When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.”

– Hosea 1:2 (ESV)

This is the first thing the Lord said to the prophet Hosea. The first thing. Not to make light of this, but I would love to have seen the look on Hosea’s face.

There was worse to come . . .

So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. And the Lord said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”

She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, “Call her name No Mercy [Lo-ruhama], for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”

When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. And the Lord said, “Call his name Not My People [Lo-ammi], for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”

This seems like a breathtaking rejection, does it not? A few things strike me. First, the word of the Lord to Hosea truly changed the course of his life, affecting who he married, how his kids were named, everything. Consider Hosea; the messages he’s received from the Lord have caused him to marry a hooker named Gomer and now they are raising little Jezreel, No Mercy and Not My People.

Hosea was faithful. The prophetic message that was delivered through him was harsh, and he suffered for it. His family became a living picture of Israel’s unfaithfulness and of God’s rejection of her.

Yet God’s rejection was not final. It’s late, I’m sleepy, and I have no words of wisdom to add to what you are about to read. I only ask you to drink it in, because it’s blowing me away. This is the ending of chapter 2:

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,

and bring her into the wilderness,

and speak tenderly to her.

And there I will give her her vineyards

and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.

And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth,

as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

“And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.

“And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth, and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel, and I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.'”

– Hosea 2:14-23

God you are my God! The priviledge of even uttering those words is beyond me. I am undone at the thought of it.

Thank you.