Reflections on the way...from Hosea
If Lamentations speaks tears of sorrow, then Hosea shows us the tender heart of God, who wipes away our tears.
Through the long arc of human history, we see the same themes- human beings deciding that they can figure out the best route for their journey, that the alternative paths on offer look so much more enticing than the straight and narrow path of righteousness. And then the consequences of that pride- a journey that becomes more and more lonely and dangerous, until it becomes obvious that we are lost and in need of rescue.
Hosea uses soft and tender images of family to show us God's love, which over and over again sends him to find us.
"When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
The more I called them, the more they went from me; they kept sacrificing to the Baals, and offering incense to idols.
Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love.
I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks.
I bent down and fed them."
Hosea 11: 1-4
Through the long arc of human history, we see the same themes- human beings deciding that they can figure out the best route for their journey, that the alternative paths on offer look so much more enticing than the straight and narrow path of righteousness. And then the consequences of that pride- a journey that becomes more and more lonely and dangerous, until it becomes obvious that we are lost and in need of rescue.
Hosea uses soft and tender images of family to show us God's love, which over and over again sends him to find us.
"When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
The more I called them, the more they went from me; they kept sacrificing to the Baals, and offering incense to idols.
Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love.
I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks.
I bent down and fed them."
Hosea 11: 1-4
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