Ishi

Driving home from prayer meeting last night I was listening to a message from Keith Daniel. His topic was love and as he is a man of strong belief in separation and standards, he also realizes that without love, holiness is ugly. Without love - anything is ugly. After all, this is the principle behind 1 Cor. 13. You can be the best speaker, have all faith, all zeal, all knowledge, be generous etc, etc but without love - nothing. On the other hand, with love, holiness is beautiful, separation is a powerful testimony and serves as a protective measure from the subtleties of Satan. So this morning I read in Hosea and stopped at this verse.

Hos 2:16 And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali.

Yeah, thats what I said - Huh?

I thought wow, I know alot of the names of God but I suppose I haven't studied or meditated upon Ishi. So, I looked it up. The meanings behind the names are that they both are appropriate and fitting titles for God but Baali denotes more of God as LORD - worthy of our fear and reverence and wary of crossing Him as we know His perfection and righteousness.

Ishi on the other hand is a title that denotes all the things we love to recognize about God - His love and compassion, His goodness, grace and longsuffering nature.

It is a prophecy that there will come a day when Israel will serve Jesus Christ, with a love, a joy, an overwhelming sense of appreciation and warmth.

May that be our motive today and everyday, recognizing, appreciating and as a result - reflecting the Love of our Saviour Jesus Christ.