Prayer
Heavenly Father, I thank you for this new day of life. Lord, I confess that as I rise this morning and begin this day, my heart leaves much to be desired as I come to seek you. There remain powerful currents of sin in my heart, and at times I even feel as though I am being swept away by them. Lord, please meet me now in your mercy and help me, speak your word to me that I may live. Please minister to my soul, renew my mind, and create in me a clean heart, O God. I commit this day to you, please help me to love and serve you this day, and so too all the saints in my church to the glory of your name. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
Reading
Hosea 1:1.
The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
Meditation
The prophecy begins with these words: “The word of the LORD that came to Hosea…” Now Hosea, like all the prophets, was a representative of God. As a herald comes on behalf of a king, and should be listened to, so too the prophets came as heralds of the king of heaven. But Hosea was unique as a prophet in the sense that his very life symbolized the message God gave him to declare. This sort of thing happened occasionally among the prophets, but nowhere more powerfully than in the example of Hosea. His entire life and family prophetically symbolized his message.
Now as we also see in verse one, Hosea was sent to the people of God in the days of Kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. Hosea was a contemporary of Amos, and both prophets were sent just prior to the fall of the Northern Kingdom. As we learn in the Book of Kings, the kingdom had been established under King David, prospered under King Solomon, but then it split in two – the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Hosea’s ministry focused more on the Northern Kingdom, and particularly came as a final warning to that kingdom before the Assyrians would come and conquer it (2 Kings 17).
One of the chief problems we face in reading of such things in our day is the feeling that such details are irrelevant to us. These events are distant in time, and they are distant as being part of the old covenantal epoch. In short – we know that we ought to reverence this prophecy because it’s in the Bible, but we fail to see how it is at all meaningful or important to us.
The answer to that kind of question, I hope, shall be repeatedly addressed in the course of our studies in Hosea. In a big picture sense, however, here is fruitful ground for meditation. Did God bring the oracle of judgment against the Northern Kingdom of Israel? The answer is yes. Should we then expect that such an oracle may be irrelevant to us? The objection may come: “But this is a day of grace! Of course God does not judge his church, we have been saved!” To that I say: don’t be too quick to jump to such a conclusion. God is the same – yesterday, today, and forever. When God’s people, or his church, is committed to a way of sin (as the Northern Kingdom was), God will remove the lampstand. Such was the warning the Lord Jesus Christ sent to the Church of Ephesus (Rev 2:1-7). Is it so far beyond the bounds of possibility that we, our churches, may not be prone to such sin and thus liable to such a charge? These are sobering thoughts, but thoughts that we would do well to ponder in silence and prayer before the Lord.
Be ye doers of the word…
Hosea presents us a chance to earnestly examine ourselves. Judgment begins in the household of God. There is the glory of the gospel in this book it’s true, and it is all the sweeter for the weighty threatenings of God’s righteous judgment. Even in studying this oracle, we may also grow in our understanding of the justice and righteousness of God. In this sense it is a true privilege that we have before us in these studies. In all, though, do not suppose or presume that you or your church may not need such a warning as that contained in this book. Be sober. Be vigilant. Be earnest before the Lord. Let us seek to sense and see, by the light of truth, the full weight of our spiritual poverty. And let us then cast ourselves wholly upon Christ our salvation. As you meditate and move through these devotional studies, let’s do so in the right frame of mind: with a spirit of sincere self-examination, and with a prayer of repentance ready upon our lips. Hosea loved Gomer, as God loves his people, but she was called to turn away from her life of prostitution. SDG.
Prayer of Confession & Consecration
Lord I confess that I do not grieve over my sins as I ought, nor am I as earnest in self-examination as I ought to be. Just as you disciplined and punished your people for their sins in days of old, so too I know that I may be deserving of such a response. Lord, I pray that as I study the Book of Hosea, please help me to take this as an opportunity to examine my heart, to test myself whether I am truly in the faith. And Lord so too search me and try my heart, see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting I pray. May these studies in this book from your Holy Word, have a powerful transforming effect of holiness upon my life. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
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