Say What

God Commands

Has God ever spoken to you and you cannot believe your ears? It happens. We often cannot believe what He has just asked of us. It does seem to be rare for God to ask us to do strange things, or is it.

When God first speaks to Hosea he asks him to go and marry a wife of whoredom. Not only marry her but have children with her. Is this one of those places in the Bible where you just want to skip to another chapter? I want to look closely at this predicament that Hosea is in. First of all, God commands Hosea to marry a woman of prostitution. This represents the marriage that God himself, now has with the nation of Israel. The Nation of Israel came to God through covenant. Remember it was through the blood of the lamb that they were passed over. It was God who separated the waters so that they could pass through.

Has this marriage to God become a marriage of convenience? Notice that this is not the case in this marriage to Gomer. Gomer is a known prostitute when Hosea marries her. She does not come with children in tow but conceives after they get married. God wants Hosea to live out God’s situation. Hosea is really in a predicament isn’t he? It is not that Hosea can go around telling people that he showed mercy to a prostitute and married her to take care of her children.

Hosea tells the Nation of Israel that they are prostituting God’s love for them. Hosea goes as far as to give his children the names that Jehovah had told him. Jezreel (God Soweth) , Loruhamah (Not Pitied), Loammi (Not my people). Hosea has first hand knowledge of the way that God feels about the people and what they are doing. So what do you think about being a prophet, ready to sign up? At least the people of the Northern Kingdom couldn’t say to Hosea, “you don’t know what it is like”. Hosea couldn’t tell God he didn’t know what it was like either. In Joshua, God gave a land to the Israelites. Its name means God Sows-Jezreel plain.

(NRSV)

16 The tribe of Joseph said, “The hill country is not enough for us; yet all the Canaanites who live in the plain have chariots of iron, both those in Beth-shean and its villages and those in the Valley of Jezreel.”

Does this make you think of anything? Throughout the history of Israel, we can find injustices. Jezreel seems to gain his name because of an injustice reaped out by King Ahab. King Ahab had wanted to purchase or trade for a vineyard owned by a man named Naboth. Naboth did not want to sell his vineyard, apparently it held great sentimental value. But when Ahab showed much displeasure over not acquiring this vineyard his wife Jezebel had him executed on framed charges of blasphemy.

Isn’t it funny how the plot thickens when we try to deal poorly with the people of God. What happens when God becomes disappointed with the nature of His Children? In the Garden-God kicked Adam and Eve out of his presence. During the flood, God shut the door of salvation and let the waters wash them away. In this episode Hosea is to show us through his obedience to God that we are a disobedient people. What happens in the future begins in verse 5, (NRSV)

5 On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.” This is God taking His power from the people. Have you ever wondered what it feels like to not have the blessings of God? You see God is using Hosea to tell His story. Hosea is using his own life to be an example of what is going to happen. Hosea’s wife conceived again and this time it was a daughter to be named, (NRSV)

6 She conceived again and bore a daughter. Then the Lord said to him, “Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have pity on the house of Israel or forgive them. Remember last Sunday when I told you that God would no longer pass them by?

In verses 8 and 9, God tells Hosea to name his next son, Not-my-people. (NRSV)

9 Then the Lord said, “Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not my people and I am not your God.” Hosea is a prophet of God and he follows the Word of God. His whole family became a living testament to God’s Word. Do you understand the idea here? What does this message say about us?