Our relationship with God can only be sustained when His responses are continuously reciprocated on our part.
I like to read Hosea 2:21 in tandem with Hosea 6:3.
“In the day I will respond, declares the Lord-I will respond to the skies, and they will respond to the earth; and the new wine and oil, and they will respond to Jezreel.” (Hosea 2:21)
“Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.” (Hosea 6:3)
When juxtaposing these two verses, we see a complete picture of what it is like when human beings and God sustain a relationship that is bilateral, dynamic, and reconciliatory. God allows the skies to provide rain that moistens the land. The land in turn yields crops abundant to nourish those living on the land. In response, the human beings strive to know more about God: His thoughts, feelings, and ways of doing things. We know He is like the sun and the rains that will surely appear and come to us. Just like the dynamic natural phenomena surrounding us, God continues to change according to unchanging principles. We therefore must be observant of His changes and be knowledgeable of the unchanging principles that govern them. When we understand God’s unchanging principles we will then know how to respond to God in the midst of changes.
Micah 6:8 succinctly sums up God’s unchanging principles for us, “He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Based on these unchanging principles, God wants us to remain dynamic and responsive to the volatile circumstances in life.
It is also based on these unchanging principles, we see the lives of saints unfold throughout the Old and New Testaments. What happens when these principles are kept? What happens when they are violated or deviated from? These are themes that persist not only in the book of Hosea but also throughout the entire bible. When there is reconciliation with God, the consequence is life. Just like what Prophet Ezekiel observed with his own eyes, between the land and the skies, in the valley, God resurrected the dried bones. He put tendons and flesh on the dried skeletons and breathed life into it. The dried bones became skeletons that became a body that became a breathing being that became a soldier of God. With many soldiers, they became an army of God- a dynamic army that react to changing circumstances according to God’s will. Subsequently, as an individual, we get to live. As a collective, we become powerful.
When the Lord says, “In the day I will respond….”
Will I say, “Truly, truly, I reciprocate…”?