Hosea  1-7

Original Post:  July 27, 2012

Hosea is "famous" if you will, for having a wife that was unfaithful.   God tells him to marry a woman who will be unfaithful to him, and to name his children depressing names, like "unloved".   All of this is to prove a greater point:   Israel is guilty of "cheating" on God.  In this passage God is the husband and Israel is the wife.   Prostitution is described as the worship of other gods.   Just like unfaithfulness will erode trust and intimacy in a marriage, so worship of other gods will erode our relationship with Jesus.

Here in our little corner of the world we don't see shrines to other deities built very often.   Most families don't have wooden or stone images set up in their homes that they pray to, and look to for help.  You might think that we are innocent of false worship....    But Hosea takes our understanding of what God considers "prostitution" a step further.   Everything mentioned above is certainly part of it, but so is relying on human strength instead of God's strength.     Israel is guilty because they asked a foreign king for help, and didn't ask God himself.  They are making deals using gold and silver that God gave them to avoid being captured by this enemy king.    Hosea says, speaking for the Lord  "I'm the one who gave you the gold and the bountiful harvest in the first place....you should have come to me"    Since they didn't, they are guilty of prostitution.

In my way of understanding this, we are guilty of the same crime when we invoke evolution as the foundation of our species.   We are guilty of this when we authorize prayer to other (or all) deities in our schools.   We are guilty when we accept Buddhism, Islam or any other world religion as genuine, even though they conflict with the Bible.   We are guilty when we rely on our own resources, instead of on God's.

Speaking of resources, that would include keeping our tithe for ourselves, so we can pay bills or go on vacation....instead of asking God to make provision for us.   If we are spending our tithe on bills, then we have too many things.   Period.     Generally it's our expected standard of living that gets in the way of tithing, not our actual, physical needs.

In our reading,  the kingdom of Israel is about to come crashing down because the people haven't kept God at the forefront.    Let's not make the same mistake in our families, or in our church.

Several favorite verses:  4:6  "my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge"

6:6  "I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings."

PR