To the saints: The prophet Hosea was among the first of the writing prophets. He preached during the period leading up to the fall of Israel in 722 BC. His task was to expose sin and deliver the judgments of God to an unwilling people. While thundering with the curses of the Law, Hosea also extends the Lord’s offers of pardon. Here, Hosea whispers the promises of grace: “I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily; he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon; his shoots shall spread out; his beauty shall be like the olive, and his fragrance like Lebanon…I am like an evergreen cypress; from me comes your fruit.” (Hosea 14:4-6, 8) What does he mean? By this phrase, “from me comes your fruit,” the covenant God declares that the repentance and spiritual fruit of Israel will come from himself. The beauty and flourishing of the people of God will be the direct result of his planting: “from me comes your fruit.” As we approach the Lord’s Table this coming Sabbath, we remember that our faith, repentance, and all other spiritual fruits come from Jesus. We blossom as we abide in the True Vine. “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:4-5) We long to please our Father, to grow in grace, to go from strength to strength. Beloved, abide in Jesus today, look to him, pray for more of his fullness. He is at work in you. He prunes and waters the field of his planting. While we look for marks of conversion and character within us, we remember that even our brightest fruits come from him. “From me is thy fruit found.” (Hosea 14:8, Authorized Version)
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