Hosea is the first of the minor prophets and one of my favourites. It is a book that encapsulates the main problem: how does a righteous and loving God love a sinful people? The problem is described in the context of Israel, but applies to the whole of humanity. People either say God is a god of love and cannot therefore judge people, or they have a God of judgement but no mercy. In Christ there is not contradiction between a righteous and loving God. However, the answer cannot be given in a simple logical/academic answer. In Hosea, the prophet had to marry a prostitute and experience all the pain of betrayal in order to understand the heart of God. To truly see how God deals with the problem we need to look at the cross.
The things that Hosea had to go through should be a lesson to us in how God speaks. He does not just speak through words, He uses His words and the experiences of our lives in order to communicate with us. Sometimes this will involve very tough circumstances.
Hosea was a prophet of the northern kingdom of Israel, Israel was generally more unfaithful than Judea. He wrote this book sometime between 786 and 748 BC. At that time Jereboam II was king of Israel and economically the nation was doing quite well, but spiritually they were in a terrible state.
Tomorrow we will start to see how the message unfolds.
No comments:
Post a Comment