"Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. 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. "In that day," declares the Lord, "you will call me 'my husband'; you will no longer call me 'my master. I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked." (Hosea 2: 14-17)

I once urged business colleagues to seduce clients. The response was not enthusiastic, especially from my female colleagues.

God will allure Israel. The Hebrew is pathah. It means to seduce, to persuade and - depending on context - it can mean to deceive.

It also means to make open and spacious. In the the 25th Psalm we are told, "With patience a ruler may be persuaded (pathah), and a soft tongue breaks the bone."

Seduction certainly involves opening the mind and heart of another. Whether this is good or bad depends on what is to be achieved with the opening.

God intends to open the heart of Israel to experience whole and fulfilling love. She will no longer call to Baali (master) but to Ishi (husband, partner, even servant).

Above is cover art for a CD of music by Daniel Cain.