Reflection

Text: Hosea 6:6,” For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” RSV. 

Aim: Getting close and personal about the faith! 

Intro:  Hosea was a prophet who truly got close and personal as he tried to bring Israel back to the true knowledge of God. He involved his own family, his wife and subsequent children. Prophets were known to do strange things to challenge the people, like burying underwear under a rock or cutting off their hair, but Hosea’s actions were extreme. God tells him to take a wife who is a prostitute and to name his future children awful names. Why? He wants to shock the people of Israel to make them return to God and to forsake useless idols. They are to live holy lives. 

1. God loves like a husband loves his wife! 

Shocking as it seems to us, Hosea chose to marry someone frowned upon by society. By his action, he is telling the people of Israel that their worship of idols to foreign is gods is the same as being repeatably unfaithful to the true God who loves his people. Other prophets like Isaiah had spoken of God as having the same love for Israel as a man for his wife. Isa. 54:5,” For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name RSV. 

     As Christians we also are to remain faithful to the God who loves us like a faithful and adoring husband. We know that there are unhappy marriages and people who search for lasting happiness, but the message of scripture is this; God loves us. God is constant and will never desert us. 

2. “Unloved!”

When Gomer, his wife had a daughter, Hosea named her “Unloved or Not Pitied”.  Again, this awful name was to shock the people. As long as they worshipped and followed idols. They would be treated as ‘unloved, not deserving of pity’. It is a harsh message. 

      As followers of Jesus, we believe with John 3:16,” God so loved the world that He gave His only son so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” RSV. There are people in our world, in our country, in our town who feel unloved, and no one pities them. I believe that we are called to show them by our words and actions that they are loved and cherished by God and by His people. 

1. “Not my people!” 

Hosea names the third child a son, “Not my people.” What a shock that would have been to the people of Israel! To this day descendants are proud to call themselves the chosen people of God. We as followers of Jesus also feel that we are special because we were baptized into the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Do you recall the words of the old Catechism; “Where in I was made a child of God, a member of Christ and an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven.”                

Conclusion: 

             Hosea’s strange name for his son was to call Israel back to the true faith in God. We for our part are also to make others welcome into our family- our fellowship of believers. We are called to grow closer to one another as Christians and also to welcome Jews and other believers in God because we are all part of the human family of God.