Hosea 9 Devotional
by Pastor Lawrence
Most of us are used to seeing before and after pictures of dramatic makeovers or extreme weight loss transformations, but, thankfully, we aren’t often subjected to transformative pictures of a devolving nature where an individual goes from bad to worse. Usually only doctors have those kinds of posters displayed in their offices to warn us of the dangers of not treating our bodies well. But every now and then, when there is an extensive problem in society, doctors will go public with their cautionary tales forcing us to see images such as a dramatic transformation of a woman before and after her drug addiction. What appears to be a fairly attractive woman on the left side of a large billboard has now turned into something hideous and grotesque on the right side. It is often so bad that we cringe when we look at her, for it’s hard to believe that a person could turn into such wretched creature.
The Lord, speaking through the prophet Hosea, is giving us such a picture in our text this morning using two similar analogies. In v.13, He describes Israel at first as a young palm tree planted in a meadow. In the beginning of her relationship with the Lord, she was so youthful and lively, fruitful and fresh, but then, in v.16, because of her sin, she is now stricken, her root is dried up and she bears no fruit.
In the same manner, in v.13, the Lord says that when he first found Israel, she was like fresh grapes in the wilderness, like the first fruit on the fig tree in its first season. But since they turned from the Lord to worship the Baals and “consecrated themselves to the things of shame,” they have become “detestable like the thing they loved.”
Although idols seem to look so lovely to us at first, they are, in fact, merely hideous deconstructions of God’s beautiful works. And twice in Scripture the psalmist says of idols, “Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them” (Ps. 115.8, 135.18). Thus, overtime, what at first seems to be life-giving and lovely is literally sucking the life out of all those who give themselves to idols. And eventually, it only leads to death.
As hard as it is for us to read numerous chapters about our sins in the prophetical books, we must understand that these words come not only from a doctor but from a lover who remembers what we used to look like, who now sees our pitiful and miserable condition and urges us cast away our idols and to turn to Him by faith and repentance before it gets any worse. The Lord is in the business of doing dramatic makeovers, even for the worst of sinners, but we have trust that He knows what He is doing, and that he is the best cosmetologist around (cosmetics stems from the Greek cosmos, meaning order and beauty). He is the one who originally made us in His glorious image, and He is the only one who can renew that image in us once again, for those who truly worship the Lord also become like the one whom they love.