The Kind of Relationship God Wants With You
The prophet Hosea is one of the minor prophets--those shorter books that follow the major prophets of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. You can find the Book of Hosea right after Daniel.
Hosea has a dominant theme for the relationship of God and his people. It is the theme of marriage. God is husband and we are wife. But, we have been unfaithful. So, Hosea uses the strong language of adultery, prostitution, unfaithfulness, and unrepentant to describe how WE have responded to God.
God is hurt and God is angry at what we have done. And yet, the love of God is stronger and, in love, he pursues us.
Hosea 2:19-20 describes the kind of relationship God establishes with us. The nature of the relationship comes out of the nature of the people in that relationship.
Look at the six words God uses to describe the relationship, himself, and what we are to be like.
Forever
Righteousness
Justice
Love
Compassion
Faithfulness
That is who God is. That is who God wants us to be. That is what our relationship with God must be like.
When WE CHOOSE not to be that kind of people, that is when we are unfaithful to God. To be the faithful people of God, we repent from that choice and we return to God with the "re-choosing" of his nature and his way.
I am struck by the presence of RIGHTEOUSNESS and JUSTICE. Those qualities are just as important as love and compassion.
Just as God required this for his people Israel, this is what God requires for his people the church.
May you be such a person.
May Living Word be such a people.
Pastor Brian Rice
Hosea has a dominant theme for the relationship of God and his people. It is the theme of marriage. God is husband and we are wife. But, we have been unfaithful. So, Hosea uses the strong language of adultery, prostitution, unfaithfulness, and unrepentant to describe how WE have responded to God.
God is hurt and God is angry at what we have done. And yet, the love of God is stronger and, in love, he pursues us.
Hosea 2:19-20 describes the kind of relationship God establishes with us. The nature of the relationship comes out of the nature of the people in that relationship.
Look at the six words God uses to describe the relationship, himself, and what we are to be like.
Forever
Righteousness
Justice
Love
Compassion
Faithfulness
That is who God is. That is who God wants us to be. That is what our relationship with God must be like.
When WE CHOOSE not to be that kind of people, that is when we are unfaithful to God. To be the faithful people of God, we repent from that choice and we return to God with the "re-choosing" of his nature and his way.
I am struck by the presence of RIGHTEOUSNESS and JUSTICE. Those qualities are just as important as love and compassion.
Just as God required this for his people Israel, this is what God requires for his people the church.
May you be such a person.
May Living Word be such a people.
Pastor Brian Rice
Posted in Grow