{"id":388,"date":"2026-06-07T20:15:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T20:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/?p=388"},"modified":"2026-06-07T20:15:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T20:15:47","slug":"early-dews-and-treacherous-bows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/07\/early-dews-and-treacherous-bows\/","title":{"rendered":"Early Dews and Treacherous Bows"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Do you remember similes in English class? They\u2019re \u201csimilar\u201d to this or that. Generally, they use \u201clike\u201d or \u201cas\u201d to make the comparison. Last week we looked at two similes about Israel from Hosea. God\u2019s people were \u201clike grapes in the wilderness\u201d <\/em>(Hosea 9:10) and \u201clike a stubborn calf\u201d<\/em> (4:16).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hosea also portrayed God\u2019s unfaithful people as being \u201clike a morning cloud . . . like the early dew\u201d<\/em> (6:4). As an eastern Colorado farm boy, I know the trouble with morning clouds and early dew \u2013 they don\u2019t 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Is your devotion to God \u201con again and off again\u201d like Israel\u2019s? You don\u2019t have to bow to an image or cheat on your spouse to have this problem. Evaluate your prayer life, your hunger for God\u2019s word, your zeal for worship, your love for fellow-Christians. Are these things constant? Or do they evaporate in the heat of the day?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Next, God said of Israel, \u201cThey return, but not to the Most High. They are like a treacherous bow\u201d<\/em> (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\u2019s will). Even when she claimed to be returning to God, she really wasn\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Aren\u2019t 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?<\/span><\/p>\n

–Joe Slater<\/span><\/p>\n

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\r \t\t\r \t\t\"\"<\/a>\r \t\t  <\/span>\r \t\tSend article as PDF<\/span>\r \t\t  <\/span>\r \t\t\r \t\t\r \t<\/form>\r <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Do you remember similes in English class? They\u2019re \u201csimilar\u201d to this or that. Generally, they use \u201clike\u201d or \u201cas\u201d to make the comparison. Last week we looked at two similes about Israel from Hosea. God\u2019s people were \u201clike grapes in the wilderness\u201d (Hosea 9:10)…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading… Early Dews and Treacherous Bows<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":389,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388\/revisions\/389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}