Hosea 1:1-9.  Wow!  A gap of a month in the dating of the posts.  The last month has been very hectic.  If you have been following the reading you will know that although the dating of the readings in the reading list followed a day to day pattern that the posts over the last month were scattered.  As I do the daily reading I also study the passage.  I refer to commentaries and Bible dictionaries and other references to make sure I have a clear picture of what I am reading and, more importantly, that I write accurate information in the posts.  The study and writing can take anywhere from one to four hours each day.  I have tried to get up about 4:30 each morning so I can get the post done before work.  Over the last month work has been very hectic with several days going 12-16 hours.  I was keeping up with the study for each day, mostly, but fell behind in writing the posts.  I thought about “catching up” and trying to write several each day but that seems a little absurd.  In the end this daily reading thing is about a relationship with God and time lost in a relationship is time lost.  The best we can do is pick up where we are and move on, so that is what I am doing here.  Judging from the lack of comments it seems like many of you are “behind” too.  No one has asked where I am.  I want to be careful though and not let any of us off too easy.  Relationships take time, we cannot usually go days and days without communicating with someone and think we have a good relationship with them.  As most of you grow up you will become interested in someone and will dedicate a lot of time to “face-booking” or “tweeting” or “calling” or “Emailing” or what ever with them.  If we are serious about a relationship with God we need to show the same kind of dedication to reading what he has sent to us and responding back with our prayers (talking to God) and actions.

So here we are in another Old Testament book.  Remember that the ratio of Old Testament to New Testament books is about two to one, so se are going to probably read through that way.  Hosea is a prophet, a messenger for God.  If you want to know more about prophets in the Bible read “What Profit?” in the “Did You Know” section.  Hosea was a prophet during about the same time as Isaiah but his message was for the Northern kingdom, Israel.  You can read more about Hosea in the “Intro to Hosea”.  You might also want to check out “The Old Testament Connection”.  In Sunday Scripture Exploration (Sunday School) we have been studying parables of Jesus.  The word parable in Greek (the language of the New Testament) means “to throw beside”.  Jesus would put two ideas side by side.  One idea would be something the people understood very well.  By putting the other idea beside it he hoped the people would understand the new idea. God is a very creative communicator and here in the book of Hosea he uses Hosea’s life as a living parable.  He is going to compare the nation of Israel and their relationship with God to the relationship between Hosea and his new wife.  But look out because this is going to be very drastic.

Verse one tells us when Hosea began to be a messenger of God.  You should read the “Intro to Hosea” to help understand what was going on in those days.  God doesn’t mess around here and right away gives Hosea an assignment, get married.  As we have been learning in class often parable are shocking and this one is probably more shocking for most because Hosea is told to marry a “wife of harlotry”.  Harlot is another word for prostitute or a person who is intimate with some one for money.  That kind of activity was strictly forbidden by God.  A prophet, as a representative of God, would especially be expected to have nothing to do with that sort of activity.  It is interesting though that Hosea is not told to marry a harlot but a “wife or woman of harlotry”.  It’s kind of like saying, “Marry a cheating kind of woman.”  It is very possible that Gomer hadn’t been running around yet but was the kind of person who eventually was going to be unfaithful to Hosea.  The whole thing would still be shocking. Hosea is also told to have “children of harlotry”.  Again this does not mean that Hosea cheated on Gomer but that he would have children with here and possibly that some of them would not actually be his.

Gomer did have children, three of them, Jezreel (vv. 3-4), Lo-ruhamah (v. 6) and Lo-ammi (v. 9).  Notice that it only specifically says that the first one was born to Hosea, the other two could have been with other men, “children of harlotry”.  One thing that is interesting in the Old Testament is that sometimes peoples names have meaning that is important to the story (See “What’s in a Name”).  In Hosea we know that this is true for the children because when God has Hosea give them the names he tells Hosea why.  Jezreel means “God sows”, talking about scattering seeds over an area (not the needle pulling thread kind).  Lo-ruhamah means “No compassion” or “No mercy” or “not loved”.  It’s kind of like saying, “I’m not going to take care of you.”  Lo-ammi means “Not mine”.  That’s pretty self explanatory.

So far this whole message seems pretty weird, even mean and sick we may even be tempted to see God that way as we learn the reasons behind the names.  But we need to understand the whole thing all the way through and we are just a few verses into the story.  The reason for Jezreel’s name has to do with a place of the same name in Israel’s history.  Jezreel is the name of both a city and a valley and it was the scene of many bloody events.  Hosea tells us which event God has in mind, one that involves a guy named Jehu.  In the history of Israel (the northern kingdom) there was a particularly wicked king named Ahab and he had an even worse wife Jezebel.  Ahab was killed in a battle and succeded by his son Ahaziah.  Ahaziah was very wicked too and he died in his palace when he fell through a roof.  Since he had no heirs he was succeded by his uncle Jehoram (2 Kings 3:1).  These descendants of Ahab constantly lured the people of Israel into worship of false gods.  According to 2 Kings 9-10 this evil dynasty was eventually removed from power by a guy named Jehu.  He killed the whole family and their supporters.  Remembe, though, that these people were killed because they were extremely disobedient to God and were leading the people away from God.  If you read through the book of Isaiah with us you would know what how big of a problem it is for people to not have a relationship with God.  We are told the reason for Jezreel’s name is because “God will punish the house of Jehu for the bloodshed of Jezreel and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel.”  This translation is a little misleading because the word “punish” can also mean “visit upon”.  One scholar suggest that the sentence should read, “I will bring on the house of Jehu the bloodshed of Jezreel.”  It is not likely that God would punish Jehu for what he did in Jezreel since God told him to do it, what is more likely is that Hosea is telling us that the descendants of Jehu are going to be punished in a similar way as the descendants of Ahab and for the same reason, unfaithfulness to God.  So God is going to “sow” the same kind of destruction again in the lives of his rebellious leaders.

The next child was named “No compassion” or “Not Loved”.  The prediction at the birth of Jezreel was very bleak, Israel would be punished.  Here with the birth of Lo-Ruhamah we have the same kind of prediction, “I will not take care of the people of Israel.”  But then the prophecy adds more.  Many translations at the end of verse 6 say something like, I will never forgive them.”  But the literal translation of the Hebrew language (the language the Old Testament is written in) is “but I will certainly forgive them.”  This seems out of place since it is completely the opposite of wht God had just said.  How can you say, “I will not take care of them anymore” and then say, “I will completely forgive them”?  First of all there could be a timing thing going on, the people of the time of Hosea might be facing judgment but there might be hope down the line.  Actually that is what actually happened.  For the people at the time it may have seemed confusing but there is both a prediction of punishment and a prediction of hope.  Verse 7 continues this idea of hope but notice three things.  Hosea switches from Israel to Judah.  I don’t think this means that Judah (as a separate kingdom) won’t suffer but Israel (as a separate kingdom will).  We know from history that both eventually were punished and we know from the book of Revelation (and Isaiah for that matter) that both kingdoms will be restored together in the end (See “The Twelve?”).  The reference to Judah may be a subtle way of pointing to obedience and faithfulness to God’s plans (See “Intro to Hosea”).  Next notice that God said he would not deliver them in the normal way, by a battle.  God would not “kick butt” on the Assyrians.  That may mean that the Assyrians would have the military victory, which is what happened in history.  The result was that the people of Israel (the northern kingdom) wound up marrying foreign people and mixing their religions together.  In John 4:5-39 we see the story of a descendant of one of these intermarried Israelites (they were called Samaritans).  The woman in the story seems to have a more open mind than many of the “true” Israelites (or Jews) in Judah.  The fact that she was looking for the truth rather than the traditional religion of either her own people or the Jews put her in a position to respond to Jesus in a positive way.  It looks like she was on her way to having a new and tru relationship with God by the end of the story.  She was delivered or saved by the LORD (Yahweh who Jesus later claims to be in John 8:58) That is the third thing to notice in Hosea 1:7.

The final child born to Gomer was “Not Mine.”  The reason given for the name is that the people were not God’s people and he was not their God.  Remember that the people are being punished for following in the footsteps of leaders like Ahab who had them worshipping false gods like Baal.  Tomorrow’s reading continues the explanation of Lo-Ammi’s name.  and like his sisters prophecy it will extend the explanation even further.

With Jezreel we saw God ready to punish.  With Lo-Ruhamah we saw God ready to punish and also planning to forgive.  Tomorrow we will see how that forgiveness takes place and how Hosea’s family represents God’s plan.  A couple of other things to think about, Hosea’s name is a form of Joshua and is the same as the name of Jesus in the New Testament.  All of these names mean “God saves”.  There may be a hint in the message of Hosea in his name and we have already seen in verse 7 that the people of Israel will be save “by the LORD” not by the sword.  Also notice that the children seem to represent the people of Israel.

This prophecy really is quite shocking but it is also very creative in trying to get through to the stubborn people of Israel.  We have already seen that God really does love his people but that there are consequences for being disobedient.  Later in the story we will see Hosea also loves his children.  The names are to help others see how serious it is to turn away from God, to cheat on him.  We need to get the same message.  At the end of Isaiah we saw that eternity without God was going to be awful.  I think we see how serious God is in getting our attention as we consider the wild example Hosea was asked to live out.

God help me be serious about you.  Thank you for always being there even when we fall apart or stray away.   I know I am love and I know I am you child.  Thank you for reaching out and adopting me.  Thank you for accepting me even though I have been an unfaithful child.  Help me walk hand in hand with you each day.