“Come, let us return to the Lord, He has torn us to pieces but He will heal us. He has injured us but He will bind up our wounds. 2. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will restore us, that we may live in His presence.”
Hosea was written at a critical time in the history of the northern kingdom of Israel. They had wandered away from the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and were worshipping Baal and the gods of the people they had replaced in Canaan. Hosea’s prophetic ministry was to call upon the people to return to the true God. This is a principle that is seen throughout the Old and New Testaments: People wander away from the true faith and get far away from God. Another principle is revealed in these two verses from Hosea: God always wants people to return to Him and to live in His will, and to do this He will discipline them in order to get them to see the need for repentance. This text tells us that God is waiting for a nation or an individual to come back to Him and establish a better relationship with Him. The text tells us about what God will do when we repent. Hosea wrote: “He has torn us to pieces but He will heal us.” The promise is that God will heal us. I know that when we think of healing, we normally think of it as physical healing. I think that what Hosea is calling for here, and what we are being called to is spiritual healing. I have discovered in my own life that spiritual healing is the most important healing that we can have. God is interested in what we are in our hearts. If we are living as practical atheists, i.e., we are living as though there is no God, we are not pleasing God and we are being poor witnesses of Christ. The promise here, however, is that if we will return to the Lord, He will heal us. He will draw us closer to Himself. James wrote about this in his epistle: “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you…” My interpretation of this is that if we consciously draw near to God, we will find that He is where He has always been, and we will find Him close to us. The point is that if God is disciplining you, He is doing it to heal you and to get your heart right with Him. Hosea wrote :“He has injured us but He will bind up our wounds.” The promise is that God will heal us.This is illustrated for us in the Parable of the Good Samaritan. A man had been left bleeding on the side of the road and the Good Samaritan came along, stopped and helped him and bound up his wounds. He did this, Jesus tells us, because he had compassion on the man. This is how God deals with us in our recalcitrance: He looks at us with compassion and covers the wounds that sin has inflicted on us – on our souls. If an open wound is left without bandages, it will be subject to infection. When God heals us, He does not leave our wound open to the elements. He forgives us and wipes the slate clean and keeps us from being “infected” by the world around us. Hosea wrote: “On the third day He will restore us.” The KJV translates this: “On the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight.” God is in the restoring business. You do not have to live a defeated life. Whatever has kept you from being close to God, and whatever has caused you spiritual pain, God wants to wipe it out and restore you to a right relationship with Him. Throughout the Bible, we are promised that if we will draw near to God, He will draw near to us. This knowledge should take away our fascination with the sins that beset us and that keep us from a strong relationship with God. This “third day” is akin to Christ’s resurrection. God will spiritually resurrect us and draw us closer to Himself if we will repent and return to Him. God is longing to restore you. Let Him do it now. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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