Hosea

Hosea 1:2 “When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, ‘Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.’”

Wow! Of all the calls of the prophets, the one to Hosea is the most unusual. God will use Hosea as a living vision of prophecy. People will not only hear but they will see the plan of God for dealing with their infidelity. This prophecy covers several kings of Judah and one, Joash, king of Israel. Israel is in for some rough sledding due to their affair with Baal. The king could not leave the false God be and the people followed his lead. Doom and disaster await the unfaithful king and country. Eventually, it will catch up with Judah as well. God will not tolerate infidelity. In man or country.

I wonder what Hosea thought about this. Certainly, if he were a righteous man and we assume he was, the prospects of marrying a prostitute and having children through her must have been troublesome. We get an early clue to the faithfulness of this man to complete the mission God gave him however personally repulsive he found it. Of course, as the book continues, it gets worse rather than better. We may feel sorry for Hosea but we must really morn for the chosen people of God who would not, though repeatedly warned, be faithful to their God.

Task for Today: Good day for a personal exam, I think. A personal idol check if you will. Not that you might be following Baal; no you might not know how to do that. But we can still have idols in our lives and hearts. Good time to check out where you main interest and activity is focused. Beach or worship? Lake or assembly? Bank account or charity? Your plans or God’s? You get my drift. If we aren’t careful we can forget our first love. Don’t let it happen to you.