Alicia's Bible Blog
Hosea 5:15-6:3. God says he will "return to [his] place" until his people acknowledge their guilt and seek him in their distress. They will realize they need him and say "Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn, that he may heal us; he has stricken, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him... he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth."
This describes how we will feel when we have turned too far from God. As usual, it seems like God has turned from us, and is punishing us ("he has torn... that he may heal, stricken... and he will bind"). It is not, though, God punishing us, it is what actually happens to us when we separate ourselves from the source of all goodness and happiness - we suffer. The purpose of the suffering is to call us back. As God says here, when we have suffered enough, we will return to the Lord and he will come to us like spring rains (I love the soft, gentle imagery of his love as spring rains!).
I'm also intrigued by how, upon our return to him, this says he will revive us after two days and then raise us up on the third day that we may live before him. Obviously, this is a foreshadowing of Jesus' time in the tomb, but here it appears to apply to us. The two days are the two days that Jesus descended into hell - his body was entombed, while he allowed himself to be separated completely from the Father in order to open the gates of heaven for those who preceded him to the grave (I often think that this was more painful than his bodily suffering - the separation from the Father). There must be some reason why it was two days - there is no time in hell and probably felt like an eternity to Jesus since he was separated from the Father - but it was two days to those of us who experience time. Why? I do not have an answer, but I know there is a reason for it, it is not just happenstance.
The time that Jesus spent in hell was timeless to him and to the souls in hell, but we are told in the Gospels it was two earth days. Here, after repenting and turning back to God, God says that we will wait two days before he revives us, and on the third day he will raise us up. So it seems to me that this is not just a foreshadowing, but an actual reference to the two days that Jesus spent in hell. The souls there who saw him and believed had to wait two days for his Resurrection before they themselves could be "raised up" (able to reach heaven) on the third day.
I am thinking it doesn't apply to only the souls who were in hell at the time that Jesus descended into hell, but, because of what Hosea says here, maybe it applies to all souls. We all experience timelessness once we die, we only exist in time while here on earth. Perhaps the two days is a description of purgatory, the time we have to spend being cleansed in order to be raised up by Jesus "on the last day." I don't know, but it is so cool to think about this!
© 2021 mydaily.site