“They will follow the LORD; he will roar like a lion. When he roars, his children will come trembling from the west.”
– Hosea 11:10
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you ever heard God’s roar of righteous wrath? What do you think that God’s roar of justified outrage sounds like? Do you think that God has reason today to roar in anger? God – as God the Father, chose Hosea – a successful businessman, to take on the role of being a betrayed husband to symbolically illustrate to His specially chosen guys and gals – who were the Israelite people group guys and gals, their utter rejection of Him as being their one and only God. Hosea scribed in what became known as the Hosea Book how and why God – as God the Father, through God – as God the Spirit, had him live his life the way that God – as God the Father, expected him to live his life among His specially chosen guys and gals. Hosea 11 recounts God’s third appeal to His specially chosen guys and gals to stop rebelling against Him. Before singling out Ephraim and Judah tribal clans to overtly identify their rebellious lifestyles, God used history in His third appeal in an attempt to get His specially chosen guys and gals to refocus their lives on Him instead of on what they were daily doing. Ephraim tribal clan was surrounding God with lies and deceit while Judah tribal clan was being unruly towards God. God had Hosea remind the Israelite people guys and gals that when they were living in the country of Egypt that – even though they were a childlike people group of guys and gals, that they were still His special chosen people group guys and gals on which He would pour out His love on more than on any other people group guys and gals. Hosea’s first proactive act – which he was asked by God to do, was to marry a harlot whose name was Gomer. When Gomer went back to her profession, God used Gomer’s unfaithfulness as an example of how His specially chosen guys and gals were two-timing Him. God used Hosea’s wife’s infidelity to point out to His specially chosen guys and gals their abject disloyalty to Him when they turned their back on Him to live carnal lives and to worship other gods. How do you think that God felt about His people group of guys and gals who He had ‘taught how to walk’, who He had ‘healed’, who He had ‘led with cords of human kindness’, who He had ‘bound with love’, who He had ‘lifted from their necks a yoke of oppression’ and who He had ‘bent down to feed’, as they forsook Him.
The more that God called out to His specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group guys and gals, to obey Him and to walk in His truths, the more they did what they could do to utterly reject Him by . . . instead of just worshipping Him, God’s specially chosen guys and gals chose to sacrifice offerings to lifeless Baals and to burn incense to manmade inanimate images made from wood, stone, clay and metal. God – as God the Father, through God – as God the Spirit, promised – through Hosea, His specially chosen guys and gals to have swords flash against their cities to put an end to their shameless living. God also – through Hosea, promised that even though He would have their city gates destroyed where He had His specially chosen guys and gals living – because of their outright determination to turn away from Him, that He would never give up on them – that He will never hand His specially chosen guys and gals over to be totally devastated. God – through Hosea, then reminded his specially chosen guys and gals that He is a compassionate God and that He will one day have His specially chosen guys and gals follow only Him. Verse 10 describes what that day will be like when His specially chosen guys and gals will begin to truly follow Him, “They will follow the LORD; he will roar like a lion. When he roars, his children will come trembling from the west.” Your grandpaa believes that this day that God said – through Hosea, would take place has already taken place – that God’s specially chosen guys and gals have already returned to the land that He gave to them to always to have to live in as their very own land.
Your grandpaa believes that God has begun to roar again. Your grandpaa believes that God is calling out today to His specially elected guys, gals and kids like never before. Your grandpaa believes that God’s roar can be heard through the dramatic up tic in a variety of natural disasters that have occurred in recent years that have killed a lot of guys, gals and kids in a lot of different places on planet Earth. Your grandpaa believes that God’s roar can be heard through the borderless way that warring is now done. Your grandpaa believes that God’s roar can be heard through voices arising from a morphing paradigm of Christ-follower fellowship gatherings. Your grandpaa believes that God has prepared a new generation of young guys and gals – who have been given the names of gen y’s, mosaics and millennials, who are sensing being empowered because of having grown up in approving, affirming and accepting environs – such as in homes, and who are willing and ready to go anywhere to do whatever. Your grandpaa recently heard Glen Beck – who most guys and gals if they have ever heard Glen Beck speak would quite possibly say that he is a bombastic, incendiary goon, say on his radio talk show that this new generation of teens to guys and gals who are about 25 years old is a force – that it is a spiritual force unlike any spiritual force that he has ever read about and a spiritual force that is going to be a movement unlike any other movement here on planet Earth. Your grandpaa is just fine with being where He can hear God’s very loud roars. Your grandpaa knows that his hope is only in God.
Hosea 11 (1127)