Return to the Main Road

Hosea 2:5-7

“She said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
    who give me my food and my water,
    my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.’
6 Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes;
    I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.
7 She will chase after her lovers but not catch them;
    she will look for them but not find them.
Then she will say,
    ‘I will go back to my husband as at first,
    for then I was better off than now.”

I was driving in South Texas to a logging job for work, and it was dark. The thick South Texas fog had settled in, and the night became like a noose, choking my view of everything all around me. It was before the days of maps on your phone and a friendly Google voice saying, “In 300 ft, turn left.” I was lost and did not know where in the heck I was. I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere in the dark, because none of this looked familiar to me. Do I drive on and see if this is the way, or do I turn back?

For some of us, getting lost is a common thing. We just refuse to look at the map or pay any attention to directions. That night, directions made no difference. It was like someone had just placed me in a fun house with mirrors, and everything that looked familiar was warped.

Your life may look like this. Sure, you have a job and some responsibility, but you feel like you might be in a fun house, and not by choice. It is like someone has blindfolded you, placed you there, and left you to figure out a way out.

In Hosea, we read about a wife, the Israelites, who had gone astray and served other gods, and the plan to bring her back to her husband, the Lord. It says that she will go after her lovers who gave her food and water and wool and linen and olive oil, basically everything she needed. Sin is like that. It promises everything, and for a time, it also provides those things, but you end up far from where you need to be.

So, the next course of action is that you must find your lover and go get more, only to have your paths blocked and walls come up. You chase after the sin, but you cannot catch it, and you look for it but never find it. You come to a place where your sin has been revealed as wanting, never really satisfying you, leaving you feeling the bucket of life that has holes. “I will go back….”

Return to the Lord, the same one who put up those walls you could not climb. The one who hid sin away so that you could see how it leaves you lacking and in want. “For then I was better off than now.” How long will you seek what does not fill you? How long will you strive after empty promises? How long will you take to realize that Jesus has His hands open and His arms wide, ready to receive you and give you rest?

Just like in South Texas on a dark, foggy road, feeling lost and unsure, the best course of action was returning to the main road. It is time to return. Those roadblocks are from the Lord. Return, refresh, and renew yourself every morning with the water of the Word and the presence of God.

Prayer: Father, I pray that I recognize the roadblocks You put up to steer me back to You. I pray that I would heed Your providential direction and follow You only. In Jesus’ name, amen.