August 30 2026
Hosea 1
As Jennifer and I witnessed the marriage of our daughter Sarah to her fiancé, Jesse this past weekend, I thought that here was the very best of our human experiences. Here on display was genuine love between two people, so evident in every smile and gesture they gave toward each other. Here too was a commitment to each other as evident in their vows spoken to each other and the ring placed upon their fingers. This signified that their love was an enduring love which would see its way through all off the ups and downs life would throw at them. And here too was joy, the joy of their discovering the one with whom they would share their life with so that now the story of their individual lives would be forever entwined together. This joy overflowed out to all those who shared in this wonderful day resulting in laughter and dancing and the sharing of food and drink in celebration by all those who had witnessed this glorious day. Yet this was not all, because there was there was also this sense of family that was forming as they become bound together as one. They both knew that those who witnessed their ceremony included Sarah’s grandparents who will celebrate their own seventy years of marriage. And out of their marriage came forth the more than forty years of marriage of Jennifer and I. So now Sarah and Jesse have the hope that one day they also might witness the marriage of their children and grandchildren.
It is when we remember how marriage represents the very best of our human experience that we are struck at how very awful the foundational premise of Hosea really is. Here it is again if you missed it when it was read the first time: When God first spoke through Hosea, God said to Hosea. “Go, take for yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry….”. So much for a marriage founded on the mutual love of a woman and a man; no, this marriage was an act of obedience to God’s command on the part of Hosea. And the beauty of two people pledging their commitment to each other is immediately called into question when God insists that Hosea seek out one who is known for one thing, their lack of commitment to one man. We must also wonder just how much joy there was at the formation of this union as well. I mean, we can only imagine the reaction of Hosea’s family when they discovered that he was planning on marrying the girl with the worst of reputations. The very girl they knew had brought such sorrow and disgrace upon her own family was now about to do the same to the family of Hosea as well. And yet despite all that we perceive as being terribly wrong about this union, Hosea still never wavered in his obedience to God which seems to be the only silver lining around this very cloudy situation.
Now even if this call of Hosea makes all those who read of it rather sick, this book of prophecy has remained the first of the twelve minor prophets for as long as the scriptures have been compiled. We must wonder, just why is it that this book, above every other book of prophecy, is chosen to be the one to set the tone for all the rest? The reason, I believe, is that the book of Hosea is the one which describes the basic issues facing those who desire to believe in God. Many times after Jennifer sits through the hearing of the sermons that I preach, not once but twice, she often will give me her honest opinion about what she has heard. More often than not she will tell me that they are a good enough message but she also seems to end by telling me that what people need more than ever is just the basics. So like many teachers do at the beginning of the school year, I think it might help to go over the basics once again and there is no better place than to start than right here in the book of Hosea.
Well, we must begin with this strange command that God gave to Hosea, that he should go and take for himself a wife of harlotry. What in the world is this all about? What we are to know is that in this situation, Hosea is assuming the part of God. Just as marriage is to result in a union between a man and a wife, so too God desires to be united with us, the people that he created to bear his image. So the most basic building block in our relationship with God is that God desires a relationship with us simply because he loves us. God initiates every part of our relationship with us; all we are ever called to do is to respond to what God, in his love, has first done for us. Anytime our relationship with God seems to be in doubt we must go back to square one which is that God loves us. God’s love for us must be certain in our hearts before we can ever move forward in our relationship with him.
So God in his love makes the first move and like Hosea, God searches for us in order that he might be united with us in a bond of love. Yet, as God commanded Hosea, the one God loves is not one who is known for their love of him, far from it. No, the one God loves is always one known for their unfaithfulness. The people that Hosea was addressing through his prophecy were the people of the nation of Israel. Israel was a nation that God had brought forth by his own actions. It was God who had rescued them from slavery at the hands of the Egyptian pharaohs. It was God who then led them to the land that he had promised to them. God alone had established them as a nation, and he was the one who had given them a perfect law in which they were to be governed by. Even so, the people of Israel became one of the most evil nations on earth. We are left wondering then, just what was the purpose of God singling them out from all of the rest of the people on earth? Well, the reason for God establishing the people of Israel was that they were to be an example for all of humanity. Through watching their relationship with God, all of humanity can realize why entering into a relationship with a God who loves us can be so difficult.
The difficulty, as the marriage of Hosea points out, is that all of us begin as people who are in love with many other lovers other than God. God tells Hosea that it is the land that is the source of the unfaithfulness of his people. Now, this seems rather odd, doesn’t it? Yet what we must understand that it is the land which was the source of the wealth of the people of Israel. Instead of seeing that the land’s abundance as a blessing from God, his people instead used their abundance to store up worldly wealth which they treasured more than their relationship with God. This is exactly what Jesus warns us about, in the sixth chapter of Matthew. There he tells us to not fall in love with worldly wealth because it is so easily lost. You see, the problem with worldly wealth is that it becomes a false and fickle god which we end up worshipping. This is what the philosopher, Giorgio Agamben observes. He states that money becomes for us a god; it determines value, commands obedience, shapes desire, and organizes social life. What religion is to provide as the supreme source of meaning, authority, discipline and faith can also be performed by capitol and the market. This idea that wealth becomes a god which competes with the one true, living God is one that is proven true by the communal life of the people of Israel. In the eighth chapter of Amos, the prophet describes how the people could hardly wait until the Sabbath was over so that they could once again to sell their wheat. Amos says of them that they had no problem cheating others with a deceptive scales so that they could buy the poor for money and the needy for a pair of sandals. Such is the way of those who make money their god.
Well, we are left wondering just how will the one true living God, take us who are so prone to love the wrong things and make us those who become committed in love to the God who first loved us? The answer, I believe, is found in the names that God requires Hosea to give to his three children. Once again, it is somewhat offensive to our modern sensibilities, that God would command Hosea to give his children strange names in order to speak to the people of Israel. For most of us, the naming of our children is something we have given great thought to. Yet, these names give us valuable insight to the relationship we have with the God who loves us. When Hosea had his first child, God told him to name him Jezreel. This name means, God plants, or sows seeds. After hearing this meaning we are left wondering, what is it that God plants? Well, what scriptures tell us is that God desires to plant his word into our hearts. Here again is another basic building block that goes along with knowing that God loves us. We must know that God speaks to us. As people, we alone among all of the creatures God created have the ability to hear God speak to us. God speaks to us his promises which prove his faithfulness to us. Through our knowing the faithfulness of God we then begin to trust the way he tells is the right way for us to live. At the end of the third chapter of James, we find that the wisdom that results from the word God speaks to us is a life which is pure, peaceable, considerate, submissive, merciful, and good, and faithful.
When we know that the word of God is to produce in those who hear it a life marked by mercy and peace toward all people, then when we hear of blood being shed by the house of Jehu, the king of Israel, we know that something is terribly wrong. The answer to what has happened is found in the first book of Samuel, the eighth chapter. There we learn that people of Israel have rejected God as being their king. They desired to be like all the rest of the nations and have a visible human ruler to reign over them.Through Israel being ruled by a king the authority of the word of God was replaced by the authority of an earthly king. Where God rules through the power of love and life, earthly rulers establish their authority through the power of death and violence. Even though God told the people of Israel that they were not to seek revenge upon those who had wronged them, the king of Israel named Jehu refused to obey this word of God. When he took the throne he took revenge upon the people associated with the king he replaced, King Ahab. In a fertile valley named Jezreel, the place where God plants, King Jehu violently slaughtered all of King Ahab’s family along with all of the officials and priests who served King Ahab. Jehu had allowed his vengeance to consume him which resulted in much blood being shed in a place that spoke of God and what he was trying to establish in the world. So when God commanded Hosea that the was to name his first born son, Jezreel, he did so as a reminder to his people that it is his word, a word which results in righteousness and peace, this is what was to be found in their hearts, not a longing for vengeance and violence.
Well, Hosea’s family continued to grow and we hear that he went on to have a baby girl. Once again, Hosea and his wife were told by God that this baby’s name would be, Lo-ruhamah. This is a combination of two Hebrew words, lo, the Hebrew word for not, and ruhamah, a word which speaks of a mother’s love which begins when she carries her child. This is a love which is marked by a deep compassion, a tender love, and even pity. The reason God insists that Hosea name his daughter such a strange name is that the people of Israel have allowed the king to have authority over them so that they now have become violent people who refused to be compassionate to those who stood in need of mercy. It is their refusal to be compassionate and to show pity to the hurting people of their day, this is why God is telling them that they would no longer be receiving mercy from him. To understand this shocking statement we must go back to the basic building block which is that God loves us so that we do not believe that God will ever withhold his love from us. We must remember also that the marriage of Hosea and his unfaithful wife also communicates to us is that through his uniting himself with us, God desires to create a family where his love is shared by all within that family. When the people of Israel followed in the violent and destructive ways of King Jehu, they were stating that they no longer desired to be part of this family God was creating. What we learn from the people of Israel is this: there simply is no way for us to be distant from God in how we act and expect God to be close to us when we suddenly find ourselves in need of his loving kindness. As God tells Hosea, he will have compassion on the kingdom of Judah. The reason why this is so is that God knows that the people of Judah will return to him so that he might save them. The salvation of God we are told, will not happen through the destruction of Judah’s enemies by means of bows, sword, battle, horses or horsemen. No, God will save Judah through his merciful compassion which will cause them to return to him so that they might be saved.
Well, when Hosea’s daughter had become a little girl, we are told that Hosea once again became a father. This time Hosea had a son and once again, God had a name for this child as well. The name this boy would bear was Lo-Ammi. Just as we learned with the daughter named, Lo-Ruamah, Lo in Hebrew means no, or not. The word, “ammi”, in Hebrew means people. So what God is telling the people of Israel is that because they refused to allow his word to be planted in their hearts, and because they refused to follow in the ways of God being compassionate and merciful to others, then they simply could no longer be considered to be the people of God. What this says to us is that to say we are in a relationship with God requires us to do something. We simply cannot say that we are part of the family of God and then refuse to hear the word God speaks to us. And we cannot say that we are part of the family of God and act in destructive and violent way in our dealings with each other. If we do not allow the word of God to become planted in our hearts so that we live by his wisdom and if we do not love others just like God first loved us, then we should not be surprised if God one day tells us that we are in fact not part of his family, not one of his people.
As harsh as this might seem, this is not the final word of God. What God speaks to Hosea after his third child is born gives us a great hope. God tells Hosea that where God once said about the people of Israel, “You are not my people”, it will be said of them that they are the sons of the living God. One day God will unite all people, the people of Judah and the people of Israel to name a few, and he will set over them one head. In that day God promises they will go up from the land, leaving behind their worship of the wealth the land produces. Yes, great will be the day when the word of God becomes planted in the hearts of all people. From this promise it is not difficult to know that God is promising the coming of our Savior, Jesus. He is the one we learn in the gospel of John whose life is one where the word of God is seen living in him. It is Jesus whose life is marked by the tender mercy displayed so wonderfully at the cross. And it is through Jesus, the one who is our head of the body of Christ, who unites us with God so that we can know ourselves as being indeed children of God. So let us live by his wisdom, the wisdom founded on God’s eternal love for us. Amen!
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