Searching for the Good Stuff.

I remember as a child going out during the summer and picking wild raspberries. What a delight to come home with a kettle full of berries. Not simple because they tasted good but because I know what they would become. My mom would turn them into pies, and jellies. Yum, yum.
God is telling Israel He found then like wild grapes. He gather them in knowing what they could become but rather then yielding to the plans of God.

Now they are about to become something far worse.

Hos 9:10-10:1
10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness;
I saw your forefathers as the earliest fruit on the fig tree in its first season.
But they came to Baal-peor and devoted themselves to shame,
And they became as detestable as that which they loved.
11 As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird —
No birth, no pregnancy and no conception!
12 Though they bring up their children,
Yet I will bereave them until not a man is left.
Yes, woe to them indeed when I depart from them!
13 Ephraim, as I have seen,
Is planted in a pleasant meadow like Tyre;
But Ephraim will bring out his children for slaughter.
14 Give them, O Lord — what will You give?
Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
15 All their evil is at Gilgal;
Indeed, I came to hate them there!
Because of the wickedness of their deeds
I will drive them out of My house!
I will love them no more;
All their princes are rebels.
16 Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up,
They will bear no fruit.
Even though they bear children,
I will slay the precious ones of their womb.
17 My God will cast them away
Because they have not listened to Him;
And they will be wanderers among the nations. NASU

So now the choice is now up to you. Will you become what God intends or will you be like Israel and stray away.

Explore for yourself!

1. What are the "days of Gibeah?" What will God do?
2. What was Israel like? What did God see? What they seek?
3. What did they become like? What happened to their glory?
4. What is happening to the family lines? What warning is there for them?
5. Despite being planted in the meadow....what will happen?
6. What will God give them? What won’t they have any longer?
7. What will befall them? Why?
8. Where will they "be"?
9. What warning is there for us in all of this?