It’s not a pity party for Israel and Judah, it’s a PURITY plea God makes.

Hosea the prophet captures the harsh words, the people and the kingdom are self-destructive by not listening. And God desires mercy over sacrifice. Pleading to have them listen. “What can I do with you, Ephraim, What can I do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning mist like the early dew that disappears. Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth – then my judgments go forth like the sun. For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings. As at Adam, they have broken the covenant; they were unfaithful to me there.”

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God said Israel was founded with knowledge of the possibilities: “When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the desert; when I saw your ancestors, it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree” – Oh what JOY God has in His creations – very good – desiring them to understand.

We in modern times must see the times have continued, people’s attitudes returning to disobedient sour grapes – and yet new wine was made with a fresh restart of Jesus’s forgiveness becoming the needed grace for God’s mercy. Israel and Judah may have gone off the deep end, but there was a net waiting there – a Fisher of Men…

Amen

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Hosea 6789 excerpts:

Israel cries out to me, ‘Our God, we acknowledge you!’ But Israel has rejected what is good; an enemy will pursue him. They set up kings without my consent; they choose princes without my approval. With their silver and gold they make idols for themselves to their own destruction.

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The days of punishment are coming, the days of reckoning are at hand. Let Israel know this. Because your sins are so many and your hostility so great, the prophet is considered a fool, the inspired person a maniac. The prophet, along with my God, is the watchman over Ephraim, yet snares await him on all his paths, and hostility in the house of his God. They have sunk deep into corruption, as in the days of Gibeah. God will remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins.