Hosea and Our Current Day

I have a love-hate relationship with the book of Hosea. As a believer, I tend to shy away from saying I hate any book of the Bible, as Christians as a group tend to frown on that assertion. I love Hosea because it is Scripture. I love it because it is part of God’s message, both for the Israelites living in Hosea’s day, and for us today. I dislike it primarily because of Hosea’s wife. Even her name, Gomer is annoying. How do people of a certain age disconnect Gomer from Gomer Pile? I was born in the 80’s and even I have a difficult time doing it.

However my real problem with Gomer is not her name, or even her former occupation , which we read about in Hosea 1:2. My issue is with the lack of loyalty in the book. And I can practically hear you screaming from your side of the screen that the lack of loyalty is precisely the point God is making. I understand and respect that. however, it doesn’t make me particularly enthused to sit down and read Hosea.

Loyalty is a big issue for me. I know I ‘m not alone in that . Many of us desire loyalty in our relationships. But to be open and honest, I can make unswerving loyalty a litmus test of my realtionships. And i’ve let good friendships die simply because I felt that the other party weren’t loyal. If you ask Zach, he might tell you that sometimes I can let the ideal of loyalty be an idol in my heart and in my life. I can take it to extremes. So , when it’s time to read Hosea, I can be a little reticent . I. don’t want to read about Gomer’s infidelity. I don’t want to think about the deeper implications of Hosea. I don’t want to imagine the pain of being called by God to be united to a wife who will be disloyal, who will cause you pain. I don’t really want to consider the pain Hosea’s children would have gone through being named “ not loved” and “not my. people”

But while I’m dragging my feet about reading Hosea, and not wanting to sit in the pain of the disloyalty, I am cutting myself off from the bigger story of God’s love, redemptive nature, and awesome and daring rescue plan.

I miss beautiful pictures of God redeeming Israel, and also how through Jesus God redeems us.

Hosea 12:6

But you must return to your God;
    maintain love and justice,
    and wait for your God always.

I find beauty in the simplicity. God is letting us know through Hosea exactly what he wants from us, His bride that has wandered away.

Return

Maintain

Wait.

It mirrors Micah 6:8 in its simplicity and directness.

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly[a] with your God.

In the past few years in America we have faced a radical shift in the public square. Our values, and to large extent what we consider acceptable behavior, have shifted. We have faced social upheaval, political turmoil, and economic challenges. In the past few weeks we have watched a disheartening presidential debate. We have experienced shock as a presidential candidate was attacked. An assassination attempt on a former president, The main sentiment I’m hearing around this issue, the thing I immiidiatly told my children in the aftermath, is that this is not who we are as Americans. we value public debate, and we have no place for physical attacks on our opponents, no matter what side of the aisle you are on. This isn’t a republican / democrat issue. This is a lack of virtue.

Now you may be thinking “Jenny , you are taking Hosea and Micah way out of context.” and while you are right,. I am . I would say that Scripture has one interpretation but many applications.

“Return to God” this was said to Israel but it could just as easily be said to God’s people in His church today . And specifically the American Christians who are being ineffective because of apathy.

What does it look like to return to God? Repentence from sin, first and foremost. We repent when we first comet Jesus, but we also need to continue in a state of repentance. We confess our personal and individual sins, but we also confess our corporate sins. The sins of our family, our community, our nation, our world.

Apathy. Apathy is a huge problem facing specifically American Christians today, because we have forgotten just how special the freedoms we enjoy are.

Let’s turn to my favorite dictionary , Websters 1828 for the definition

“AP'ATHY, noun [Gr. passion.]

Want of feeling; an utter privation of passion, or insensibility to pain; applied either to the body or the mind. As applied to the mind, it is stoicism, a calmness of mind incapable of being ruffled by pleasure, pain or passion. In the first ages of the church, the christians adopted the term to express a contempt of earthly concerns.

Quietism is apathy disguised under the appearance of devotion.”

Ouch, Sometimes Noah Webster hurts my feelings. Disguised under the appearance of devotion.

The second part of the verse in Hosea told us to maintain justice. Maintaince implies upkeep. We know we have to check and change the oil in our vehicles regularly. We don’t expect our vehicles to run without maintaining them.

To maintain love and justice. Love simply means putting others needs ahead of our own. Justice requires a bit more thought. In our current system, lies and half truths are defining, so why are we surprised when it seems that truth is unbelievable? When true justice seems unattainable? Our founding fathers gave us a beautiful justice system where we are assumed innocent until proven guilty, where we are guaranteed the right to a fair trial. but we failed to maintain the system. We didn’t teach the next generation the dangers of tyranny nor the blessings of liberty. Are we suprised to see the breakdown of America when we haven’t taught the next generation why the freedoms we enjoy are available to us? when we haven’t explained to them that our laws are good primarily because they were based on the principles od God’s word? This isn’t a separate issue. It’s all connected. To maintain and preserve justice implies teaching the next generation how to spot and avoid tyranny.

The next part “ Wait for God always” Our culture is possibly one of the most impatient cultures, compared with any other times in history. Fast food, 24 hour News Cycles, Instant everything. We value fast. A modern boogy man for us is our phones. While I agree that phones deserve to be criticized , the phones were never the problem. We are.

“Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.” That was written two hundred years ago. But it could just as easily be applied to ancient Israel , or us today. We are prone to wander. Humanity is prone to wander. Even when we have experienced a life changing relationship with God.

Hosea 13:6

When I fed them, they were satisfied;
    when they were satisfied, they became proud;
    then they forgot me.

Yes this was written primarily for Israel but it absolutely applies to us today as well. The colonists struggled against tyranny. The pioneers struggled against a wilderness. God blessed them, and he blessed us through them. God fed us. And we promptly forgot Him.

So, yes while I am asking us to remember God’s previous blessings of liberty, I am also asking to be brave. To take courage. Because while we see our culture and our nation collapsing around our ears, we are reminded that God has already offered us a way back. While we currently enjoy more liberty than our brothers and sisters in other nations, at the exact same time we are praying for its continuation , we are also preparing ourselves. If we wake up tomorrow and all of our freedoms are gone, we still choose God. We still choose trust and obedience.

Hosea 13: 14

“I will deliver this people from the power of the grave;
    I will redeem them from death.
Where, O death, are your plagues?
    Where, O grave, is your destruction?

“I will have no compassion,”

God may choose to preserve American liberty. He may choose to heal our land. But even if he doesn’t, He has already saved us from eternal dealth, destruction, and damnation. He has saved us from a life of grief, and a life without hope.

Yes we were stunned and shocked last Saturday and we may feel that we don’t even recognize our country anymore. But we unswearvingly seek God first. And we use whatever time we have left to spread the good news of the gospel. We pray for our nation. We drive apathy and similar vices out of our hearts. We pray for the nations around the world, We remember the stuggle of our fellow Christians in nations were sharing the gospel is costly.

We don’t put patriotism aside. but we do put it in its proper place, under the headship and authority of Jesus Christ.

Hosea 14: 1-3

Return, Israel, to the Lord your God.
    Your sins have been your downfall!
2 Take words with you
    and return to the Lord.
Say to him:
    “Forgive all our sins
and receive us graciously,
    that we may offer the fruit of our lips.[b]
3 Assyria cannot save us;
    we will not mount warhorses.
We will never again say ‘Our gods’
    to what our own hands have made,
    for in you the fatherless find compassion.”

I’m not trying to be flippant with my use of scripture but could we do an experiment? Could we put “politician” in the place of Assyria ?

I know that tensions are mounting in the realm of American politics today. But as God’s chosen people we have o be the most cautious with our words. We have to be very careful in this realm to resist the pull to make wild exaggerations. The world is watching our response to what is happening in our nation. If we truly care about our neighbors, then we will be sober minded. We will recognize this as a time of prayer, and not hot tempers.

Two final passages and we will close.

2 Chronicles 7:14-16

14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. 16 I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

and finally from Daniel’s friends in Daniel 3:16-18

16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us[c] from Your Majesty’s hand. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”