Observation: The Lord provides the prophesy through Hosea that he will give up on Israel due to their continued idol worship. He illustrates this through Hosea's marriage to a prostitute, who gives birth to children that are not his. The Lord declares he will remove his favor from Israel, but also that there will be a day when his favor is restored. Israel will again be faithful, and he will again claim them as his people. However, there are two differences to that future relationship.
The first is that the people will understand their relationship with God differently. Israel has previously thought of God as a master, a supreme entity to be obeyed and feared. The master gives laws, and they comply. They could not even bring themselves to say his name out of fear and respect. In the future state, the relationship will be familial. It will be more like a marriage. Yes, it will involve the honor a wife gives to her husband, but it will involve communication and love and conversation. They will know each other. This is a relationship of honor and trust, not obedience to orders.
The second is that there will be a a new kind of "Israelite". There will be a people who are not raised by themselves as a nation, but rather raised up by God himself. From people who are not God's people - not currently the chosen descendants of Abraham - God will call new people to him. He will say to them that they are now his people, and they will respond that he is their Lord. God himself will "sow" this crop ... it is not that they will become God's people because their ancestors taught them laws and rules, but rather that God himself will touch their lives and they will acknowledge his greatness.
Application: Jesus brought this "coming day" is so many ways. It is by Jesus that I am now part of God's people ... part of the new crop of Israelites! Jesus made a way for me to become someone that God himself could pity, and allow me to respond that his is my Lord and my God. Jesus also created a better way for everyone to understand the Lord, as a familial and loving God, rather than a God who judges within the confines of the law. The Lord is more like my father. He is more like the husband to me and his church, his wife. I honor and obey, but I do so in the glow of his love and care and provision.
Prayer: Abba, I thank you for bringing the promised coming day, and for calling me and my family and all of us your people. You are my Lord and my God. You are my father. You are my husband. I desire to obey you in response to your love. May I do so today in a manner that pleases you. Amen.
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