Wednesday April 5th 2017

Hosea 6

1 In their affliction they will rise early to me: Come, and let us return to the Lord: 2 For he has taken us, and he will heal us: he will strike, and he will cure us. 3 He will revive us after two days: on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. We shall know, and we shall follow on, that we may know the Lord. His going forth is prepared as the morning light, and he will come to us as the early and the latter rain to the earth. 4 What shall I do to thee, O Ephraim? what shall I do to thee, O Juda? your mercy is as a morning cloud, and as the dew that goes away in the morning. 5 For this reason have I hewed them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and Your judgments shall go forth as the light. 6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice: and the knowledge of God more than holocausts. 7 But they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant, there have they dealt treacherously against me. 8 Galaad is a city of workers of idols, supplanted with blood. 9 And like the jaws of highway robbers, they conspire with the priests who murder in the way those that pass out of Shechem: for they have wrought wickedness. 10 I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel: the fornications of Ephraim there: Israel is defiled. 11 And you also, O Juda, set thee a harvest, when I shall bring back the captivity of my people.

My Friends,

What is the prophet saying here? From the very start we see the words saying to return to the Lord and He will heal and cure. Return to the Lord, this has been the theme throughout all of Holy Scripture, in all generations man has only needed to return to the Lord and yet it is the one thing that many have refused to do. Man now has science and logic, intellectualism. For the most part man has abandoned the spirit; St. John Chrysostom spoke these very words regarding the church back in the fourth century, how much more so today? Intellectualism prevails throughout the Body of Christ. It is the Spirit that we should be pursuing.

The prophet says; He will revive us after two days: on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. We shall know, and we shall follow on, that we may know the Lord. His going forth is prepared as the morning light, and he will come to us as the early and the latter rain to the earth. We will soon enough be celebrating this raising of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ on the third day. In the meantime let us continue our cry to find the spirit.

As we continue reading through the reading we see the results of not turning back to the Lord, seek wisdom, seek the truth which is Jesus the Christ, seek Him through the Holy Spirit. We see here the words of the Lord; for I desired mercy, and not sacrifice: and the knowledge of God more than holocausts. Does this passage mean that God does not want worship?

Of course not, Israel and now the church turned worship into mere ritual, worship has become the only goal and because of this many find the liturgy to be boring. Worship and ritual is not the end result that we want, it is not done simply for the sake of worship and ritual.

We seek communion with our Creator, a return to Almighty God, this is done by joining in spirit to our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ, this is the meaning and purpose of the worship. Seeking God is the purpose. This is our cry to Almighty God in all worship, reunion with Him. We have lost that communion since the fall, it is through our Lord and savior Jesus that Christ that we regain it. For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice: and the knowledge of God more than holocausts. This is what we are to share with the world, the love of God, mercy and compassion.

This is what we seek from our Creator and this is what we give to others.

Continue this time of repentance and renewal; let us strengthen ourselves in spirit.

Blessings

In Christ.