Wednesday 5 February 2014

Salvation Marries the Unfaithful

Prologue

               “The Lord is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation.
                 He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
                 Exodus 15:2 

                 Sing to the Lord, all the earth;
                 proclaim his salvation day after day 1 Chronicles 16:23

                 Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!
                 When the Lord restores his people,
                 let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad! Psalm 14:7 

In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make THE PIONEER, [i.e., Jesus], OF THEIR SALVATION PERFECT THROUGH WHAT HE SUFFERED (Hebrews 2:10) ....and, once made perfect, HE BECAME THE ETERNAL SOURCE OF SALVATION FOR ALL WHO OBEY HIM (Hebrews 5:9).

Hosea (Salvation) Joins
Adulterous Israel and Judah
In Marriage For Love

Hosea 1:1-11

The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahazand Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel:

When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuouswoman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.” So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.”

Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means “not loved”), for I will no longer show love to Israel, that I should at all forgive them. Yet I will show love to Judah; and I will save them—not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but I, the Lord their God, will save them.”

After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. Then the Lord said, “Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.

10 “Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’ The people of Judah and the people of Israel will come together; they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.

N. B. All scripture taken from New International Version by BibleGateway.com

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