Hosea 2

Before reading this post, please read Hosea 2 [found here]
Particularly pay attention to 2:14-20
       “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
    and bring her into the wilderness,
    and speak tenderly to her.
¹⁵ And there I will give her her vineyards
    and make the Valley of Achor ^[trouble] a door of hope.
And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth,
    as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁶ “And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ ¹⁷ For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. ¹⁸ And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. ¹⁹ And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. ²⁰ I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.

 I've been chewing on this passage for awhile. I've read Hosea before, but I don't remember the deep message or the power of the words in it. Maybe it was a little advanced for a 15ish-year-old girl with no life experience. Now that I'm older, I can't believe how profound it is. Until verse 14, the whole chapter talks about her. The truth about her is displayed for us: sin, adultery, whoring, and complete disregard for her Husband [God]. 

Conviction struck my heart as I read it. I am her. The detestable, the unlovable, the ugly, the stupid girl. God was angry with me. Righteously angry and hurt. Astounding. Mercy, grace, and love are more frequently associated with God in our every day lives. In our worship, in our talk about Him, in our Bible time, and in most times generally. But before He showed me that, He was angry. Furious. He was hurt. Why? Because I hated Him. 

But God, even though I hurt Him, reached out to me. When I had gotten myself into a mess and landed in a desert with absolutely nothing, He wooed me. He gave me an understanding of Him I didn't have before. Verse 14 and 15 remind me of what Steve Poe said in a message recently about Moses living in the desert for 40yrs: "Sometimes God puts us in the backside of a desert to change and grow us." He shows us who He really is. He is a jealous God (Exodus 20:5). He wants my devotion, my affection, my time, my heart, my praise, my life, my everything. He wants all of me and He wants me to want all of Him. He wants you to want all of Him too.

Why do we get bent out of shape when something doesn't go right? We don't deserve anything He's given us. It's all Him. He should smite us, leave us, divorce us, never forgive us for what we've done to Him. But He doesn't. When our foundations crumble, He humbles us and reveals Himself.

"And you shall know the Lord."