[14] “Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her.
https://bible.com/bible/111/hos.2.14.NIV
How many of us long to be spoken to “tenderly?” We all do (I am for sure speaking for women..). That is a huge part of why so many of us have read tons of Romantasy books with handsome book boyfriends or watched the same storyline in Hallmark movies over and over again.
The book of Hosea is about his marriage to a prostitute called Gomer. God likens Israel’s unfaithfulness and wayward tendencies to a prostitute. It angers him so that he even threatens to take away the celebrations he put in place as a remembrance of what God has done in their lives. “I will stop all her celebrations; her yearly festivals, her New Moons, her Sabbath days-all her appointed festivals.” Hosea 2:11 (NIV 2011)
Yet, in that same chapter, God says: “Therefore, now I am going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her.” Hosea 2:14 (NIV 2011)
Roman’s 9:25 “As he says in Hosea: ‘I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one.” God speaks tenderly to her. He brings her back to himself. Friend, God wants to do the same for you. He longs for you to know him intimately. Will you listen as He speaks tenderly to you today?