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Hosea 3:5 Afterwards the Israelites will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king.  They will come trembling to the LORD and to his blessings in the last days.

Hosea’s prophecy takes us deep into the very heart of God as it speaks of the effect of Israel’s sin of blatant, inexcusable unfaithfulness in response to the constant outpouring of his steadfast, intimate love on them.

Because he is, by nature, just, the outpouring of his wrath on their sin will drive them away from him, but, because of his covenant promises they will, in the ‘last days’, realise the enormity of what they have done and will return, trembling with broken, contrite, repentant hearts and earnestly seek him once again .. and he will show them compassion, forgiveness and full restoration, into his arms as his forever ‘Bride’.

The truth of all this was revealed in principle, and with full assurance, to the Old Testament ‘saints’, but what it would cost God, in the sending of his One-and-Only Son among us to die a cruel, painful, shameful death as punishment for our sin to satisfy his justice, could only be somehow anticipated by them.  Isaiah gets close to the reality in Chapter 53 of his prophecy, as does David in Psalm 22, and Zechariah predicts it in 12:9-10: “On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.  And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication.  They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.”

As we reflect on these prophecies that have their source in our trustworthy, faithful, loving God, and as we look forward in hope for the Return of the Lord Jesus Christ in power, do we pray earnestly and constantly for Jewish people?  And, in the light of God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:2-3 about his being a channel of blessing to ‘All peoples on earth’, do we pray for people of every nation (including HAMAS!) – that he will ‘pour out a spirit of grace and supplication’ so that they will “look on [him], the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son”, turning to him, in repentance-and-faith, as the Prince of Peace and only Saviour?

– Bruce Christian