What If Your Wife and Kids Were a Negative Sermon Illustration?

Hosea 1

The Lord gave this message to Hosea son of Beeri during the years when Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah were kings of Judah, and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.

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.”

So Hosea married Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she became pregnant and gave Hosea a son.  And the Lord said, “Name the child Jezreel, for I am about to punish King Jehu’s dynasty to avenge the murders he committed at Jezreel. In fact, I will bring an end to Israel’s independence.  I will break its military power in the Jezreel Valley.”

Soon Gomer became pregnant again and gave birth to a daughter. And the Lord said to Hosea, “Name your daughter Lo-ruhamah—‘Not loved’—for I will no longer show love to the people of Israel or forgive them.  But I will show love to the people of Judah. I will free them from their enemies—not with weapons and armies or horses and charioteers, but by my power as the Lord their God.”

After Gomer had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she again became pregnant and gave birth to a second son.  And the Lord said, “Name him Lo-ammi—‘Not my people’—for Israel is not my people, and I am not their God.

“Yet the time will come when Israel’s people will be like the sands of the seashore—too many to count! Then, at the place where they were told, ‘You are not my people,’ it will be said, ‘You are children of the living God.’  Then the people of Judah and Israel will unite together. They will choose one leader for themselves, and they will return from exile together. What a day that will be—the day of Jezreel—when God will again plant his people in his land.

Hosea was a prophet in the northern kingdom of Judea in the eight century BC.  The book of Hosea contains surprisingly harsh pronouncements against Israel while, at the same time, contains assurances of God’s love for his people.  This coexistence of opposites is illustrated by Hosea’s own family.  God instructs Hosea to marry a woman who will be unfaithful to illustrate God’s love for an unfaithful people Israel.  Their children’s names are also metaphor’s for Israel’s broken relationship with God (see the descriptions above).

I have to admit that I find this business of Hosea’s family hard to stomach.  Hosea’s marriage to Gomer and their children’s unflattering names as “sermon illustrations” for Israel seems wrong.  In all candor, I would hate my family being used simply to make a point.  Having said that, what a point it all makes!  Hosea, a messenger of God, experiences the same unfaithfulness in Gomer that God experiences in unfaithful Israel.  Just like God, Hosea will find ways to love a wife in spite of unfaithfulness and love children whose very names defy that love.  I get the illustration, but truth be told, I am still uncomfortable with it.

Such is the nature of God’s Word.  It is untamable and undomesticated.  It causes discomfort that does not and probably should not go away.   It is a reminder of God’s proclamation that “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways” (Isaiah 55:8).   The prophets are, by definition, the voices who stand over against God’s people for the benefit of those very people they stand against. 

Despite my discomfort with Hosea’s family, I think of Hosea every time I am trying to love someone who doesn’t love me back. Then, as soon as I think of Hosea, I think of God who has always loved me even when I don’t return that love.  I then am reminded that I am the unfaithful spouse.  In those moments, in a way that I can’t begin to explain in words, loving that person who doesn’t love me becomes just a bit more doable.  So 2800 years later, God’s Word to Hosea is still moving me towards God’s heart.  I am uncomfortable with it, but I can’t deny the power of such a thing.

Prayer:  God, help us hear your point in those moments of discomfort with your message.  Even more than that Lord, move our hearts closer to yours. Amen.

Prayer Focus:  It’s been long enough now that hurricane victims throughout the southeast have been out of the media, but their suffering continues.  Pray for them today.

Song:  Blessings – Laura Story