My husband’s hobby is gardening, or, as I affectionately describe it, “puttering around in the yard.” Despite my good-natured ribbing, I greatly appreciate the lush results of his diligence. Now, after a few years of consistent care, our backyard flower beds have transformed from nondescript piles of lumpy, orange clay into a hidden oasis where wisteria vines dance across the fence. Hydrangea and peony blooms greet us throughout the summer months, and butterfly bushes, heavy with blossoms, host monarchs that flit about.
It’s a lovely, peaceful site and one that hinges on a single element more than any other for its survival: water. We’re fortunate to live in a part of Virginia that receives decent amounts of rain. Yet even so, summer temperatures can scorch our plants to such a degree that my husband spends 30 minutes watering on any day without significant rainfall.
Rain sustains life and allows for regenerative growth; it may be one of the reasons Hosea references it in 10:12, writing, “until He comes and sends righteousness on you like the rain.” It’s an allusion rife with meaning. Chapters 9 and 10, which lead to this pronouncement, make the dire situation clear—Israel’s behavior has been such that “they have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity; He will punish their sins” (Hosea 9:9). Hosea says, “Their hearts are devious; now they must bear their guilt” (Hosea 10:2).
And yet, there is hope; just as rain ushers in the promise of life in the midst of a dry and arid drought, so does Christ’s righteousness restore us to new life in and through Him. Without it, we perish, as Hosea 9:16 says, “their roots are withered; they cannot bear fruit.”
Israel had not only sinned, they had cultivated their sinful ways as a farmer cares for his crops; now Hosea calls them to instead “sow righteousness for yourselves and reap faithful love; break up your unplowed ground” (10:12). To sow takes purposeful effort, but the imperative is clear: “It is time to seek the LORD” (v.12). The psalmist echoes this humble posture of the heart, saying, “Consider my affliction and trouble, and forgive all my sins” (Psalm 25:18). Doing so will allow the merciful, redemptive rain of His righteousness to fall on us. And, like a garden in desperate need of sustenance, we will live.
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47 thoughts on "Israel’s Defeat Because of Sin"
Very convicting and a great reminder of the Gracious God we serve
Yes, Lord, it is time we seek you!
Lord, please break up the soil where I planted things that do not please you! Amen
So thankful that even though we are sinful Christ calls to us and redeems us through him
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Thank you ladies for your comments that have blessed my Monday morning! Lifting up @Melanie and @Sherri in prayer <3 I loved Hosea 10:12 it is time to seek the Lord indeed and stay close to the truth. Thank you for the comments about the Holy Spirit being like an alarm and whoever said "If I plow the soil of my heart, God will bring the rain." I wrote those two comments down in my journal. Have a blessed Monday everyone!
Might I suggest looking into Wendy Speake’s books, 40 Day Sugar Fast, or 40 Day Social Media fast. Both are designed to lead us back to spending time with God.
I love the psalms reminder that we only need to repent and humbly ask for forgiveness. It is a reminder that there is always hope.
God has made me so aware in just the past day of my sin and the work that is to be done in my heart. And I’m so aware of the ways I cultivate my sin, just as the Israelites did. But thank you God for coming alongside me and showing me a better way to sow.
Praying
I pray that these verses will inspire all of us to NOT keep our sins to ourselves. I pray that these verses will let us see how much space sin puts in between us and God and go to Him tonight and repent, and also receive forgiveness. He is everything!
Thank you my Sisters for the prayers, so thankful. Foster Mama, and ERB just went back to catch up on weekend comments and was so blessed by yours, thank you. Mari V, one day at a time, may you feel His strength as you return to work. Sherri, praying for you. I am in a place of learning again daily, how mighty is our God. Step in faith dear Sister and know I am doing the same, we will see how He meets us as we trust and obey. Will be praying for you to see His provision as you. Elaine Morgan prayed for your request dear Sister. Melanie for you and your FIL too. Praying you feel His love all around you in this difficult season and praying for His light overwhelming and encouraging your heart. Have to go or would write more, my littlest grand is awake from her nap and I am so blessed to be with her today. He is mighty, His love is unending and never fails us Sisters. Love to you all.
In so thankful for God’s forgiveness, in the midst of our sin. ❤️
Yes, it is time to seek the Lord! That’s what I’m going to hold onto from today’s reading. It was a hard one! If you will, please pray for me. I have PTSD and have been battling for almost 3 years with it. I would love prayers for healing, but also for a deep trust in the Lord in this process and for strength to endure. Thank you! And I hope you all have a lovely Monday.
Julia, this is the first fall in 30 years that I am not home schooling! I miss it but I am so thankful for all the blessings I am now reaping because of God’s call on our family to homeschool. We had years of struggling with different issues and I cried out to God and begged Him to take away those trails. I can relate to your heartache with Annie. I have gone down that road too. I am praying for you and your family! All I can say it stay strong in your commitments. You will see the favor of God pour over your family in time. If the mandates effect your children then God may be directing you to homeschool without the charter school. I have used some charter school help at times but I know I had to be diligent in not surrendering my values over the money they gave. We have been battling vaccine mandates too! Daughters have been able to receive religious exemptions so far for college and work but we don’t know how long this will last. Be strong and courageous, the Lord our God is with us!! My one daughter is looking ahead and realizing that she will probably lose her job because of the mandate but she is trusting God through it. I will keep praying for you as these are hard days your family is walking through but can be such a blessing too.
Mandy this was my first thought as well. I so agree. I am slightly surprised that this idea doesn’t come up more in comments, to me the parallels between Israel and the us are so obvious. In regards to revival I am praying the same, check out the Let Us Worship movement with Shaun Fuecht if you aren’t familiar with it. He’s currently doing 21 days of prayer for offer nation as well. Bring your rain of righteousness and revival on our nation lord!
There is so much in this study! I’m writing notes like crazy. Hosea 10:12 sow righteousness for yourselves and reap faithful love; break up your unplowed ground. It is time to seek the LORD until he comes and sends righteousness on you like rain.
SARAJOY – I loved your comments regarding gardening and the Lord. So good! Good to hear from you Tina! I live in Colorado where it never rains. I miss that cleansing.
Please continue to pray for my son. He choked again the other night. I need prayer as I’m starting to experience anxiety over it all. My husband is still in great pain. Praying that God gives him relief.
Prayers over all your requests.
Hosea 10:12 spoke to me today, especially “break up your unplowed ground. It’s time to seek the Lord until He comes and sends righteousness on you like the rain.” So what ground needs to be broken up and plowed in my life? I looked up unplowed ground and read a commentary about Hosea 10 and Jeremiah 4. God tells us to break up our unplowed ground and not sow among thorns. Jesus described thorns as worries of this life, deceitfulness of wealth and desires of other things. Mark 4:3-20 The worries of this life hit home. I need to plow this out of my heart so God can cultivate and produce fruit in my life. Fill me Lord with the fruit of the Spirit! Loved the gardening parallels you shared Sarah Joy. Thank you Angie for sharing, “the darker the night the brighter the light” which reminded me of SRT words on page 13 in the study book and from the podcast. “The darker prophecy gets, the bigger the cross appears.” I love this!! Keep our eyes on Jesus and our worries will be diminish! I went back over the prayer request from this weekend and I am praying for you ladies. Love seeing your post Tina. My heart always leaps in joy when I see your name come up on here, just like other names that often share their life and wisdom!
Sherri praying for you. Elaine and Melanie praying for you and your families . This reading was a little tough for me for some reason this morning. But as other have mentioned I too felt drawn to “it is time to seek the Lord”. At our church yesterday we talked about fasting which I have been considering doing to get some of the noise out of my life in order to hear God more clearly. I can’t fast from meals right now but thinking about what other things I can abstain from to devote that time to prayer. Thank you Jesus for Your righteousness, every time we study the OT I get first sad that I’m sure my behavior is like the Israelites in some way, then grateful that we have forgiveness of these sins through our Savior.
Praying for you Sherri!
Laura, I’m in a similar struggle with my own daughter. Praying for strength and encouragement for you and an awakening to Truth for your daughter! Jesus is able!! ❤️❤️❤️
Prayers for Sherri and Elaine. Grateful for the comments of Shannon and Tina! It’s raining where I am as well and I am rejoicing! Let righteousness rain… how appropriate!
Trusting in our own way instead of God’s never reaps good results! Hosea 10:13 Lord God, please help me to look to You, to trust You for all things and to obey You that you may rain down Your righteousness.
@all those who requested prayer – remembering you before the Lord this morning.
Blessings for today to you all!
Praying for Sherri, may the Lord God give you wisdom to make the right decisions and May He make it clear to you what path He has chosen for you to follow in Jesus name Amen
Praying for Stacy and David. Dear God please give your children divine healing and May their Joy be fully restored in Jesus name Amen
Praying for you Elaine
Praying for you, Sherri!
“Sow for yourselves righteousness,
reap the fruit of unfailing love,
and break up your unplowed ground;
for it is time to seek the Lord,
until He comes
and showers righteousness on you.” Hosea 10:12
Gardening and creation have so many parallels to our faith journeys, which is why they’re all over the Bible! I’m a gardening hack. My mom has a generous sized backyard vegetable garden, and I simply try my hand at a few things. A few seeds to throw out there as I consider these verses:
– When I transplanted some perennials from my neighbors yard, I unintentionally dug some other ground cover. How am I unintentionally adding unwise practices to my life because of thoughtless living?
– Being able to split my healthy perennials is a great joy. How can I sow righteousness and then spread that goodness around?
– My tomato plants did not do well this summer because we had a drought in Iowa, and I was not consistently watering over the course of the summer. How can I continuously soak up the water of the truth through reading, prayer, podcasts, meditation of the Word and community?
– The 50+ year old tree in our backyard was planted by a little boy and now shades most of our half acre. How do I plant seeds that will inspire and built up the generations behind me?
Catching up with the requests and comments from over the weekend. So much to bring to God. Whispering names. God knows. May you all find Him watering you with His love, grace and peace whatever your day brings. ❤️
Sherrie, praying that God gives you wisdom and insight to your situation and makes it very clear what that next step should be. He is faithful and true and I pray He will guide you and place a hedge of protection around you. Phil. 4:6-7
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Lord rain righteousness on us and turn our hearts to seek you. Amen.
❤️ Good morning sisters! Turning to the Lord for all things today. He is our provider and our protection. I am asking for prayer for my son in law. My daughter took him to the emergency room last night. He had suddenly become confused and was not making sense with what he was saying. It has been a rough summer for them. My daughter had surgery in May and before she could recover her her husband, David had to be hospitalized and eventually had open heart surgery. He was recovering nicely hoping to be able to return to work soon when suddenly he becomes so confused. They have ruled out the usual deficiencies as a cause of the confusion and the last I heard last night they were keeping him overnight and running additional test today. Please lift them up in prayer. Stacy and David. This has all been so exhausting and has caused them financial stress. My daughter is so afraid of what is happening. She is a strong Christian woman and it is so sad that they can’t seem to get a break. Please pray for God to shower them with mercy and to provide relief from these constant battles soon. I love you sisters and I am praying for you too. ❤️
These two phrases really struck me this morning from Hosea 9: “you have eaten the fruit of lies” and…”you have trusted in your own way…” because we are dealing with the continued rebellion of our young adult daughter, who has chosen to follow her own way, and has completely cut off her family and now our friend, who is doing the same thing despite all of her family and us, her friends, telling her that the path she is choosing is destructive, not only to herself but also to her daughters. Eating the fruit of lies that the World feeds us is dangerous. We cannot be deceived. Because that is exactly what Satan is doing. And Jesus followers and non-Jesus followers are falling for the lies. We need to stay close to the Truth. I want my heart to always pursue Truth – God’s Truth. Because when we veer from that Truth, the result is complete destruction.
Always time to seek the Lord. Thankful for this study each morning. ❤️
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16 Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am alone and afflicted.
17 The distresses of my heart increase;,
bring me out of my sufferings.
18 Consider my affliction and trouble,
and forgive all my sins. This is my cry this am more like an SOS. God help me and heal me. I continue to search my heart for unconfessed sin in my life. My FIL is still in the hospital since his transplant his BP has not been stable and it goes very low. It’s been 12 days and he wants to come home. I’m praying for God to touch my family
SRT Sisters, I rarely comment but read everyday and pray with you all. This is such an encouraging place to be every morning. I’m grateful.
I’m asking if you will pray for me today for God’s wisdom and peace and that He will make it abundantly clear what my next step should be. I’m living in an impossible situation and something has to change. I just want to do what God wants me to do. May His voice be the only one I hear.
Thank you Ladies.
Praying for you.
The readings today and devotional from both SRT and HRT remind me of a sermon I listened to this weekend, twice. Jim Brown, the pastor at Grace Community Church (Goshen, IN) spoke on our post-Christian world Sunday and his sermons over the last few weeks have been about his belief that we are in the final days. The 3 things that I hope stick with me as easy remembrances are: The darker the night the brighter the Light, Remember to play the long game and how many times John declares in Revelation 4 that God is on the Throne. This world feels dark, one spark from Jesus breaks the darkness. So often I get caught up in the heaviness of today. I see the evil, the choices being made around me, even those pushed against me, but I need to remember the long game-we win…because of Jesus.
Ladies, I LOVED Friday’s posts and detailed descriptions of the 3 norths. Wow, so powerful. I pray for the Holy Spirit to be like an alarm that goes off in my head, heart, and body when I veer off even slightly. It is so easy to do, especially when we think we are following true north and it turns out to be magnetic north instead. It is so important we are in the Word and growing closer to our God so that we recognize our Savior’s voice as it leads us.
@ Mandy Amen in agreement with your prayer!!! May God please have mercy and may all be drawn to God, see the depths of our sins, humbly and sincerely repent, turn from evil, and be saved. As you said, May lives be changed. Also, May our laws, and statutes, and what’s acceptable be changed to be pleasing to God. Amen.
Shannon Darrow, Agreed! Thankfully the battle belongs to the Lord, may we obey His battleplans for us so that we may experience His victory.
May the Lord be with you this day, guiding your steps and filling you with His wisdom and peace.
So many similarities to our current societies in today’s reading. Especially here in the US, it seems like more and more each day we are getting further and further from the Lord and His Word. “It is time to seek the Lord” couldn’t be more timely, as we are all desperately in need of His grace and forgiveness. Lord, I pray that humanity turns back to You, that there would be a massive revival and lives would be changed as they seek Your grace. Lord, soften their hearts and help them to chase after you before it is too late. In Jesus’ mighty name, amen. xx
What we sow, we will reap. If we sow wind, we will reap the whirlwind. If we sow wickedness, we will reap injustice. But if we sow righteousness, we will reap faithful love. If we plow the soil of our hearts, God will give the rain. He will make sure that fruit will come, if we just seek His face.
Seeking the Lord always, with you my sisters..
It’s absolutely raining here this morning, you know the sort that soaks you right through… I love it! I have often said when it rains, that God is reigning( play on words) on us soaking us through, (permeating us)! The dross on the outside is being cleaned, yes even through the soakingwet clothes!
I may not always visible, but ALWAYS here in spirit… praying for all requests silently, and praying all are well, healing, growing inside mamas, hearts are knowing peace in mourning, praying for your loved one in need of prayer as asked.. look after you.. wrapped in love, always..❤
it is never to late to seek our Lord, He is waiting for us with open arms!
It is time to seek the Lord. It is always time. But sometimes it feels like a much greater need. Remembering to seek in praise as well as in despair is not always equal. It is time for me to seek the Lord because I am tired. I’m tired of feeling like many around me are always ready for battle. Kids school. Family. The media. Communities. And always more. It is time to seek the Lord to find peace within the noise and to find the truth and wisdom to persevere. I thank God for every ounce of clarity I get and ask for him to keep me close always.