Dear Friends,
Do you have a favorite book or passage of Scripture?
I started delving into the book of Hosea during the college snow trip last March, and ever since then, I just keep coming back to it. It's SO good :)
The book is about a prophet named Hosea, who was called by God to marry a prostitute. The book explains the Hosea's struggles, while symbolizing God's relationship with the nation of Israel, and more personally, God's relationship with me.
My favorite chapter is chapter Two. It speaks of how Hosea must punish the harlot because of her adultery, but how, in the end, he will restore. It reminds me of how the Lord treats us when we stumble.
"I will punish her for the festival days of the Baals, when she offered incense to them and decked herself with her ring and jewelry, and went after her lovers, and forgot me, says the Lord. Therefore, I will now allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. From there I will give her her vineyards, and make the Valley of Anchor a door of hope. There she shall respond as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the Land of Egypt. On that day, says the Lord, you will call me, "My husband," and no longer will you call me, "My Baal." For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be mentioned by name no more. I will make for you a covenant on that day with the wild animals, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will abolish the bow, the sword, and the war from the land; and I will take you for my wife forever; I will take you for my wife in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy. I will take you for my wife in faithfulness; and you shall know the Lord. On that day I will answer, says the Lord, I will answer the heavens and they shall answer the earth; and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel; and I will sow him for myself in the land. And I will have pity on Lo-ruhamah, and I will say to Lo-ammi, "You are my people"; and he shall say, "You are my God."
"you shall know the Lord"
What an amazing promise!
What passage of Scripture God used in your life recently?
With love,
Marilla
