Probably nowhere in the Bible is the tenderness of the relationship between the Lord and His subjects better demonstrated than in these two passages.
In Ezekiel 16 the Lord wonderfully reminds Israel of the way that He founded the nation. A people not loved by anyone. He demonstrates this by using the example of a baby being cast aside and left to die. Unwanted and unloved by anyone. But the Lord graciously takes the child and nourishes and clothes it, salting the navel, cleansing it, and then raising it up to become something of great beauty. Then the child becomes unruly , thinking that the great attention the world is showing it is because of it's own beauty and doing, when in reality it is what the Lord has done in it's life that makes it comely and attractive.
How many times have we seen someone with talents far beyond what is ordinary or could be cultivated on ones own ; talents so obviously given by the Lord ; then that person uses the God given abilities he or she has to go and entertain the world and even feel that they are not successful unless the world accepts them and lauds their achievements. Gospel music is a perfect example of this. Talented folks who after beginning in a small church somewhere, are heard by a worldly crowd and then go and entertain somewhere and are so soon swooned by the false adulation and praise that comes with that kind of thing.
Or maybe an even sadder example would be a person whom the Lord has entrusted with a goodly amount of material possessions. Possessions that He wants used for the furthering of His work on this earth. And then that person becomes unthankful, feeling that it is his own achievements that brought all of this into his life. The Lord said "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine" Haggai 2:8
Not everyone is to be poor. The Lord uses money and people to accomplish His work here and He trusts some people with an abundance of "things". He allows it to pass through their hands. How sad when that person then trusts more in the things than in the Lord that provided the "things".
In Hosea the Lord reveals to us the depth to which His love for us goes. By using the example of a Prophet and his wife Gomer He demonstrates to us how far reatching His Love and determination to bring us to our final home with Him is.
Hosea takes a wife. Gomer. Obviously he loves her devotedly. But in the course of their marriage she becomes a harlot. She wastes her life in debauchery. The lowly kind of life that a life of whoredom brings.
Yet when she is old, probably relegated to the back portion of the place where she plied her trade, she is now up in years. Her beauty is now a pale simblance of what it once was. No one calls on here anymore. She has wasted the beautiful years of her life and now the people that once prized her want nothing to do with her. They have found a new fashion to toy with.
Then one day she hears a voice that was once familiar to her. A voice that even now speaks in tenderness. I have come for Gomer. I will take her out of this place. She can hardly believe her ears. After all these years and the heartache that I have caused to him and my children he still wants me. And with tears of joy she moves slowly to Him who has come for her from her long distant past.
The Lord God long years ago put it in the hearts of Godly men and women to come to new shores and start a nation built on the principles and oracles of God. And for years and years we prospered; being entrusted by the Lord with great wealth, admiration of other countries and nations,and phenominal growth and prosperity. And just as Israel did we trusted to our own devices and "worshipped and served the creature more than the creator" even to the point of denying the right to speak His name in public. Ridiculing people who dare to trust in Him who has saved them.
But even now, if we would hear Him, if we will listen we can as individuals at least get back to where we were with God and He will take us back to His place. Back to where we are no longer trusting in our own righteousness but leaning wholey on Him.
We have allowed the fear of public opinion to set the course for the church of God in this nation rather than to allow the Word of God to steer us and we are reaping the harvest of that sad decision.
Maybe we cannot change the course of this nation as a whole but we can change the course of our personal walk.
If only we will listen there is still time to be rescued from the dreadful end that is sure to come to those who refuse to follow the Lord
