Hosea - take words with you.

At connecT we are wrapping our Hosea series. Last week I looked at Hosea  chapter 14.

Words are important things. Without them we would struggle to communicate. Not that we can’t use other means.  We can look, touch, play music, a loving gift, and a picture, we are told, is worth a thousand words, and sometimes, too, words fail us. We can’t say what we really want to say. We are literally stuck for words. Yet, words complete our communication in so many ways.  Lovers long for that magic word to be said – ‘I love you’. Perhaps, this is what Hosea longed for and, perhaps, Gomer needed to hear these words from Hosea. God needed to hear some words from Israel, too. Actions, in this instance, were not quite enough: ‘take words with you and return to the Lord’ (Hosea 14: 2)

 God has words for his troubled people too: ‘I will heal their disloyalty; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them (Hosea 14: 4). God provided then, and now, a home coming and a home: ‘they shall again live beneath my shadow’ (Hosea 14: 7).

Good words, rich words, important words: what words have you got to say to God?

Chris