Prostituted Themselves

Judges 2:14-17 - So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies.Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for harm, as the Lord had warned, and as the Lord had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress. Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so.

Psalm 4:1 - Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!

2 Samuel 7:10-11 - And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house.

Exodus 34:13-16 - You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.

Hosea 2:2-3 - “Plead with your mother, plead—for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband—that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts; lest I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst.

Application:

• ·         Very often the righteousness of God in the Psalms refers to the faithfulness with which He acts. This faithfulness is in full accordance with His commitments to His people and with His status as the divine King—to whom the powerless may look for protection, the oppressed for redress and the needy for help.
• ·         It is God’s building that effects His kingdom.
• ·         Partaking of food sacrificed to a pagan deity invites compromise.
• ·         Hosea’s marriage, like Israel’s with God, was broken by unfaithfulness, but reconciliation, not divorce, was sought.

All Scripture verses taken from ESV