When John Claypool was pastor of Crescent Heights Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, he underwent significant personal tragedy—including having a beloved daughter diagnosed with leukemia. Throughout the turmoil and torture of losing his, as I recall, 10-year-old daughter, Claypool kept his faith and preached incredibly powerful sermons that changed the lives of thousands of people (including me). He said that the only truly powerful preaching was confessional preaching. If the pastor/preacher wasn’t sharing something he or she [I know not everyone reading this message is comfortable with the idea of women in the pulpit, but when they are in the pulpit, the same counsel should apply—I’m not attempting to address this issue, but merely be true to Claypool’s insight.] has personally experienced and how he or she has been affected by God’s Word, the message isn’t going to have enough power.
The experience of the 8th century prophet, Hosea, rather affirms Claypool’s idea of “confessional preaching.” It was as God dealt with the anguish and betrayal Hosea was experiencing that Hosea began to understand something of what G. Campbell Morgan called “The Heart and Holiness of God.” Today, I wish to share my translation of the text with you and suggest what it might have to say when we are hurt by rebellion in our own families. As usual, I remind you that my translation is neither infallible nor superior to any other translation, but that when we read a new translation we are more open to what God might show us. Let’s read the first three verses together:
Hosea 1
v. 1 The word of the Lord (Yahweh—He who causes to be, He who is, He who will be) which happened to Hosea (“He caused to be saved”), the son of Beeri (“My well” or simply, “Well”) in the days of Uzziah (“Yah is my strength”), Jotham (“He is perfect” or “Yah is perfect”), Ahaz (“He grasps”) and Hezekiah (“Yahweh caused to be strong” or “Yahweh made obstinate”), Kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam (“He sues for the people”), son of Joash (“He gives” or “Yahweh gives”), King of Israel.
v. 2 The beginning of the word of the Lord (Yahweh) to Hosea--and the Lord (Yahweh) proceeded to say to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife of fornication and children of promiscuity, BECAUSE the land has committed fornication away from the Lord.”
v. 3 And he [Hosea] proceeded to go and subsequently he took Gomer (“end or completion”), the daughter of Dibalayim (“fig cakes”) and subsequently, she conceived and then, she delivered a son for him.
It was a chaotic time in the southern kingdom, but everything seemed prosperous and stable in the northern kingdom. While those Judeans in the southern kingdom of Judah were struggling under the less than triumphant trio of successors to the great Uzziah, we have only one king, a very strong king named Jeroboam II, described as the King of Israel. Yet, it is not to the troubled kingdom that Hosea is sent to prophesy. Rather, it is to the stable and prosperous kingdom that God sends the prophet. I want to suggest a lesson for us in that realization, but before we get there, let’s consider the names involved in this section.
Hosea’s message is intended to prepare us for the gospel, the freeing “good news,” as we can see in his name, meaning “He causes to be saved” (a variant of Joshua and Jesus). His father is named, “My well” (perhaps, merely “Well” or “Spring”). He is the provision from which comes survival in a desert land, and he is also the sire of the prophet God intends to use.
Hosea does not prophesy to Uzziah, the king who (in spite of contracting leprosy) was described in II Kings 15 as one who did right in God’s eyes (as well as led a successful military campaign against the Philistines, secured the King’s Highway caravan route, refortified the citadel of Zion, and brought great economic prosperity to Judah). He does not prophesy to Jotham, Judah’s king who brought about several military successes and a solid building program. He doesn’t even prophesy to Ahaz, the king whose very name means that he was self-centered and self-aggrandizing, the king who put a Syrian altar to Baal in God’s own temple (II Kings 16:11). And we don’t see him prophesying to Hezekiah, the king who started out with religious reform and military reconstruction but ended up paying tribute to the Assyrians, facing terminal illness, and experiencing God’s deliverance. Of course, Isaiah prophesied to Hezekiah. God fits the vessel to the task.
Hosea does prophesy in the kingdom of Jeroboam II. His name indicates someone who goes to bat legally and socially for all of the people. In today’s political terms, he was a populist. But being a populist has a heavy-duty price tag! To be a populist means that you need a majority behind you to be successful. To be a populist means that you have to build a consensus. To be successful in building a consensus, you must take a stand on one or two basic issues—not the whole spectrum of issues. What does that mean? It means that populists have to sell out their integrity with regard to some issues in order to focus on a few.
Jeroboam II kept up his namesake’s (Jeroboam I’s) official support of idolatry as a state religion. He led Israel to military successes and economic prosperity. Everything was great if you voted with your pocketbook. Everything was great if you were judging by earthly success. But his kind of populism was leading inexorably to disaster—military, political, and economic.
Here’s the irony. God sent Hosea (and Amos) to prophesy to the SUCCESSFUL part of the divided kingdom. Why? He sent them because even the successful and stable need God. I can’t help but believe that this is a lesson for you and me. We have a tendency to avoid witnessing to the “successful.” We speak up to people in crisis and to people who feel unwanted, unloved, and unsuccessful. We assure them that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their lives. That’s true, but the question is whether our God is only a living “solution” to our failures and needs or whether our God is the living Lord who offers a loving, ongoing relationship, regardless of our perception of need or success.
Hosea spoke of false beliefs that can enslave the believers and of self-reliance leading one away from authentic encounter with God. Hosea wasn’t afraid to speak of sexual sin, economic sin, political sin, and religious sin. He started with God’s love and the expectation that accompanies that love, not with some prosperity gospel of some kind. No “cheap grace” exists in Hosea’s message nor in the gospel itself.
Verse 2 tells us that Hosea’s message had a high price from the very beginning. God speaks to Hosea and tells him to take a wife of fornication and conceived of fornication. God called Hosea to marry a woman who was part of a tradition of idolatry, a family where sacred prostitution was part of their faith. God called Hosea to do this even though God knew that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and this woman was likely to betray Hosea in the name of false gods.
When I was a teenager, I thought this meant that Hosea went down to the local red light house and married one of the soiled sisters therein. I kept trying to figure out a way to rationalize that into the idea that it was okay to be obsessed with sex, but (by God’s grace rather than my goodness) I never managed to convince myself and grant myself an indulgence. Now, I picture Hosea getting this strange word from God. He is to marry, even though it’s going to break his heart.
It is very likely that Hosea’s future wife had been “prepared” for marriage by being given in sacrifice to the gods at the local temple as she reached marriageable age. As disgusting as that sounds to modern ears, it would have been expected in the Israel of the 8th century. Now, Imagine Hosea hanging out with some of the folks who had compromised their Hebrew faith with that of Baal worship. He tries to convince them that they can’t successfully mix these sexual practices and expectations of prosperity from Baal, the god of sex and business, with the Holy God Who desired more for Israel. There is one woman who looks at him approvingly, seeming to drink in what he’s saying. Sure, she comes from a family which has contaminated itself with Baal-worship, but she’s listening to him and surely she will stand with him when he confronts the powers-that-be in Israel. Besides, she happens to be a “knock-out” in Hosea’s eyes. He figures God has blessed him. He marries this very special person.
Her name is Gomer, meaning “Completion.” She represents the final result of God’s judgment on Israel and Israel’s idolatry, but Hosea thinks she is the end of his yearning for companionship, the completion of his search for a companion who might even break the chain of idolatry in Israel through her positive example. God knew what would happen with Hosea’s marriage. It was to be a picture of Israel’s continual returning to the gods which were not God, accepting that which doesn’t satisfy for that which could overflow. She is the daughter of “Fig Cakes” (Diblayim), a name probably tied to the idea of being a sacrifice for Baal. The warning, inherent in the family background, is there, but Hosea’s pilgrimage requires him to move on in spite of this family’s proclivity toward sinful practices—even as God went on with the Exodus and the Conquest in spite of Israel’s sinful practices.
But, let us move further in this drama of a failed marriage. Let’s see indignity heaped upon indignity. Let’s read on:
v. 4 And the Lord proceeded to say to him, “Call his name, Jezreel (“He plants”), BECAUSE yet a little and I shall visit the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu and I shall cause to be destroyed the domain (kingdom) of the house of Israel.
v. 5 And it shall happen in that day and I shall shatter the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.”
Along comes that sweepstakes prize, that first-born son that every ancient man dreamed of. But rather than name him after a member of the family, God intervenes and gives him a name with two opposite meanings. First, “He plants” has a positive nuance. Baal isn’t the one who gives growth or gives the harvest, Yahweh is God of Success as well as God Who blesses you in Disaster. Second, Jezreel has a negative nuance. It is a valley and a city which was, at various times, a second capitol (sort of a Summer White House) for Israel. It’s the spot where King Ahab murdered Naboth to steal his land (I Kings 21) and the very spot where Queen Jezebel, Joram and a lot of the court polticians were murdered in Jehu’s coup d’etat. Jezreel is where II Kings 9-10 tells us that the heads of Ahab’s seventy sons were sent after they were decapitated.
The fact that God promises to visit the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu seems to suggest that what goes around, comes around or that he who lives by the sword dies by the sword. Would not Zechariah, Pekah, Pekahiah, and Shallum’s violent deaths qualify as precisely that kind of regicide implied in the idea of God bringing the judgment of Jezreel upon Israel.
Can you imagine this? Every time Hosea would introduce his son, call him in to dinner, or tell him to stop teasing his sister, he preached a message of judgment to everyone in earshot. He couldn’t experience even the most normal family events without reminding himself and everyone else that God is just (and that Israel deserves justice). It couldn’t have made him popular, but we’ve already indicated that one is unlikely to be a populist if one is going to be true to God’s message. God’s Word isn’t always popular.
But check this out. Just as Jezreel can be positive or negative, so also can God’s Word be positive or negative. If we respond positively to God’s teaching, God is willing to bless us. If we respond negatively to God’s teaching, God is forced to punish us or God is not really just. Certainly, God prefers conferring the blessing, but we sometimes insist on deserving the punishment.
Unfortunately, Hosea’s hurt is not “Complete.” Verses 6-7 read:
v. 6 And she subsequently conceived once more and, as a result, she gave birth to a daughter. And he (Yahweh) proceeded to say to him (Hosea), “Call her name, No Compassion, BECAUSE I will not again increase compassion on the house of Israel so that I lift them up (The last phrase seems to be a play on “rescuing” Israel as in Exodus 33-34—I will have pity on whom I will have pity.)
v. 7 and the house of Judah I will have compassion on and I will cause them to be rescued by the Lord (Yahweh), their God, but will not save them by bow or by sword and by battle and by horses and horsemen.”
When you call your daughter, “No Compassion,” you’re saying a lot. You’re saying that you refuse to have any feelings for her. You’re probably indicating to everyone around that you suspect she isn’t your biological daughter. You’re suggesting to everyone around that your wife has cheated on you. At the very least, it is bound to shock everyone when a father says that he has “No Compassion” for his daughter.
I know many daughters feel that way on occasion, but I doubt they have their fathers verbalize it every time they call their name. In our society, it would be like giving your daughter a nickname like “Worthless” or “Useless.” “Hey, Worthless! Come bring me my slippers!” It probably wouldn’t get you very far and it probably wouldn’t help her self-esteem any, either.
But God ordered this name to make a point. Just as it seems unnatural for a father not to express natural feelings for his daughter, so God is going to withhold divine compassion from Israel. When Israel needs help from the Assyrian menace (Iraq seems to show up in history as a menace far too often!), God won’t lift them out of the quicksand of their danger. Even worse, God claims to like the neighbor kid better. God insists that He will save the neighboring kingdom of Judah and that there won’t even have to be a big battle to accomplish it. If you’ve read your Biblical history and Ancient Near Eastern history, you know this came true. Sennacherib had the capitol city of Jerusalem all bottled up in his siege. It was only a matter of time. He described them in his own royal chronicles as having Jerusalem caged like a bird. Then, suddenly, they abandoned the siege and returned to Assyria. What was that if not God providing the very rescue he refused to the northern kingdom as a result of their idolatry, a rescue without military victory or Judean effort required.
Yet, Hosea’s personal life gets even darker. While we may have suspected Gomer’s unfaithfulness to him when he named his daughter, look at verses 8-9.
v. 8 And she proceeded to wean No Compassion and she proceeded to conceive and she proceeded to bear a son.
v. 9 And he (Yahweh) proceeded to say, “Call his name, Not My People, BECAUSE you are not my people and I am not “I who cause to be, I who am and I who will be” for you.”
This time, Hosea seems clearly to say that his son is not his. He calls his son “Not My People” as a way of saying, “He’s Not Mine!” When he calls him for dinner, tells him to quit bothering his sister, or shakes him awake in the morning, he gives testimony to his wife’s sin. The way verse 9 reads, I truly believe that Hosea wanted to be a good father to “Not Mine!” but he realized that the boy was not likely to respond to his parenting.
So, when God makes the comparison between “Not My People” and Israel, the imagery is that Israel won’t really “let” God be God for them. How often do people refuse to be “parented” by God? Imagine an adopted child who refuses to accept the “parenting” of his or her adoptive parents? It breaks the parents’ hearts and proves to be a self-fulfilling prophecy for the adopted child. Both parties believe the other party didn’t love them. What a waste! What a tragedy!
But praise God that isn’t the end of the story. We find ourselves barely introduced to the kids and the sad fact of their mother’s sin when we are given the possibility of redemption. The first three verses of Chapter 2 give us that promise.
Hosea 2
v. 1 “And the children of Israel shall become numerous like the sand of the sea which cannot be measured and cannot be counted. And in the place where it was spoken to you, “You are Not My People,” you shall be called “Sons of the Living God.
v. 2 And the sons of Judah shall assemble and the sons of Israel shall be together and they shall place for themselves, one head (chief, top) and they shall ascend from the land BECAUSE Great is the day of Jezreel.
v. 3 They shall say to you, “My People,” and show to you, “Compassion.”
You see, it’s never too late for God to turn your expectations upside-down. You may think the results of your sins are irreversible. The fact that you sinned is irreversible. The consequences of sin are never good. But the sooner you return to God, the sooner God can turn judgment into promise. God would rather give us the fertile valley of Jezreel than the bloody place of treachery. God would rather accept us as adopted children than have to reject us because of our refusal to be “parented” in holiness. God would rather show authentic feelings toward us rather than to hold off compassion to protect our freedom to rebel.
There is a “Yes” and “No” to the experiences we go through in life. God wants to be able to say “Yes!” to us, but will not do so when we seek the false gods of sensuality, success, and populism. Israel had stability, success, and security—for a time! They thought they had hedged their bets by building shrines in the northern kingdom and identifying them with God, but keeping the old Baal traditions in the shrines and high places. They thought they could be part of both traditions, but Hosea knew that only sadness, disappointment, and betrayal could come from that promiscuous attitude.
Why then do so many modern believers believe that they can claim God and disobey the moral claims of the Bible? Why do so many modern believers think they can claim God but disavow the authority of Scripture, the Church, and even the specific saving capacity of Jesus Christ? Why do so many modern believers think they can act in pure self-interest in business and still claim Jesus as Lord? Why do so many modern believers think they can ignore moral claims in political elections and still claim God as their Master? Why is there no justice in our courts? Why is there no integrity in our commerce? Why is there no dedication in our churches? Why is there no authority in our pulpits? I suggest it is because we haven’t allowed our theology to become personal. We haven’t felt the heartbreak that God feels when the People of God act like they’re “Not Mine!”
Every parent who has ever had a child rebel knows this feeling. Just imagine how God feels when we ourselves rebel, even knowing how it hurts. God loves us enough to say a loud “No!” when we’re misbehaving and throwing our lives away in an attempt to hedge our bets with the false gods of pleasure, success, fame, popularity, and limited human knowledge. God also loves us enough to say “Yes!” whenever we admit our failures, accept responsibility for our rebellion, and come back into God’s arms.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been on both sides of this “Not Mine!” issue and I know some people I love and care about are going through this “Not Mine!” issue, as well. Just know that underneath the “No!” is the promise of “Yes!” Only God can turn the expectations upside-down—even as God transformed the negatives of these children’s names into a positive promise. How about in your life?
