Ever read the book of Hosea? It's one of those minor prophets—those brief books at the end of the Old Testament that never get a lot of playing time during Sunday morning services.
I'm thinking that back in the day, it was pretty cool to be a prophet—even a minor one. Prophets listened to God's message and then passed that message along to Israel. Sometimes God even used you to do some cool miracles, you know, healing people or making the food in poor people's pantry last for years. Sometimes you were one of those unlucky prophets who had to tell a bad king to shape up. That's why some prophets ended up being public enemy number one.
Hosea was one of those unlucky prophets with a strange calling from God. I'm sure when God first called him was like "Okay, God, I'm really excited about my mission. What's it going to be? I kind of like the whole Elijah thing, where it doesn't rain for a long time, but ravens show up with food for me. Although wouldn't it be more cool to have like, I don't know, lions bring me the food? You know it might show off your skills and add a little dramatic flare to the story when people are telling it years later around the campfire. Of course, I'd be just as happy to make the sun stand still or heal a leper. Whatever YOU want, God."
I can imagine Hosea's disappointment when God tells him that the central job of his prophetic career is to go and marry a prostitute. But to his credit, Hosea obeys God. He marries Gomer. (You'd think she'd have the sense to change her name to something more appealing like Lola or Candy.) Then Hosea and Gomer have a son, and God tells Hosea to name him after a place where a horrible massacre took place. Imagine naming your kid Hiroshima. Then Hosea and Gomer have a few more kids, and God tells them to name them stuff like "Not loved" and "Not my people." Nice. Just make it easy for the bullies at school.
Gomer runs away and become a prostitute again and God tells Hosea to go get her and buy her back from slavery. Hosea does. Why? What is the point? My husband says that it's like performance art on a huge scale. Everyone is looking at Hosea saying, "Dude, you are crazy. Why did you marry a whore? Why didn't you let her go when she bolted? She's no good. You're better off without her." But God was making a point.
Then comes Hosea's shining moment. He stands up on his soap box in front of all of Israel and says, "This is a picture of you and God. Can you guess who is the whore? That's right. It's you, Israel. You've been running after false gods, cheating on me, treating yourselves with no respect, getting involved in every sin in the book. Yet, I still want you. I want you to come back. I'm not going to start over with some other people. I want you."
In the book of Hosea, God shows his dark side. He says he's going to do some pretty awful things to Judah and Israel. (The two kingdoms which make up the nation of Israel at this point in the Old Testament.) Reading the book of Hosea without a New Testament perspective is pretty scary. God seems rude and angry, hell-bent on punishing his wayward people. As I read it, my stomach churned at the violence described. I kept wondering, "God, what is going on? Why are you acting like some angry man who's been cheated on?"
Then I came to chapter 11. God describes his relationship with his people as a father who lovingly cares for a little child. He mourns for them and he comes to a decision:
My people are hell-bent on leaving me.
They pray to god Baal for help.
He doesn't lift a finger to help them.
But how can I give up on you, Ephraim?
How can I turn you loose, Israel?
How can I leave you to be ruined like Admah,
devastated like luckless Zeboim?
I can't bear to even think such thoughts.
My insides churn in protest.
And so I'm not going to act on my anger.
I'm not going to destroy Ephraim.
And why? Because I am God and not a human.
I'm The Holy One and I'm here—in your very midst.
God, an emotional being, vents his deepest feelings, sharing his frustrations at being rejected by the people he created and rescued from slavery time and time again. Yet in the end, he can not totally forsake them. He disciplines them to bring them back. Yet he will not do the evil things he contemplated doing. Why? Because he is God and not human. He is holy and doesn't act the way we humans do.
Our book club from church recently read Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. This excellent book weaves the basic elements of the story of Hosea and Gomer into an amazing story of unconditional love. The central character is a prostitute named Angel. Rivers deftly shapes the character of Angel so that the reader can get a glimpse of why Gomer ran from Hosea—and why we sometimes run from God. It's a great book, and I highly recommend reading it.
Amazing.
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