Thursday Reflection July 1, 2021

Thursday Reflection

July 1, 2021

God has not changed

Yet I have been the Lord your God ever since the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no saviour.
Hosea 13:4

Greetings to you on this the first day of July. As some of us reflect on the first half of the year let us remember God has not changed

God used the relationship of Hosea and his wife to illustrate His love for his sinful people. God instructed Hosea to marry Gomer even though he know beforehand that she would leave him. After that period of abandonment God again instructed Hosea to love Gomer and take her as wife again. This illustration demonstrated the love God has for his children even when they were rebellious.

Our text for today begins with the Lord reminding the children of Israel [in this passage referred to as Ephraim] of their greatness. At the time Hosea wrote to them Ephraim was going through a period of success. They were self sufficient and had great wealth. The nation was prosperous.

There was no challenge that was causing them to seek God’s face. As a result they became complacent and engaged in idol worship. They sinned by making silver idols and skillfully carved images with their hands. They sacrificed their children to these idols and worshipped them. Hence a warning from the Lord, “They will disappear like the morning mist and like the smoke from a chimney.

The people had changed. The success they were experiencing caused them to forget God. It caused them to do whatever they wanted which included idol worship. Like Gomer they committed adultery and turned their back on the Lord.

How many of us have turned our backs on the Lord, because things are not bad right now. How often as a church we forget to seek the Lord, because we’re not going through a crisis. I remember when the church went through a crisis and we sought the face of God, but now that things are okay we no longer seek the face of God. Like the children of Israel we’re comfortable and when we’re comfortable we then to get complacent and when we become complacent we will be punished. But hear the good news, God has not changed

The same Lord who brought the children of Israel out of Egypt and fed them in the wilderness is the same God today who is willing like Hosea to receive us again. God loves us so much that He will accept us, if we turn from our adultery. Let us turn back to God and seek his face before the Lord’s wrath falls on our complacency.

Shalom
Christopher Euphfa