Hosea 3-4 What Was Causing The Drought?

What was Israel doing to incur God’s judgment?  Perhaps it would be better to ask what they’d not been doing!  They’d not been true or loyal to God.  They were cursing, lying, killing, stealing, and committing adultery.  As a result, they were experiencing severe drought.  In 4:4, God said, “No one should accuse or blame another person.”  In other words, “It’s your own fault.  Take responsibility for it!”

The people had strayed for so long that they’d lost their knowledge of God.  They’d forgotten His teachings  and refused to learn them.

God wants to use Hosea as an object lesson to the people of Israel about His love for them and the way in which they desecrated that love.  His command to Hosea was this:  “Go, show your love to a woman loved by someone else, who has been unfaithful to you.”  Why??  “In the same way the Lord loves the people of Israel, even though they worship other gods and love to eat raisin cakes (a food normally used in idol worship).”

God summarized Israel’s behavior this way:  “They love these disgraceful ways.”

The sidebar in my Bible by Charles Colson said this about how we can relate to Israel’s problems:  “If I had to pick one thing that has caused the most failure in obeying God, it would be that we figure God’s time is our Bible study, our prayer time, and our church time.  That’s just not true.  God’s time is every moment of our lives … We don’t put Him on and take Him off like a suit of clothes … If we would ‘wear’ Him all day long, we would discover obedience becoming a reflex action.”

Father, help me not to put You on and take You off during my days.  Remind me every moment and with every circumstance that You want be Boss of every single second of my life.  Set off alarm bells in my heart when I try to disconnect from You.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford