When You Feel Forgotten: Hosea 2
YOUR BIOGRAPHY: A WRITTEN NARRATIVE THAT IS CAREFULLY PENNED TO SUMMARIZE YOUR LIFE. FILLED WITH DESCRIPTIONS ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCES, FACTUAL DETAILS, AND STORIES THAT ENCAPSULATE YOUR PERSONALITY, MOTIVATIONS, AND INTIMATE DETAILS. HOW WILL IT READ?
For Hosea, the prophet, chapters 1-3 serve as the biography of his own marriage to Gomer and describe the account of her unfaithfulness. It's also a story of restoration and is used as a parable to depict the Lord's relationship to Israel.
In Hosea chapter 1, we learned about our much-needed name change. As we continue to travel alongside Hosea through this next chapter, we'll enter a courtroom of sorts. Hosea uses the legal process of an offended husband against his wife as an image for God's plans to deal with Israel (ESV Study Bible).
1 "Say of your brothers, 'My people,' and of your sisters, 'My loved one.'
The Lord is speaking to the Israelite people, and He's intentional about His affection toward them. In chapter 1:8 and 1:9, Gomer bore a child with the meaning of "No Mercy" and "Not My People." Here, in these verses, God is enticing the Israelites to return to God and anticipates a change in names when unity is restored: "My people" and "My loved one."
Regardless of what you've done, what you've seen, or where you've been, He has grace upon grace to heap into your lap today.
Father, when I think of my name, I think of ________. But today, I want to think as You think. What's the word you want me to grasp as it relates to who I truly am? Show me how You see me.
2 "Rebuke your mother, rebuke her,
for she is not my wife,
and I am not her husband.
Let her remove the adulterous look from her face
and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.
We all experience correction, and we must learn to view it as discipline and not punishment. God's desire is not to punish us or bring us pain; He desires to make us holy. Hebrews 12:5-6 says, "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son."
3 Otherwise I will strip her naked
and make her as bare as on the day she was born;
I will make her like a desert,
turn her into a parched land,
and slay her with thirst.
4 I will not show my love to her children,
because they are the children of adultery.
5 Their mother has been unfaithful
and has conceived them in disgrace.
She said, 'I will go after my lovers,
who give me my food and my water,
my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.'
Verse 5 says, "I will go after my lovers..." Those lovers of Israel were their gods (little g). Remember that Hosea's story was written to teach us about Israel's 3 primary sins: idolatry, ingratitude, and hypocrisy. This verse is one place where we see their love divided and spiritual idolatry (adultery) occurring.
6 Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes;
I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.
7 She will chase after her lovers but not catch them;
she will look for them but not find them.
Then she will say,
'I will go back to my husband as at first,
for then I was better off than now.'
Sin always leads us further than we want to go and keeps us longer than we want to stay. Gomer talks about wanting to go back to her husband, for she was better off than now. It's a similar parallel to the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 16. God longs to reclaim you, and the blockades you're running into might just be His divine grace protecting you.
8 She has not acknowledged that I was the one
who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil,
who lavished on her the silver and gold—
which they used for Baal.
The word acknowledged in verse 8 is also know. It is yada in Hebrew and has an incredibly deep meaning. A few weeks ago, we had one of our favorite pastors come to our church and talk about intimacy in marriage. We learned that the word yada is "to know and be known. To reveal and be received. To be wise, skillful, understanding, instructed, to be found." That's what God wants to provide to you--He fully knows you and desires to bring you wisdom, skill, and understanding. But so often, we short-change His love for cheap substitutes. Food, money, entertainment, careers, sex, romance, or anxiety are all examples of modern-day idols that are battling for our hearts.
9 "Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens,
and my new wine when it is ready.
I will take back my wool and my linen,
intended to cover her naked body.
Verses 5b-9 present the second sin the prophet Hosea focuses on in this book: ingratitude. Again, this chapter is presented as a legal proceeding. The root issues of the heart are dug up like a decaying body and exposed to light.
Instead of thanking God for His gifts of grace (food, water, clothing), the Israelites were thinking false gods and were actually using the blessings of God to serve other idols. Ouch. And when I say, "Ouch," I mean, my toes are stepped on.
A month or so ago, I was sitting with one of my favorite fellow Bible study-ers (and coffee drinker) and admitted that the gratitude in my life was lacking. I felt the Lord's gentle tug about having a more thankful heart, and so I shared with my godly girlfriend about focusing in this area. She offered up a book she'd read: One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, and I began to keep a gratitude ledger (I use a $5.99 accounting ledger I got from Amazon). I've purposed in my heart to practice seeing the grace in every moment. It is a practice, and it does take work. But I've found that the more I do it, the more I delight in Him. I don't want to be like the other 9 lepers in Luke 17--the ones who cried out to their Master for healing (and they were healed) but never turned back to give praise. They missed the better part of the blessing: the full, spiritual healing. I want that, don't you?
Last night, we sat down at the table as a family and reviewed our individual and family goals. My husband and I establish 1-2 goals for each of the kiddos to focus on over several months (and we choose ones for ourselves, too). I love the transparency that exists when we gather around crumbs, smeared ketchup, and a table semi-invaded with Stormtroopers. It's messy and non-picturesque, and it's where God dwells. We asked our oldest about the status of his two goals, and he said, "I'm doing terrible." 9He hasn't done the best on keeping his room tidy, but he's done well on his chores. He's a tough grader, like his mama.). When we got to my items (focusing on my physical and mental health), I was grateful. I was thankful that God had patiently taught me to see more of His grace, and I was surprised how He chose to teach me to view life differently and the impact it's made on my mental and physical health. We are admonished in Scripture to be thankful. Romans 1:21 cautions us sternly because one of the first steps of rebellion is a refusal to give Him thanks: "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened."
"Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name." Psalm 100:4
10 So now I will expose her lewdness
before the eyes of her lovers;
no one will take her out of my hands.
11 I will stop all her celebrations:
her yearly festivals, her New Moons,
her Sabbath days—all her appointed festivals.
12 I will ruin her vines and her fig trees,
which she said were her pay from her lovers;
I will make them a thicket,
and wild animals will devour them.
13 I will punish her for the days
she burned incense to the Baals;
she decked herself with rings and jewelry,
and went after her lovers,
but me she forgot,"
declares the Lord.
These verses underscore the third sin the prophet Hosea focuses on: hypocrisy. When you're a hypocrite, you claim one standard, but your heart is pointed in another direction. The Israelites were still enjoying the Hebrew festivals...and burning incense to false gods. We can't serve two masters, friends (Matthew 6:24).
Let's not forget that this isn't only God talking--this is also how Hosea is feeling (and what he's experiencing) in his own home with Gomer. To feel forgotten, overlooked, or dismissed is to suffer death to your soul. I work with 1000s of people in my line of work, and when someone feels unseen, it makes for craziness. The only reason I recognize it is because I see it in my own heart. I take courage in Genesis 16:13, which reads, "She [Hagar] gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: "You are the God who sees me," for she said, "I have now seen the One who sees me."
Lord, give us eyes so we may see the One who sees me. Amen.
As we approach these final verses, I'm not going to interject commentary. I am going to pray that as you read these sacred words penned thousands of years ago for you, that you'd personally hear and experience the love of God. That you would profoundly and intimately understand yada and how this gift of grace can transform your life. I pray that you would hear His voice of tenderness, pulling you closer. I pray the idolatry would be removed, the ingratitude would become praise, and the hypocrisy would convert to a singleness of heart (Jeremiah 32:39). Amen and Amen.
14 "Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the wilderness
and speak tenderly to her.
15 There I will give her back her vineyards,
and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she will respond as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
16 "In that day," declares the Lord,
"you will call me 'my husband';
you will no longer call me 'my master.'
17 I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips;
no longer will their names be invoked.
18 In that day I will make a covenant for them
with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky
and the creatures that move along the ground.
Bow and sword and battle
I will abolish from the land,
so that all may lie down in safety.
19 I will betroth you to me forever;
I will betroth you in righteousness and justice,
in love and compassion.
20 I will betroth you in faithfulness,
and you will acknowledge the Lord.
21 "In that day I will respond,"
declares the Lord—
"I will respond to the skies,
and they will respond to the earth;
22 and the earth will respond to the grain,
the new wine and the olive oil,
and they will respond to Jezreel.
23 I will plant her for myself in the land;
I will show my love to the one I called 'Not my loved one.'
I will say to those called 'Not my people,' 'You are my people';
and they will say, 'You are my God.'"