7 My people are determined to turn from me.
Even if they call to the Most High,
he will by no means exalt them.
8 "How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, Israel?
How can I treat you like Admah?
How can I make you like Zeboiim*?
My heart is changed within me;
all my compassion is aroused.
9 I will not carry out my fierce anger,
nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim.
For I am God, and not man--
the Holy One among you.
I will not come in wrath. Hosea11:7-9
As we saw in ch.1-3, God is the God who does the unexpected:
- Nobody would have blamed Hosea for giving up on his wayward wife.
- None of us would expect God to be patient when His "people are determined to turn" from Him.
But God is the God of the unexpected. After making His case clear and demonstrating that His people have completely overdrawn their accounts, Hosea shows us God's heart...
In an incredibly beautiful burst of poetry God makes His ongoing love and compassionate forgiveness for His people clear:
- How can I give you up?
- How can I let you be swept up in judgement?
- My heart is changed, my compassion is aroused
And it all hinges around this statement:
"I am God not man, the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath"
In essence God is saying: "I'm not like you."
I can balance Justice and Love,
I can hold Wrath and Mercy,
I can truly forgive.
We struggle with forgiveness - we come to a place where the wrong we have done or the wrong done to us or others is just too big - we just cannot deal with it.
Thankfully God is not like us!!!
(Let's celebrate that in worship on Sunday!)
Next week we'll see how His mercy works...
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* "Admah and Zeboiim were cities that were overthrown when Sodom was destroyed." (NIV Study Bible)
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
