#DailyDevotion Jesus Calls Us To Call Him Ishi, My Husband
Hos. 2 14“So I will coax her, have her go into the wilderness, and speak to her heart. 15There I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Trouble a door of hope. There she will respond as she did when she was young, as she did when she came out of Egypt. 16Then,” says the LORD, “she will call Me ‘Ishi’ [My Husband] and no more call Me ‘Baali’ [My Master], 17because I will get rid of the names of the Baals in her mouth; they will never be mentioned again by name.
The LORD switches from Law to Gospel here in these verses. I believe we are looking eschatologically here, i.e. the Last Days. Certainly this is not in the time of the prophet or any time since, except when we see Paul seeing the fulfillment in our time with the “Not My People” and “No mercy” being fulfilled in the Gentiles as they are now called “My People” and those He has mercy on.
Despite what we see actually happening in the wilderness with the Israelites after they cross the Red Sea, the LORD looks upon that time with Israel as the best time in their relationship. The LORD in the prophets often calls the Israelites to the wilderness when they depended on Him, and did not forget Him when they had it good in the land He had promised them.
So John the Baptist appears in the wilderness and calls the Jews to return to the LORD their God. You might be thinking, “Weren’t they worshiping the LORD only at His temple?” Well they may have been there and they may have not been calling on any other gods names, but as Jesus notes, they had the semblance of worship but their hearts were far from Him. So John returns the children’s hearts back to their fathers as prophesied in Malachi 4. Jesus also appears in the wilderness, whose way John the Baptist prepared, calling the Jews to repentance, coaxing them and speaking to their hearts.
The Israel the LORD is speaking to is no longer just the physical descendants of Abraham but to those who will put their faith in Jesus Christ the LORD. We are looking forward to the New Heaven and New Earth in verses fifteen and following. There, the Valley of Trouble (Achor) is made a door of hope. What is this Valley of Achor but the grave which opens to us the Paradise of the LORD.
When we have all passed through the fire of the Last Day and enter that new world, we will be like Israel (or at least how God remembers Israel) when they were in the wilderness with Him. But we also as we await that day live in the wilderness of this world. Here we live by faith in the Living God. Here we are Bride of Christ. We do not call Christ “our Master” (Baali) but “my husband” (Ishi literally my man). The false gods of this world look upon us as their subjects and demand sacrifice. Our God becomes man and sacrifices Himself for us. He removes the names of the false gods from our lips, e.g. we cease calling upon them to provide all our needs. Instead, we call upon the name of the Bride-groom, our LORD Jesus Christ and trust Him to provide us what we need today. We look to Him to carry us in this world of tears and bring us to that new Promised Land, the New Jerusalem, where the water of life flows freely, the trees of life produce their fruit in due season, and we live with the LORD forever.
Heavenly Father, continually coax us in this wilderness with Your Good News, so we may be Your People, the Bride of Your Son, Jesus Christ, and live and dwell with You forever. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.