Yesterday we talked about how God wants us to settle in our homes (Hosea 11:11). The ESV and some other translations give another thought to this Scripture: “I will RETURN them to their homes, declares the Lord.” In other words, when we get away from our homes, God wants to return us back to our homes for this is where He has placed us.
The picture God gives of a blessed family is of the wife in the heart of her home with all her children sitting around the table (Psalm 128:3). If we read the Scriptures and hearken to God’s voice, we will voluntarily return to the home.
However, in this passage God had to use might to get the people back to their homes. Hosea 11:10, 11 says: “He will roar like a lion: when he roars his children shall come trembling from the west, they shall come trembling like birds from Egypt and like doves from the land of Assyria, and I will RETURN them to their homes, declares the LORD.” I hope God doesn’t have to ROAR to get our attention to draw us back!
We get a little more understanding how God feels about this when we read Micah 2:9: “The women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children have ye taken away my glory forever.” God was angry because the women were forced from their homes. Is God angry at the voices of humanism and feminism which coerce and draw women out of their homes where God has placed them? God called them “pleasant” homes. The word means “delightful.”
However, God was not only angry that the mothers were taken from their homes. He was angry because the children were taken from their homes! God calls the inheritance of children being raised in the home “my glory.” We better tread carefully about what we do with what God calls His “glory.”
The HCSB translation says: “You take my blessing from their children forever.”
AMP: “You take away my splendor and blessing forever (by putting them among pagans, away from Me.)” Wow, those are powerful words. God says that when children are taken out of the home to be cared for by pagans who don’t love and worship Him that they are taken away from Him. He wants children to be raised in His presence, in His truth, in the sacred atmosphere in the home of godly parents. How much do we revere God’s Word? I feel the fear of God in my heart when I read these words.
NLT: “And forever stripped their children of all that God would give them.”
NET: “You defraud their children of their prized inheritance.” God says it is children’s inheritance to be raised in the home.
May you and your precious children be blessed with all the blessings of God in your home today.
Love from Nancy Campbell
Painting by Jim Daly