Wednesday
READ: Hosea 1:3-5, 2 Kings 17:21-23
SOAP: Hosea 1:5
For further reading: 2 Kings 17:7-20
And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel. – Hosea 1:5
As with numerous other people in Scripture, Gomer’s three children were given meaningful names selected by the Lord. The first child, a son, was called Jezreel, which means “God sows” or “God scatters.”
Jezreel was also a city in the tribe of Issachar, near Mount Gilboa, and is associated with the drastic judgment that Jehu executed on the family of Ahab (2 Kings 9—10; 1 Kings 21:21–24). So zealous was Jehu to purge the land of Ahab’s evil descendants that he murdered far more people than the Lord commanded, including King Ahaziah of Judah and forty-two of his relatives (2 Kings 9:27—10:14).
Through the birth of Hosea’s son, God announced that He would avenge the innocent blood shed by Jehu and put an end to Jehu’s dynasty in Israel. This was fulfilled in 752 BC when Zechariah was assassinated, the great-great-grandson of Jehu and the last of his dynasty to reign. God also announced that the whole kingdom of Israel would come to an end with the defeat of her army, which occurred in 724 BC.
Sometimes we worry that the evil we see around us or the wrongs other people do to us won´t have any punishment. But God is not inattentive to what happens in our lives. He sees, He knows, and He is a just God. Nothing goes unseen or unnoticed to Him.
Dear God, You see me. You see my pain; You see my tears; You see my broken heart. You know and allow all that happens in my life according to Your perfect will. Father, help me trust You. Help me trust that You are Holy and True. Amen.