Hosea 11

November 1, 2022

Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.

Reading along with us in Hosea? Here’s today’s reading:

Hosea 11 (NIV)

God’s Love for Israel
1“When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.
2 But the more they were called,
the more they went away from me.11:2 Septuagint; Hebrew them
They sacrificed to the Baals
and they burned incense to images.
3 It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
taking them by the arms;
but they did not realize
it was I who healed them............Continue Reading

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This Post Has 5 Comments

  2. For I am God, and not a man—
    the Holy One among you.
    How this struck me this morning as I read! How often we put God in the same category as man. How often are expectations of Him are vastly limited by what we understand using our own perceptions and interpretations in situations. How often we underestimate both His power and His love. I love the song we sing that is exactly this: His thoughts are higher, His words deeper, and His love is stronger than ours!
    His heart aches in the chastening of Israel in this chapter, that it has had to come to this. He doesn’t go into this destruction lightly and certainly not without warning. Yet He goes into this and every situation knowing the outcome and always seeing the greater picture even when we can not…which is usually!

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  3. What parent who has had a child stray away from them doesn’t understand the sentiments God shares about Israel in this chapter? How often as parents do we find ourselves thinking or saying, I didn’t raise them like this, or I gave them so much, why don’t they listen or come around as much. And yet how much more can God say that about us. He has cared and guided, provided and protected in inestimable ways, to what extent are we returning the favor or even better, trusting and following Him in a way that is consistent with His being worthy of it? Hopefully we are not like Israel who God says in verse 7 are determined to turn from me. “How could they,” is a proper response, but only with it’s companion, “How can we?”

    And how utterly amazing, after all the things God has said will happen as the result of their false worship and disobedience, that His compassion is aroused and He will not carry out my fierce anger. The consequences and discipline will come if they continue to disobey, but it will not come from wrath. Rather God envisions the time where they will obey and He will restore them to the land. How awesome and gracious He is!

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  4. “Though they call to the Most High,
    None at all exalt Him.”

    I was thinking how man/we may call out to God when things go awry, whether in vain or in sincerity, but it is a last resort. We do not spend our lives and time exalting Him in our minds and lives and encounters.

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