This post is specifically connected to the Hosea study for St. Stephen’s Adult Christian Education program (but anyone please feel free to join in and use these practices). We are looking at Hosea through the different senses of Scripture, and we ran out of time before getting to the mystical sense this morning.
The following suggested mystic practices offer some entry points to listening to what God is whispering to you in Hosea 10-12:
Read Hosea 10-11:2 — Journaling prompt: If you found out your spouse cheated (let’s not even go as far as Gomer), could you stay? What would change in the relationship?
As an alternative, you could also approach this journaling prompt from the standpoint of a parent/child relationship.
Read Hosea 11:9 — meditate on the “otherness” of God. Try centering prayer with the word Holy.
Read Hosea 12:5 — In the Old Testament, using “the LORD” is shorthand for the specific name of YHWH (or “Yahweh”). The personal name of God is derived from the “to be” verb in Hebrew — the most commonly used word in any language is some form of the word “to be.” So, you could also center on the nearness of God with the word Yahweh.
Read Hosea 12:10-14 — As a visualization, meditate on — What does total destruction look like? (Go through all five senses).