Dreaming of Sentinels

[God says:] I will return again to My place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face, and in their distress earnestly seek Me. “Come, let us return to the Lord; for He has torn us, that He may heal us; He has struck us down, and He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live before Him. Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; His going out is sure as the dawn; He will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.” (Hosea 5:15-6:3)

You can hear the frustration in God’s voice. What is He to do with His stubborn people?

He has sent them prophets, and the prophets have not been gentle; God uses words like “hewn” and “slain” to describe how painful their message to God’s people has been. And the people themselves use that kind of language, when they say, “Come, let us return to the Lord; for He has torn us, that He may heal us; He has struck us down, and He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live before Him.”

That sounds painful! And yet, God’s message has succeeded, right? Because look at what else the people are saying! They say, “He has torn us, that He may heal us.” That means God’s whole purpose in tearing them was to heal them in the end. They say, “He will bind us up,” and “He will revive us … He will raise us up, that we may live before Him.” I don’t hear any uncertainty in those words. They are convinced that this God, their own God, whom they deserted, still loves them so much that He will do a miracle and restore them to life and health.

And they’re right. Even though they have deserted the Lord, even though they have gone after other gods and brought the Lord’s discipline upon them—even though they are driving Him nuts!—He still loves them, loves them dearly. He will do all the things that they say. He will heal them, He will raise them. And He will do the same for us.

Because we, too, sometimes fall into sin that we can’t get out of, and we worry what the Lord thinks of us—will He give up on us? Is this the last straw? Have we pushed Him too far?

And God makes it clear: He will take us back and restore us, no matter how far away we’ve been or what we’ve done. Even if we’ve fallen into the same sin a hundred million times, He will patiently and lovingly restore us and raise us from the dead, so that we may live before Him in peace and joy. This is why Jesus came—to bring us home to God, again and again and again, until that final day when He brings us home forever, and sin is nothing but an old, bad memory. He suffered, died, and rose again so that He could make you—you personally—His own forever. He’s not going to give up on you now.

WE PRAY: Dear Savior, strengthen my trust in You, especially when I’ve sinned and feel terrible. Amen.

This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Kari Vo.