Yet I have been the Lord your God
Hosea 13:4 God loves us always, but He is angered when we ignore Him until things get bad.
An 18th-century Russian icon of the prophet Hosea (Iconostasis of Transfiguration Church, Kizhi monastery, Karelia, Russia). From Wikipedia.
“Yet I have been the Lord your God Since the land of Egypt; And you were not to know any god except Me, For there is no savior besides Me.”
Hosea 13:4 NASB1995
God pointed me to the prophet Zephaniah for my last devotional two days ago. Today, He picked another of the minor prophets of the Old Testament, Hosea.
Hosea was the first of the minor prophets, receiving insight and instruction from the Lord in the 8th century BC. He, like many of the other prophets both major and minor, was considered a prophet of doom, but as in the books of the other prophets there is always an underlying promise of restoration after a period of destruction.
In this verse, God is speaking through Hosea to the people of Israel, and He is displeased with them because of their tendency to “make for themselves molten images, Idols skillfully made from their silver (Hosea 13:2).” He is reminding them of the many miracles He performed on their behalf while in Egypt, during the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, and finally upon arriving in the Promised Land.
God had made a covenant with Israel. He would establish them in their land and bless them, and they would in return worship Him and have no other gods. They had broken that covenant.
God never changes. The people of Israel had changed and were worshipping a pantheon of pagan idols, but He was (and is) the only God and Savior, so He warned them that they would suffer if they left Him. The people had a good life, and yet they had forgotten God (hmmmm, does that sound familiar?).
After His reminder to the people, God makes a vow to cause them great hardship. It’s a common theme in the Old and New Testaments; we should never neglect or offend God when we are in a time of peace and prosperity as He will punish us. God’s love for us is eternal and immeasurable, but He is angered when we ignore Him until things get bad.
I’ll end with this wonderful commentary on today’s verse by David Platt:
Hosea 13:4 is a picture of the supremacy of God, of the fact that in the words of Acts 4:12, there is salvation found in no one else. There is no God but the one true God, amidst all the idols of this world, amidst all the false gods of the world. Things, people, ideas set up as God.
There is no God but one, the Lord who is God. No God, but him and besides him, there is no Savior. Think about that. How important that is for each one of our lives to constantly remember we do not look to anyone, anything to save us but God. This or that person whom we love, no matter how wonderful they might be, they cannot save us, they cannot fully satisfy us, they cannot meet our deepest needs.
Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:
Heavenly Father, thank You for the reminder through the prophet Hosea that there is no God and no Savior but You. I pray that I will never lose sight of the truth that all blessings flow from You and that salvation is found in no one but You. AMEN.