April 13

Hosea 3-4 We are reading from the Exile Stream today while using the Lexham English Bible. 7streamsmethod.com | #7Streams | @7StreamsMethod | @serenatravis Commentary by Dr. Drake Travis God wants to love His people and to bring them back.  He asserted that come chapter two of Hosea. But all they seem to want to do is run in another direction. <div>Someone called Hosea's writing the throbbing of a broken heart.  It certainly is.  The passage today is filled with the words that clearly indicate that the horrible behavior of the people that once inhabited Canaan is reigning again. They ARE now fully behaving like the people they were to drive out.  What is God supposed to do for, pity sake? This symbolic marriage that Hosea is ordered to walk through is making God's pain [that we are inflicting on Him] all too personal to us.  If God could have gotten to Israel another way perhaps He would have.  But what works anymore with these "moral hyenas" ?</div> <div>3 - Israel is completely behaving like pagans and Judah is too to a point. So God is buying them back and He will chasten and discipline them. After this they will fear and follow God ... yes? maybe? soon? ever? when?</div> <div>4 - reads like a guilty verdict - because it is. Israel is so bad in its sinning that the land itself is suffering, and so are the animals.  This is a subtle theme that is still seen today. We've seen a land that is blessed turn thorny and repugnant, Gen. 3. Then Gen. 6 brings on a cleansing flood because of sin; nothing else brought on such weather.  There are vast deserts in the world today that <u><em>were</em></u> productive and fruitful farms back when they were a Christian majority. But violence and paganism and false religion came in and since Living Water (Jesus) was expelled, H2O / water left too.   Don't get mad at God for this!.  No mystery here! It's obvious. Read v. 3 again and there's the testimony. Sin left undealt with ends up punishing the whole place. From top to bottom, Israel has gone amok. They act like they don't kn