February 6: If God really loves me

Wiley Richards is a retired professor of theology and philosophy at The Baptist College of Florida in Graceville.

We have all heard the saying, “What you do speaks so loud I can’t hear what you are saying.” If any man’s life illustrated that truth it was Hosea’s. He and his family were the sermon as God impressed on Israel the enormity of its slide into idolatry. The drastic lifestyle He commanded the prophet to adopt grew out of His great love for His people.

• We know God really loves us because He calls us (1:2). He called Hosea to enter into a marriage which seemed doomed to end in heartbreak, and it did. When we compare the dates of Hosea’s ministry as determined from the list of kings in verse one, his service spanned about 40 years at a time when the northern kingdom was breaking up. His marriage reflected the national picture, as God intended.

Hosea was to take a wife from “whoredoms.” To avoid the inference that God commanded Hosea to marry a prostitute, some interpreters view the entire book as an allegory with no factual account of a marriage. Others believe Hosea was to marry a prostitute who was already involved in temple prostitution. In another view, Hosea married a woman who later lapsed into prostitution, as implied in the word “whoredoms.” He was to marry a woman who lived in an environment of sexual promiscuity.

• God shows His love for us because He sustains us (vv. 3-9). At some point Hosea came to understand that his marriage, which probably lasted about 40 years, was a dramatic enactment of Israel’s terrible error in denying God in favor of the sensuous living of the Canaanite fertility religions. The names God assigned Hosea’s children became a constant reminder of the rapid decline of Israel, the certainty of captivity, and the promise of restoration. They named the firstborn, a boy, Jezreel, meaning “God sows,” speaking of both judgment and restoration. Jezreel is the name of a valley northwest of Mt. Gilboa, also called Esdraelon and Megiddo.

The names of the next two children spoke more directly to the moral state of Israel. The first, Lo-ruhamah, literally means “not-loved,” or “pitied.” We can only imagine the heartache for the girl as she answered to her name. The third child, a son, was named Lo-ammi, meaning, “no people.” As people speculated about the peculiar names, the prophet could explain how Israel had left their love for God and had violated His covenant.

• However, the prophet could launch into a sermon of how God unites His people (vv. 10-11). At the time of the prophet’s ministry, about 738 B.C., biblical scholars estimate the nation possessed no more than 60,000 free land-holders (2 Kgs. 15:19- 20). How could their population be increased to an immeasurable number? Hosea reminded them of their status as “sons of the living God” (v. 10). He is the true God, the Lord of military powers Who controlled the dead idols made of stone. As the Lord of life, He gives life. He is the one who would unite the two nations under “one head.” We see this as a reference to the Messiah.

• Because God loves His people He redeems them (3:1-5). Gomer apparently drifted back into the patterns of the old life and seems to have sold herself into some kind of slave relationship (3:1). The destitute prophet scraped together enough money and goods to redeem her (v. 2). He placed restrictions on her as a pledge of her return to him. However, the prospects for Israel were bleak. The nation would soon be without leaders and religious symbols as they faced captivity, fulfilled in 732 B.C. Samaria fell in 722 B.C. Their reunion would come in the “latter days,” a messianic fulfillment.