“I will block her path with thornbushes;

I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.”

Hosea 2:6

Well, Hosea did as God told him to and married Gomer. She conceived and bore him a son, a daughter, and another son (1:3). Then things went awry. Gomer became restless, in spite of the love of Hosea: “I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink” (2:5). She had totally forgotten who had rescued her, protected her, loved her, and supplied all her needs.

As Hosea’s friends watch him suffer through adultery, the intense word picture becomes personal to them. God had rescued His chosen “bride” from Egypt, provided all they needed in the wilderness, and ushered them into the Promised Land with great victory. And instead of acknowledging His provision of grain, new wine, oil, silver and gold, they worshipped foreign gods (2:8). To draw them back to Himself He had to take drastic measures: thornbushes and brick walls!  

I know a little bit about thornbushes. At the end of that very hot summer last year I finally could stand the weeds no longer. I had no choice but to crawl into the holly hedge in my garden and dig and yank and pull. The thorns did their work, puncturing then causing bleeding under my skin. My arms were looking lovely. I should have worn that long-sleeved shirt as my husband suggested.

Done with that mess I headed for the roses to pick a bouquet and a tiny thorn embedded itself in my finger, lingering, for days.

Thornbushes and brick walls are intended to get our attention and turn us back to God, where we are better off anyways (2:7). The plain and simple of it is that with my God I can scale a wall (Psalm 18:29). And with my Jesus’ donning that painful, piercing crown of thorns to die for me, I will sing again (2:15)—as God promised Gomer and Israel.  

“I have come that (you) may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10), not live in the thornbushes on the other side of the wall.

Nancy P

All Scripture quotations are from the NIV 1973, 1978, 1984, unless otherwise noted.