Hosea 6:4-6

“What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early…For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice…” vss. 4, 6a

According to Hosea these two puny countries, constantly at war and caught up in foreign intrigues, have driven the Lord as far as the Lord could be pushed. They claim to love God but their love is a charade, a morning cloud that dissipates before noon. They take great pains to offer proper sacrifices but the Lord has no interest in burnt offerings. What the Lord wants is steadfast love.

About the same time Hosea’s fellow prophet, Micah, voiced the same concern in addressing the nation: “And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out what either of these prophets would have to say to us. Sometimes we imagine that God doesn’t much care what countries do, that all God cares about is the individual and personal morality. Nothing is further from the truth. 

Jesus made that clear in Matthew 25 with his parable regarding the least of these, and what we should do for them. In that story it’s the nations that are being addressed by the king. It’s the nations who are called out to care for the hungry and the naked. And it’s in our caring that we too will show steadfast love to God!

Thought for the Day: How does our nation show steadfast love?