December 6

Hosea 4:1-5:15; 2 John 1:1-13; Psalm 125:1-5; Proverbs 29:9-11

Our relationship with God is inextricably connected to our relationship with our fellow humans.  We've seen this with Jesus' teaching on the greatest commandment: Love God and love your neighbor.  In our New Testament reading today, John talks about loving one another, a command "we have had from the beginning" (2 Jn. 1:5). But this love for each other is tied into obedience, which I find interesting.  Love for God and obedience to God have been linked together throughout our journey through the Bible this year, but John makes this love for others part and parcel of our obedience.  He seems to be saying that love for God is communicated as and through love for others, which is shown in our actions toward them.  Curious how John commands love, isn't it?  We think so often of love as involuntary, something we cannot help or create, but John reminds us that Jesus makes this demand.  It is an act of obedience to love those around us, to choose to engage on their behalf, to consider them above ourselves.

One way we can be obedient to love those around us is mentioned in our Proverbs reading. "A wise man keeps himself under control" though "a fool gives full vent to his anger" (Pr. 29:11).  Wow.  Proverbs doesn't pull any punches!  I'm reminded of the posts Esther did earlier this year about the benefit of a temperate tongue, and I can clearly think of the ways I've failed in this task.  But there are successes, too; I think of the un-learning I had to do early in our marriage, training myself out of sarcasm in order to love my kind-hearted husband.  So perhaps there is hope after all.

It's this hope that draws me back to John's letter.  Look at all the gifts of God that we have received: grace, mercy, peace, truth, love (see 2 Jn. 1:3).  What a power-packed set of qualities we have available to us as we seek to love others in obedience to Christ.  Of course there is hope!

As we're closing out this year, I can echo John's closing.  "I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete" (2 Jn. 1:12).  We've talked with some of you and gotten emails from others and read comments from still more, but I know that each of us bloggers would have loved the opportunity to sit down for a little chat with each of you readers.  Thank you for joining us as we have read through this adventure together.  May God's blessing - his grace, his mercy, his peace, his truth, his love - be richly upon you today.

- Sarah Marsh

How did God speak to you in Scripture today? Click here to share your reflections on God's word or read past posts. We'd love to hear from you.

December 5

Hosea 1:1-3:5; 1 John 5:1-21: Psalm 124:1-8; Proverbs 29:5-8

Today we read about another tragic love story. As my mom put it in her November 12^th post about Ezekiel, it is a “sad, but beautiful, picture of marriage.” This time we see the Lord speak to the prophet Hosea and tell him, “Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord” (Hos. 1:2). God is going to use the love story of Hosea and Gomer as an allegory for his love story with his people.

It really is a beautiful love story, and not just a tragic one either. This one has a happy ending. 

We see Hosea take Gomer as his wife, who then conceives three children whose names mean: "punishment is coming," "no mercy," and "not my people." Then, we see that their mother “has been unfaithful and has conceived them in disgrace. She said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink’” (Hos. 2:5).

Not a very good start to our love story. The mother is unfaithful and mistakenly pursues other lovers, men she thinks will better meet her needs. But here is where the good part starts.

Instead of Hosea casting her off, he pursues her. He woes her tenderly, he allures her (Hos. 2:14). He does not treat her as her sins deserve. He does not make her do the pursuing back to him even though she was the one who sinned. No, he goes and speaks gently to her, giving her gifts, and betrothing himself to her in love and compassion (Hos. 2:19). 

What a beautiful love story. We see that Hosea is faithful, patient, and forgiving, even when Homer is unfaithful. He woes her and buys her back, expecting that now she will be faithful to and intimate with him alone. How different our culture would look if more marriages adopted this model of forgiveness and pursuit.

Let’s go back to our allegory. This story reminds us of God’s great, great love for mankind. It reminds us of his pursuit of us no matter how many times we are unfaithful to him. In 1 John 5 we see that he also sends a child to remind us of something. But this child's name is not “no mercy" or "not my people,” but rather it is Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son” (1 Jn. 5:11). 

God’s child sends the message that we are forever pursued, forever loved, and forever redeemed from our lives of sin. Isn’t God so good to remind us of that in all these different ways in Scripture? Let us walk and live in that love story today.

- Mary Matthias

How did God speak to you in Scripture today? Click here to share your reflections on God's word or read past posts. We'd love to hear from you.