Friday, October 24, 2008

Hosea 4:12

Some thoughts from my morning devotional:

My people inquire of a piece of wood,and their walking staff gives them oracles.For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray,and they have left their God to play the whore. (Hosea 4:12)

God depicts the idolatry and adultery of Israel and their chasing after false gods as inquiring of a piece of wood and receiving oracles from a walking staff. We look at Israel and the people of this time and think "How stupid could they be?" But we are guilty of far more. We have the full counsel of God before us. We have the Old and New Testaments. And yet we inquire of psychologists, talk show hosts, horoscopes, and advice columns. We may not seek after pieces of wood, but we seek after that which is not God and we lend biblical authority to them to tell us right from wrong. To tell us how to act, what to say, and even what to think. And we do so because within us is a spirit of whoredom. We have turned from God and gone astray. Jeremiah 2:13 says that we have committed two evils. We have turned from the fountain of livng water (God) and hewn out for ourselves broken cisterns that can hold no water. And because we have forsaken our God - the only one who can satisfy us - we drink the sand and call it refreshing. We are the fools. We are the whores. Father, forgive us. Forgive our land. Forgive the people. Forgive me. I have turned from you so many times and sought for answers from that which cannot satisfy. Turn me again by whatever means necessary.

"One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple." (Psalm 27:4)

Come, let us return to the Lord.

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