When the LORD began to speak through Hosea,
the LORD said to him,
"Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness,
because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the LORD."
Not Loved? Not my People?
"Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore,
which cannot be measured or counted.
In the place where it was said to them,
'You are not my people,' they will be called 'sons of the living God.'
Not Loved? Not my People?
She has not acknowledged that I was the one
who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil,
who lavished on her the silver and gold—
which they used for Baal...
...I will punish her for the days
she burned incense to the Baals;
she decked herself with rings and jewelry,
and went after her lovers,
but me she forgot,"
declares the LORD.
Not Loved? Not my People?
Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the desert
and speak tenderly to her.
There I will give her back her vineyards,
and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she will sing as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
"In that day," declares the LORD,
"you will call me 'my husband';
you will no longer call me 'my master.'
Not Loved? Not my People?
I will betroth you to me forever;
I will betroth you in righteousness and justice,
in love and compassion.
I will betroth you in faithfulness,
and you will acknowledge the LORD.
"In that day I will respond,"
declares the LORD—
"I will respond to the skies,
and they will respond to the earth;
and the earth will respond to the grain,
the new wine and oil,
and they will respond to Jezreel.
Not Loved? Not my People?
I will plant her for myself in the land;
I will show my love to the one I called 'Not my loved one. '
I will say to those called 'Not my people,'
'You are my people';
and they will say,
'You are my God.' "
- Hosea 1 & 2 -
