Do you remember similes in English class? They’re “similar” to this or that. Generally, they use “like” or “as” to make the comparison. Last week we looked at two similes about Israel from Hosea. God’s people were “like grapes in the wilderness” (Hosea 9:10) and “like a stubborn calf” (4:16).
Hosea also portrayed God’s unfaithful people as being “like a morning cloud . . . like the early dew” (6:4). As an eastern Colorado farm boy, I know the trouble with morning clouds and early dew – they don’t stay! Just when you need them most, they disappear. Likewise Israel appeared to love God for a little while, but their faithfulness quickly faded into idolatry and immorality.
Is your devotion to God “on again and off again” like Israel’s? You don’t have to bow to an image or cheat on your spouse to have this problem. Evaluate your prayer life, your hunger for God’s word, your zeal for worship, your love for fellow-Christians. Are these things constant? Or do they evaporate in the heat of the day?
Next, God said of Israel, “They return, but not to the Most High. They are like a treacherous bow” (7:16). An archer wants his arrow to go where he aims it. God was the archer, and Israel was his bow. But Israel kept sending arrows in the wrong direction! That is, her behavior missed the target (God’s will). Even when she claimed to be returning to God, she really wasn’t.
What direction do your arrows travel? Sin literally means missing the mark. If your behavior is wide of the target, then your bow (your attitude) needs adjusted.
Aren’t similes fun? Find these others in Hosea: a silly dove; a trained heifer; an oven heated by a baker; a vessel in which there is no pleasure; and a wild donkey alone by itself. How do these apply to Israel? or to you?
–Joe Slater
