learning DAILY



Hosea 1:6b, “Call her name Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away.”

Hosea 1:9, Then God said: “Call his name Lo-Ammi, for you are not my people, and I will not be your God.”

The children born to Gomer were given names that foretold of terrible things to happen to Israel.  What could they have done that would have caused God to be so angry with them?  Israel had rejected Him to follow other gods; the result was God left Israel.  What was going to happen to Israel was a natural result of their sin. 

The children’s names were to show the people God would have no more mercy on them because He had rejected them.  They had not acted the way His people should act; they had worshipped foreign gods.  Idolatry puts foreign gods before God.  As a result, He would not deliver them out of the hands of their enemies.

For us today, being in covenant with God is only because of what Jesus Christ accomplished at the cross.  His death and resurrection forgave ours sins – past, present, future.  Whoever believes this becomes part of His family.  Our responsibility in this relationship is to act the way God’s people are to act.  We Learn Daily in order to think and act the way His people are to act.  You are not given a license to do whatever you want because you can ask for forgiveness.  No, you are to allow the light of Jesus Christ to shine through you each day.  Truly you might be the only Bible someone “reads” today.  Placing idols in your life may cause God to disown you as He did the people of Hosea’s time.

Read the rest of Hosea 1.  It is certainly possible that your actions have caused God to allow you to have your way; you may have found that your way has led you into some bad stuff.  Here is the Good News – there was mercy in the midst of God’s wrath toward Israel.  He promised their numbers would be as “the sand of the sea”.  Eventually, Israel would be called God’s people again; He did not remove the difficulties they needed to go through.  There are consequences for what you do and those consequences do not go away because one has called on the Lord to save him.  The knowledge that He is with you through those consequences, however, brings tremendous help to you as you go through them. 

Are there idols in your life?  Get rid of them – God hates them.  Remove them from your life and ask God to forgive you.  Then, do not go back to them!  He will forgive you and welcome you back as a father welcomes home a prodigal.  How do I know?  Because I have experienced it!

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