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Devotional thoughts from Hosea

Hosea 1: This is God's Message to Hosea.

Having just spent time in the Old Testament book of Daniel it takes some reorientation to turn the page and find myself in the book of Hosea.  Here I see that it will be 200 years before Daniel has his adventures in distant Babylonia.  I find myself back in the day of Isaiah and his warnings of future destruction and here I find God at work, reaching out to a rebellious people in an effort to restore them to himself and spare them from what is coming otherwise.  Also, as I reach the book of Hosea I find I am now in the final segment of the Old Testament in the writings of those called the "minor prophets."   Of course, it isn't their message that is "minor."  It's just that their books are shorter and more focused.   All the books of the Minor Prophets together contain less material than, say, the book of Ezekiel.  Hosea's prophecy is called a "living parable."  As will Ezekiel in years to come, Hosea is called to live out his message.  His prophecy is also a love story.  The love he demonstrates for us is not some silly, "love ya' man" or a shallow, "baby, I need your lovin'" kind of love.  Hosea demonstrates for us the depth and power of God's love for us.

Hosea 1: The first time God spoke to Hosea...

The book of Hosea contains no preface aside from the opening sentence or two.  There's no wading into this pool -- we immediately jump off into the deep end!  The thing is it appears it is that way for Hosea too.  Here is a godly man, minding his own business suddenly hearing from God.  Having grown up in the '60's I loved Bill Cosby's "Noah."  Cosby imagines Noah hearing from the Lord and then asking "who is this really?"  If, out of nowhere, being told to build an ark was a strange command imagine what it must have been like for Hosea when his first message from God is to go, find a prostitute, and marry her!  "Who is this really?" wouldn't have been an unreasonable question.  However, Hosea recognizes the Voice of God and he responds, not as Bill Cosby might imagine, but in immediate, humble obedience.  God spoke, Hosea obeyed.  We have hardly begun reading this book and before us is the line "Hosea did it."  If I push everything back for a moment, before plunging on into the story, I can't help but marvel at Hosea's ability to hear, recognize, and then obey the Voice of God even though what he has heard seems highly unreasonable.  Today, I can't help but be impressed by that.

Hosea 1: He picked Gomer daughter of Diblaim.

Somewhere in my sermon files I have a sermon on the "beautiful, vivacious, Gomer."  Aside from this being the name of Hosea's bride the only other Gomer I know of is the TV character and he's about as plain a guy and you'll ever find.  I can't help but wonder how Hosea went about obeying God's command.  Did he head down to the red light district and pick a wife?  Did he already know Gomer from their childhoods and, maybe remembered a childhood crush he had on her?  This situation almost begs for more information.  Frankly, I doubt that Gomer was a lovely lady at all.  Instead, I think she was hard and brittle and jaded and rebellious.  The reason I think that is not because I think all women who sell their bodies are like that.  I think many are victims for whom one bad choice has led to another.  Rather, see Gomer thus because in this "living parable" she represents the rebellious people of Israel.  I don't think that Hosea went out and picked the prettiest of the lot.  Instead, I think he picked the person who was most like Israel: hard, brittle, jaded, and in rebellion against their loving God.  Obviously, such a marriage was doomed from the start.  However, in spite of this oil and water marriage, Hosea found himself bound to his wife with a love so great that he could not resist it.  The reason for this is that, in this living parable Gomer represents Israel; Hosea represents God.

Hosea 2: Rename your brothers "God's Somebody."

I'm not a preacher's kid, but I raised one!  Hopefully, my son doesn't feel that growing up in a parsonage was all that bad.  However, I have heard some horror stories from "PK's."  I've concluded that while some of those stories are true, some are simply basic "growing up" stories that could be applied to just about any family.  However, Hosea's kids had some no questions asked horror stories.  For one thing, their dad gave them strange names intended to preach a sermon.  Two of the three, in particular, got terrible names: a daughter named "No-Mercy" and a son who got the awful name of "Nobody."  I bet those kids needed therapy!  Every time the girl was called it was to be a sermon warning that unless the nation repented God would show them "no mercy."  When the boy was named it was intended to declare that this "chosen people" was on the verge of being kicked out and becoming "nobody" in the sight of God.  There's a ray of sunshine near the end of the first chapter and continuing into the second.  As a person might look across the hot and deadly desert to the distant cool mountains, Hosea looks down the road to a day of restoration.  One thing he sees is a day for new names.  When the discipline of God has done its work, children, and the whole nation, will be worthy of new names like "God's Somebody" and "All Mercy." 

August 4, 2008

Hosea 2: Then I'll marry you for good - forever!

The book of Hosea is a book of extremes.  There's nothing mundane or middle of the road here as everything is at one end or the other end of the spectrum.  Here we see powerful love and painful betrayal.  We see the beauty of tender, marital sex and we also see the brutal, cheapening side of sex in the market place.  In one place we see the anger of God as he declares the coming destruction as a result of their sin but we also see God's mercy as he promises restoration.  There is nothing in Hosea that lends itself to a relaxing late night read before sleep.  This book is an emotional rollercoaster.  God's people have betrayed him and, because of that betrayal he has rejected them, kicking them out.  Israel has committed spiritual adultery against God and God has issued a decree of divorce.  Then as we're emotionally ready to close the book on this relationship the tone of the Lord changes.  He has kicked them out and declared his anger with them and judgment on them.   Just as I get my mind around that the landscape suddenly changes.  The Lord declares his intentions to clean them up, to romance them again and ultimately to reinstate his marriage to them.  The sweep of all this is stunning and I realize I am reading about a love that never gives up.  God is truly the God of Second Chances.

August 5, 2008

Hosea 3: God ordered me, "Start all over: Love your wife again."

It isn't hard to read between the lines here.  Hosea married a prostitute, they had children, but she left him to return to her previous life.  That sounds pretty cut and dried, but I don't think it was that way at all.  What started off as Hosea's obedience to a surprising command of God became a series of intense emotional experiences for the prophet.  Without choosing to, Hosea fell in love and for a time, it seemed things were going to work out.  His wife, however, had a hard time settling down into a family routine.  The day came when she turned her back on her husband and children to return to her previous life.  Hosea's heart was broken.  Sadly, I know too many people who can identify with the story of broken promises and marriages.  No one walks away unscarred by such a tragedy.  Hosea, trying to cope, throws himself into his work.  That helps him cover the pain.  One day at a time, he begins to get over it a bit.  If the Lord's first communication was surprising, his second must have left Hosea in shock.  God tells him to love her again.  That must have seemed like an impossible command.  In the time since their divorce Hosea has carefully crafted a shell about himself, insulating himself the pain she has caused even as he hears what she has returned to.  Now, God says Hosea is to emerge from that shell and open himself up to her again; not because she has reformed, she hasn't, but to reflect what God has done in his relationship with humanity.  Hosea's wife will get another chance, not because she deserves it, but because Hosea loves her too much to give up on her.

August 6, 2008

Hosea 3: Love her the way I, God, love the Israelite people.

Gomer has messed up big time.  She has left the man and children who love her.  Her story would have ended with her in bondage physically, emotionally, and legally had it not been for Hosea.  Under the Lord's direction, he moves to rescue her from the stupid mess that binds her.  Hosea acts under God's command but he also acts out of love.  In spite of Gomer's rejection of him he can't move past his love for her.  She has brought disgrace to Hosea, possibly making him a laughingstock in the community.  She has broken his heart and turned away from his love without even a word of apology.  Still, Hosea can't let go.  This is no simple picture of romantic love.  Here we see love that demands sacrifice; a stubborn love that persists even when the object of that love is unworthy.  God says he loves his people like that.  On one hand, he can't ignore their sin and rebellion.  On the other, he can't just walk away.  Because God is who he is, he loves.  This is the hope of every human being.  I am fallen, unlovely, and condemned.  My only hope is God's love -- his sacrificing, stubborn love.  "While we were yet sinners Christ died for us."

August 7, 2008

Hosea 3: From now on you're living with me.

I guess it's just human nature but when I read the parables of Jesus my first inclination is to identify with "good guy" in the story.  I see myself as the "tax collector" who prays for mercy, the servant who invests his talent, and the woman who finds the lost coin. It's only when I'm willing to see myself from the less than stellar point of view that the parable can truly instruct me and help me become the person God would have me be.  Since Hosea's story is a living parable, who am I in this story?  I know that the primary focus is on God and the ancient Israelites, but if I read this story devotionally who am I?  It has to be Gomer.  She is a pitiful figure in the story.  Her origins are unknown to us, but she is both a victim and a trespasser.  Even when she's given a second chance at life she blows it, making a bigger mess than she had in the first place.  She's stubborn and deeply flawed and, seemingly not worth redemption.  Hosea, though, loves her so much that he can't do what common sense dictates.  He went into the filth and got her the first time, and, when she betrays him and returns to it, he wades in again.  As I read this I'm not to say, "Yes, I'm like Hosea, and I'll be gracious and kind and forgiving" (although, I'm supposed to be all of these things).  Instead, I'm to say, "I've been like Gomer.  In spite of God's goodness to me I've been hard-headed and hard-hearted.  God has not only rescued me, but he has waded out into sin to bring me back when I have failed."  If I refuse to identify with Gomer in this story it will never have the impact on my life it's intended to have.

August 9, 2008

Hosea 4: That whirlwind has them in its clutches.

Hosea's personal parable soon gives way to his prophecies concerning sinful Israel.  The background of his own experience is especially evident in his constant references to the debauchery of Israel and descriptions of God's disgust with their practices even as the Lord loves them and calls them back.  The experience of Hosea with his unfaithful wife is a reflection of all that.  In this passage Hosea complains about their idol worshipping, sexually explicit religion.  They think promiscuity and drunkenness is their ticket to happiness and satisfaction.  Instead, as some wise people have said, "Sin will take you farther than you want to go."  They are willingly giving themselves to something that won't satisfy and will ultimately destroy them.  What starts out as willful sin ("I can quit anytime I want") becomes obsession and possession.  What they thought they could control now controls them.  People start down some foolish path thinking they are in control.  Before long, they are where they never expected to be and bound by what they never though could control them. 

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August 12, 2008

Hosea 6: I want you to know God, not go to more prayer meetings.

The prophet has fallen head over heals in love with his deeply flawed wife.  She has left him but he isn't over her and wants her to come back.  However, he knows that just getting her back won't be enough.  For her to return yet remain unchanged will only start this whole destructive sequence over again.  Something in her has to change if there's any hope for their future together.  That, Hosea says, is how it is between God and his people.  The Lord loves them and wants them to turn from their unfaithful idol worshipping ways and return to him.  However, what he wants from them isn't just a polished approach to doing worship.  Instead, he wants them to love him with the abandon and passion that he has for them.  He says to them, "I'm after love that lasts, not more religion."  As old as this concept is, and as reasonable as it is, people to this very day fail to grasp this.  God doesn't want us to go to church, to "practice religion," or to have Bible studies.  He wants us to passionately love himself.  He wants us to throw ourselves into that relationship without reservation.  When that happens, no one has to tell us we ought to worship and pray and study our Bibles.  We do it because it is in these things that we better experience the Object of our strongest attraction: God, Himself.  That's the kind of relationship God wants to have with me.

August 13, 2008

Hosea 7: They turn...here, then there, like a weather vane.

"Welcome to WorshipMart, your one stop shop for religion.  Please keep an eye out for our blue light specials, you may find a very nice accessory to your faith for a low price."  You head over to the New Age aisle.  Maybe a new crystal will help you pray better.  The Politically Correct section has some interesting items, some of that "what works for you may not work for me" might come in handy when dealing with some of the more narrow people you know.  The Hedonism section makes you feel somewhat uncomfortable but you can't resist some of the "it can't be all that bad if it feels right."  And then you head over to the staples section.  After all, when all else fails you might just want some help from God Almighty.  At the check out counter the salesperson asks if you found everything you wanted.  You answer "yes" but you think, "I'll probably be back in here before long, somehow this stuff doesn't seem to last like it should."  As you check out, you can't find the last item.  That's happened before.  Everything else is there though; you'll just have to make it without God.  Anyway, your religion is no one's business but your own.  Right?

August 14, 2008

Hosea 8: I write out my revelation for them in detail and they pretend they can't read it.

Hosea's people have many reasons to trust in the Lord.  Their story would have ended in Egypt centuries earlier had it not been for him.  Countless nations have come and gone, yet they have remained.  And it isn't as though the Lord has done all this in secret.  Instead, he has been very active, openly blessing them and speaking to them through prophets and priests and kings.  Hosea's people have every reason to know God and to worship him alone.  Through Hosea the Lord says, "I write out my revelation for them in detail and they pretend they can't read it."  Like a child who puts his hands over his ears and sings "La, la, la -- I can't hear you" these rebellious people have quite intentionally turned from God, ignoring his call to them.  However, it isn't going to work.  Its one thing to be unintentionally ignorant; mixed up and confused.  It's another to know that the message is there but to refuse to hear it.  I think there are many people in my country today who are honestly confused and that, to a great extent we Christians are responsible because we have failed to clearly reflect Christ to them.  However, we aren't so far from the reach of God that everyone is in that situation.  Many are covering their ears so they can't hear what he is saying.  That, my friend, is not a smart thing to do.

August 15, 2008

Hosea 10: Sow righteousness, reap love.

The prophet says things are not going to work out for Israel.  Generations earlier, when the Lord delivered them from Egyptian slavery, he had plans for them.  They were going to be a force for righteousness on earth.  The Lord likens them to a strong farm animal that is hitched up to the plow and can powerfully prepare the ground for planting.  This isn't a put down.  In this culture any farmer who has such an animal is proud of it and carefully cares for it.  The Lord says he saw such potential in that nation of slaves.  These people could change the earth for good as they spread righteousness everywhere.  Again, though, it isn't going to work out.  Instead of planting righteousness and love, they spread wickedness, evil, and lies.  Not only do they fail to live up to their promise -- they have the audacity to work against God's purpose rather than for it.  I'm reminded today that the Lord is fully aware of my potential.  He knows what is likely beyond me and he knows what I can do if I put my mind to it.  Of course, I never want to be guilty of taking God's gifts and using them to work against him but I don't even want to disappoint him in my life.  I may not have the capability to change the world but surely I can sow a little righteousness in the lives of those around me.

August 16, 2008

Hosea 11: I am God and not a human...I'm here -- in your very midst.

As I begin reading this chapter I brace myself for more of the same: that God's people have had every opportunity to serve him but have utterly failed and are now being kicked out.  I think that is what I'm going to see, but I'm wrong.  Instead, I see a picture of God's love for the sinner; a love so powerful that even when Israel appears to have sinned away the day of grace that God can't give up on them.  The Lord is in anguish over their rejection and says, "How can I give up on you?  How can I turn you loose?"   In this, I see God's love.  In fact, it is here I find myself face-to-face with love beyond human capacity.  Even as I read these words of love and mercy I find myself wondering how God can go so far in his forgiveness and how he can love in such an overwhelming way.  It is then that I find the answer.  God can love with intensity beyond what I can comprehend because of who he is.  He's God and not man.  Here is love in the superlative; super-human love.  I thank God that today I am a recipient of that love.

August 18, 2008

Hosea 12: What are you waiting for? Return to your God!

Hosea is unique in the Old Testament in his understanding of God.  The opening “living parable” of his enduring love of his unfaithful wife flavors the entire book.  Now, it isn’t all romantic love.  There’s some strong medicine here, what could be called “tough love.”  Still, it is love.  The Almighty is so in love with these people that he can’t let them go.  The very God who could wipe them out in a second, instead, calls to them and reasons with them and, yes, uses some tough love in dealing with them.  In this passage the Lord illustrates his intentions by appealing to history.  He reminds them that Jacob started out as a “heel” who even tried to manipulate his Creator.  The Lord says that, in the end, he won and Jacob was changed into a new person.  Now, this same God turns his attention to the current sorry state of things.  He tells this rebellious nation that he loves them too much to cast them away.  He says that in his love, he won’t give up and he won’t give in.  They might as well surrender to it now because, ultimately, he will win.  Today, I’m reminded that God doesn’t give up on people and I shouldn’t give up on them either.  The person who seems the most lost; who has burned his bridges and declared his abandonment of the Lord is still on God’s radar screen.  Really, it isn’t over till God says it’s over!

August 19, 2008

Hosea 14: O Israel, come back! Return to your God!

In his amazing love God calls out to his wayward people.  To return to him is to their benefit.  Otherwise, it will take tough love to turn them around and even as these words are spoken a “tornado” of judgment is coming their way.  That’s a message I’m used to seeing in the prophets.  There’s another message here and even though it’s seen in other places, it’s especially clear in the book of Hosea.  If these sinning people return to God it will be to their benefit, but it will also be to his.  As Hosea’s love reached out to his unfaithful wife so does God’s love reach out to a sinning humanity.  It seems impossible, but I, as insignificant as I am, have the ability to both hurt and please the Almighty.  The reason for that is that he loves me with a love I cannot fully understand.  God has allowed himself to be vulnerable in opening his heart to me and to all humanity.  Today, the person who has rejected God; who has lived as an enemy of his; who, in my opinion, is practically beyond redemption, remains within the reach of God’s love.  The Lord won’t force you to return but he reaches out to you in love even through the words of this little-read devotional.