Ishi, My Lord.

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

What a strange verse! Why would anyone even care to dwell on that one at all? I mean, half of it is talking gibberish any way! It's one of those verses that should just be read over with no consideration to what so ever. In fact, because of verses like this, people should just quit reading the King James Version all together. Shoot, the whole Bible is filled with confusing verses like this, lets just forsake the entire book!

NO!

This particular verse is truly life changing. A small bit of research tells you, in plain English, the meaning of it. "And it shall be at that day..." that day is referring to the day that God rules through Jesus the Messiah and the relationship between Him and His people is restored. Are you wondering what "Baali" and "Ishi" mean? Well, Baali is saying that God is like a master or owner of His people. But, in "that day" He shall no longer be called that. Instead He shall be called "Ishi", or husband. He is saying that in that time we will have such a deep personal and intimate relationship with him as his bride that it will be like a beautiful and everlasting marriage, one without arguments over paint colors and finances. The marriage between Christ and His long awaiting bride will be one full of love and blessings from God! Doesn't this cause your entire being to feel a strong and desperate desire for Him? And the crazy part is, in this lifetime, we are only able to achieve small glimpses of Him and His love. An example of one such glimpse was Him dieing for us on the cross. We can't imagine greater love past this, yet He knows it well. Sometimes it's hard for us to wait for the day that we will truly be joined with our Husband and God, and I think, of all people, I should understand what this waiting is like. As a young girl I am naturally apt to dream of my wedding day and how marvelous it will be. I think it's one of the biggest events for any young person (but particularly girls) to get excited for. But, there are times when the waiting gets tedious and we want to seek out a lesser forms of the marriage by choosing crushes, flirting, pairing up, facebook stalking, and the like. I, and nearly every girl I know is guilty of this. We can hardly wait twenty years for this amazing, beautiful, and wonderful event to occur. Now, can you imagine waiting a lifetime to meet, not only your Husband who loves you more deeply than any other can, but also your Creator? How many times do we get tired of waiting and seek out a lesser form of His splendor in Heaven! 

I'm glad that we have scripture like this to return our focus to the wedding day. And you know what else, I think, when God had Hosea write this, He was also very excited for that day.