and make her as bare as on the day she was born;
I will make her like a desert,
turn her into a parched land,
and slay her with thirst."
God talking about the people of Israel. They continue to disobey God, and at this point He's fed up with them. He says He will take away everything that they have and strip them bare as when they were born.
" 5 Their mother has been unfaithful
and has conceived them in disgrace.
She said, 'I will go after my lovers,
who give me my food and my water,
my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink.'"
We say this many times.. We seek other things in this world such as money and lovers deceiving ourselves of these fantasies that worldly things will give us happiness and satisfaction. Sometimes we say that our friends and/or family are all that we need, but much more than that, we need God.
" 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.'"
Don't we all feel like this at times? We seek after worldly things. We seek love from others, seek attention, seek to satiate our own selfish desires. But in the end, we always come back to the same conclusion--that nothing can satisfy than our Lord. And we repent and go back to Him.
"14 "Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the desert
and speak tenderly to her.
15 There I will give her back her vineyards,
and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she will sing as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of Egypt."
I love these verses.. After all the harsh things that God said He would do to such spoiled people, He will still bring them back and restore them. Our God is a jealous God, but He wants us to learn and come back to Him because He loves us so much.
