This past weekend our family had our annual sibling gift expedition. Meaning the kids pick names out of a hat, we go somewhere all together and we split up to shop. The chosen place was Gurnee Mills. Never, ever again. Oy. There were so many people. I witnessed a mom walk ahead of her little kids on the phone not paying attention to them. I wonder if the mall should install crossing guards, stop lights, turn signals, to get to the other side. People were using shopping carts, full size, NUTS. Anyway, at some point I got very tired of being afraid of where my kids were…and i grabbed their hands. I walked, knowing that they were safe, because I held their hands.

In my Advent reading today, I found Hosea 11:1-4 . I thought, at first, yes, a prophecy of Jesus. David Guzik calls it an unexpected prophecy. Read the passage with me.

“When Israel was a child [a young nation], I loved him, And I called My son out of Egypt. The more they [the prophets] called them [to repentance and obedience], The more they went away from them; They kept sacrificing to the Baals And burning incense to the carved images. Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk, Taking them in My arms [nurturing the young nation]; But they did not know that I healed them. I led them gently with cords of a man, with bonds of love [guiding them], And I was to them as one who lifts up and eases the yoke [of the law] over their jaws; And I bent down to them and fed them.”
‭‭Hosea‬ ‭11‬:‭1‬-‭4‬ ‭AMP‬‬

This passage speaks of when Israel was called out of Egypt, but it also speaks of Jesus. It speaks of the moral decay of God’s people. They kept returning to idol worship.

But, God.

Side note. I need to do a study of that little phrase. But, God.

Anyway, Ephesians 2:4,

“But God, being [so very] rich in mercy, because of His great and wonderful love with which He loved us,”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭4‬ ‭AMP‬‬

Same thing happens here in Hosea 11. He reminds Israel that it was He who taught him to walk. He who took them by the hand. He rescued and healed them, even when they were unaware. He led them gently. He loosened the yoke. And he fed them.

Even though they were reckless in their devotion to God, Israel was rescued time and time again. And I should say, so are we. God teaches us how to walk with him. Talk with him by His word. By His testimony of faithfulness that threads through the entire Bible. He takes our hand and guides us through. Healings when we weren’t even paying attention. God met us.

He feeds us. He bends down, he humbles himself and loves us with tenderness. Remember in Philippians 2?

“Have this same attitude in yourselves which was in Christ Jesus [look to Him as your example in selfless humility], who, although He existed in the form and unchanging essence of God [as One with Him, possessing the fullness of all the divine attributes—the entire nature of deity], did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped or asserted [as if He did not already possess it, or was afraid of losing it]; but emptied Himself [without renouncing or diminishing His deity, but only temporarily giving up the outward expression of divine equality and His rightful dignity] by assuming the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men [He became completely human but was without sin, being fully God and fully man]. After He was found in [terms of His] outward appearance as a man [for a divinely-appointed time], He humbled Himself [still further] by becoming obedient [to the Father] to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
‭‭Philippians‬ ‭2‬:‭5‬-‭8‬ ‭AMP‬‬

God came down. He came to us. Today, I remember this. I remember his hand held out to me and walk with me. I am never alone.

Broken hallelujah.