I Didn't Sign Up For This

Introduction

The book of Hosea is an incredibly brutal read for us romanticized thinkers of the 21st century. This is not the fairy tale story we imagine would come from the Bible. Let’s just consider a few points from this book.

Israel and Judah, who are in a marriage [covenantal relationship] with God, are in a idolatrous relationship with the gods of their neighboring nations

God uses Hosea’s relationship to portray Israel’s infidelity by commanding him to marry a prostitute

The prostitute goes out to have adulteress relationships with other men, so Hosea can prophecy to Israel— “this is what you look like”

Hosea is commanded to buy his wife back and treat her well, as if she never violated their covenant

Hosea is now married to a wife who has children from the men who bought her for sex while being married

And all of this happened under the commandment of God.

Now, here I am going to warn you—what I will say for the remainder of this sermon is going to challenge every single thing you ever thought about God. It’s going to challenge your idea of church, happiness, and life. Yet, when I am done, I hope you will see that we have to engage the pain-staking challenge of rediscovering life in lieu of Scripture to obtain the best life we have been promised by God.

Here’s the question I want you to ponder: What do you do when God’s direction for your life take away your happiness?

At a very low moment in my life, I began to reflect upon what the Bible has to say about happiness. At the same time, I was reading through the book of Hosea. It is probably not the best time to read through a book like Hosea. Yet, such was the case. The startling beginning of Hosea 1:2 is what led to this sermon. Hosea 1:2 reads, “2 When the Lord first spoke to Hosea, he said this to him: Go and marry a woman of promiscuity, and have children of promiscuity, for the land is committing blatant acts of promiscuity by abandoning the Lord.” Immediately, my heart went out to Hosea. I immediately began lamenting this pour man’s plight. Questions of “how is this fair?” began to run through my mind. Furthermore, I began to question how God could jeopardize someone’s happiness in this way. Doesn’t God want us to be happy?

The Ongoing Conversation on Happiness

The dialogue on happiness has been ongoing since the days of ancient Greek philosophers. Aristotle, in particular, felt happiness is unobtainable.