Prone to Wander

I finished up my study in Hosea and since I already showed you some of what God taught me, I figured I might as well finish! ;)

One of the main things that I really noticed throughout the reading of Hosea was his complete trust and obedience to God. He was led through trial after trial. Q. What was the purpose? A. God was using Hosea's life to be an example to the children of Israel. Hosea's entire life was played out for that very reason! Hosea spent his life trying to get the people of Israel to turn back to God before it was too late. He married a woman, knowing full well that she would leave him. (John and I were discussing this and we had to agree that that would be a VERY hard thing to be willing to follow the Lord on!) Even the naming of his children was for a purpose. He had to name them Jezreel, which means "God Sows", Lo-ruhamah, which means "No Mercy" and Lo-Ammi, which means "Not my People". Reading Hosea made me ask "What is God allowing ME to go through, with a specific reason in His mind, in order to use me in the lives of others? And...am I trusting and obeying Him in the way that I should?"

As I continued studying the story of Hosea and read of how Gomer left Hosea over and over, I became rather disgusted with her. Didn't she realize how much Hosea loved her? Didn't she realize how much she was hurting her family and children? How could she be so selfish? Those were my thoughts...until I rather ashamedly came to the conclusion that I am a lot like Gomer. Only I do it to Someone even more important! Hosea 2:6b-8 "She said, 'I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now. For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold" I don't know about you, but wow! This perfectly describes how I can be at times! Like Gomer, I can follow after other things, thinking that I'm sick of "sacrificing" so much or that I'm sick of battling my sin and it will be much better for me to simply follow my own desires for a while. But when I leave my Saviours side it is then that I truly realize how much I need Him! For it is then that I realize...He alone satisfies! And everything I need...He has already supplied! Gomer thought she would be happier following after her other loves. Vrs 13 "She went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD." However the Lord knew she wasn't content and I love His response to her straying "Vrs 14- Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her." God is continually seeking to bring us back to Himself. Sometimes He has to take us through hard times to get us to come to our senses and for Gomer...that day would eventually come. The Lord promised Hosea that on that day He would "give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt." When restoration is finally made, Gomer would have the same kind of joy that she had had the day of her salvation! Ok...now that we have that verse figured out, here comes one of my absolutely favorite verses from this book. Vrs 16 "And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali." I looked up those words Ishi and Baali in my handy commentary book and what I read was incredibly neat! Ishi means "Husband" and Baali means "Master". Now go read that verse again and substitute those words in their proper place. Isn't that neat? When we finally get things right with God we begin to see Him for Who He really is! Instead of thinking of God as a strict Master who constantly holds a list of rules over our head, we see Someone who longs to have a deep and personal relationship with us! God verifies His love for us in Vrs 19-20 "And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD!" What incredibly reassuring verses!

Reading those verses makes me wonder how I could ever want to try and find my joy in life through any other source?! And yet...I still do it! Chapter 4:12 pretty much says it like it is "They have gone a-whoring from under their God!" I know, that's some pretty strong language there, but you know...the more I think about it the more I realize that that is exactly what I do every time I start letting myself tolerate the "little" sins in my life. Israel allowed their little loves to lead them straight away from God. Hosea 13:2a "And now they sin more and more" Have you ever tried to keep the weeds out of a garden at home? We have. At the beginning of the year we were zealous about keeping up with the work and the garden was pretty much free of weeds. The moment a weed tried to push its head above the ground we would whack it down with a hoe, as if to dare it to try and come back. It apparently took us up on the dare and the weeds continually came back...only to be whacked back down again. By the 2nd month of weeding it got rather discouraging. We would be weeding every single week the same exact areas that we had weeded at the beginning of the week! Our efforts became a little less than enthusiastic and lets just say...it showed! The rains multiplied the weeds and little by little they began to take over. We tried rather valiantly, for a while, to keep up with them, but vacation time came and we took a break from the garden for a week. When we came back...it had turned into a jungle. You can't even begin to imagine how many weeds there were in that garden! You could hardly see a single plant and the weeds were waist high! It was incredible! The garden was pretty much a loss. It would take forever to pull all those weeds back out and since they were no longer tender and small problems, they'd all have to be dug out with much work. Ok...so you probably already grasped the point I am trying to make. Our sin is like those weeds. If maintained and taken care of immediately we have a much easier time keeping the sin out and being able to see the plants/fruit in our lives. But the second that we become discouraged with the fight and loosen up on our resolve to keep the sin out, it begins to take root. One sin leads to another and another and another until eventually it has taken over and we don't even know where to try and start the process of digging out the sin in our lives. I don't know about you, but maybe you're like me and had to do a heart check and confess some things to God. I don't want to be like Israel who "According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me." (Vrs 6) Gods blessings are so often the very thing that draws us away from Him.

"Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me. I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought." What a great God we serve!

The book of Hosea- What an encouraging, convicting, comforting and challenging book all at the same time! It was so neat to see God's faithfulness and continual outpouring of love for His children, despite how often they left Him for other things. God continued to seek them out and draw them back to Himself as He called them to repentance. I'm so thankful that "Jesus NEVER changes! He's ALWAYS the same!" and that the same God of Hosea, loves me and is continuing His work in me, despite the MANY times that I get in the way!

In Awe of Him,
Chrystal F. Dierking

P.S. Ok...so this has gotten rather lengthy, but I am not going to apologize for it! ;) God has been working and I felt the need to share! I will end this epistle with a song that I came across recently and discovered it went along with what God had already been trying to teach me.

IN THE IMAGE OF GOD

In the image of God, we were made long ago,
with the purpose divine, here His glory to show;
But we failed Him one day, and like sheep went astray,
thinking not of the cost, we His likeness had lost.

But from eternity, God had in mind,
the work of Calvary, the lost to find;
From His heaven so broad, Christ came down, earth to trod,
so that men might live again in the image of God.

Now that I have believed, and the Saviour received,
now that I, from the cry of my guilt am relieved,
I will live for my Lord, NOT for gain or reward,
but for love! Thinking of what His grace has restored!

I'll never comprehend redemption's plan,
how Christ could condescend to die for man;
SUCH a Saviour I'll praise, to the end of my days,
as I upward, onward trod, in the image of God.