I sometimes fall into the trap of acting as if the Bible consists of a few main sections: Genesis-Deuteronomy, Psalms, Proverbs, Job (on occasion), the Gospels, Acts, Romans, and some of the epistles.
Yes, those are the "fun" parts of the Bible, the parts where visible, incredible miracles occur or the words written/spoken are most quotable.
But I recently had the realization that every time I return to my former sin, every time I give in to what I'm trying to give up, I betray the One who has always loved me and always will. I give in to the idea that the sin will make me feel better (a lie I can see clearly when I'm not in that headspace) and I let it consume me once more even though I know better.
As I was thinking about this and praying about it, God's gentle voice whispered "Hosea" into my mind.
I grabbed my Bible and opened to Hosea, trying to think of what I knew about the book and the prophet. It was a short list:
- God told him to marry a prostitute
- Their marriage was a symbol of God's relationship with Israel
- There's a lot of judgement and many calls to repent
But then I realized I hadn't ever really read through the book. Not the way I'd read Genesis or Exodus. So I started at chapter one, which is, in many ways, the back story. Israel has turned their backs on God, and God is trying to get their attention. To do this, God has Hosea marry a prostitute and have children with her. The first born, named Jezreel, seems to warn of coming judgement and death. The second born, a daughter, is then named Lo-Ruhamah--a name meaning "not loved" or "no mercy." The third born, another son, is named Lo-Ammi, a name meaning "not my people."
All of Hosea's children become walking testaments to God's coming judgement. How would you like that for a legacy?
And then, as if this isn't hard enough, most of chapter two is a rebuke of their mother, the prostitute Gomer. However, the symbolism suggests that Gomer represents Israel as a nation, God's people. When read that way, this chapter becomes beautiful.
2 "Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts. 3 Otherwise I will strip her naked and make her as bare as on the day she was born; I will make her like a desert, turn her into a parched land, and slay her with thirst. 4 I will not show my love to her children, because they are the children of adultery. 5 Their mother has been unfaithful and has conceived them in disgrace. She said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.’ 6 Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way. 7 She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.’ 8 She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold— which they used for Baal.
9 “Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens, and my new wine when it is ready. I will take back my wool and my linen, intended to cover her naked body. 10 So now I will expose her lewdness before the eyes of her lovers; no one will take her out of my hands. 11 I will stop all her celebrations: her yearly festivals, her New Moons, her Sabbath days—all her appointed festivals. 12 I will ruin her vines and her fig trees, which she said were her pay from her lovers; I will make them a thicket, and wild animals will devour them. 13 I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals; she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but me she forgot,” declares the Lord.
Yeah, okay, so all of that is judgement and a testament to the justice of God. It's this next part that I lingered on, but it can't be understood without the background of the previous verses:
14 “Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. 15 There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor[b] a door of hope. There she will respond[c] as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
16 “In that day,” declares the Lord, “you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master.[d]’ 17 I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked. 18 In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety. 19 I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in[e] righteousness and justice, in[f] love and compassion. 20 I will betroth you in[g] faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord.
21 “In that day I will respond,” declares the Lord— “I will respond to the skies, and they will respond to the earth; 22 and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and the olive oil, and they will respond to Jezreel.[h] 23 I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.[i]’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,[j]’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”
This is a story of redemption, of love, and of forgiveness. This is a promise that even as Israel turns away and runs to other lovers and gets lost in their sin, God will still fight to get them back.
And the best part?
Israel isn't supposed to get themselves out of sin.
Every saving act that God promises in this passage is something that He alone can do.
He will claim us unfaithful ones as his people and in response we will be able to respond in the intimate greeting of "my husband" and "my God" rather than in the subordinate position of "my master."
This passage is beautiful, and I may have never read it because I focus my attention on the beginning and end of the Bible, only venturing to the Prophetic literature for the Psalms and Proverbs unless I have a very good reason to.
Today I'm thanking God that he directed me to Hosea. What are you thanking God for today?
J. J. Hanna is a writer and reader who loves God and wants to help encourage others with what she knows and what she's learning. Answer her questions with a quick note and connect with her on social media. She's excited to hear from you!
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Bible text taken from BibleGateway.com.