RiverTigress
Moderator
Hosea 2:2-10
"Plead with your mother (Israel), plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts; Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.
And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms. For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.
Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she will not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then it was better with me than now.
For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness. And will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand."
This was a severe message given to Israel in the time of Hosea, but there are many similarities between that past situation and the present situation of many wealthy countries today -- countries and peoples that were made wealthy by God's blessing only to misuse that blessing to scorn God and pursue ungodly things instead.
While God is patient and longsuffering in His great love for us, He will still always have the right to demand an accounting of us at anytime for the things He has given, and He can also take back those things if they are not received and properly used with due respect and thankfulness.
"Plead with your mother (Israel), plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts; Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.
And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms. For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.
Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she will not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then it was better with me than now.
For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness. And will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand."
This was a severe message given to Israel in the time of Hosea, but there are many similarities between that past situation and the present situation of many wealthy countries today -- countries and peoples that were made wealthy by God's blessing only to misuse that blessing to scorn God and pursue ungodly things instead.
While God is patient and longsuffering in His great love for us, He will still always have the right to demand an accounting of us at anytime for the things He has given, and He can also take back those things if they are not received and properly used with due respect and thankfulness.
