Friday
READ: Hosea 1:8-2:1, Ezekiel 37:20-28
SOAP: Hosea 1:10
Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.”- Hosea 1:10
In Genesis 22:17 God remembered Abraham and His promise to bless him and multiply his offspring “as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.” God is not like us. When He makes a promise, we can be sure He will keep it until it is fulfilled.
Hosea´s third child was named Lo-ammi, which means, “not my people.” That was what God thought about Israel: due to their sins, they were not His people anymore. But the people´s sin doesn´t take God´s promise back. “Not my people” will become “my people” and “unloved” will become “my loved one.”
Today, the Jews are sown throughout the Gentile world (Zechariah 10:9), but one day God will plant them in their own land and restore to them their glory. As God promised to Abraham, Israel will become like the sand on the seashore (Genesis 22:17) when they recognize their Messiah at His return, trust Him, and experience His cleansing (Zechariah 12:10—13:1).
My heart is comforted in the thought that God will never break His promises to me. No matter how deep in my sin I am, how far I´ve gone from Him, He is my Father and nothing will never change that fact.
Abba, my Heavenly Father, clean my heart. Show me my sins and help me live according to Your Word and Your will. Thank You for loving me despite my many flaws. Please, forgive me. Amen.