When you come to a town or a village, look for a worthy person,and stay there until you leave. When you enter
the house, wish it peace. If the people are worthy people, your peace will rest on them; if they are not worthy people,
your blessing will come back to you.

And if you are not welcomed, and your words are not listened to, leave that house or that town, and shake the dust
off your feet. I assure you, it will go easier for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment, than it will
for the people of that town.

Reflection:

God’s heartbreaking cry through Hosea is no different from the cries of many good hearted parents. They are heartbroken
as to why their children, raised with good intentions and good example,have gone away from faith andmorals. Their sense
of guilt of tengets doubled when they hearsome preachers scream that it’s all because of the faults in parenting, as sins of
the parents fall on seven generations.Today’s passage must console them—even God, as a parent,who took Israel by the
arms and nurtured her, was left heartbroken when she went off the track. Was it the failure ofthe father’s parenting that the
prodigal son left home in haste and the elder son stayed home but with no love in his heart? It is not always fault in parenting.
These are mysteries of human lives. Some have to go away briefly before they can find their way back, repentant. Our taskis
to keep our hearts and love open, as God does.

© Copyright Bible Diary 2022