” 1Say to your brethren, ‘My people,’ And to your sisters, ‘Mercy is shown.’ 2 “Bring charges against your mother, bring charges; For she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband! Let her put away her harlotries from her sight, And her adulteries from between her breasts; 3 Lest I strip her naked And expose her, as in the day she was born, And make her like a wilderness, And set her like a dry land, And slay her with thirst. 4 “I will not have mercy on her children, For they are the children of harlotry. 5 For their mother has played the harlot; She who conceived them has behaved shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, Who give me my bread and my water, My wool and my linen, My oil and my drink.’” Hosea 2:1-5 NKJV
“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you ike Admah? How can I set you like Zeboiim? My heart churns within Me; My sympathy is stirred.” Hosea 11:8 NKJV
Lord God,
This book gives us a clear picture of how Israel has sinned. Hosea started prophesying to Israel just after Amos started. The same message of judgement and Your desire for them to turn back to You God. But Hosea went about it from a different angle. He likened Israel to an adulterous wife, who is no longer worthy to be compared to a wife because of her behaviour. It is not a little nag of a husband or the retelling of a small tiff but that the relationship is well and truly broken. Later in chapter 5 he likens Israel to a son and speaks of the pain of giving up a son because of his rebellious behaviour. You say Your heart churms Lord.
Throughout, Hosea shows that with You God there is hope and opportunity for a return, even though the situation is extreme. He speaks of Your dilemma of loving the one who does not love in return. Loving where the behaviour is as bad as in Admah (A place by Sodom and Gomorrah).
I need to remind myself that I have done nothing to deserve Your love. I am not worthy of it and can do nothing to earn it, recover it or merit it. Far for it. But Your heart churns for us. And Jesus came as the love that would not let us go. The love that welcomes us back. How can we, I not want to make our relationship with You good, intimate and healthy.
In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Worship Sunday 7th June 2026
The last verse is quite a challenge to me.
There’s a wideness in God’s mercy
like the wideness of the sea;
there’s a kindness in His justice
which is more than liberty.
There is welcome for the sinner,
and more graces for the good;
there is mercy with the Savior;
there is healing in His blood.
For the love of God is broader
than the measure of our mind;
and the heart of the Eternal
is most wonderfully kind.
If our love were but more simple,
we would take Him at His word,
and our lives would be illumined
by the presence of our Lord.
There’s a wideness in God’s mercy
like the wideness of the sea.
Lyrics:Frederick William Faber