Eternity is a Long Time

  The application and the foreshadowing in Hosea 5:15-6:2 is amazing! God said: "I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me. Israel and Judah Are Unrepentant" (Hosea 5:15 ESV) And the people replied: “Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him." (Hosea 6:1-2 ESV) God wants us to turn to him with urgency and do so consistently; not just a one time crying out. The two days mentioned by the people before God raises them up is profound. Jonah was in the belly of the whale 3 days and it must have seemed like an eternity to him - but it was only 2 full days as Jonah was repenting and on the third day Jonah was released. This passage from Hosea, written 500 years or so before Jesus suffered on the