In our series on the relevance of the prophets today, Howard Taylor looks at the heart-breaking symbolic message lived out by Hosea.

In many ways, the Israel of Hosea's time was similar to the wealthy Western society of today after the collapse of its former enemy, the Soviet Union. Israel had become affluent and secure. Its traditional enemies were in disarray and everything was going well for the country. But also like today's Western society, the nation had become corrupt, perverse, immoral and crime-ridden. After only one more generation it would be swept away in terrible judgment. Who but the Lord's prophets would have expected such a disaster?

The book of Hosea draws us near to the heart of God as he faces the iniquity of mankind. It challenges all superficial human expectations as to how God and man should respond to the presence of evil.

Seeing Evil from God's Perspective

The most common complaint against God is that he does not use his power to rid the world of evil and suffering. Should it not be easy for him? If he is both good and all-powerful, should he not be able to remove evil at a stroke? Countless theological students have sweated over essays on this so-called 'problem of evil'.

Hosea's experience enables us to see the problem of evil from God's point of view. God does not merely show Hosea how to approach the issue, he invites the prophet to experience in his personal life the dilemma that faces God.

Hosea's experience draws us near to the heart of God and enables us to see the problem of evil from his point of view.

It is for this reason that in the first chapter we read of Hosea's agonising calling. God tells him to take an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness because, in departing from the Lord (Hos 1:2), the land is guilty of the vilest adultery. The pain of family life which Hosea is called upon both to endure and to deal with enables him to experience something of God's own father heart for his people.

At the heart of the story of Hosea is the culmination of the painful process whereby sin is taken away through the cross of the Saviour. Hosea was not to foresee the consummation of Israel's agonising relationship with God. Nevertheless, the message clearly points beyond itself to that great sacrifice of love through which sinful man will be saved.

Solutions for an Unhappy Family

The book of Hosea introduces us to a family whose relationship to one another parallels God's relationship with his people. It is an unhappy family. The wife is faithless and leaves her husband, the children are strangers to him in his own home. What solution can there possibly be to such a situation?

1. Hosea could try long-suffering tenderness in an effort to bring his wife and children back - but this method alone would solve nothing, the wayward wife would just continue her wilful behaviour.
2. He could use strong-arm tactics, forcing his family back and keeping them prisoners - but that would also be futile, because it would entail resigning his calling as a husband and a father to become an autocrat who forces his family to obey.
3. He could simply let them go and wash his hands of the whole business -but that would be the end of the family he had promised to love and protect.

In fact, God's plan of redemption calls for the use of all three options. In his dealings with Israel, the world and with believers, there are times when we are aware of his great tenderness, times when we are mindful of his judgment, and times when it seems as if he has left us to 'stew in our own juice.' But through all his dealings with us we see a holy love which will not let us go. If we are to be eternally separated from him it will be our choice, not his.

At its heart, the story of Hosea is a shadow of the painful process whereby sin is taken away through the cross of the Saviour.

Gomer's Children

Soon after their marriage Gomer makes a fool of them both. Today, Western society mocks God and makes itself foolish as a result.

Gomer leaves her husband, but God commands Hosea: "Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites" (Hos 3:1), and so the book of Hosea unfolds. The names of Gomer's successive children are portents for Israel. The Lord commands that the first son be named Jezreel, "because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. In that day I will break Israel's bow in the Valley of Jezreel" (Hos 1:4-5).

Jezreel had been the site of a terrible massacre and injustice, involving trickery, butchery, and hypocrisy. It would be like naming a child 'Syria' or 'Libya'. The message of this first portent is that the strength of evil power structures and nations will be broken. God will not allow any evil empire to last forever.

The second child, a daughter, is to be called Lo-Ruhamah, "...for I will no longer show love to the house of Israel, that I should at all forgive them" (Hos 1:6). The name means 'not pitied'. It was a warning to Israel that a time would come when the nation would feel that it had forfeited God's compassion. It would look as if he cared nothing for them. The judgments that God will surely bring upon our society will make us feel the same.

The third child's name illustrates what we are already experiencing in the West. God said, "Call him Lo-Ammi, for you are not my people, and I am not your God" (Hos 1:9).
Yet the very next verses after these warnings tell of an astounding reversal of the process of judgment, though it is one which can only come about after the full wrath of God has been revealed.

But through all God's dealings with us we see a holy love which will not let us go.

In Hosea 1:10 we read God's promise that "...the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people', they will be called, 'sons of the living God'."

In Hosea 2:1 we read of God's reassurance: "Say of your brothers, 'My people', and of your sisters, "My loved one."'

The remaining chapters of Hosea reveal vital aspects of God's relationship with humanity. Let us look at just three of them:

1. The Day of the Lord

In Hosea 2:16,19,20, we read God's declaration: "In that day...you will call me 'my husband'; you will no longer call me 'my master'...I will betroth you to me for ever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord."

In prophetic writings the phrase 'in that day' signifies that tremendous event when the Lord will not just send his prophets, but come in person. In the Old Testament God draws near to his people, revealing his heart of love. In the New Testament, God comes among his people in the person of Jesus, although he allows them to reject him. But even in his being rejected, he prays for their sin, and the sin of the whole world, to be forgiven.

2. Repentance Must Be Deep and Lasting

It is so easy in times of personal or national emergency to ask for God's help, to urge others to pray, or to call for a return to basics, but Hosea mocks such a shallow response to God. The people may say, "Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence" (Hos 6:1-2), but the Lord is not to be bought off so easily.

"Your love is like the morning mist," he tells his errant people, "like the early dew that disappears. Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth; my judgments flashed like lightning upon you" (Hos 6:4-5).

In both Testaments, God draws near to his people, revealing his heart of love, even though he allows them to reject him.

Much of the religion which we see within certain segments of the church represents nothing more than a facade - the empty offering of a cheap and spurious grace - with nothing but blessings for all and sundry. The Lord's prophets, however, bring to bear on the situation a word which cuts through such superficiality.

3. The Fatherhood of God

God first compares his relationship with Israel to that of a husband to his wife. Later on, the illustration is changed to that of a father's relationship to his child.
The most moving example of this is to be found in chapter 11 where God is revealed as loving and long-suffering. Many hundreds of years later, through his death on the cross, Jesus totally illustrated the full content of this chapter. Only those who come to the Father with child-like faith will enter the Kingdom of God.

Today, in much the same way that the people of Israel asked for a king to rule over them so that they might be like the other nations (1 Sam 8:4-5), Israel's great longing is simply for her status as a nation to be recognised by those around her. But God's call, from the beginning, has been for Israel to be ruled by him and him alone.

She was not to put her trust in the power and security offered her by the surrounding nations, but to put her trust in God. In Hosea 13:10-11 we read, "Where is your king, that he may save you? Where are your rulers in all your towns, of whom you said, 'Give me a king and princes?' So in my anger I gave you a king, and in my wrath I took him away."

Today, despite her desire for peace, Israel can find no rest. Her neighbours are fanatically opposed to her very existence. Although their rejection of Israel's right to exist is an expression of the wickedness of their own hearts, the Lord is using these threats to Israel to bring her to the point where she realises that she can no longer rely on her military prowess to save her. Only God and his anointed King, Israel's Messiah, will in the end provide the nation with true security.

Israel longed for recognition from the nations around her, but God's call from the beginning has been for his people to trust in him and him alone.

It is then, at the end of the age, that the nations will "beat their swords into ploughshares...Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war any more" (Isa 2:4) or, as Hosea 2:18 puts it, "Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety."

Only then, when the authority of the Lord's Anointed is acknowledged in all the world, will the power of death and the grave be seen to be beaten: "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction?" (Hos 13:14).

Originally published in Prophecy Today, Vol 10 No 5, September 1994.

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