Hosea 1:2

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.”

Hosea 1:2

Dear God, what kind of dreams did Hosea have for his life? When he was a little boy and thinking about growing up, what did he think his life would look like? I’m pretty sure it didn’t include marrying an unfaithful prostitute.

I suppose each of us has a call on our lives, and, much to the consternation of prosperity gospel preachers, it isn’t always something that will help us live a fun, luxurious life. Sometimes, there is a difficult road laid out for us to walk. Some roads are rougher than others. Frankly, while my road has some pain and it certainly isn’t as luxurious as other roads, the truth is, my life is remarkably good.

Every year I have dinner with three friends from high school. We spend about 2-3 hours together and talk about what’s going on in our lives. We share pretty vulnerably. Children struggles. Job struggles. Marriage struggles. You get the idea. There are years when I go there fairly heavy-laden. I think they do too. But an interesting thing happens during the dinner. If we were to all put our lives into a bucket, bring it to the table, and then listen to the others’ stories, I get the feeling that, at the end of the night, each of us is happy to pick up our own buckets and take them home with us. I think part of this is that we wouldn’t only be giving up the pain, but we would be giving up the sweet parts of our lives of which we wouldn’t want to let go. In most cases, removing the pain would also remove at least part of the good.

For Hosea, I don’t know what “good” came from this pain. Maybe Gomer was delightful at times. Maybe this made his words from you mean even more. I was just watching a video of some guys doing bodywork on a car (I know that sounds incredibly weird, but I promise it’s not as weird as it sounds) and they were using a lot of materials to get the car’s body back into shape: hammers, sandpaper, frame straighteners, etc. The car needed some stress and friction to look the way the body shop needed it to look.

Father, I don’t know what kinds of tools you need to use on me, my wife, my children, my siblings, my parents, my friends, etc. I don’t know what you need to do to our country, and our world even. But I know we need friction. We need stress to mold us into the vessels you have for us to be. So to quote the song, “Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me. Break me. Melt me. Mold me. Fill me.”

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen

 

The Redemption of Gomer — Hosea 3

The image above was done by Ned Bustard and is part of a book he put together called Revealed: A Storybook Bible for Grown-Ups. I am using it for my Bible studies on Saturdays as a way of integrating the arts into my Bible study.

Hosea 3 NIV
[1] The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes. ” [2] So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. [3] Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you.” [4] For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or household gods. [5] Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days.

 

Dear God, this is a hard story. Why did Hosea have to go through this to make your point? Was his sacrifice necessary for us to read all of these years later?

Of the image that Ned Bustard made, he wrote: “In this piece a spurned husband dresses up in a tuxedo and comes out to the street corner with a wedding ring and an offer of marriage to his unfaithful wife who is standing under the street light, working as a prostitute.” As I look at his image, her face is expressionless–only lips. Her dress appears to be torn–perhaps from her customers tearing at her clothes. Her hair is not particularly smooth, but unkempt. And as he said, she is “under the streetlight.” She is showing off the merchandise, her body being the only thing that is important–not her face.

On the other hand, the husband has brought her her wedding ring that she left behind. He has made himself up as nice as he possibly could for her. His face if visible, and his hair is perfect, in contrast to her invisible face and unkempt hair. He wants to love her and take care of her. Will she accept his love?

Father, thank you for loving me. I have been the whore who has left you for others. I have pursued my own interests and sold out for advancement. I have also taken advantage of others for my gain. I am so sorry. I know I’ve repented of these things before, and you probably don’t remember what I’m talking about, but things like this bring them to mind again. And I am also reminded that, just like Hosea was called to a life of pain and sacrifice, I have no right to expect any different. I am amazed I have as much as I have. I am amazed you have answered my prayers in such powerful ways. You have been doubly good to me when I didn’t even deserve for you to be single-y good. Really, thank you!

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen