What is the greatest good? That is, of all the good things in life, which is the greatest? And where do good things come from? Those are fundamental questions for everyone to answer, and yet many seem confused about – or have forgotten – what the answers are.
Hosea addressed God’s people in a time of such confusion. The nation of Israel had sought help from other nations, and even from their gods, rather than from the God of Israel. And so God pictures them saying, “I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink” (Hosea 2:5; my italics, also below). The problem, of course, as God is quick to point out, is that Israel, “has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold” (2:8).
And can’t we be like that too? We enjoy many, many good things – both physical and spiritual – and we imagine that we have by chance or as a result of our own hard work, cleverness or goodness. Let’s not make Israel’s mistake, and be sure to acknowledge that it is God who gives them to us. But, more than that, let’s be clear that the greatest good we can enjoy is beyond any one thing God gives us; it is God himself, whom we ‘have’ through his Son Jesus Christ. So God promises the people of Hosea’s day, “I will betroth you to me forever … and you will acknowledge the LORD” (2:19-20).