Let Us
Scripture Reading: Hosea 6:1-3
This is a beautiful text. Read it and see if that isn’t so. It has interpretative challenges, but it also presents truth like diamonds lying on the ground at our feet.
This is one of those places in the Bible where those who did the hard work of inserting chapter and verse divisions missed the mark. These verses need to be read with chapter five where God is said to have judged Judah and Ephraim (Israel). He has caused them to be sick and wounded. He came upon them like a lion. They were torn by Him, and then He went away. He returned to His place to await their confession of guilt, their repentance, and their return to Him.
These words are spoken on the heels of that statement by the Lord about how Judah found themselves in such a hard place. “Come, let us return to the LORD!” Whether this is meant to be taken as Hosea speaking to the Jewish people, or as the Jews speaking words of encouragement to each other is one of those interpretative challenges. We don’t know for certain the answer to that question, and it probably doesn’t matter much. The point is a word of encouragement is given. Whoever is speaking is speaking as one of the group and not as someone pointing the finger of accusation and saying “You.” It is “Us.” All of them together are found guilty and in need of return and revival.
It is always better to remember that we have “all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory” (Romans 3:23), and that “there is no other name under heaven given among men, by which WE must be saved” (Acts 4:12). When we proclaim the gospel, we don’t stand apart from those we preach to. We stand among them as one of them. We are not like someone giving directions to a traveler to a place we are not going to. Instead, we are like the pioneers of former days, joining a wagon train and traveling together to our future home.
Good word, much gratitude!