"God's Wayward People" November 28 Readings: Hosea 1-3, James 5, Psalm 133–134, Proverbs 29:7–8

Today's Readings - Hosea 1-3, James 5, Psalm 133–134, Proverbs 29:7–8

Devotional 

The prophets did some weird things to demonstrate the anger of God against sin and the love of God for his people. One wore ill-fitting undergarments to show how irritating Israel's sin was. But Hosea's story is perhaps the most graphic of all.

God commanded him to marry a woman who would illustrate Israel's sin (Hosea 1:2). When she strayed back into her life of sin, God sent Hosea to reclaim her and bring her home. This story is a verbal painting of the love of God - nothing sweet, syrupy or sentimental, but a gritty love, the kind that sticks around through the good times and the bad and changes lives.

Israel was a rebellious and spiritually adulterous nation, one that had left fidelity to the One True God and was chasing after the gods of the Canaanites. But God's grace was greater even than their infidelity. He told Hosea to illustrate that faithful love. The Old Testament is a record of two things - the constant infidelity of Israel and the even greater faithfulness of God who love never fails.

Hosea's prophecy highlights the amazing and relentless love of God, how he seeks and saves the lost. No, sin is never minor or inconsequential, but God's love overcomes. As he did with Israel, which sinned and failed repeatedly, God renews and restores us when we sin. He seeks and he saves. We are Gomer, wayward people who tend to drift into sin and away from God. We mimic the wayward wife, but the faithful God of Israel continues to overcome our sins today. By the powerful blood of Christ he cleanses every stain and brings us back to the place of renewal, of purity, and full fellowship with God.

Father, I thank you that your blood washes away every stain, and that when I fail, you are there to restore me and renew me. You are a good God - better than this Gomer deserves. 

Think and Pray

Consider the silliness of self-righteousness and our impulse to deny our sin and pretend we are "not so bad." The Bible consistently presents God as the friend of sinners, the one who seeks and saves the lost, the one who extends love to Gomer!

Thank God today for demonstrating his love to sinners...like you and me.