Hosea Chapter 6: Verses 1-3 (NIV)
“Come, let us return to the Lord.
He has torn us to pieces
but he will heal us;
he has injured us
but he will bind up our wounds.
After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will restore us,
that we may live in his presence.
Let us acknowledge the Lord;
let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises,
he will appear;
he will come to us like the winter rains,
like the spring rains that water the earth.”
Romans Chapter 7: Verses 23-25 (NIV)
But I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
The heading in my bible for this chapter in Hosea reads, “Israel unrepentant.” This suggests that the people were being insincere in the sentiments recorded here. Perhaps they thought that by going through the motions of repentance, God would step in on their behalf as He had done in the past. But God can see when we are being insincere. He wants to see the evidence of our repentance.
Nevertheless, these verses spoke to me as if they had been offered sincerely and reminded me that although there are often consequences to our sinful actions which impact on our life, God does indeed heal and revive us if we come to Him with a genuinely repentant heart. However, what really jumped out at me was the part of verse 2 that reads, “on the third day He will restore us that we may live in His presence.”
I mentioned recently that Nicky Gumbel often says when he speaks that all of the Bible points to the redemptive work of Christ, and this is just one such example. Just as the people in Hosea’s time, we can’t keep to the law, and we slip up far too often and do things that we know we shouldn’t. So, Jesus came to restore us to a right relationship with God. And after three days in the tomb, Jesus rose in victory, making a way indeed for us to be able to live in God’s presence. Something which we know too well we would never be able to achieve by our own actions. Paul highlights his own struggles in the New Testament Chapter in Romans that I read today, but also confirms that it is through the work of Jesus that means we don’t have to give in to our natural sinful behaviour and we can echo his statement of praise as it equally applies to us – Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Dear Lord,
I do indeed echo Paul’s prayer of thanksgiving. I’m grateful that through the work of Jesus we need not despair when we do what we know we shouldn’t. We just need to be sincerely repentant and we can pick ourselves up and start afresh, pressing on in our Christian walk as You call us to do. I know I could never do that in my own strength. Thank You, Jesus!