Dec. 10 – Thoughts on Hosea 1-4 & Rev. 1

I’m very excited to be in Revelation finally for a number of reasons.  First, it’s one of my favorite books of the bible.  Second, there is A LOT to write about so the rest of this year should be pretty easy to comment on.  But third, it means we’re almost done!  A year and we’ve read the whole bible yet haven’t missed a day!

Today, however, I’d like to take a look at Hosea.  This is one of the hardest books for me to stomach.  My whole life, family has held a respected position.  We’ve not only had a great family but have valued each other and the relationships we’ve enjoyed.  So to hear God using family to make a metaphorical point to His people is hard to bear.  It is good to see Hosea and Gomer love one another despite Gomer’s promiscuity, but I still have this basic urge to tell God, “Hand’s off the family!” no matter how sacrilegious that is.

Another piece of this book is the naming of their children.  Names in the Old Testament were very important.  People were named to describe them, to set their destiny, and to tell their story.  They are not named until they have a very good reason to, and names are often changed to fit a new destiny, whether Abram, Jacob, or Simon.  Here, God sets the names of the children, but not as descriptions of the children.  These children are named quite horrible names to describe Israel itself.

I’ve often said that God can ask most anything of me as long as it doesn’t affect my children.  I guess that’s not my call.