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May 9 + Daily readings & notes

DAY 129
DAILY READINGS

Hosea 11-14 & Psalm 124

DAILY NOTES

Hosea 11

  • It's been 500+ years since the Exodus.
  • For Verse 2, some texts replace "I" with "they."  So, they, the Baals, called out to the people of God.
  • The people of God are illustrated as the children of God. God has taught them how to walk, holding their arms as they learned.  God has carries them and feeds them.  
  • Verse 8 demonstrates that God's compassion is greater than God's anger.  Amen.
Hosea 12
  • Herding the wind refers to idolatry, and, perhaps, the foreign alliances the people made.  
  • Remember Jacob wrestling with the angel?  Did you know he wept while he wrestled?  How much does that demonstrate his need for God?  Hosea is making that connection so that the people would understand their need for God, too.
Hosea 13
  • Keep on sinning. Keep on sinning. Keep on sii-iii--iinning.  What do we do? We sin. We sin.  (I typed that in my best Dory voice.)
  • God remembers what he did for the people after Egypt.
Hosea 14
  • The last chapter is a call to repentance.  
  • If the people seek forgiveness, God will grant it.  
Psalm 124
  • God has delivered the people, and so the psalmist celebrates.
  • Their enemies should have defeated them, but God intervened and protected the people.  

OTHER OBSERVATIONS
As much as things change, they stay the same.  You could also say that as much as we change, we stay the same.

There's a line I learned once that helps me study and interpret scripture: The Bible was written for us, but it was not written to us.  That means it was written to a specific group of people at a specific period of time.  As such, we need to learn what they were dealing with and understand, as best we can, the circumstances they faced.  It was in the midst of those circumstances that the spoke to the people.

So, for example, we have to consider what we know about Hosea's context to make sense of much of what he is saying.  But Hosea also tells the people to do the same thing.  When the prophet recalls Jacob's life, he is asking the people to consider what they know/remember about him.  What they learn from his life so long ago offers direction and instruction for them.

But the Bible was also written for us.  That means that we keep reading it because it contains truth that applies to us even today because our human hearts are still very much like what they used to be.  For all we've learned, for all that we have seen and even accomplished, the Bible often seems to be speaking right at us because we are, after all, still people.

Even though it was written to a specific people, it's truth is still there for us to wrestle with.  God uses the words of scripture (and the experience of the people of God) to inspire our walk with God today.

That's why we keep reading.

Stay blessed...john


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