This morning in my Bible reading, I finished reading Hosea and I also read the three small chapters to Joel. Both prophets wrote their books to call the nation of Israel back to God. Each issued a call to repentance. Hosea spoke mainly to the northern kingdom of Israel and Joel to the southern kingdom of Judah, but both prophets issued warnings of coming destruction and captivity by the nations of Assyria and Babylon. The people of both nations had rebelled against the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in order to follow the gods of the surrounding nations around them. Neither Israel nor Judah wanted these invading armies to come into their lands. Listen to how Joel described the nation of Babylon. “For a nation is coming upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and whose fangs are the fangs of a lioness!” If I knew that a nation like Babylon was coming with nothing but destruction upon their minds, I don’t much think I would want to hang around, would you?
As I said, both prophets called the nations of Israel and of Judah to repentance and to return to their God. The final words of the Lord through Hosea are these found in Hosea 14:1-9, “O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you these words (warnings), and turn to the Lord. Say unto Him, Take away all mine iniquity, and receive us graciously.” And Hosea tells the people of Israel that if they will return to the Lord, the promise of the Lord is, “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, for mine anger is turned away from them.” And then he said in verse seven, “They that dwell under His shadow shall return from their destruction. They will revive as the new growth of corn, and shall grow as the vine that has been severed.” When the Lord destroyed the land of the northern kingdom, He not only had the people led away into captivity, but He also destroyed the vegetation of the land and the land lay desolate for many years, with very little growth, as though it had been hit by a severe drought. Only a small number of the Israelite people remained, called “a remnant”, to take care of what agricultural land there was to produce a few “fruit” and sustain a small amount of livestock. You see, even the land suffers when a people turn away from the Lord. The final verse of Hosea are these words from the Lord, “Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? Prudent, and he shall know them? For the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them; but the transgressors shall fall therein.”
These final words of Hosea remind me of the words that Jesus spoke with a broken heart when he stood outside of the city of Jerusalem, which the Old Testament often called, “the city in which I chose to put My name”, yet, which city also rejected Jesus as the very Son of God, the Savior of mankind. With longing in His heart, He cried, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I would have gathered you under my arms as a mother hen gathers her chicks in a time of trouble, but you would not! You would not have it.”
A farmer’s field caught fire one day, and nearly destroyed everything that was in it. He called for his neighbors and the fire department to do what they could to save the land, but not much was left. After the ground had quit simmering, he began to walk the field to get a closer look at the damage and scarshing that was done. As he came upon a mother hen that he knew right away was dead, he kicked her body, and suddenly a scurry of chicks came running out from under her burnt wings, about six or seven, but they were all alive.
You see, that’s how it is with the Lord and us. When we go astray and reject His words and His leading in our lives, it only produces ruin. Like the ancient lands of Israel and Judah, and like the scarred body of that hen, our lives have very little to show. But, like that farmer, and like our God above, He comes looking for us, offering forgiveness and restoration, if we will but return to Him. We all need forgiveness and restoration, and once we return to Him, then we will find the “ways that are right for us to walk in.” Will you turn back unto Him today?
