What's in a Name? (July 24, 2022) Hosea 1.2-10

We are continuing in a series on the Minor Prophets. We have seen in Amos a prophet condemning the actions of the rich against the poor and the words of peace that the prophets at the sanctuary of Bethel were telling the people. To counter those words Amos is telling them that the country will come under the rule of an oppressive power and the people will be exiled to another land.

Today we come to a contemporary of Amos in both time and location in the nation of Israel. This is the prophet Hosea.

Hosea’s prophetic career began about the same time that Amos was preaching, during the reign of Jeroboam II, and continued until the end of the nation came by the conquering Assyrian army. It was during this time that the nation went from experiencing peace and prosperity to political chaos and national trouble from the Assyrians. Hosea is there to tell the people what is happening and why.

What is happening is that things are falling apart, not ifs, ands, or buts. The political scene is one of chaos. There are no more than five kings in six years. The Assyrians, who are not nice people, are beginning to breathe down the necks of the Israelites. Along with this there are the usual issues of life.

And so, the people turn not to God, but to gods. They see their neighbors and their gods, and one god in particular, Baal, the god of fertility.

Baal was supposed to bring fertility, crops and children to his worshipers. He was the one who brought the rains and who made sure that the crops grew when they were supposed to. And so, the people of Israel began to turn to this god. Not that they turned away from God who had been with them from the beginning, but they added a god, and a few others, just to hedge their bets. If God would take care of them, then how much more would a whole pantheon of gods do the trick?

God is not impressed. God made a covenant with this people that God would be their God and they would be God’s people. Now they are turning to other gods. They are being unfaithful and that is unacceptable to God. So, God calls Hosea. He calls him to be God’s messenger. He is called to be prophet.

But Hosea does not use words. He is called to act out what God is experiencing with the people of Israel. He is called to “…take for yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.”[1]The NET Bible states it as this: “Go marry a prostitute who will bear illegitimate children conceived through prostitution, because the nation continually commits spiritual prostitution by turning away from the Lord.”[2] What is happening God says is that the people are committing adultery by going after other gods. They are going after prostitutes.

Now let me deviate for a moment. If this text makes one uncomfortable then that is a sign that it is from the LORD. A text or word that makes us comfortable is not one that is from the LORD, it is a word from ourselves. A word from the Lord is supposed to make us squirm and feel like our souls are exposed. So, here is a word from the LORD that will make the nation of Israel understand where God is coming from.

Hosea goes out and marries a woman named Gomer. That is all we know for sure about this woman. Scholars are divided as to whether she was a common prostitute or one of the cultic prostitutes who had sex in the temples of Baal as a part of the ceremony to ensure that Baal would bring the fertility needed. But there are other scholars who say that perhaps she was not a prostitute but a woman who was just straight up unfaithful to her husband. The word whore is a catch all for many things that can mean unfaithful. But there is one other explanation. Douglas Stuart says this about Gomer and what she might be: “Gomer, as a citizen of that thoroughly wayward nation is described, just as any Israelite woman could be, as an אשת זנונים (prostitute) precisely because she is a typical Israelite, and this is an indictment in itself. God has commanded Hosea to marry a woman who by reason of being involved in the endemic Israelite national unfaithfulness is “prostituting.” To marry any Israelite woman was to marry a “prostituting woman,” so rife was the religious promiscuity of Hosea’s day.”[3] In other words, Gomer might not have been unfaithful to Hosea at all, but rather because she was of the people of Israel she was seen as a “prostitute” because of how the people were acting.

Again, we do not know anything really about Gomer except that she is understood as a prostitute. But Hosea marries her. He goes into this situation with his eyes open knowing that things would be bad and that he has a message for the people.

After the marriage takes place Gomer bears a son. God tells Hosea to name him Jezreel. Now, in the ancient world names had meanings and they told a lot about a person and who they were. Here are some examples: Abel means breath (those who heard the story knew that he would not be around for long) Israel means one who wrestles with God and so on. Today names are given because they sound nice, but there are meanings to the names we give to children. Think of those who are named after relatives. Or take for instance the names of my children: Micah means “Who is like the LORD?”, Jonah means “Dove”, Isaiah means “The Lord saves”, Dalton means “Settlement in the valley”. I even looked up my own name and had a surprise there. Travis means “Traverser or Crossroad”, by the description of what a traverser is my name means “Toll Collector or tax man”. So, names have meanings far beyond what we expect. I challenge you to go and check out your name to see what it means and if you are living up to the meaning.

But back to Jezreel. His name means God sows or fertile. It is the name of a fertile valley in the land of Israel. Not a bad name. But it is also a city where there was a massacre in a coup led by the man Jehu who set up the current dynasty of kings in Israel. Think of how it would sound and what images would be raised if someone named a child Auschwitz or Hiroshima. Or to put it in a current context think of naming a child Sandy Hook or Uvdale. The images that those names raise would be the images God is trying to raise in the name Jezreel. The current dynasty will fall to violent means. There will be bloodshed and Israel will be broken by military power. Imagine carrying that name around.

If you think that name is heavy, here is his sister’s name, one who might have been illegitimate. Her name is Lo-ruhamah. That sounds like a very pretty name until one know the meaning which is “Not Pitied”. God will no longer have pity on the nation of Israel. However, God says that there will be pity on the nation of Judah and that they will be saved not by military might and power, but by God.

Finally, a third child is born, a son. His name is the most powerful of all. He is Lo-ammi or “not my people”. God is telling the nation that they are no longer God’s people, the covenant has been broken and the people are left desolate because God is to no longer be their God.

Now all this is doom and gloom. It is a hard word to hear. But there is some hope. God has Hosea tell the people that “Yet the number of the people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which can be neither measured nor numbered; and in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.”[4] The name of the last son will be changed to mean “Children of the living God”. It is estimated that the entire population of Israel at that time was around 400,000, a small nation. Yet they will be without number, like sand of the sea or stars in the sky. There is hope for the people because God cannot and will not forsake them forever.

What is in a name? The children of Hosea could tell us that there is a lot in a name. They had to live with the names that were given to them. Imagine going around with a name like “Not Pitied” or “Not My People”. Those around them knew what the names meant and they knew there was a message in the names. They knew that their turning to idols would bring these names to fruition.

What are our idols? It has been said that we do not turn to idols in good times but in bad, when we are afraid. The people of Israel would agree. While there was relative stability during Jeroboam II, Assyria loomed large in the minds of the people and so they turned to idols that they thought would help them. We may mock them for this, but we have fears as well. The fear of terrorism leads us to the idol of security at any cost, the fear of losing money has us at the altar of the stock markets. The fear of losing our identity has us at the altar of “better times” with a flag as an idol. Yes, we have our idols and even now we can hear God say that we are not to be pitied and that we are not God’s people.

But again, there is hope. We have hope in a savior to whom we are to turn when we are fearful, when things look bad, and to whom alone we owe our allegiance. His name is Jesus and his name means “God is Deliverance.” Jesus has promised us that he will always be there for us and that he will deliver us in times of trouble. All we have to do is trust. But do we trust in the one who’s name means we will be delivered? Or will we turn to what we see and hear in front of us, the things that make the loudest noise? What will it take for us to show the world that we are the people of God? Sometimes actions must take the place of words. Hosea knew this in his marriage and in his naming of the children. We know this in feeding the poor, ministering to the sick, working with our neighbors (even those who are unlike us) and even protesting for those who are oppressed. It is said that actions speak louder than words. Sometimes a name will speak as loud. We are called Christians because we follow Jesus, the Christ. Do our actions speak to that or are we just spouting words to be heard? Amen.

[1] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print. [2]Biblical Studies Press. The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible. Biblical Studies Press, 2005. Print. [3]Stuart, Douglas. Hosea–Jonah. Vol. 31. Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1987. Print. Word Biblical Commentary. [4] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print.