Hosea 2:11
I will put an end to all her celebration: her annual religious festivals, monthly new moon celebrations, and weekly Sabbath festivities – all her appointed festivals.
Look at what is on this list–It’s all of the religious things that Israel was doing!
Somebody might say, “Wait, didn’t God ask them to do all of these religious things?” Yep, He did, but they were all for the reason of drawing closer to the one true God and they were doing these things for every deity on their list! They went all over looking for spiritual beings and the sacrifices or activities that would please them!
God is Jealous
There are a lot of people that don’t like the idea that God is a jealous God. The idea of being jealous or selfish seems controlling, limiting.
Honestly, I think people don’t like the idea of being controlled because they haven’t had somebody stick up for them. If you’ve been oppressed–and I mean really oppressed–and then you’ve had somebody step in and stick up for you, you appreciate jealousy.
Nobody likes to be the damsel in distress, but that’s what we are. Even our Christian books teach us how to be the manly-man hero and save our families/communities/churches that are the ones in distress. We are the ones that need to be saved, not the saviors. We are the ones that need spiritual acts done to us by our Lord, not the ones that need to do spiritual acts for our Lord.
May we end our religious hobbies and let our savior do what He is mighty to do–Save!