“She will chase her lovers, but not overtake them; yes, she will seek them, but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better for me than now.’ For she did not know that I gave her grain, new wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold—which they prepared for Baal. Therefore I will return and take away My grain in its time and My new wine in its season, and will take back My wool and My linen, given to cover her nakedness.“—Hosea 2: 7-9
“Our backsliding is great; we have sinned against you” (Jeremiah 14:7, NIV).
There’s nothing more miserable than a backslidden believer. Once you have been close to God, loved Him, and walked with Him, experiencing a new and exciting life and insights, allowing sin to pull you away and darken your heart puts you in a miserable state.
Throughout Scripture, backsliding is serious. God likens it to committing adultery and portrays Himself as the heartbroken husband while His wife prostitutes herself to false lovers.
He withholds His blessings of grain, wine, silver, gold, wool, and linen, representing abundant care, provision, and love.
“She did not know,” He says. She did not stop to think of where all these riches came from, who provided them, who protected, fed, and clothed her —until it all stopped, and she found herself naked and alone in the world.
Backsliding is not only sinning. We all sin and can repent and be forgiven when our hearts are sensitive to the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
Backsliding is a coldness of heart, a loss of love. In a state where sin takes precedence over your relationship with the Lord, you lose the joy of your salvation and find yourself like the adulterous wife in Hosea, alone and naked. Or, like the prodigal son of the New Testament, living in a pig sty. Backsliding has consequences.
But the good news is that God will pursue us like a relentless lover, longing to bless you again.
