I set my love on you and chose to demonstrate it to you.

I have loved you deeply from your very beginning.

As one who picks up an infant and holds you to my cheek, 

I showed you tender love.

I was the one who taught you how to walk.

I loved you when you were weak and helpless.

I loved you when you were an outcast and enslaved.

I stooped down to care for you and gently fed you,

even when you did not acknowledge that I was your healer.

I took you up in my arms and carried you

and gently pulled you to my heart in a bond of love (Hosea 11:3-4 paraphrased).

That declaration of the Father’s love to the ten northern tribes of Israel had followed a serious warning. In fact, there were two hundred years of warnings. He had done everything He could without violating human will. 

He called to them, declared His tender love for them, and warned them. The people needed to continue planting the good seeds of righteousness—all that was right and just—and harvest crops of love. They also needed to plow up new ground—the hard ground in their hearts—to be receptive to His gift: seeds of righteousness that only He could shower on them. 

But they would not. They had “cultivated wickedness and harvested a thriving crop of sins.” They had “eaten the fruit of lies, trusting in their own might.” Now all their fortifications of protection would fail (see Hosea 10:12-13). Their cup of evil had filled up to the tipping point and the harvest was self-destruction. The Assyrians would flood their land and take all ten tribes into slavery. The Northern Kingdom is called “The Lost Tribes—their legacy to this day. 

The Father continues to offer His love to all humanity. He chose to demonstrate it to us by sending His Son to walk among us. He offers salvation, deliverance, and healing, imparting wholeness, restoration of favor, comfort and care.

His warnings spoken to us and through us are acts of love. Don’t be silent in this hour. We have a world at a tipping point. We have prodigals who have deconstructed and disavowed their belief in God. 

Release prayers that will uncover and counterattack the hidden agendas of the Adversary. Tell your neighbors about the Father’s love. Speak up about the sanctity of human life, marriage, babies, and family. Be “salt” and “light” in the Earth. Take a stand for justice and influence the governments of your city, state, and nation.