In this final chapter we are reading Hosea wrapping things up. It has been quite a message! A message that he has personally lived out with Gomer. One that has had him pleading for his generation. None more so than here in these next few verses “Return, Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall! Take words with you and return to the Lord. (Hosea 14 v 1-2)
Hosea is doing all he can to save them. He even gives them a prayer that they should use. He wants to make sure they are saying the right thing to God.
Here is that prayer:
Confession of sin
Say to him: Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips, v2
To forgive is to take the sin away. It is to remove it. Owning the sin and asking for it to be removed and then at the same time asking to be received as if the offence no longer existed needs much grace. God abounds in grace thankfully! So in the confession of sin ask for grace.
- Renounce what has previously been wrongfully followed.
“Assyria cannot save us.” (v3) What they looked to could not be trusted.
God was their Saviour no one else. Here is the decision to turn away and turn to Him.
- Commit to trusting God alone.
“…we will not mount warhorses.” (v3) We will not put our trust in what we have always known to be successful and that is horses in war. The more horses we have the more powerful we are seen to be. For us it is any badge of qualification or experience and even gifts from God that we flaunt as revealing how strong we are and how successful we have been. We commit to putting our future in the hands of God and not these things.
- Announce the abolishing of idolatry
“We will never again say ‘Our gods’ to what our own hands have made.,” (v 3) This is the commitment to go and do something. To destroy what is created for our own pleasure. A commitment to be counter-cultural. To not fit in. To be separated to Him.
- Ask for mercy.
“…for in you the fatherless find compassion.” (v3) We pray to the one who is a father to the fatherless. He is merciful to those in need. To ask for mercy is to see yourself in a mirror, to have self-awareness and to realise that you need Him.
Missions Paul 