31. Hosea - a very complicated love affair

Hosea picked a theme and stuck with it

1. Called to highlight the unfaithfulness of God's people, Hosea marries Gomer, a well known prostitute, and she bears three children whom Hosea names Jezreel (after the bloody massacre at Jezreel for which Jehu, a house of Israel, is responsible), No-Love-For-Israel and Not-My-People

2. Hosea believes that God's people have become like an unfaithful wife, but one day they will run out of lovers and will return to the loving relationship they once committed to

3. Hosea buys time with his unfaithful wife; this is symbolic of how God wants to bring the people back from the pagan worship practices they've been spending time and resources on

4. For God is angry with the unfaithful people of Israel, and with the priests who've led them astray; they have worshipped false gods on every high place and under every tree

5. And so God's favour is withdrawn from Israel, from those tribes that have abandoned God's ways, for that which seemed more favourable to them

6. God entreats the people to return to true worship; to be less flighty, to love faithfully as they are loved by God despite their unfaithfulness

7. When God heals Israel the wickedness of the priests and leaders will be revealed; they turned anywhere but to God, in their times of trial, their foolishness knows no bounds

8. God has been forgotten; they bow down to kings and gods of their own making, and so they can no longer hear the warnings and will be destroyed by God's wrath

9. Because the people have been unfaithful they will become unfruitful; they will be driven to other lands and they will perish 

10. When the times were good the people forgot God and trusted in themselves, but they cannot save themselves from the destruction God is sending upon the idolators in the land

11. Remember God's motherly love for Israel and how the people pulled away like stubborn children; when God roars like a mother lion, calling her children to safely, only Judah will respond

12. The tribes which have abandoned God will suffer for it in times of trial

13. They have trusted in superstition; and so the God who could have saved them - who saved them before and cherished them - has become their destroyer

14. Come back to God, turn away from superstition and self reliance; God will heal and care for you, be smart and walk with God

I suspect that Hosea's message was powerful because of the performance; deliberately marrying an unfaithful woman (prostitute or not) would certainly have kept people talking. But the written account of it we find in the bible makes for fairly dull reading. Most of all I wonder if he loved her, and how she felt about him - and what became of those poor children, having to live with such grim prophetic names?