I am going to continue on with the study of Hosea.  I told my group members I will be stealing their thoughts from the weeks they taught.  They seem to be okay with this.

Something that has been keeping me from moving forward is the tediousness of going verse by verse. But I realized that no one is requiring me to do that!  So we will take each chapter one at a time and see.

First, though, I should warn you that it gets ugly before it gets beautiful.  Fortunately there are glittering moments of hope in each chapter, as in life, and we’ll just have to cling to those.

As a recap, Chapter One is mostly about Hosea and Gomer, their marriage and children.

(If you’re interested, the previous posts are here, here, here, here, here and here.)

Chapter Two moves into how God is going to deal with Israel.

“But now bring charges against Israel – your mother –

For she is no longer my wife,

And I am no longer her husband…”

(Verse 2, NLT)

Adultery is a breach of trust.  For Hosea to stay with Gomer after physical adultery with no repercussions would be a violation of covenant loyalty.  Just as a cheated-on husband withdraws for a time to tend to his aching heart, so God pulls back from His people because of their unfaithfulness.

God continues on in His grief:

“She said, ‘I’ll run after other lovers

And sell myself to them for food and water,

For clothing of wool and linen,

And for olive oil and drinks.'”

(Verse 5)

Gomer thought her “lovers” were the ones providing for her.  She “earned” food and drink and a place to stay.  In the same way, Israel often involved themselves in Baal worship rituals to which they would then attribute the production of their crops.

God’s heart is hurting they do not acknowledge Who provides for them.  (For further evidence of this, we can skip to verse 8: “She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil…”)

So how about us?  In what ways do you go after other lovers in your soul?  How do you pursue these idols, expecting them to provide for you what only God can?

In the same vein, when are you most tempted to give credit for your blessings to something other than God Himself?

“For this reason I will fence her in with thornbushes.

I will block her path with a wall

To make her lose her way.

When she runs after her lovers,

She won’t be able to catch them.

She will search for them

But not find them…”

(Verse 6-7a)

Has God ever done this to you?  Fenced you in?

He did to Job and the author of Lamentations:

Job 3:23 (ESV):

“Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?”

And the author of Lamentations (3:7a):

“He has walled me in so I cannot escape…”

Are there any thornbushes in your life from Him?  Ways He has made it so you cannot escape the situation you’re in?

Like the Bear Hunt chant my son sometimes sings “Can’t go under it, can’t go around it…gotta go through it.”

I have some in my life.  Oh, do I.  He is relentless.  And I’m thankful.  Left on my own I would self-destruct.

Plus, did you see what the Job verse points out?  Even when hedged in, we’re still given light.

Okay, how bout this:


I will block her path with a wall.

Has he ever done this with you?  Has He blocked your path to save you from something or a situation?

Or, more specifically, has he blocked your path to save you from yourself?

Have you ever thought of that?  That sometimes He “makes us lose our way” because if we found our way, we would find ourselves up to our eyeballs in sin?

So many thoughts and words.  More soon!

Sometimes I wish news stories didn’t come with video footage.

Ever have one of those days when you cannot believe how blessed you are?

Today my man let me sleep til 9:00.  (Well, my inner alarm woke me up at 5-something, but I went on back to bed.)

We had a laaaazy morning lounging, then cleaning, then Christmas shopping for cousins.

{As a caveat: There was a situation in there and some frustration in the Target aisles.  Blessed but not perfect.}

I made some sugar cookie dough with the youngest just now.  My man is making a fire.  We are going to wrap presents and use our cookie cutters and decorate with icing.

Carols are playing and twinkle lights are lit and we get to spend time together as a family.

My cup definitely runneth over this evening!

I keep waiting for inspiration to strike, but that does not seem like it will happen.

So writing for writing’s sake:

The shower in our bathroom is funky.  So everyone is taking a shower in the main bath these days. This shower, for reasons I do not understand, produces much more steam.  When you open the bathroom door, the hallway smoke detector goes off.  So that’s awesome.

My youngest and I were sick this week and it’s still kicking my tail.  But a lot of that is probably from caffeine withdrawal.  Couldn’t stomach the coffee and now I’m not sure how to function.  I don’t know why I’m thinking about keeping this up.  Coffee and I were made for each other.

Speaking of illness, I’m so grateful for the team I get to be a part of.  They whisked in and whisked away almost every little detail for our outreach.  Plus they just love on me.  I don’t like feeling like I’m not contributing, but that will make it even more about the One Who came, huh?

I cannot stop thinking about this $38 CC cream.  I just barely knew about BB cream, now my thoughts are consumed with CC cream.  I tried it at one of those Ulta Beauty stores.  Well, that’s a brilliant sales tactic because now I feel like I cannot live without it.

Feelings are not facts.  Feelings are not facts.

Last night I played Army Guy Nerf War with the boys.  I got in the danger zone to give Caleb some bullets and he started telling me about how that wasn’t right.  Caden goes, “He just doesn’t understand playing with girls.  I do.  I play with them at recess all the time.”

I’m certainly glad he’s getting an education.

Hope you’re having a good week!