Chapter 1 Hosea is Called
Hosea 1
1 The word of the LORD that came to Hosea the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
2 When the LORD began to speak by Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea:
“Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry
And children of harlotry,
For the land has committed great harlotry
By departing from the LORD.”
Can you imagine what Hosea must have been thinking when this happened? And it looks like this was at the very beginning of his ministry as a prophet; one of his first, if not his first prophetic duty. Here he is following the Lord. No mean task considering how everyone is acting around him. He is trying to be the example of a Godly Jewish man, maybe he had been thinking, “You know, I am not getting any younger. I probably should find a good Jewish woman and settle down and raise a family. Maybe I will go talk to my Mom and Dad and see if they have anyone in mind for me”
Instead, his heavenly Father tells him to go marry a wife of harlotry. Really??? A wife of harlotry? Why not an Assyrian or Moabitess? Maybe a stray Egyptian needs marrying. Can you just imagine his mind doing all kinds of flip flops trying to understand what is being asked of him? But with Hosea we see instant obedience.
3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim,
We do not see any hesitation. He went out and married Gomer. We do not even see him questioning God at all. That makes us ask a couple of other questions. Did he know of Gomer before this request? He certainly knew where to go find a prostitute…had she already been a prostitute or was she a prostitute in waiting.
Some questions to begin thinking about for this week:
1. What kind of things can expect the Lord to ask of us?
2. Is there anything that the Lord would not ask of his followers?
3. What does it mean to be a prophet of the Lord?
4. How would we react if God asked us to do something so unconventional?
5. How can we be more like Hosea?
My answers...
ReplyDelete1. More than we can imagine
2. Perhaps but that's because He does not ask EVERYTHING of us
3. It means to forth tell and foretell but more than these it is one who exemplifies the intimacy of relationship the Lord desires to have with His people.
4. Um, wetting my pants? Can I say that here?
5. A mind and heart BOTH turned to our Heavenly Father
1. The unconventional.
ReplyDelete2. Apparently anything.
3. To follow and say and act upon what the Lord has commissioned you to do.
4. Change my name and move to another state.
5. Do what you're told to do. To obey is better than sacrifice.
1. Things that are bigger than we can ever imagine ourselves doing--that's how we know it's God.
ReplyDelete2. To commit sin (but apparently not necessarily to marry a sinner)
3. To speak the word of the Lord when He says to speak.
4. Hopefully we would be so close to the Lord that we wouldn't question
5. Love God with all our hearts, mind, soul and strength--and work at it daily