8 August | EVERYONE
"O Israel, return to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity." Hosea 14: 1
The central theme of the book of Hosea is the return of an unfaithful people. In his own experience, the prophet received his disloyal wife again and again. On the third occasion he was reluctant to forgive her, but the Lord told him that he must do so because the people were like the unfaithful wife, and God was always willing to accept them again.
This is why the prophet pleads with the people to return to their God. Those men and women who turned away from the Lord forgot Him and turned their backs on Him. But the prophet does not say to them, "You have gone too far," but "You have stumbled."
The prophet thinks that to turn away from God means to fall. You seek freedom and fall into the deep abyss of your passions. You crave financial prosperity and descend into the abyss of insomnia and existential torment.
One day in heaven, Lucifer rebelled and turned away from the Creator, and the prophet lamented, “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God’" (Isaiah 14: 12,13).
Many human beings today believe that God is the obstacle that prevents them from achieving their aspirations and dreams, but the Lord warns them: “The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; you who say in your heart, ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’ Though you ascend as high as the eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down, says the Lord" (Obad. 1:3-4).
Take Action
If turning away from God is to fall, returning to Him is rising. Would you rather remain fallen on the ground, or be useful to others and yourself?