Category Archives: Hosea

⁴ The people have appointed kings without my consent,
    and princes without my approval.
By making idols for themselves from their silver and gold,
    they have brought about their own destruction.

⁵ “O Samaria, I reject this calf—
    this idol you have made.
My fury burns against you.
    How long will you be incapable of innocence?
⁶ This calf you worship, O Israel,
    was crafted by your own hands!
It is not God!
    Therefore, it must be smashed to bits.

⁷ “They have planted the wind
    and will harvest the whirlwind.
The stalks of grain wither
    and produce nothing to eat.
And even if there is any grain,
    foreigners will eat it.

Hosea 8:4-7

Dear God, when I read this and the words you were speaking through Hosea, it just occurred to me that you were expressing your pain. Your anger. Your frustration. But the first word I just used was the one that sits with me: pain. It is amazing to me that we can cause you pain. That you make yourself vulnerable enough to us that you would allow us enough space in your heart to cause you pain.

But I suppose that’s what love it. Love isn’t love if I don’t leave myself vulnerable to be hurt by the person I am loving. Even my dog. When we first got her as a stray from the shelter, she was terrified of me. She wouldn’t come to me voluntarily and, frankly, it hurt my feelings. I worked to earn her trust. I wanted to love her and give her a good home.

And so here you are. You love us and you try to show us that love. And sometimes we respond, but oftentimes we don’t. We go our own way. I’ve told people that it was seven weeks before our dog would come to me voluntarily. How many of us never come to you voluntarily. And in passages like this one that you gave to Hosea, you express how hurt you are by that. It’s incredible to consider.

Father, I never, never, never, want to be a source of your hurt or frustration. I know I hurt you sometimes. I know I frustrate you. But please know that I don’t want to. I love you. I’m grateful for you. I appreciate not just the little things you do, but also the essence of who you are. I appreciate how you do things. Some would say there is room for criticism, but I would counter that any other course of action on your part would have unintended consequences that none of us want. So I offer myself to you. I ask that you guide me into being your hands, feet, eyes, ears, and voice in this world. My life is yours.

I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

¹⁶ When that day comes,” says the Lord,
    “you will call me ‘my husband’
    instead of ‘my master.’
¹⁷ O Israel, I will wipe the many names of Baal from your lips,
    and you will never mention them again.
¹⁸ On that day I will make a covenant
    with all the wild animals and the birds of the sky
and the animals that scurry along the ground
    so they will not harm you.
I will remove all weapons of war from the land,
    all swords and bows,
so you can live unafraid
    in peace and safety.
¹⁹ I will make you my wife forever,
    showing you righteousness and justice,
    unfailing love and compassion.
²⁰ I will be faithful to you and make you mine,
    and you will finally know me as the Lord.

²¹ “In that day, I will answer,”
    says the Lord.
“I will answer the sky as it pleads for clouds.
    And the sky will answer the earth with rain.
²² Then the earth will answer the thirsty cries
    of the grain, the grapevines, and the olive trees.
And they in turn will answer,
    ‘Jezreel’—‘God plants!’

Hosea 2:16-22

Dear God, when I read this passage this morning it made me think about modern day Israel. From what I understand, the majority there does not actively worship you. They are, once again, where they were. And I know it has seemed that our country has had a Faustian bargain to support Israel as your people and your country at least since World War II. A majority of our country wanted to love who you love out of love for you. But how frustrated are you that their hearts, for the most part, are not yours? I don’t even know how much their leadership’s hearts are yours. And now they are locked in this ugly, ugly battle that seems to me has gone beyond morality, although that only might seem that way to me because Israel hasn’t done as good of a job persuading the world to its side as the Palestinians have. But regardless, I am sad for Israeli people that the majority of them embrace the identity as Jewish, but they have somehow separated that from worshipping you.

But then there is me. Do I treat you like a young bride in love with her husband, or do I treat you like a master to be served and resented? Husbands are loved. Masters are simply respected, but their power is often resented. I want my relationship with you to be as a spouse with their mate. I want to be all in with you. I know we are not equal. I don’t want to be equal to you. But I do want to be with you. I want to be all about you.

Father, I give you this day. You are my God. I don’t want whatever lies baal is selling me–what Satan is selling me through the idols he offers in front of me. I want to worship you. I want to bring you into my life. I want to spread you to the others around me. I want to be not afraid. I want to naturally grow love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control within my heart, mind, soul, and even body. I want others to see it and want you as a result. I want you, Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit,

I offer all of this to you in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

² When the Lord first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, “Go and marry a prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the Lord and worshiping other gods.”

Hosea 1:2

Dear God, what kind of dreams did Hosea have for his life? When he was a little boy and thinking about growing up, what did he think his life would look like? I’m pretty sure it didn’t include marrying an unfaithful prostitute.

I suppose each of us has a call on our lives, and, much to the consternation of prosperity gospel preachers, it isn’t always something that will help us live a fun, luxurious life. Sometimes, there is a difficult road laid out for us to walk. Some roads are rougher than others. Frankly, while my road has some pain and it certainly isn’t as luxurious as other roads, the truth is, my life is remarkably good.

Every year I have dinner with three friends from high school. We spend about 2-3 hours together and talk about what’s going on in our lives. We share pretty vulnerably. Children struggles. Job struggles. Marriage struggles. You get the idea. There are years when I go there fairly heavy-laden. I think they do too. But an interesting thing happens during the dinner. If we were to all put our lives into a bucket, bring it to the table, and then listen to the others’ stories, I get the feeling that, at the end of the night, each of us is happy to pick up our own buckets and take them home with us. I think part of this is that we wouldn’t only be giving up the pain, but we would be giving up the sweet parts of our lives of which we wouldn’t want to let go. In most cases, removing the pain would also remove at least part of the good.

For Hosea, I don’t know what “good” came from this pain. Maybe Gomer was delightful at times. Maybe this made his words from you mean even more. I was just watching a video of some guys doing bodywork on a car (I know that sounds incredibly weird, but I promise it’s not as weird as it sounds) and they were using a lot of materials to get the car’s body back into shape: hammers, sandpaper, frame straighteners, etc. The car needed some stress and friction to look the way the body shop needed it to look.

Father, I don’t know what kinds of tools you need to use on me, my wife, my children, my siblings, my parents, my friends, etc. I don’t know what you need to do to our country, and our world even. But I know we need friction. We need stress to mold us into the vessels you have for us to be. So to quote the song, “Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me. Break me. Melt me. Mold me. Fill me.”

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen