Psalm 104:30
You send forth Your Spirit, they are created;
And You renew the face of the earth
Jesus did not leave us here alone He gave us Holy Spirit to get us safely back to Him..
Hosea 3:1-5 Then the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans.” 2 So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and one and one-half homers of barley. 3 And I said to her, “You shall stay with me many days; you shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man—so, too, will I be toward you.” 4 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim. 5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days.
Even when we leave the Lord to go after the world He never leaves us! He does not want any of His creation to perish. In our free will we choose life with Him or spiritual death without Him in our lives. In their idolatry God left them for a period to fend for themselves. Then when they return to their Lord and King His goodness will once again be with them.
Jeremiah 44:19 The women also said, “And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make cakes for her, to worship her, and pour out drink offerings to her without our husbands’ permission?”
Idolatry stops everything that God wants for us. It stops His will in our lives. He will not have false gods before Him.
Hosea 4:1-2 Hear the word of the Lord, You children of Israel, For the Lord brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land: “There is no truth or mercy Or knowledge of God in the land. 2 By swearing and lying, Killing and stealing and committing adultery, They break all restraint, With bloodshed upon bloodshed.
Acts 1:6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
The Messiah will come and restore His Kingdom on earth and Israel will recognize their King. Jesus came to earth the first time to prove to His chosen people that their Messiah had come. In His second coming He will rule and reign as their King.
Deuteronomy 30:1-3 Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you, 2 and you return to the Lord your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you
The signs of the end are in prophesy. When the Jews had been scattered in every part of the world it was God’s plan. It was God that returned them to Israel. He that scattered will gather His chosen people back to their land.
Ezekiel 36:24-28 For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. 25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. 28 Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.
God loves the world that He created so much so that He sent His only begotten Son that in Him they could be saved. John 3:16
Ezekiel 37:1-6 The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. 2 Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry. 3 And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” So I answered, “O Lord God, You know.” 4 Again He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: “Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. 6 I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.” ’ ”
Ezekiel 37:9-14 Also He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” ’ ” 10 So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army. 11 Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. 13 Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves. 14 I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it,” says the Lord.’ ”
The Old Testament chosen people of God because of their idolatry were in the Gentile world without a land of their own. But God will restore everything that Satan had tried to steal from them. The children of Israel will be raised up and the very breath of God will bring them back to the Lord and restore to them the promises of Abraham that in Him the world would be blessed. Carla
The second command, prophesy to the breath, emphasizes that life had not yet been restored. The earlier prophecy promised “breath” before the sinews, flesh, and skin. The two levels of prophecy and fulfillment in verses 1–10 provide an element of dramatic suspense and highlight the importance of the “breath” (Genesis 2:7). The word is the same for “wind” and “breath.” The essence of life enters after the body is created, just as when God created Adam in Genesis 2:7. This vision of resurrection likely influenced the Apostle John (Revelation 11:11). Yahweh explains to Ezekiel that the bones represent all of Israel. The dryness of the bones reflects the exiles’ hopeless pessimism. The interpretation also expands on the vision by predicting Israel’s return to their land in the future, symbolized by a resurrection of the dead from their graves. Faithlife Study Bible
The Hebrew word translated breath is the same as the one translated winds. It can also be translated spirit. The dead bones in the valley (verses 1, 2) must have looked like the aftermath of a horrible military defeat in which there were no survivors even to bury the dead. But now the army stood upon their feet. The bones symbolize the whole house of Israel. This identification picks up on imagery already used: (1) those identified as dry or spiritually dead (verses 2–5); (2) those identified as despondent and dejected, with no apparent hope of being “resurrected” as the people of the living God; and (3) those described as disassembled and dispersed before being rejoined and rebuilt (verses 6–10). The major thrust of this passage is the coming spiritual rebirth of God’s chosen people through the agency of His Spirit (verses 15–28; 36:22–32). The spiritual rebirth would miraculously revive and restore human beings to what God had intended them to be in the beginning. The same body-breath sequence occurs in the creation of Adam (Genesis 2-7). The NKJV Study Bible
Revelation 11:11 Now after the three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.
Hosea 13:14
“I will ransom them from the power of the grave;
I will redeem them from death.O Death,
I will be your plagues!
O Grave, I will be your destruction!
Pity is hidden from My eyes.
Isaiah 26:19
Your dead shall live;
Together with my dead body they shall arise.
Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust;
For your dew is like the dew of herbs,
And the earth shall cast out the dead.
Ezekiel 36:27–28 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.
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“Sisters and brothers, especially those of you experiencing pain and sorrow, your silent cry has been heard and your tears have been counted; not one of them has been lost!... The resurrection of Jesus is indeed the basis of our hope. For in the light of this event, hope is no longer an illusion.... That hope is not an evasion, but a challenge; it does not delude, but empowers us.” Pope Francis (Easter, 2025) |
This week we’re invited to embrace and internalize (literally, take to heart) the resurrection invitation to be a messenger of hope, courage, resilience and inspiration. I do know this, if I don’t internalize the invitation, I will live my life playing small (yes, a way of being disengaged—or “neutral”).
When fear wins, we underestimate our capacity to make a difference, even with what we consider a small portion.
But what if we feel we are insignificant?
Here’s the deal: whatever the amount, it is enough.
Enough for empathy and compassion.
Enough for caring for the marginalized and brokenhearted among us.
Enough to offer tenderness, grace and healing and sanctuary to a fallen world.
Okay. But what does that look like?
I mean, what concrete real-world choices can be made?
Let’s start with this from José Andrés. “Build longer tables, not higher walls.”
I like that. Build tables. I can do that.
In the Gospels, Jesus loved a party. And he partied with some very eccentric and outlandish people. And he wasn't too concerned about public opinion, or impressing the right crowd. Remember the party with the woman who wasn’t invited, the conspicuous outsider? Notice this: Jesus never talked to an outcast or untouchable, because Jesus didn't “see” an untouchable. He saw only a child of God that he was madly in love with.
No wonder freedom is not easy. It scares us half-to-death to be seen, to be invited and to be loved in this way, and then to share that gift.
Think about the power that this party represents.
Everyone is welcome at the table.
Everybody is invited.
Everybody.
And, the good news: This freedom—the permission and empowerment to choose—cannot exist in a vacuum. Judaism teaches us that we need to see beyond “redemption.” When the Jewish people were set free from slavery in Egypt, the point of the story (for us today) is not just that we are free, but what we do with that freedom. The story says, “Let my people go, so that they may reflect God.”
Wow. So, we live unabashed. By not withholding, we let the grace and light that is within us, spill.
Yes. Welcome to the table.
Let us take with us the inspiration of Sojourner Truth: “Life is a hard battle anyway. If we laugh and sing a little as we fight the good fight of freedom, it makes it all go easier. I will not allow my life’s light to be determined by the darkness around me.” Sabbath Moments
Throughout Hosea's prophecies, God expressed His intimate, covenantal love for His people by referring to Israel as His bride, though she was an unfaithful wife (Hosea 3:1; Hosea 4:12). And passages like Hosea 11 also reveal a parental quality of God's love, picturing Israel as a son with God as his loving Father. The language in this chapter demonstrates great tenderness, and it stands out as one of the most vivid descriptions of God's love in the Old Testament: "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son ... it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms" (Hosea 11:1-3).
However, we will see a stark contrast between God's unconditional love and Israel's unreliable love. God's love for Israel was noble, unselfish, generous and protective. Israel's love was selfish, indulgent and pleasure-oriented (Hosea 2:4-17). Israel did not deserve God's love. But she received it anyway.
Hosea displays the depth of God's love in both firmness and graciousness, expressed in both punitive and restorative ways. God did not withhold consequences for His people's sins; however, God also did not forget His promises to His people, and He proved that even when they did not love Him, He still loved them. First5
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