August 12, 2024 | Be God's Light
Hosea's Dysfunctional Family
Scripture: Hosea 1(NIV)
1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel:
2 When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.” 3 So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
4 Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. 5 In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.”
6 Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means “not loved”), for I will no longer show love to Israel, that I should at all forgive them. 7 Yet I will show love to Judah; and I will save them—not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but I, the Lord their God, will save them.”
8 After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. 9 Then the Lord said, “Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.
10 “Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’ 11 The people of Judah and the people of Israel will come together; they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.
Devotional
This week we move back to the northern kingdom of Israel, focusing on the prophecy of Hosea. He ministered at a time when Israel was under immense external pressure from the Assyrians, who regularly invaded Israel’s territory, demanding heavy tribute and taking captives along the way.
During Hosea’s time, there was also chaotic internal confusion from Israel’s own kings. When Hosea began his work, evil king Jeroboam was near the end of his life. Four of the next five kings were assassinated. The sixth king made an alliance with Egypt, but watched helplessly as Assyria conquered Israel, deported the people, and resettled Samaria with foreigners to replace the Israelites.
The Bible says, “All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods and followed the practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced” (2 Kings 17:7-8).
The book of Hosea is a loud warning about this very thing. The Lord told him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.” He then named his children Jezreel (the city where one royal dynasty was annihilated, only to be replaced by one just as wicked), Lo-Ruhamah (meaning “not loved”) and (Lo-Ammi (meaning “not my people”). The message was clear: Israel had abandoned God and would be disciplined for it.
But there was hope. After the period of discipline there would be reconciliation. Hosea chapter 2 is a poetic picture of that future, where God says, “In that day…”
“You will call me ‘my husband’” (v. 2).
“I will respond to the skies… and they will respond to Jezreel” (v. 21-22).
“I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one” (v. 23a).
“I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’” (v. 23b).
Eight hundred years later, when Paul wrote the book of Romans, he wanted to express how much God cares for people, even though all of us have sinned and deserve His divine wrath. He wrote in Romans 9:22-26…
22 What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? 23 What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— 24 even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 25 As he says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,” and, “In the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”
Have you ever felt you were unworthy of God’s love and unfit to be called his child? Great! You are in the perfect place to receive His grace and mercy. If you would like to do that right now, ask the Lord to forgive you as you embrace Jesus as the Savior and Lord that He is.
Poem
Crazy Assignment
The dawn found me a-praying
Kneeling down before my King
The command for my life
“Take this unfaithful wife
Love her and keep her
All your years be full of strife.”
The command left me stricken
Had my ears misheard God’s word
A known crazy assignment
Seeming out of alignment
“Take on failure;
Your love in long confinement.”
“Love one broken, unfaithful
Stay true to your given task
She’ll despise you and hurt you
She will leave and dessert you
You stay true, though,
True full love be your virtue.”
This life’s crazy assignment
Felt cruel—life of torment
Man of sorrows, full of grief
Love unfaithful, no relief
“I believe, Lord,
Help my flailing unbelief.”
