Thursday, March 5, 2020
Hosea 10:1-10: Captivity Endured
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We are a captive people . . . longing to be free.
We are a searching people . . . longing to be fulfilled.
We are a hopeful people . . . longing to be restored.
False altars will crumble. Safe harbors will silt in. Wooden idols will disintegrate into dust. Sacred pillars will fall.
Since they do not fear the Lord, what can the king do for them? Nothing but make promises, swear false oaths, and make alliances, while justice grows wild like wormwood in a plowed field!
If we are able to take the time today to read these verses slowly we might be able to see our own lives through the prism Hosea hands to us. God loves God’s creatures so dearly that God prunes their wild vines and disciplines them in their way of walking the path. God also promises restoration, and God always keeps promises made.
We know what we seek; yet we sometimes are our own false prophets.
We know that there is the choice of light and dark always before us; yet we sometimes we linger in the shadows.
We know how to transform pain; yet we sometimes act as though we have not heard or seen the message.
God prunes in order to produce fruit in abundance.
God endures through evil and invites us to participate in turning it to good.
God restores in order that we learn to live in outrageous hope.
God loves in order that we turn and return to God’s call of The Way.
God is. And we are God’s captive people . . . we are a seeking people . . . we are a hopeful people . . . longing to be free . . . longing to be fulfilled . . . longing to be restored.
In this Lenten time we know that God accompanies us in our Jerusalem journey. We know that God abides with us. We know that God calls each one of us by name from eons before our birth. We know that God is. Come, let us follow The Way.
First written during the Christmas octave in December 2008. revised and posted today as a Favorite
Image from: http://voicerussia.com/radio_broadcast/61124198/91577572/
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