Hosea 1 - Unfaithfulness

When we read the prophets we get a very condensed view of what happened and what God revealed to the prophet. However, the opening verse here makes it clear that Hosea received his message over several years. We sometimes expect God to reveal things to us instantly, and sometimes He does this. But at other times He uses many experiences, many sermons, many Bible readings etc to reveal the full extent of His message to us.

God did not just speak to Hosea through his mind, but also through his emotions. When the Lord began to speak to Hosea, God told him to do a terrible thing. He was to go and marry a promiscuous woman. Why did he have to do this? Because Gomer, his wife, was representative of the nation of Israel. Several times in the Bible unfaithfulness to the Lord is likened to adultery. Belief is not just an intellectual assent, it is committing and entrusting oneself to the Lord. We must entrust ourselves to Him alone. To do otherwise, ie to entrust ourselves to someone or something else, is like committing adultery. Hosea needed to truly understand what Israel's unfaithfulness meant.

Hosea and Gomer had a son and he was named Jezreel. Jehu, an earlier ruler had committed a massacre at Jezreel and God would bring punishment on the land for this. 

Next they had a daughter, and she was to be called Lo-Ruhamah, which means "not loved". Israel was to be rejected by God. Israel, the Northern kingdom was about to be abandoned by God because of her unfaithfulness. Judah, the southern kingdom, still remained faithful, so she would be saved. Both nations were subjected to attacks by Assyria, the dominant power of the time. One would survive, one would fall, but it would not be because of military might or know-how, but because of faithfulness to the Lord. 

They then had a third child, and he would be called Lo-Ammi, "not my people".

So in the first nine verse we have a foretelling of terrible judgement upon Israel. Before reading this we might think, "this can never happen", which is what the people of the time thought. After it had happened, one would think "there is no hope for this land", but this would be equally wrong. For a time would come when there would be numerous Israelites, and the two kingdoms would be reunited, and they would once again be God's people. The rest of the book will show how such a thing can happen.

We must never imagine that we have all of God's plans worked out, or fully understand His ways. A situation may seem hopeless and beyond redemption, but with God this is never so.