Hosea, Part II

We are looking at the start of Hosea's prophetic career.  God's call is never easy.  God is more concerned about the message than the messenger.  That is not a cruel statement: By the time God has called His prophets, time is of the essence.  The event foretold may not come quickly, but it will come suddenly.  His people need to know enough in advance to repent, so that the event does not come upon them without warning.

We humans tend to wait until things are unavoidable and have descended into catastrophe before we act.  By then, the unfolding event has a power and life of its own, and cannot be stopped easily.  God loves Hosea, but He also wants His children to know that their status of being His chosen carries with it grave responsibilities and a call to holiness, both of which they are egregiously failing to do. 

Yes, it grieves God to place such a burden on Hosea, but what is going to befall the people in the northern kingdom of Israel is even more serious.  

Let us review God's call: 

When the Lord first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, “Go and marry a prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the Lord and worshiping other gods.” (1:2)

Hosea is demonstrating the message. Everywhere he speaks, his message will be reinforced by his own family--a family that is broken, chaotic and a violation of God's design.

Children are a sacred gift.  Marriage is a sacred gift.  Our relationship to God is a sacred gift. 

Hosea's family shows how prostitution and its violation of the marriage covenant results in children who don't know who their father is and thus, they live a life without roots and stability.  How will these children see God as their father when they don't even know their own?  They feel abandoned by whoever he is,  and they take that image and superimpose it over God's face.  

He becomes the father who doesn't honor the family. His abandons His children. 

God is the absolute opposite of this.  He is faithful to His people--He never violates His covenant with them.  He calls His people, "children," and makes Himself known to them through mighty acts, His Word and His presence.  He gives them roots.  Stability. Safety. His love for them never fails. He will never abandon them--even if everything around them says otherwise. 

God's love is fierce enough to step in and protect His people from the errors of their ways.  He does it by having prophets speak in His name: to guide, chastise and call them back. 

So, Hosea's message is not just about the people's apostasy; it is about God's character, and how utterly contrary it is to Hosea's family.  It is also contrary to the gods the people are serving.  These gods, with their demands and illusions of power, will abandon God's children in their time of need.

This will be sadly evident when the Assyrians march in. Where will all those gods be then?  Yes, you guessed it:  They will have abandoned their worshippers.

When we deceive ourselves, we always end up abandoned and alone. 

Enter the next part of the message: 

So Hosea married Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she became pregnant and gave Hosea a son.  And the Lord said, “Name the child Jezreel, for I am about to punish King Jehu’s dynasty to avenge the murders he committed at Jezreel. In fact, I will bring an end to Israel’s independence. I will break its military power in the Jezreel Valley.” (1:3-5)

As we noted in the last blog, everytime Hosea calls his son's name, he will be reminded of what is to come: the utter destruction of Israel's military capability and the scattering of His people. Everytime the people hear Hosea call his son's name, or see them both walking in the market square, they will be reminded of what is to come.  They think that their chosen people status and their military is protecting them from enemies. Wrong. God honors the covenant He made with His people, and it is Him alone who protects Israel. Not the army.  Not the so-called gods.  

Jezreel's name is a reminder that God wants His people to repent before the scattering begins.  

Next: 

Soon Gomer became pregnant again and gave birth to a daughter. And the Lord said to Hosea, “Name your daughter Lo-ruhamah—‘Not loved’—for I will no longer show love to the people of Israel or forgive them. But I will show love to the people of Judah. I will free them from their enemies—not with weapons and armies or horses and charioteers, but by my power as the Lord their God.” (1:6-7)

Hosea is not identified as the father. Gomer, despite the opportunity to be a wife, secure in her husband's love and concern for her welfare, again seeks the arms of another man. Why? She has Hosea now. Why is she out sleeping with other men?  

God is asking the same question.  Why, if you know that your army and gods aren't going to protect you, why are you, people of Israel, still sleeping around with those gods and your illusions of grandeur? 

Then the girl child receives the sad name of "Not Loved."  Has God really withdrawn His love for His people?  To show His people He is not walking away altogether, He declares His love and protection for Judah, the kingdom in the south. 

Is God trying to make Israel jealous?  

Why not?  God will woo, chastise, warn or do whatever it takes to secure Israel's repentance, because He is the Father of His people.  

But there more to come.

After Gomer had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she again became pregnant and gave birth to a second son. And the Lord said, “Name him Lo-ammi—‘Not my people’—for Israel is not my people, and I am not their God." (1:8-9)

God is pulling out all the stops.  These children, conceived out the marriage covenant, reveal the future:  God will step away from His people, for they keep sleeping around, bearing the children of sin, arrogance, unbelief and disdain for His holiness and their calling to be a kingdom of priests. 

They choose to be spiritual prostitutes. 

They are also choosing their future and the catastrophe that come. This is not just about being spiritually unfaithful, thought that is huge.  It's about being so narcissistic that you don't; notice or even care about the world outside your door.  All of Hosea's children are reminders that the world out there is important. One day, His people will find out that because they preferred sin over serving God, their world exploded.  

But God, whose heart is breaking, lovingly sends this coda to Hosea's message of God's anger: 

Yet the time will come when Israel’s people will be like the sands of the seashore—too many to count! Then, at the place where they were told, ‘You are not my people,’ it will be said, ‘You are children of the living God.’ Then the people of Judah and Israel will unite together. They will choose one leader for themselves, and they will return from exile together. What a day that will be—the day of Jezreel—when God will again plant his people in his land. (1:10-11)

Wow!  Even with those children walking around--"God Scatters," "Not Loved," and "Not My People,"  God takes that firstborn son and recrafts the root of his name to "God Plants."

Boom. The future has hope within it, despite what is to come.

No, the children of the northern kingdom of Israel will not repent.

No, they will not remain in the land but be scattered to the far winds. 

But yes!  They will be His people once again, too numerous to count.

But yes!  They will once more be a united kingdom, serving Him as His priests.  

But yes!  They will have a godly leader (instead of their current crop of evil kings).

But yes!  They will not only return to the land but will be established in it.  

New. 

Redeemed.  

Planted. 

Loved. 

Our God is always about the yes.

Even when we are not.