Daily Devotions

Hosea

Hosea 
Day 
Day 74

"They do not consider in their hearts"

Text: Hosea 7:2

THE SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS OF ISRAEL

Israel did not consider the fact that God would be watching the earth! This was a great truth that was repeatedly mentioned in the book of Psalms (Psalm 10:14; Psalm 11:4).

“They do not consider in their hearts
That I remember all their wickedness;
Now their own deeds have surrounded them;
They are before My face.”
Hosea 7:2

1. “They do not consider in their hearts”

a) The people in Israel had little knowledge of God.
b) Their hearts were insensitive to the Lord.
c) They do not consider how God might see their wickedness and hold them accountable.

2. “That I remember all their wickedness”

a) This was what God declared to Moses solemnly.
b) This was a special and glorious declaration of God carefully recorded in Exodus.

“Keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,
by no means clearing the guilty,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and
the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
Exodus 34:7

i) There is mercy with the LORD.
ii) He can grant it to numerous thousands.
iii) But He would not clear the guilt of the unrepentant.
iv) The iniquity (evil) of the parents (“father”) would have grave consequences.
v) The children would be affected adversely if the fathers remain unrepentant.
c) God has divine prerogative:
i) To forgive sins and to bring about spiritual healing of the soul.
ii) To remember all the wickedness of sinful mankind.

3. “Now their own deeds have surrounded them”

a) Evil deeds are in mind.
b) They often spawn more evil deeds.
c) Evil deeds tend to be habitual.
d) Evil deeds often are found in clusters.
e) Before too long evil deeds would surround evildoers!