An Image of God’s Restoring Love
Read Hosea 3-10…don’t worry, we’re not going to cut it apart verse by verse.
Chapter 3 begins with the Lord’s command to Hosea, to be reconciled with his unfaithful wife and to love her “as the Lord loves the Israelites”. What I am lovin’ about this book, is the on “the one hand” pictures, and “on the other hand” images. On the one hand the Lord says, “be reconciled to this woman” (who we all can see has truly messed up the trust and intimacy in her relationship). On the other hand the Lord says, “love her as ‘I love ya’ all”.
On the one hand, we could tramp through the judgement and unrepentance of chapters 3-10, but, on the other hand, we won’t. Because, in the midst of all of that I found a “pearl”. (see also Matthew 13:44-45) I found ”my pearl” in chapter 6 verse 3.
“Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.” Hosea 6:3 NIV
What a great image of God’s restoring love, restoring rains. My first thought is of the springtime. Isn’t it refreshing, after the cold of winter, to step outside your door and say, “I feel the coming of spring in the air and I see the rain that will bring the new colors in the landscape”. It’s wonderful to see the grass turn green and the first wild flowers pop up. I, most definitely, look forward to the springtime with its restoring rains.
First Flowers of Spring: My Grand-daughter, Jenna, and I enjoying the “Indian Paintbrush”, the first wildflowers after the restoring rains
Today, let’s ponder upon Our God of Restoring Love
This entry was posted on Monday, December 7th, 2009 at 2:09 pm and is filed under Bible Studies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
