HOSEA, Chapter 1

The book of Hosea is especially apropos at this time (October 2024) as we are currently drafting our second Christian Atheist series on malaki (the Hebrew word explicitly this time), which first occurs in Exodus 23:20–24:

“Behold, I send an angel [malak - "a messenger"] before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him.

“But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. “When my angel [malaki - "my messenger"] goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. (ESV)

The Hebrews described by Hosea are the same as those described by Moses in the Pentateuch and, by extension, the Christian church of today. We are all unfaithful spouses of our Lord. By right, God's holiness should "break out" against us, and we should be consumed. His faithfulness, however, is new every morning. But we should never forget that we serve a holy God, and we live by His grace:

Malachi 3:6

[6] “For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed." (ESV)

Join Jenny and me in this faithless and compromising generation in cleansing our lives from all elements of unfaithfulness, unbelief and disobedience to our LORD's revealed word.

Farther up, and farther in to God's infinite wisdom, love and knowledge!

We highly recommend this excellent summary of Hosea:

https://youtu.be/kE6SZ1ogOVU?si=xmg5ZhYVRTILGC6y

Malachi 3:7

From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. (ESV)