SCRIPTURE: Hosea 1
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’ The people of Judah and the people of Israel will come together; they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel. [Hosea 1:10-11]
This is an unsettling message.
God’s representative (Hosea) marries a prostitute and has three children with her.
Those children represent the coming day of judgment, when God will punish His people for their immorality and rebellion.
And yet those children also represent hope, when God will rebirth His family from this unholy union, and once again make them ‘children of the living God’.
He will save them – not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen – but by stepping in Himself to endure the shame of their sin (symbolized by the marriage to the prostitute) and produce a new family – I, the LORD their God, will save them!
Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. [John 12:31-33]
Jesus is God Himself coming to us, becoming one with us (like a marriage union) to save us from our immorality and produce a new family through us.
This involves both judgment and mercy.
The judgment is taken upon Himself, and the mercy is received by us.
Through Jesus’ death (being lifted up on a cross), sin and satan are condemned and sinners (like prostitutes in God’s eyes) are restored, renewed.
God’s family, divided by sin, is reunited and multiplied like sand on the seashore.
All people are drawn together into one family – the children of the living God – great will be the day of Jezreel (the day of judgment, the day of mercy)!
Think about what this story says.
Hosea’s whole life changed; by marrying this prostitute and having three children with her, his prophetic task involved years of enduring shame and scandal for his union with this promiscuous woman (did she stop after they were married?).
God’s union with us in the flesh was a similar shame and scandal, putting His glory aside to be one with us.
But He did it to show His judgment and mercy: judgment for sin which He endured Himself on the cross, and mercy for sinners who are restored as His much-loved children, restored as His one family drawn together by their one lover and leader – Jesus, God with us – I, the LORD their God, will save them!
We should not soften the scandal of this passage, because it reveals the scandal of God’s love – God’s representative marries a promiscuous woman, to show us the full extent of His love!
He did this for us, He did this for you, for me!
PRAYER:
Lord, help me to appreciate what a shame and scandal it is for you to become one with me, and for me to be called your much-loved child.