Hosea on Human Trafficking

As some of you know, the Lord has given me a heart for victims of human trafficking-the women and children forced into prostitution. So this verse really spoke to me on their behalf, "I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore, nor your brides when they commit adultery; for the men themselves go aside with prostitutes and sacrifice with cult prostitutes, and a people without understanding shall come to ruin." (4:14). What a huge responsibility men have, and while there are several men striving for godliness, there are so many more that are lost and are abusing women all over the world. Let's look at Thailand.  In Thai culture it is the responsibility of the female children to provide for their parents when they decide to retire. Well, in the villages of Thailand most Thai men are extremely lazy, drunkards, and womanizers. The young girls are pressured by their culture to provide for their families and since they have no education they go to the city to do the only job they are offered-bar girl. If their fathers took responsibility their daughters would not have to live in such darkness, with so much shame, guilt, and depression. Their fathers take their sons to see the prostitutes and "become a man" and they either don't see, or don't recognize that it is their daughters that are being abused and used. It's not just the Thai men that go to prostitutes; Thailand is known for sex tourism. Men from Europe, Australia, and North America travel to Thailand for the sole purpose of buying sex. These acts only bring you to ruin! The lust is satisfied for only a moment and will return. Repent and turn to the True Lover of your soul. Leviticus 19:29 also says something about this matter, " Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, lest the land fall into prostitution and the land become full of depravity." The Thais have made their daughters prostitutes, and their land is very much depraved. I have seen it, I am mourning it, and I am living in anticipation to see the Lord redeem it.

In conclusion I have learned that it is silly and it really doesn't make any sense to follow the idols of the heart. Jeremiah 17:9 says "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick, who can understand it?" My heart truly is deceitful, which is why I need to look to the Lord and not to my heart. Israel was so lost in their idol worship, that they had forgotten their purpose-that they were chosen to be set apart so that they could point the nations to God. Instead they were "swallowed up; already they are among the nations as a useless vessel" (Hos. 8:8). This to me is one of the saddest things about our sin. When we are so caught up in it we are useless. We all have a purpose in life and that is to know the Lord and to seek Him and to do His will which is to make disciples of all nations. We cannot do that if we are wandering away from him and following the things of this world. So now "it is time to seek the Lord, that He may come and rain righteousness upon you" (Hos. 10:12b).