#soap # Hosea 11 ## Title: Dullness Toward God’s Goodness ## Scripture: (Hosea 11:1-2) “When Israel was a young man, I loved him like a son, and I summoned my son out of Egypt. But the more I summoned them, the farther they departed from me. They sacrificed to the Baal idols and burned incense to images. (NET) ## Observation: I recently listened to a lecture on Biblical theology. The professor made a claim that I originally disputed. He said, “When I try to teach about what happens when we die, no one cares about eternal life. They want to hear about Heaven. I am shocked that people do not care. They have become dull to the miracle of salvation.” When I first heard this, I did not agree. The greatest point of salvation is we have passed from death to life. We now look forward to the hope of living in eternal peace with God forever. Then, I realized the professor was right. My mind quickly shifted from that to wondering what it would be like. That’s okay to do, but not if we skip over that amazing miracle. Eternal life is among many aspects of God’s goodness that we take for granted. This is partially because we have a difficult time understanding such an infinite concept. We want to focus more on things we can grasp with our five senses. In this passage today, God is saying that the people of Israel took His voice for granted. The more He called, the further they walked away. Let us never get used to the goodness of God. Just being called by God is a miracle. The fact that He gives us so many more blessings is something we must continually remember. We are blessed beyond measure. ## Application: Take time and think of as many aspects of God as possible. Stop and be thankful for each one. ## Prayer: Thank You, Jesus, for who You are. You are good in an infinite number of ways.