Did You Say "Hosea"?

I plopped down in my seat and waited patiently for the fine folks of Iowa to de-ice my plane so I could get the heck out of Dodge (or Des Moines, as the case may be). The Sudoku puzzles in my “American Way” magazine were all completed, and I have the oldest cell phone still in service…so it wasn’t like I could play a game or surf the web. So I nestled into my American Airlines seat, reached into my bag and grabbed my Bible.

It had been a long two weeks away from my home and my family, and I needed some spiritual rejuvenation. So I squeezed my eyes tightly and asked God to help guide my hands to some inspiration from His word. And where did my prayer take me…?

The book of Hosea.

(No, seriously…there REALLY is a book in the Bible called Hosea! It’s in the Old Testament…and as a card-carrying member of the Church of Christ, we all know that the Old Testament is no longer valid, right?)

In all seriousness, I knew very little about Hosea except for the fact that he was married to a woman named Gomer. In my heart and mind I’m still an eight-year old, so it’s very difficult for me to hear or read the name "Gomer" without thinking of Jim Nabors talking to Sergeant Carter in that amplified drawl of his. Other than that, I had never spent any time with this minor prophet from the Old Testament. But I decided to rely on the wisdom of the Father…so I dove in. And I was blown away by the first two chapters.

For hundreds of years God had been trying to communicate to his people. He tried a variety of means to teach and instruct them. Brought them out of Egypt, endured their grumbling, gave them a promised land, rescued them from a litany of bad guys, and made them a great kingdom of the ancient world. But it wasn't enough to satisfy them. And evidently, by the time the prophet Hosea came on the scene, God had decided it was time for the ultimate in object lessons. Now I don’t know how old Hosea was, but I gotta think he was a younger man…because God told him it was time to for him to find a wife. And best of all, God was even going to tell him precisely where to go to find this new love of his life.

To a prostitute!!??!?!

God told Hosea to go find a local harlot and make her his bride. I don’t know about you, but if I had wandered down to the corner of Rosedale and Hattie in Fort Worth or Harry Hines Blvd in Dallas and chose the future Mrs Campbell from one of those street corners, my parents would have moved and not told me where they had gone. That would be the the absolute last place anyone would go to find that special someone.

Why not have Hosea go to the synagogue? Why not to the most noble family in town? Why not to friends of his family?

Enter the object lesson…

God wanted his newly ordained prophet, the man he was sending to the house of Israel, to understand just how frustrated he had become with his people. And He was comparing the children of God to a hooker. Someone who, for the right price, would fulfill any desire. Someone who would assume any identity without any thoughts of loyalty or commitment. Someone who would be yours for a brief time, and then someone else’s in the span of five minutes.

Not exactly the most complimentary of comparisons…OUCH!

But Hosea did exactly as God instructed. He found a prostitute named Gomer, married her, and treated her like a queen. But she was unable to put her past behind her, so she left Hosea and went back to the streets. Hosea must have been crushed. To give your heart, mind, body and spirit to someone and receive nothing in return would be devastating. But God told Hosea to go after Gomer, to bring her back into his home, and to love her more than he had before.

God hurt for Hosea…because he knew exactly how Hosea felt. God gave his heart, mind, body and spirit to a wayward people. A people with no commitment to any one thing. A people who were blown hither and yond by the wind. But He came to them and said, “I will be your God, and you will be My people.” But they left Him…and He brought them back. They left Him again…and He brought them back. And over and over and over the cycle went. Until He decided that giving His Holy heart, mind, body and spirit wasn’t enough…so he upped the ante with His Son.

And yet so many STILL leave Him…

…but He still wants us…ALL of us…back.