A Parable of God’s Love

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Opening Prayer

Lord, I am grateful for today, for the potentials and the privileges of it. Help me make wise use of each hour.

Read Hosea 1:1-2:1

^[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. ^[1] “Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’

Meditate

Thank God for his faithful love, while being honest about the times when he has seemed distant, or we have been distant from him.

Think Further

The opening of Hosea is swift, brutal and shocking. The prophet’s preparation for his ministry is not a course at prophets’ college, but a lesson in emotional identification with the heart of God. In the last few years “heart” has entered the lexicon of Christian jargon (as in “having a heart for…”), and, while it introduces welcome warmth into the language of commitment, it can also be a way of dressing up a simple preference. Hosea’s heart, though, is going to be broken. At the command of God, his marriage is to become an allegory of the broken relationship between “the land” of Israel and its God, complete with the ugliness of the insulting “whore” (2, NRSV). And not just his marriage; his children are lumbered with the kind of symbolic names that would not go down well in the playground. Jezreel means “God sowed,” which is harmless enough, but it seems to refer to the city in northern Israel where there was terrible slaughter in the reign of Jehu (2 Kings 9:14–10:11). Lo-ruhamah, the daughter’s name, means “not pitied”; and the second son’s name, Lo-ammi, means “not my people.” The picture of God we get here is more than uncomfortable; it suggests that there might be a limit to God’s compassion.

And then, in verse 10, the prophecy switches suddenly to a picture of restoration. First, poor little “not my people” becomes one of the “children of the living God.” Then in 2:1 (NRSV) Jezreel loses his destructive name to become Ammi, “my people,” and his sister loses the “Lo” prefix to become simply “Pitied.” It’s as if the central theme of Hosea, announced here, is the constant back and forth between God’s desire to love and be loved and his duty to be honest with us about the depth and consequences of our failings.

Apply

Using the marriage metaphor, describe your relation to God, now and in the past. Have you ever left or “cheated” on God? Was God faithful anyway?

Closing prayer

Faithful One, I wander away from You, but You are always there, patient and loving. I renew my vows before You and desire to be with You today.

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