Daily Blast - Minor Prophets: Day 3
Scripture
“I want you to show love,
not offer sacrifices.
I want you to know me
more than I want burnt offerings.”
Reflection
In this passage, Hosea spends some time highlighting the causes and effects of Israel’s unfaithfulness. He says in Hosea (4:6) my people are being destroyed because they do not know me. As Ellie said yesterday, God uses Hosea's unfaithful wife to demonstrate how Israel gives itself to idols and other gods rather than to the God of Israel. He says in Hosea (4:12) “They ask a piece of wood for advice! They think a stick can tell them the future! Longing after idols has made them foolish. They have played the prostitute, serving other gods and disserting their God.”
Hosea also points out how they are constantly breaking the 10 commandments that God had given to Moses and that the priests delight when the people sin because they bring an offering so they get fed, and then the people, rather than learning from their mistakes, go off and sin again! He also says how the priests are no better in their behaviour, worshiping their gods and not the God of Israel. How can the people of Israel behave in the right way when even the priests are not?!
Later on, Hosea talks about how God wants us to have a relationship with Him and not just knowledge of Him. Hosea (6:6) says “I want you to show love not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.” Here God is explaining how He would rather have an intimate relationship with Israel than have the burnt offerings. This is the same now. He wants to have a proper relationship with us, spend time with us rather than just hearing from us when we are struggling or need something. He wants a friendship rather than just knowledge of Him.
Towards the end of the passage, Hosea talks about how the Israelites were putting too much faith in political alliances rather than trusting in God. He talks about how unstable political relationships are and that the Assyrians will soon turn against them and their political allies will not help them. However, God is constant. He would not have turned His back on them and would have protected them.
So up until this point, it has been all doom and gloom and punishment, however, it finishes with a bit of hope for the future. Hosea 11 talks in a poetic story about how God is a loving father and Israel is His son. In the story, the father shares everything with the son however the son rebels despite all that the father has done for him (Hosea 11:1-4). The story then goes on to say how the father will punish the son, undoing all the good works he has done, sending him back into slavery and allowing him to be overrun and concurred (Hosea 11:5-7). However, the passage finishes with the father, although heartbroken, he was moved by compassion and love for the son. And he says despite all that the son had done, he would still be there to welcome the son back home again.
Challenge
So, my encouragement for you guys is to spend some time with Jesus every day in lockdown worshiping or praying, etc. to help maintain your relationship with him. This is because, as we read earlier, He wants you to have a relationship with Him rather than to just know about Him.