figure God out after three years of seminary and 85 years of life!
What experiences has God given us so that others may learn from them? Some parents have gone through the agony of drug addiction so they could warn their children of its terrible dangers and consequences. In that case he allowed it to happen. I'm sure he did not tell any parent to take drugs!
Was this the only way God could give Hosea a message through the pain in Hosea's heart, so that he could tell the people that God was suffering the same pain because his people were prostituting themselves to other gods?
One lesson from this text is a warning that we should not do anything to make God jealous! Don't put other things before him: money, sex, power, personal satisfaction, and so forth. Don't make anything else an idol in your life.
This episode in Hosea's life foreshadows the life of Christ, who joined himself to us who were unholy to make us holy. He suffered to save the ones (us) whom he loved! It teaches us that God will go through, and has gone through, anything to teach us his feelings (even a cross).
What prophet said these words: "It is the duty of nations as well as men to owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God and to confess the truth announced in Holy Scripture and proven by all history that those nations, only, are blessed whose God is the Lord"? It was Abraham Lincoln! What president would have the courage to say that today?
