Ammi & Ruhamah

The Bible is so cool. It really is a commentary on itself. It also supports itself. There have been times when I thought that it contradicted itself but when you read things in context it all makes sense.

Anyway, I want to show two sections in two different books in the Bible that talk about the New Covenant before Jesus showed up in his physical body.

The first is Hosea 2:14-23
¹⁴ "Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the desert
and speak tenderly to her.
¹⁵ There I will give her back her vineyards,
and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she will sing as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
¹⁶ "In that day," declares the LORD,
"you will call me 'my husband';
you will no longer call me 'my master.'
¹⁷ I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips;
no longer will their names be invoked.
¹⁸ In that day I will make a covenant for them
with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air
and the creatures that move along the ground.
Bow and sword and battle
I will abolish from the land,
so that all may lie down in safety.
¹⁹ I will betroth you to me forever;
I will betroth you in righteousness and justice,
in love and compassion.
²⁰ I will betroth you in faithfulness,
and you will acknowledge the LORD.
²¹ "In that day I will respond,"
declares the LORD—
"I will respond to the skies,
and they will respond to the earth;
²² and the earth will respond to the grain,
the new wine and oil,
and they will respond to Jezreel.
²³ I will plant her for myself in the land;
I will show my love to the one I called 'Not my loved one.'
I will say to those called 'Not my people, ' 'You are my people';
and they will say, 'You are my God.' "

When it says 'Not my loved one' in verse 23, it says 'Lo-Ruhamah' in the Hebrew.

When it says 'Not my people', it says 'Lo-Ammi".

So when it 'You are my loved one' it actually says 'Ruhamah' ('Lo" essentially means 'not') and when it says 'You are my people' it actually says 'Ammi'.

Next I want to look at Hebrews 8:8-12 (Which also appears in Jeremiah 31:31-34).

"The time is coming, declares the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.

⁹It will not be like the covenant
I made with their forefathers
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they did not remain faithful to my covenant,
and I turned away from them, declares the Lord.

¹⁰This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time, declares the Lord.
I will put my laws in their minds
and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.

¹¹No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,'
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.

¹²For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more."

Again in verse 10 He says 'They will be my people'. Ammi.

What am I saying here? If you read both descriptions of this covenant it is all about what God will do.

He will marry us in righteousness, love, justice, faithfulness, and compassion. (Hosea 2:19-20)

He will be faithful because we can't be. (Hebrews 8:9) (Hosea 2:20)

He will allow us to lie down in safety. (Hosea 2:18)

He will speak tenderly to us. (Hosea 2:14)

He will turn trouble into hope. (Hosea 2:15)

He will restore us. (Hosea 2:15)

He will renew our youth. (Hosea 2:15)

He will make the covenant. (Hebrews 8:10) (Hosea 2:18)

He will call us His loved one. (Ruhamah). (Hosea 2:23)

He will call us His people. (Ammi). (Hosea 2:23) (Hebrews 8:10)

He will forgive and forget our sins and show us grace & mercy. (Hebrews 8:12)

And we will say, "He is our God"(Hosea 2:20), and we will know Him (Hebrews 8:11).

So I am telling you that you are Ammi and Ruhamah - God's loved people.