{"id":6559,"date":"2015-04-26T00:05:04","date_gmt":"2015-04-26T07:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=6559"},"modified":"2015-04-25T13:45:43","modified_gmt":"2015-04-25T20:45:43","slug":"fresh-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/04\/26\/fresh-start\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresh Start"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cAnd now, here\u2019s what I\u2019m going to do:
\nI\u2019m going to start all over again.
\nI\u2019m taking her back out into the wilderness
\nwhere we had our first date, and I\u2019ll court her.
\nI\u2019ll give her bouquets of roses.
\nI\u2019ll turn Heartbreak Valley into Acres of Hope.
\nShe\u2019ll respond like she did as a young girl,
\nthose days when she was fresh out of Egypt.
\n\u201cAt that time\u201d\u2014this is God\u2019s Message still\u2014
\n\u201cyou\u2019ll address me, \u2018Dear husband!\u2019
\nNever again will you address me,
\n\u2018My slave-master!\u2019
\nI\u2019ll wash your mouth out with soap,
\nget rid of all the dirty false-god names,
\nnot so much as a whisper of those names again.
\nAt the same time I\u2019ll make a peace treaty between you
\nand wild animals and birds and reptiles,
\nAnd get rid of all weapons of war.
\nThink of it! Safe from beasts and bullies!
\nAnd then I\u2019ll marry you for good\u2014forever!
\nI\u2019ll marry you true and proper, in love and tenderness.
\nYes, I\u2019ll marry you and neither leave you nor let you go.
\nYou\u2019ll know me, God, for who I really am.
\n\u201cOn the very same day, I\u2019ll answer\u201d\u2014this is God\u2019s Message\u2014
\n\u201cI\u2019ll answer the sky, sky will answer earth,
\nEarth will answer grain and wine and olive oil,
\nand they\u2019ll all answer Jezreel.
\nI\u2019ll plant her in the good earth.
\nI\u2019ll have mercy on No-Mercy.
\nI\u2019ll say to Nobody, \u2018You\u2019re my dear Somebody,\u2019
\nand he\u2019ll say \u2018You\u2019re my God!\u2019 \u201d (Hosea 2:14-23)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

God wants to rekindle the spark that had gone out of their relationship. Despite the infidelity, the other gods and goddesses, God was willing to make a fresh start of it. He intended to sweep Israel off her feet once more, just as he had once done years before in those heady days when he rescued them from the slave masters of Egypt.<\/p>\n

\u201cJezreel\u201d in Hebrew means, \u201cGod sows.\u201d It was the place where Jehu slew the priests, prophets and followers of the false god, Baal. Israel would finally and completely turn to God and away from all their make-believe false gods, with their false promises and empty words who had done nothing for them but taken their faith, their hope, and their money, leaving them destitute and alone, with nothing.<\/p>\n

Hosea\u2019s relationship with his wife Gomer served as the picture of what was going on between God and Israel. The initial joy in Hosea\u2019s relationship with Gomer was long gone; she had spent all her time with other men. She had gone back to her old prostitute ways. But Hosea still loved her and was willing to take her back. He wanted to forgive her betrayal and infidelity because she meant more to him than his own feelings. Hosea\u2019s life became a picture of what God had suffered from his people, and what he wanted to do for his people, the Israelites. Hosea forgave Gomer\u2019s adultery. God forgave Israel\u2019s idolatry. They meant more than the pain they had caused.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAnd now, here\u2019s what I\u2019m going to do: I\u2019m going to start all over again. I\u2019m taking her back out into the wilderness where we had our first date, and I\u2019ll court her. I\u2019ll give her bouquets of roses. I\u2019ll … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6559"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6559"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6561,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6559\/revisions\/6561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}