The Way He Works

Turning wisdom upside down

Years ago Disney put out an animated film known a Mulan. There’s an entire scene that talks about the importance of the match maker. Marriage was important Marriage was the thing.

Hosea was a prophet at a time when Israel was not doing well. In fact God had some very specific things he was going to do in order to bring Israel to the placed they needed to be. God was going to do some deconstruction in order to be able to re-build Israel and he was going to do it through some unconventional means.

A bit more about Hosea

Hosea was the only prophet who was raised in and ministered to the northern Kingdom.

He spoke to Israels Relationship with God their issue with chasing after other Gods, their money and power…What God wanted from Israel and How much God loved them.

But there was a catch. Talk about what Prophets Ususally did.

Prophetic Object Lesson

Hoseah wasn’t called to proclaim Gods word like Jeremiah, or Isaiah instead this is what happend.

Hosea 1:2 CSB

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.

Look what God is doing. God tells Hosea look here’s what I want you to do I want you to go out and knowingly do something that everyone else would see as shameful.

There is a lot of conjecture about what is going on. Some people say that Hosea married a prostitute, but digging in we find that is not necessarily the case. The object lesson here speaks to something different. A gradual turning from what is right to what is pleasurable when it comes to his wife.

Deconstruction hurts.

In order to deconstruct our faith so that God can put it back together we have to be willing to do not just the hard things but the painful things.

Hosea 1:3 CSB

So he went and married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

(dig down here)

What’s in a name

Gomer had children and each child was another object lesson for the children of Isreal each one was

His first son Jezreel signified God ending the Kingdom of Israel as it now stood.

His Daugter Lo-Ruhamah signified God’s compassion for the house of Israel being exhausted.

His Son Lo-ammi signified perhaps the greatest deconsctruction of all

Hosea 1:9 CSB

Then the Lord said: Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not my people, and I will not be your God.

God has taken apart the Children of Israel completely at this point. It’s a far cry from wha the said here.

Jeremiah 30:22 CSB

You will be my people, and I will be your God.

So Why do it?

When we allow God to be part of the Deconstrcution of what we know and understand faith to be we can then hand all the pieces that he has pulled from our life into his hands and in doing so we can become what we need to be for such a time as this.

Look what happened next.

Hosea 1:10–11 CSB

Yet the number of the Israelites will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. And in the place where they were told: You are not my people, they will be called: Sons of the living God. And the Judeans and the Israelites will be gathered together. They will appoint for themselves a single ruler and go up from the land. For the day of Jezreel will be great.

God does something here that he can and will do for all of us. He is using a visual representation through one man Hosea to show Israel that even though (drill down on what they did) He wasn’t going to leave them, he wasn’t going to forget them, he wasn’t going to write them off.

The hard part

Hosea 1:3 CSB

So he went and married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

We talked about this verse a little bit ago but I want to re-visit it here because Hosea had a part in this whole thing. He had to do it. He could just as easily have said no but He did the hard thing. When it comes to deconstructing our faith to have it put back together by the God of all things we have to realize that it’s going to be hard.

Hosea’s relationship with Gomer is one of choice and love. No matter how many times she ran off with someone else Hosea had to choose to love her and renew the relationship. What a picture of the perpetual reconstruction that God does in our relationship with him.

Over the next three weeks we are going to be deconstructing our understanding of.

How God wants us to Worship

What God wants us to Know

The Way God wants us to Witness

But there was a catch. Talk about what Prophets Usually did.peak to our fundamental understanding of what A Christ Follower is and what it means to fully commit to a life that is poured out for His Glory.