Friday, October 7 ~ tammi

Today's reading from the Chronological OT/NT Reading Plan is Hosea 1-4; Romans 14.

I want so badly to talk about today's passage in Romans (and I will refer you to an excellent message that serves as an overview to this chapter and part of the next, by none other than pastor John MacArthur), but I find myself drawn to the first few chapters of Hosea. I have so many questions and thoughts swirling around in my head! Hopefully, this post will be somewhat coherent...

I am ever incredulous at what God asked some of these Old Testament prophets to do to illustrate His message to His people.  Isaiah had to run around naked for 3 years (probably not literally completely naked, but still likely with little more than his skivvies on), Ezekiel was told to lie on his left side for 13 months and then for a month and a half on his right, all the while cooking his food over a fire fueled by his own excrement (which God allowed him to change to cow manure after Ezekiel begged God not to force him make himself unclean), and here Hosea is instructed to marry a woman of ill-repute, raise a family with her, and even buy her back from her sinful lifestyle... bizarre stuff.

BUT THEY DID IT.

I posted on my personal blog last Sunday some feeling about the familiar hymn, "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go" and I question my willingness to serve God.  I SAY I'm willing, and yet I often don't even say yes to the small things, let alone if God should ever ask me to do something huge like what He asked Hosea to do.  If we are not faithful in the small things, we are not likely to be entrusted with the big things.

And that, I think, gives us some insight into what kind of men God has used here in the Old Testament.  Most of them, we really don't know much about, but I think it's safe to say they'd obviously proven their faithfulness long before their lives were used in such obvious ways to speak to the nations and set an example that would last for centuries, even millenia.

What I'm always curious about, too, is how the obedience of these men affected their families.  We know Isaiah was married.  We also know Ezekiel was married, that he loved his wife deeply, and that God took her life, but didn't allow Ezekiel to grieve, as yet another lesson for Israel.  And Hosea's wife ~ what will her relationship with her husband have been like?  I imagine both of them will have been the subject of scorn ~ her for the lifestyle she led, and him for being the seemingly-blind sucker that married her.  And what about their children?  Don't you think growing up with names meaning "not loved" and "not my people," or bearing the name of a place where a despicable massacre occurred would have been a constant source of humiliation?

Yet through the lives of these people, some of them willing, some of them merely attached to the willing individuals through marriage or birth, we see over and over again God's love for His people, His desire for them to WANT Him, and the lengths He'll go to redeem them.

We are Gomer. We are the prostitute in this story. God's Chosen people, the Bride for His Son, yet constantly giving ourselves to our own selfish pursuits, lusts, and temptations. Yet God, for reasons unexplicable to human minds, sought us, bought us, and redeemed us through the precious blood of His only Son, Jesus Christ.

And continues to draw us back to Himself from our rebellion and into repentence, forgiveness, and restoration time and time again.

What an incredible, awesome God!




Tomorrow's passages: Hosea 5-8; Romans 15:1-13