Dear Friends,
We hope this week's devotional will encourage you in your spiritual walk. We give thanks to Rev. Dr Joseph Wood, Principal and Senior Lecturer in Theology and Church History, for writing this devotional.
You are welcome to share this and include it in your church newsletters if you wish; we just ask that you please give credit to NTC and the author. Thank you!
Hosea 1: 2-10 (NLT)
2 When the Lord first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, “Go and marry a prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the Lord and worshiping other gods.”
3 So Hosea married Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she became pregnant and gave Hosea a son. 4 And the Lord said, “Name the child Jezreel, for I am about to punish King Jehu’s dynasty to avenge the murders he committed at Jezreel. In fact, I will bring an end to Israel’s independence. 5 I will break its military power in the Jezreel Valley.”
6 Soon Gomer became pregnant again and gave birth to a daughter. And the Lord said to Hosea, “Name your daughter Lo-ruhamah—‘Not loved’—for I will no longer show love to the people of Israel or forgive them. 7 But I will show love to the people of Judah. I will free them from their enemies—not with weapons and armies or horses and charioteers, but by my power as the Lord their God.”
8 After Gomer had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she again became pregnant and gave birth to a second son. 9 And the Lord said, “Name him Lo-ammi—‘Not my people’—for Israel is not my people, and I am not their God.
10“Yet the time will come when Israel’s people will be like the sands of the seashore—too many to count! Then, at the place where they were told, ‘You are not my people,’ it will be said, ‘You are children of the living God.’ 11 Then the people of Judah and Israel will unite together. They will choose one leader for themselves, and they will return from exile together. What a day that will be—the day of Jezreel—when God will again plant his people in his land.
Devotional
The opening narrative of the book of Hosea calls for the reader to consider the direct effects of a relationship of infidelity with Yahweh. The image of the broken marriage between Hosea and Gomer vividly portrays the awful consequences of the people’s infidelity to the covenant with Yahweh. The people of Yahweh are not simply called to an abstract religious idea of practice; they are called to a relationship of loyalty to the God who redeemed them. They are called to fidelity and faithfulness.
Tremendous irony is provided in the final arrangement of the collection of the twelve minor prophets, with Hosea at the outset declaring a divine divorce and yet Malachi at the end declaring that Yahweh is a hater of divorce (Mal. 2.16). What does this all mean? So much is said in Hosea, the longest book of the minor prophets, and it must be understood in light of the history of God’s people, but for modern readers it seems to me the following emerges as God’s message from Hosea to us:
God knows us – He knows what it is like to experience broken relationships. He knows what it is like to have someone break their promise. He knows what it is like when someone commits adultery on Him. He knows what it is like to experience the consequences of sin.
God loves us – He loves us anyway. No matter what we have been through or are going through, God understands and loves us anyway. We learn from 1 John that God’s number one characteristic, the one that overshadows all of the others, is love.
God wants relationship with us – God’s love for us has an end goal – relationship with Him.
God wants relationship between ourselves – God wants restoration between humans.
Although the prophet Hosea was speaking in a specific time and place to a specific people, the truths he communicates about God in this book are timeless.
Prayer
God our Father, forgive us for the times and ways in which our fidelity to you is found lacking. Forgive us when we choose to walk the path that leads away from you. Thank you, that in spite of ourselves and our unfaithfulness, you remain steadfast and faithful. May your compassion continue to overflow on our lives as we seek to follow the way of Jesus. Empower us through the Holy Spirit, we pray, to live as your faithful people. Amen.
Grace and peace,
Rev. Joseph Wood, PhD
Principal and Senior Lecturer in Theology and Church History