Hos 2:7-8 | KingComments | STEP | In this verse follows the elaboration of what God did in . If Israel appeals in vain to the nations from whom they have benefited so much, they will remember that they have not had it that bad with God. They will return to Him. Unfortunately, the confession of sin is missing. There is no repentance. There is no disgust for their sin and the idols are not given up. With the prodigal son in Luke 15 this is different. That boy also thinks it is better in the world than at home. But when he is in misery, he remembers how much better he had it at home. When he gets up and goes back home, he does so with a confession ( ). If only Israel had returned to God with such a confession. The following verse makes it clear that they have no awareness that God has given them everything they attribute to the idols. This picture of Israel also applies to nominal Christians. One seeks the world and its benefits, its riches and prosperity, the pleasant existence, without asking for God. But it can happen that there is no longer any advantage to be gained in the world, for example by a natural disaster that takes away all the abundance of a country, or by a disease that puts an end to all plans. Then there is a tendency to return to that good old ‘religion’. In wartime the churches fill up and when there is personal need, people often start praying again. But if one starts asking for God again solely because of need, without remorse and repentance, this is just a hollow phrase. God will certainly not listen to it ( ).

‏ Hosea 2:7-8

The Decision to Return

In this verse follows the elaboration of what God did in Hos 2:6. If Israel appeals in vain to the nations from whom they have benefited so much, they will remember that they have not had it that bad with God. They will return to Him. Unfortunately, the confession of sin is missing. There is no repentance. There is no disgust for their sin and the idols are not given up.

With the prodigal son in Luke 15 this is different. That boy also thinks it is better in the world than at home. But when he is in misery, he remembers how much better he had it at home. When he gets up and goes back home, he does so with a confession (Lk 15:13-20).

If only Israel had returned to God with such a confession. The following verse makes it clear that they have no awareness that God has given them everything they attribute to the idols.

This picture of Israel also applies to nominal Christians. One seeks the world and its benefits, its riches and prosperity, the pleasant existence, without asking for God. But it can happen that there is no longer any advantage to be gained in the world, for example by a natural disaster that takes away all the abundance of a country, or by a disease that puts an end to all plans. Then there is a tendency to return to that good old ‘religion’. In wartime the churches fill up and when there is personal need, people often start praying again. But if one starts asking for God again solely because of need, without remorse and repentance, this is just a hollow phrase. God will certainly not listen to it (Job 35:12-13 ; Job 35:9-10).

God Is Not Acknowledged as the Giver

God is the source of all blessing. “The grain, the new wine and the oil” are more often mentioned together (Deu 7:13 ; Deu 11:14 ; Deu 12:17 ; Deu 14:23 ; Deu 28:51). They are the three main blessings of the land. If one starts to consider the gifts that God gives in nature or spiritually apart from Him as the Giver, the unfaithfulness is born. Israel has lost the awareness that it owes everything it possesses to God.

We see that this has brought sin into the world. In Paradise, God says to man that he may eat freely from all the trees of the garden. But what comes first with Eve? From her answer to the serpent it appears that with her the fruit is in the foreground and that she is not allowed to eat it freely. Her attention is focused on the gift and not on the Giver. And then things go wrong. In a certain sense God blesses all people (Mt 5:45b; Acts 14:17). But just like Israel and just like Eve, modern man does not realize that God is the source of the food and joy he is allowed to enjoy every day.

Not only does Israel not thank God for it, but they also use the gifts of God in their audacity to give them to Baal. This is done, for example, by turning the gold into a statue for the Baal, but also by sacrificing all kinds of gifts to that self-made statue. It is possible that the name ‘Baal’ stands for all the idols here, of which Baal is the most popular.

We may ask ourselves: For what purpose do I use what I have received from God? Do I serve myself with it? Or do I serve others with it, but only for the benefit that it gives me again? Or do I sometimes serve the gods of our time with it, by being fully absorbed in my career, by paying too much attention and money to how I look or by being able to argue as powerfully as possible? There are more examples where a person abuses what he has received from God, to his own credit.