Hosea 2 : 1-25 (Daily Bread of 5/9/2017)

IN THAT DAY, I WILL ESTABLISH

Key verse 2 : 20

The prediction of God's blessing has been announced because inspite of their sins and their illigitimateness  still loves His people. Even though they are unfaithful, Dieu loves His people faithfully. However, God's love is spiritual.

1.     Israel's sin of adultery (1-15). Hosea starts this Chapter by announcing the prediction of the blessing that God wants to pour out on Israel. We'll call him Amni and Rouhana removing therefore the « Lo » which means no. Israël will become His people. Israel will join Juda to form one people. God foresees the return of His people even though currently He imposes one condition to this blessing : repentance of their idolatry. Oh how long had the mother spent her past in this guilty relationship with Baal. God blocks all paths for obtaining a blessing while she persists in her evil path. Israel pursues her lovers, her idols, and the foreign countries. After her big deception she decided to return to her first love (9). Israel is very unfaithful. Israel is also ungrateful (10)  as it attributes all of those blessings to its idols. For this reason God removes all of its material blessings : the reason is because Israel forgot God.

2.     The new alliance (16-25). However God still loves His people inspite of their idolatry. God who is a jealous god should have punished this people a thousand times already. However, God did not act this way. God want to plead against Israel (4) with the hope that they come back to Him. Therefore God wants to take Israel to a quiet place where He can speak to its heart. Who can show such love to someone who betrayed them ? Jesus loved Judas even though he was a traitor. He looked at Peter with eyes filled of compassion when Peter denied him three times in the Sanhedrin court. After this conversation the woman, touched by God's Word, will change her and her behaviour. After this change, God will forget everything that Israël did : all of its sins and He will rebuild their relationship. He will once more give it songs of joy and finally He will establish a new alliance with them. God will grant the heavens what they want, the heavens will grant the Earth what it wants and the Earth will produce wheat, etc. The blessing will from high above to down below and it will be as abundant as Jizreel. This name, though historically unfortunate, means « God sows » (we often say that we reap what we sow but here it's God who sows.). The harvest will be ever abundant and the country will be exuberant. However, the greatest blessing will be the restauration of the relation between Israel and God through which Israel becomes His people and He their God (25).