 |
Home | Mission Statement | Video Gallery | Audio Gallery | Photo Gallery | Daily Manna | Testimonies | | Links | Contact us |
 |
For I know the plans I have for you,declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jer 29:11 |
 |
| Archived Manna: | |
Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for collecting daily manna), make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Friday, August 25, 2017
Today's Passage : Today's Passage: Subject:Israel after Solomon (18): Hosea Hosea Marries a Prostitute Bible Verse:Hosea 2:2-4 (ESV) "Plead with your mother, plead— for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband— that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts; lest I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst. Upon her children also I will have no mercy, because they are children of whoredom. " Message:
Hosea might be the oldest book of prophecy(See chart.); scholars debate whether Hosea or Amos came first (Joel is possible also, but unlikely; nobody is sure when he lived). They are the only two of the writing prophets who lived and prophesied in the Northern Kingdom. This might partly be due to timing, as Israel fell to Assyria only 28 years after the prophetic writings first started. (Hosea began writing in 750 B.C. and SamariaSamaria was the capital city of the Kingdom of Israel (the Northern Kingdom) and was the last holdout against the Assyrians. fell in 722 B.C.)
Hosea is one of the more colorful prophetic books, especially the first three chapters. God speaks to Hosea and tells him that he must find a prostitute and marry her! So he weds a prostitute named Gomer; but her old habits win out over her marriage vows, and she continues her promiscuous lifestyle.
She bears him three children, although it is not at all clear whether Hosea is the biological father. The first is a son. God ordains that he be named Jezreel, after a valley where many bloody battles are fought; the name symbolizes the battles in which Assyria will wipe out the army of Israel. The second is a daughter named “No MercyThe Hebrew word, and the girl's Hebrew name, is Loruhamah.” and then another son, who is named “Not My PeopleThe Hebrew word, and the boy's Hebrew name, is Loammi.”.
So, poor Hosea is forced into a marriage that symbolizes the coming destruction of Israel. The expression “whoring after other gods”, and the general theme that Israel cheats on God like an adulterous spouse, appears throughout the Old Testament. Hosea, by his marriage to Gomer, becomes an actor in a living metaphor of Israel's apostasy. And the children born of this adultery/idolatry are first, military defeat (Jezreel); second, God's final exasperation and refusal to hear the cry of the Hebrews for mercy (“No Mercy”); and third, His abandonment and severance of His covenant with the ten northern tribes (“Not My People”).
In Chapter 2, as can be seen from today's Scripture, the children (representing the young generation of Israel) are told to plead with their mother (the older generation) to repent of her marital infidelity, symbolizing the Northern Kingdom's apostasy.
Hosea divorces Gomer for her infidelity. In Chapter 3, however, he goes and finds her and purchases her for fifteen pieces of silver; and he promises to forgive her if she remains faithful to him. This creates hope that some day God will forgive at least some part of the Hebrew nation.
The Bible contains a difficult ambiguity about God's ultimate treatment of the Jews. There are indications (in the Pauline epistles and Revelation) that some will yet be forgiven in the last days, either directly by God or through a second chance to accept Christ; and thus it is hard to tell whether or not the first chapters of Hosea are messianic prophecy.
Meditation : Prayer : And finally, grant me O Lord, I pray, the lamp of charity which never fails, that it may burn in me and shed its light on those around me, and that by its brightness I may share a vision of that holy City, where dwells the true and never-failing Light, Jesus Christ our Lord.. Amen |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
