Hosea 9

Several times in this chapter, Hosea points to the abundance Israel is accustomed to. In verse 2, he says the new wine shall fail them. In verse 3, he says they shall not live in the Lord's land, but will return to Egypt (in slavery as their ancestors most likely). Once slaves again, they will not be able to pour wine or offer sacrifices to God. The food they will eat will be unclean. They will not be able to celebrate the Lord's feast. They have forgotten all the feasts that God instructed Moses to honor, and so God will forget them.  They will dream of their silver (valuables, idols, treasures) while in exile (v6), and their native homeland will grow full of weeds and thorns.

Because of their disobedience, all their "things" will be taken away. They allowed themselves to be consumed by the earthly possessions, feelings, desires, etc. They had no room in their hearts for God. Our God is a selfish God, in only that He won't settle for anything less than our whole love. He doesn't want second best or to share with anything else. The Israelites were too busy giving their bodies in adultery, scheming to make the most financial gain, adoring idols, praising themselves for all they had achieved, to notice God.

It is WAY too easy to see how this connects to our world today. We have so many things in our lives that we can't make time for God. Between meetings, school, jobs, family, feelings, desires, wants, sports, movies, Hollywood, commercialism, etc., people have become lackadaisical in their search for true wisdom.  There are plenty of "know-it-alls" online and on TV that tell us how we should feel and how we should be free, how we have the rights to do what we want. People are turning away from the church because they don't agree with the "old rules", and believe church should conform to the new ways, instead of conforming their freedom to God's will.

If our world continues in this route, it will end up just like Israel- in exile. Where the world would mourn what it had, only having minimal to survive. It would become detestable.

My God, I am heartly sorry for having offended thee. And I detest all my sins, and because of your just punishment, but most of all because they offend thee, my God, whom I should love above all things. I firmly resolve with the help of Thy grace to sin no more and to avoid whatever leads me to sin.