Hosea 1:10-2:23.  Sorry yesterday’s post was so long I’ll try to make this one shorter.  So God is using Hosea’s family as a living object lesson.  Yesterday we met his new wife and his children (or were they?).  The children were given unusual names to teach the people of Israel how God feels about their unfaithfulness to him.  But we also was a little glimmer of hope.  Today that picture of punishment and hope continues.  We are still looking at the explanation of Lo-Ammi’s name.

Yesterday we were told that Lo-Ammi’s name (“Not my people”) meant that the people of Israel were not God’s people and he was not their God.  It is very similar to the reason for Jezreel’s name and Lo-Ruhamah’s.  With Lo-Ruhamah we saw that there was hope, God would fix things some day.  Here in the beginning of today’s reading we see a similar hope.  Verses 10-11 teach us that both Israel (the northern kingdom) and Judah (the southern kingdom) will be gathered together, will increase in number and will be called once again the people of God.  In Israel’s history there was a promise by God that there would be a king from the house of David (the second king of the combined nation of Israel) who would rule the Israelites forever.  Here in Hosea 1:11 we see that they will have one leader together.  In the end of verse 11 it appears that Hosea makes play on the word Jezreel when he tells the Israelites will come up out of the land where God has sown (the meaning of Jezreel).  Where before Jezreel made the people remember all of the death in their history now they were to see the real result of God planting, the nation would grow and produce many people for God.  Hosea 2:1 in a way continues this picture of hope by changing the names of Lo-Ammi and Lo-Ruhamah to Ammi (“mine”) and Ruhamah (“cared for or loved”).

Hosea 2:2-3 turns back to the idea of punishment.  This time it is the mother who is in trouble.  Here the children are told to stand up to their unfaithful mother and warn her that she will face punishment too.

Hosea 2:4-13 also contain a warning but this one is not just to the mother but also involves the children.  Most of the warning involves the fact that the mother worshipping other gods (Baal mentioned in verse 13 was a major god of the people who lived around the Israelites).  The fact that the children are also warned shows that the mother had influenced the children to follow here bad example.  The children had become unfaithful like their mother.  It is important to notice in verse 13 that the punishment comes because the nation of Israel as a group (the mother) had followed Baal (and other false gods) and had forgotten about God.  You would expect a husband to reject an unfaithful wife and that is what we see here.

But then we get another shock in verses 14-23.  In these verses we see Hosea (and God) working to win back the heart of the unfaithful wife.  The valley of Achor was one of the first places where the people of Israel disobeyed God.  After they crossed into the promised land they were told to take over the city of Jerico and to destroy all of the stuff they collected from there.  One guy actually kept and hid some of the loot and because of that the Isrealites lost their next battle.  So Achor would be a symbol of judgment for disobedience to the Israelites but here in Hosea God turns the valley into a place of hope.  How?  Through forgiveness.  Verse 16 shows a change of names for the husband (God).  As the husband works to win back the heart of the unfaithful wife we see that one day she will call him Ishi (husband) and will no longer call him Balli (which means “master or owner”(.  The idea is that she will respond to the love of her husband and the relationship will change from one of rules to one of love.  The section ends with talk of restoration.  No more war (v. 18), the people will live right with God (righteousness) and with each other (justice) (v. 19), there will be faithfulness and a good relationship (v. 20).  The whole section is a very hopeful picture of eternity.

This final part of the meaning of Lo-Ammi’s place in Hosea’s family is much bigger than the explanation for his sister’s place in the family.  Lo-Ammi’s name came with a warning to the people then a section of hope but then it went back to a warning to the mother and then a warning to both the children and the mother but finished up with a very hopeful picture of God coming for his bride and winning her back.  The double warning sandwiched between two sections of hope is a Hebrew way of making us focus on both points.  God is very serious about unfaithfulness but he is also is a faithful and loving God wanting to forgive.  As we saw in the explanation of Lo-Ruhamah’s place in Hosea’s family God will save but not by the sword, not by human action, he will save.  In Hosea 2:14,16 we saw it was God who will draw us to himself and that we will come to him as a husband not as a master.  God clearly wants us to love him.

God help me love you more.  Help me realize your love for me and not live a life of duty.  Let my life be a response to your love.  Thank you God for loving me.