(REFLECTIONS ON Hosea 2:1-23)

“The grass is always greener on the other side,” is a term we often use to describe our tendency to look at others, other places, and other situations as better than ours. For believers, it could represent constantly looking out to find a better situation in life, not realizing sometimes that where we are is already full of blessing.

Rather than always comparing and looking for something better, the lesson seems to be to know what we have, know who we are, and appreciate that we are already people of grace in Christ Jesus.

More importantly, it is about our heart attitude and trust that the path that God provides with Him at the lead is the best, rather than trying to make our own path or following the path of others, thinking that the grass is always greener on the other side.

Israel found out that the grass is not always greener on the other side. They said,

5b “I will go after my lovers,
Who give me my bread and my water,
My wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.”

Yes, Israel was mistaken, thinking that all that they had came from their surrounding nations and their gods. When they looked out at the power of Assyria, Egypt, and their Baals, they must have thought that “over there” was better than “here.” This also meant that in their hearts, they believed God wasn’t enough.

Yet, Israel will realize that trusting in other nations and their gods is not better, but rather an empty promise.

7b “I will go back to my first husband,
For it was better for me then than now!”

In fact, it seems like Israel completely lost sight of all the blessings that they had received from the Lord. Rather than knowing the grace shown to them, they took that grace as their own possession and used what they had to worship other gods.

8 “For she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the new wine and the oil,
And lavished on her silver and gold,
Which they used for Baal.”

The grass is not always greener on the other side. It is a reminder for us to consider who we are in Christ, and what we have in Christ. Let us not go chasing after “other things,” because they seem so tempting and so much better than what we have now.

What we have now, and perhaps more importantly who we have now, is a true gift of God for the salvation of our souls in this life and eternity. Yes, it perhaps it is human nature to drift, to have a wandering eye, to think “what if,” and there is grace in it because as the Lord would call Israel back to Himself, the Holy Spirit constantly draws us back through Christ, to our Lord.

19 “I will betroth you to Me forever;
Yes, I will betroth you in Me in righteousness and in justice,
In lovingkindness and in compassion,
20 And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness,
Then you will know the Lord.

Through Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit, God is forever, righteous, just, full of lovingkindness and compassion. It is the Lord’s faithfulness that gives hope to those that wander, but the pain and consequences of a wandering heart came sometimes be avoided if we remember that the grass is not always greener on the other side.

Pastor Michael Lu
Enduring Word Bible Commentary: Hosea 2