June 16

Hosea

             When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” So he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. And the Lord said to him, “Name him Jezreel; for in a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.  On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.”  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. But I will have pity on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God; I will not save them by bow, or by sword, or by war, or by horses, or by horsemen.” When she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son.  Then the Lord said, “Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not my people and I am not your God.”

Hosea 1:2-9

    

            God asked His prophets to do lots of crazy things in order to provide living parables for His people.  He had one prophet lie on his side for months at a time.  He had one rub mud on someone’s eyes.  Some had to stop eating or wear rags and ashes or hold their arms up in the air to win a battle.

            No one had a call like Hosea.  God told Him that he would be a living parable for his nation…by marrying a prostitute.  Not an ex-prostitute.  Not someone with a sordid past who had skeletons in her closet but had turned her life around.  Gomer was still active.  Hosea was called to love a woman who sold herself to other men.  She would be gone for long stretches of time.  She would come home with money and gifts and bruises.  There was no way to know whose children she bore, but Hosea was to be their father.  Through it all, Hosea was encouraged to love her and love the children and hope that she would give up her lifestyle and return home so that they could become a family.

            What a heart-breaking and embarrassing and demoralizing call.  The children are not named happy things like, “Child of promise,” or “God is with us.”  They are given names of judgment like, “God will punish,” and “They are no longer My people.”  Hosea is not given a life with embarrassing secrets or hidden shame.  Everything about this train wreck of a family is played out in public for his community and the entire country to behold.

            Hosea begins to understand some of the pain that God experiences as His people leave Him to worship other gods.  The nature of sin and idolatry is revealed a little bit more.  Sin is not just breaking a couple of rules or getting some demerits next to our name in God’s big book.  Sin is leaving our love and sharing a bed with someone else, betraying the trust and the intimacy and the relationship that we had forged with that person who was most important to us.  In God’s eyes, sin is choosing another lover with all of the anger and sadness and jealousy that would come along with that.

            Hosea’s children carry the weight of that sin.  Their very names are reflections of God’s judgment on His people and everyone that they know is aware of their mother’s shame and their father’s pain.  That is a difficult burden for children to carry and would have shaped the course of their life.

            Our sin is never just contained within ourselves; it spills out to those around us, especially those that we love and spend the most time with.  Our kids absorb what we say and what we do and what we pay attention to, both for good and for ill.  They mimic our words and imitate our actions and those external pieces mold the shape of their hearts.  Our kids carry the weight of our sin but also imitate the ways that we are faithful and righteous and dedicated to God.  We invest in our internal lives not just to follow God’s rules or to make our lives better, but also to improve the lives of our children and relieve them of burdens that they should not have to carry.

A moment to reflect:

How could you model a right relationship with God to your children?