Chap. 6:1-4  People plan to return to God. But God recognizes how fickle their professed love is.  6–7  NLT  – “I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices,  I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.  But like Adam you broke my covenant and betrayed my trust.”

Chap. 7:1-2  Long ago we sang a song like this:  “You can’t do wrong and get by; No matter how much you may try.  Nothing hidden will be, everything He doth see.  You can’t do wrong and get by.”  8  Compare the phrase “half baked idea” or saying a silly person is “half baked.”  See along with verse 11.  They are like a dove, easily deceived and senseless.”  Often a dove is a symbol of love.  “Love” that is the picture people want to use for God. Do you wish to claim only a God of mercy and love, and reject a God of Justice and vengeance against evil?

Chap. 8:7  Well-known saying, but many may not know it is  from the Bible.  Oft quoted, “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.  12  NLT “Even though I gave them all my laws they act as if those laws don’t apply to them.”  We had better not stretch the “law of liberty” and the “age of grace” too far.  Remember liberty does not  mean license!

Chap. 9:10-11  God is hopeful in his love But they consecrated themselves to shameful idol and became as vile as the thing they loved.  If you become as the things you love, what will you look like?  12-16 punishment extended to children.  – Ezekiel definitely points out that God does good or evil according to each generation’s behavior no person will be lost because of a wicked father, neither will any be rewarded because of a righteous father BUT the sins and righteousness of the fathers will affect the environment of the children; thus, some are blessed and suffer because of the circumstances in which they were born and raised.

Chap. 10:1-3  Blessings often lead to pride and destruction  4 Interesting  12 Wise advise  13 Why problems?  (plowed wickedness, reap what you sow)

Chap. 11:1-4  How precious!  I love this beautiful picture of a father holding the hands of his child teaching him to walk, and of God bending down to feed his child.  8-11 God’s mercy because of His love.

Chap. 13:6-7  Pride comes in good times…So  14 this passage is repeated by Paul in I Cor. 15:55.

Chap. 14:1-3  returning to God  4-8  God’s acceptance  9 Wisdom

 Do you like Christian Fiction? Redeeming Love is the title of a Christian fiction book by Francine Rivers which modernizes the story of Hosea.  A very good book about the difference in the sexual act of a prostitute and the sexual intimacy in marriage.  A wonderful analogy of God’s love and pursuit of his children.