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One of the most traumatic experiences a family can have is when a child runs away. Many parents have gone through sleepless nights wondering where their little boy or girl would be. While it is hard to get specific numbers, one study had the number of homeless children in America range anywhere from 500,000 to more than two million, all of them with loved ones who pined for their safe return.
God knows all too well the misery that comes with a child running away. The whole nation of Israel, a nation he had chosen for his own, left him. Through Hosea, God portrays Israel as his child: "Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms" (v. 3). Despite that tender loving care, Israel wanted nothing to do with God: "My people are bent on turning away from me" (v. 7).
God knows all too well the misery that comes with a child running away. The whole nation of Israel, a nation he had chosen for his own, left him. Through Hosea, God portrays Israel as his child: "Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms" (v. 3). Despite that tender loving care, Israel wanted nothing to do with God: "My people are bent on turning away from me" (v. 7).
