My readings have moved to the Book of Hosea. Of all the prophets, his call must have been the most emotionally taxing. Maybe I would put him close to the weeping prophet, the beloved prophet Jeremiah.
Imagine being told to marry a prostitute, who will give you children you will disown and would later abandon you for another man and then to be commanded to go take her back while living with another man.
A few things caught my attention reading the first part of the book.
First, there is the issue of honour and propriety. This prophet must have cringed at God’s command but obeyed anyway in all instances. His primary call was a messenger of God. He delivered God’s message in the most bizarre yet effective way.
Second, the prophet appears to know that the nation would refuse to listen. The blunt and at your face rebuke did not stop the people from unashamedly pursuing other gods, rejecting Yahweh and refusing to listen to the prophets’ insistent calls for repentance. Judgement was coming.
There is a third element in the story, and this comes early in the Book. In Chapter 2 the prophet is already saying, Israel will be thrown out of the land. They will be judged by Yahweh. But before you start thinking that Israel is done and gone, the prophet says, God will come for them. God, their husband, will do something to change his wife’s status from rejected to forgiven, disowned to accepted, unloved to loved graciously again.
I got to remember today, that God’s disciplinary actions are redemptive in nature. His disciplines are intended to reveal how deeply his children and his people are loved.
How will God do this? That’s for the rest of the Book to reveal. More next time, Lord willing.
Daniel & Emma Villa 