Take With You Words and Return to Yahweh – Hosea 14

What words must you, as an Evangelical Christian, bring to God for your repentance.  Just like the person who offends you, it is not enough to hear them say, “I’m sorry if I’ve offended you.”  We need them to list how they have offended us, and so does God need to hear from you how you have offended Him.  “I have trusted in the political process more than the gospel,” for example.  “I have learned hatred for those I consider sinners,” perhaps.

Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.  Take with you words and return to the LORD; say to him, “Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips.  Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses; and we will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands.  In you the orphan finds mercy.”

I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them.  I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily; he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon; his shoots shall spread out; his beauty shall be like the olive, and his fragrance like Lebanon.  They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow; they shall flourish like the grain; they shall blossom like the vine; their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon.

O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols?  It is I who answer and look after you.  I am like an evergreen cypress; from me comes your fruit.

Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the ways of the LORD are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.  (Hosea 14 ESV)

God invites Israel to return to Him in repentance.  They are to bring words of repentance but back them up with action.  They are to give up looking to foreign powers for their help and depend on Yahweh alone.  They are to give up calling their idols “God.”  When they do God will heal them from their waywardness and restore them to their land and make the land yield its bounty.

Idols and false gods, whatever we make our life and help, cannot compare to God.  He is like the cypress tree which produces the fruit we need to survive and thrive.  If we are wise we will continually cultivate our relationship to God and walk in His ways.  The alternatives are too scary.