Hosea
Readings for this week March 4 - 10
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Day 1 – A Gracious God
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Hosea 1:1
Our series on grace continues, but for this week, rather than finish off Galatians, we’re taking a quick (and necessarily brief) detour into the book of Hosea to see what we can learn about God’s grace from this prophet and the circumstances of his personal life, which were in some respects quite a bit more interesting than you might expect even from a prophet of God. Hosea was active in the eighth century before Christ and his words are addressed to the northern kingdom of Israel (which Hosea often calls Ephraim), a land that Hosea had affection for and in which he most likely lived – which must have made the rebukes and hard words he had for them painful to deliver, a feeling that crosses over into God’s feelings for his people too. Israel had abandoned God, but God still loved Israel.
God has always been a gracious God to his creation. The Law was given after God had called his chosen people to him and rescued them; grace came first and the covenant inaugurated at Sinai and the Law given there were signs of this gracious love, and were public declarations of the love God had for his people and through them the people of the world. In the book of Hosea we see again God’s gracious love for Israel even in the face of her stubbornness and disobedience. Even when the situation seems beyond repair and return seems impossible, we see God again and again reaching out to his people and promising that they are still his people and he still waits for them.
Question to Consider
What do you know of the story of Hosea? How might God’s grace be manifest in his life?
Prayer
Lord God, even in our failure and our disobedience and our wandering from you, you remain committed to us, committed to keeping us close and being reconciled to you. Thank you for your love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 2 – Faith in the Midst of Confusion
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Hosea 1:2-11
It was a tough time to be a prophet of God. The northern kingdom of Israel was falling apart: six kings in the space of thirty years, and four of them were assassinated – and usually by their successor! Society was fragmenting; there was violence in the streets as well as the looming threat of violence on a national scale with the possibility of an invasion by Assyria. The Israelites had turned away from God to worship false gods and idols – again. It was all going wrong for Israel because they had abandoned God. It was just Hosea’s luck to be the one called to admonish the nation and call them to repent and turn back to God before destruction fell upon them. Reading what Hosea said to them it makes us wonder how he felt about telling them this. Repent or die is a powerful message.
But the Israelites did not listen. Hosea’s message went unheeded, his audience slowly shrank and soon it was pointless for Hosea to carry on. “What shall I do, Lord? I need your help for this to work.” God’s response? “I want you to get married to the bride I’ve picked out for you. But, be warned, she’s going to be unfaithful to you.” I’m sure Hosea was confused about this drastic course of action. How is this meant to cause Israel to repent? We all have times when God’s commands to us seem strange and we have no idea why he’s asking us to do something. But Hosea had faith. As Phillip Yancey said, following God involves having a faith in Him such that you believe in advance what will only make sense in reverse, as Hosea would soon see.
Question to Consider
When did a strange command from God suddenly make sense in retrospect? What happened? How did obeying feel up until that point?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, help me obey even when I am unsure of what you mean and what to do. Grow my trust in you in all situations. Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 3 – Formed for a Task
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Hosea 3
Hosea’s own personal experience played a large part in his role of prophet, and in his own estimation this experience had prepared him to understand the depths of God’s love for his people, even in the face of their obdurate defiance of that love. With hindsight (both Hosea’s as he looks back, and ours once we know the full story) we can see God preparing him for the role he would undertake as God’s prophet. His wife Gomer bore three children, but then subsequently left him for a life of promiscuity and pleasure that eventually left her so battered and worn down that she was forsaken by everyone. But Hosea brought her back, kept her safe in seclusion for a while and eventually restored her to his side as his wife.
Whatever the details of Hosea’s biography and the different interpretations that can be put on some of his actions, Hosea’s story is not the point of the book named for him. We don’t get the juicy details of Hosea’s heartbreak; we aren’t privy to many of the things we might like to know of his situation. God prepared Hosea for the part he had to play, but his story is not told explicitly throughout the book – it is more about the unwavering consistency of God’s love for his people. No matter how far they had fallen, how sinful and rebellious they had been (and still were being), God would provide a way back to himself. Yes, exile and punishment were still to come because of Israel’s transgression, but they would not be the final word. God would remain faithful to his people.
Question to Consider
How has who God is formed you to be prepared you for the roles and tasks he has given you recently? How is he forming you now?
Prayer
Loving Father, continue to mould me into the person you want me to be so that I can serve you faithfully and wholeheartedly. Help me see you working in my life so I can better join you in your work for the world. Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 4 – The Hard Side of Grace
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Hosea 8 and Hosea 11
“God’s judgement needs a reason; his compassion does not.”
Claus Westermann, Elements of Old Testament Theology, p.144.
Despite only having 14 chapters there are many options when choosing a passage in Hosea that explains why God is wrathful against Israel – a large portion of the middle of the book contains nothing but a record of God’s charges against his people and his promise of destruction and exile because of their sin. This is the hard side of grace. In the light of God’s holiness and his utter distain for sin, and the impossibility of sin surviving in his presence, God’s graciousness towards us can appear to us as hard, unpleasant judgement when we rebel and turn away towards sin. To return to his presence, where sin cannot live, requires absolution and atonement. The hard scrubbing required to remove the stain of sin can hurt, but it is necessary. The holiness of who he is cannot abide sin. But God makes a way for us to return to him, a way ultimately found in the life, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.
Even in the middle of God’s proclamation of Israel’s sin and the rightness of his verdict against her, there is still the promise of God’s gracious love and future restoration held out to Israel. God remembers his history with his people, the way he has cared for them and nurtured them, even in their waywardness. He will not forget. The consequences of their rebellion must still be played out, but God himself provides the way through it all.
Question to Consider
Why is the judgement of God still so central in Israel’s story and in ours? What would happen without it?
Prayer
Almighty God, when my sin leads me to experience the hard side of love help me turn to you. Thank you for not turning away from us. Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 5 – Because He Would Love Us
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Hosea 14
Against the adulterous actions and unfaithfulness of Israel, Hosea sets the unquenchable love of God and his steadfast faithfulness in the face of Israel’s infidelity. He does not cast Israel aside forever, he does not permanently banish them from his presence, but promises to draw his people to him again, once judgement and the ensuing period of punishment has passed. Despite all that Israel has done – and also failed to do – God’s loving faithfulness remains. He loves Israel, like Hosea loves Gomer, not because of anything they have done, but simply because he would love them. This is grace, the freely given, unmerited love of God.
What Hosea went through with Gomer reveals what God feels about us. God continued to love Israel despite her sin and that is how he feels about us too. We don’t have to earn or deserve God’s love. God in himself needs nothing from us; there is no lack in who he is that requires us to love him in order for him to be filled. God does not need us. But he chooses to be with us, he chooses to call us, he chooses to seek after us, he chooses to die for us so that we might be reconciled to him. That is the grace of love. He is for us, even in our rebellion and our sin. Israel turned away and God still yearned for her and sought to clear a path – a path that still required punishment and repentance – which would allow her to return to him. Grace gives and gives, but grace does not give in.
Question to Consider
What have you done through an experience like Hosea’s with Gomer? How did you react? How did you offer grace in that situation?
Prayer
Gracious Father, help me be gracious as you are. May I offer love and forgiveness instead of hatred and vengeance. Teach me to love in spite of pain and hurt just as you do. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)