devotional post # 2097

Hosea 2:14-17

Hos 2:14 “for this reason, notice, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.
Hos 2:15 And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she will answer like she did in her younger days, like the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.
Hos 2:16 “And in that day, declares Yahveh, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’
Hos 2:17 Because I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they will be remembered by name no more.

tainted name

The Hebrew word ba’al was used earlier in the Old Testament. It was a word for husband (Genesis 20:3; Exodus 21:3). But In Hosea’s time, the word had become tainted, because it was also the name of the pagan gods who sought to encroach upon God’s exclusive relationship with his people. So, Hosea tells his people to stop using the name. In some languages, Allah is a generic name for any god. But the name is inappropriate because it has become tied to Islam.

We use names to signify relationships. When a term no longer means what it is supposed to mean, we need to rethink using it.

LORD, give us wisdom to express our relationship with you in terms that are not ambiguous or misleading.