God's Love Demonstrated at the Exodus (Hosea. 11:1-2)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/9/2015 7:10 PM

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  God’s love Demonstrated at Exodus

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Hosea 11:1-2

            Message of the verses:  “1 When Israel was a youth I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son. 2 The more they called them, The more they went from them; They kept sacrificing to the Baals And burning incense to idols.”

            Just a reminder that we are looking at amazing love in chapters 11-14.

            As I read over this first verse I am wondering if this verse is the one used in Matthew’s gospel when Jesus was taken by Joseph and Mary from Egypt to Nazareth where He was raised, for Matthew said that this fulfilled the prophecy “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”  Anyhow we want to look at this text a bit more in detail.  We remember how the Lord had set up having the children of Israel to end up in Egypt and part of that was that God sent Joseph to Egypt ahead of the rest of his family to prepare the way for Jacob and his sons to go down there, and it was there that this family became a nation.  It was because of Joseph’s planning that the rest of his family did not starve to death, for he had prepared for this famine in advance.  Then we remember that it was Moses who led that new nation out of Egypt and it was done in great power as seen in Exodus chapters 12-15.

            Dr. Wiersbe writes:  “Hosea pictures the God of the Exodus as a tender father who freed his son from bondage.  The emphasis here is not on Israel, the unfaithful wife, but on Israel the ungrateful son…After all God did for His son he will refuse to return His love or obey His will.”

            It is our sinful human nature that causes us not to be grateful and thankful to the Lord for what He has done for us.  I just finished a SD on Revelation 14:2-3 which speaks of the song that the 144,000 sing to praise the Lord for His protection of them during their ministry in the Tribulation Period.  Two things come to my mind and one of them is that at least part of the children of Israel will get it right, and the other things that it is a struggle for even believers to live a consistent praise giving life because of their sinful nature.

7/9/2015 7:27 PM