Hosea 2:1

Hosea 2:1 says, Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah. There was to come a day when the people of God, those in both Israel and Judah, would again be called His people after they were delivered by His mercy.  This promise was not just to the Jews, but to the Gentiles as well.  Verse two adds, Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;  We have to remember that the church is called the bride of Christ, and the seed of Abraham were also to be in a relationship with God based on that same spiritual closeness.  God had entered into a relationship with Abraham and made promises to him based on Abraham and his descendants being faithful to Him. He alone was to be their God, but they became adulterous, chasing after other god's.  God asked those who were truly His to plead with those who had started chasing after other god's to return to Him.  The people of the nation of Israel at that time were not God's people due to their idolatry, but God waited to restore them to that right relationship if they would return to Him.  There are people today who are relying on earthly things to make them right with God, but it can only happen through a spiritual relationship based on faith in Christ alone.  Verse three continues, Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.  I believe that God was warning His people, those who professed to be His in name only, that He was going to remove His protection from them.  When we are no longer protected by God's mercy, we are indeed stripped bare of all defence against the evil of this world.  Since Christ is the living water that will keep us from thirsting again, we will die of spiritual thirst without Him.  Verse four states, And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms.  God was warning the people of Israel that He was no longer going to have mercy on them, because they were no longer His children spiritually.  We today need to be wary of allowing ourselves to profess to be followers of God when we are still chasing after the things of this world.  Verse five adds, For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.  Though this may have been what was occurring in the life of Hosea, it was a message to the people of Israel about their relationship with God.  They were looking to the world to provide their needs and rejecting their relationship with God.  We may think that we can find security in material possessions and not really need a close, personal relationship with God, but we only deceive ourselves.  Verse six continues, Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.  We need to remember that this was a call to the people of God to return to Him spiritually.  God hedges us from sin if we allow Him to, but sin can become a hedge between us and God's will if we allow it to.  Verse seven concludes, And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.  I believe God is telling us that we will never be able to find satisfaction thorough any false god, and only when we realize this and return to Him will we find true satisfaction in this world.  Nothing but obedience to the will of God can accomplish this.  God had not deserted the nation of Israel, but they had deserted Him.  We cannot be God's people if we are still serving the false gods of this world.