Tehillah Generation Chapel
Daily Manna | Monday, June 4, 2018 | Topic: Conscience 36
Scripture: My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. Hosea 4:6
Note: The largely agrarian economy of Israel ensured that the majority of the citizenry subsisted on the extensive gains of the agrarian value chain of the economy. Many people were poultry farmers comprising mostly nomadic shepherds in charge of cattle, sheep and goats, that fed directly into an economy that was heavily dependent on religious rites requiring animals for various sacrifices. The wool of the animals also served as a great source of income for the owners as it was the raw material source for providing warm clothing and footwear.
The olives, figs and the vines served as the raw material base for producing oil and wine. Crop farmers focused primarily on wheat and corn production to provide for the daily food needs of the people. Most thriving economies have a disingenuous way of attracting people whose desire and goal in life are to make quick money off hardworking people. Criminality and prostitution were some of the unsolicited appendages to the economy.
Hosea’s wife, Gomer, had an old life that was entirely dependent on prostitution for a living prior to her marriage. Repentance and a changed life from her past had endeared him to Hosea, who was a prophet. Gomer had been married to Hosea and had given birth to her first child, Jezreel. Gomer’s old life in prostitution had rewarded her with plants of olive, figs and vine trees that served as continued source of income during her marriage. Thus, Gomer had a fallback plan on her assets that she acquired from her numerous lovers. These provided her with additional income.
The “Go your way, I go my way” mantra that existed in the marriage between Hosea and Gomer had extended to the way they shared their individual incomes. Having been accustomed to a lavish, old lifestyle of prostitution which brought her quick rewards that made her rich, Gomer’s new and relatively solitary lifestyle in marriage required a whole new lifestyle adjustment consistent with commitment, loyalty and faithfulness to her husband. Her marriage after the birth of her first child, brought additional challenges to her marriage. Instead of resolving issues with her husband, Gomer opted to fall on the rewards that she obtained from her previous lovers.
Food for thought: The wrong tendency to lazily fall back on our old lifestyle to solve current problems, is a backward move into bondage.
Declaration: And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she had said, “These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. Hosea 2:12
©Author: Rev Fred Aboe
