ESOCS Devotional 16 October
TEXT: HOSEA 4:1-19 KJV
MEMORY VERSE: “But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the Serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 11:3-4 NIV
From our text today, we see that God’s major case against the Israeli nation was the case of idolatry, which refers to the people’s tendency to flirt with other gods. Hosea the prophet of God, while touching on sins such as lying, murder, stealing, drunkenness, focused his attention on the image of adultery or prostitution as Israel’s greatest sin. In this context, the word adultery is a powerful symbol of Israel’s sordid relationship with other gods.
Hosea’s total condemnation of Israel’s adultery reveals God’s holy desire that His children/Christians be faithful to Him in an intimate love relationship. In this case, God shows us through Prophet Hosea that He wants us to develop a strong faithful marriage relationship with Christ as the spouse of the Church (2 Cor. 11:2-3; Eph. 5:22-33).
Read yesterday’s ESOCS Devotional here
All that God stated through Prophet Hosea in our text today identifies a society that is in moral decay. And when a society is morally decadent, and distant from God, the people do not know God. This also goes to expose the quality of what goes out from our pulpits today. When priest and pastors are busy dishing out “another gospel,” the laity is laid astray (Jer. 12:10-11), and the word of God is blasphemed.
CHALLENGES
- If the true word of God remains the truth, why do some ministers dish out “another gospel?” If Jesus is the only way and the truth, and if it is the truth we know (Christ) that will set us free, why do many still grope in the dark?
PRAYER POINT
- Lord, give us the grace to differentiate the truth from heresies that we perish not. Amen.
FURTHER READING: 2 Kings 15:19-38; 16:1-9; Galatians 4:21-31; 5:1-12
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ESOCS Devotional 16 October
