As was my goal to start studying my Bible on my own again, I finally succeeded the other day. I spent an hour or so studying the first chapter of Hosea, one of my favorite Old Testament prophets.
As was my plan, I'd like to share some of my insights concerning the chapter before I move on to chapter two.
HOSEA 1: The Prostitution of Our Souls
The major themes found in Hosea concern the faithfulness, mercy and unfailing love of God for His people. The comparison of Hosea's marriage to an adulterous woman like Gomer is in direct comparison to the covenantal relationship of God and His chosen ones.
Okay, now to my own insights as I read through the first chapter. Intriguingly enough, it always amazes me when people think that the Old Testament is Law and the New Testament is Gospel. Although I do believe in the direct typology between the Testaments, I don't think that either are just one side of the coin.
The book of Hosea is a perfect example of this. The first chapter starts off with the marriage between Hosea, a prophet of God, and Gomer, a known adulterous woman. This marriage is mandated by God to be used as a visual reference of what the relationship between YHWH and Israel has resulted to.
Background History: During these times, the reigning of Jeroboam in Israel (this is placed sometime around 755 BC to 715 BC), the kingdom was already split in half, one side Judah and the other Israel. Israel was slowly but surely falling into idol worship and other immoral activities such as temple prostitution and orgies for the purpose of pagan rituals. As you can already see, they were prostituting themselves to other gods and other beliefs despite being rescued, time and again, by the one true God, YHWH.
Okay, now out of the history trip and back to the purpose of this blog. As I stated, the first chapter consist mainly of three things...the conception and birth of Hosea and Gomer's three children and the purpose behind their names, which God uses as allusions to His plans for Israel.
This is where the title of the blog comes into place.
BREAK
The first born was named Jezreel, an "ironic allusion to the slaughter at the Valley of Jezreel carried out by Jehu against the house of Ahab, and particularly against Jezebel" (quote from Archeological Study Bible: NIV). That particular story can be found in 2Kings 9:1 -10:11 if you're interested in reading up on it, but that's not my point.
Jezreel was named as such because God stated that due to the spilling of blood in the Valley of Jezreel, he would "put an end to the kingdom of Israel. In that day [He] will break Israel's bow in the Valley of Jezreel." (Hosea 1:4b-5)
Jezreel was the first action that God would take against Israel for it's prostitution with other gods.
WITHHOLD
The second child born from the union of Hosea and Gomer was Lo-Ruhamah, a daughter named as such to show that God will "no longer show love to the house of Israel, that [He] should at all forgive them" (Hosea 1:6b).
Lo-Ruhamah means "not loved," a name chosen by God to foretell the withholding of His love-mercy to the adulterous people of Israel. I found it interesting that in the two different versions I am reading (I always like using two to three different Bibles to study one chapter due to the different vocabulary used) this verse had one word difference. That word was love. In the e-sword NIV version I use on my computer, the word used in place of love was mercy.
This change in one word got me to thinking...is love mercy? Are they interchangeable? Or are they simply synonyms of each other?
To show mercy would be to show love. And to show love would be to have mercy.
This stuck in my brain and it is still something that is percolation there at the moment. More on that later.
DENY
The third child was a son born soon after Lo-Ruhamah was weaned. This son was named Lo-Ammi, "for you are not [His] people and [He] is not your God" (Hosea 1: 9). It is the denial of being Israel's God that hit me the most.
Due to a covenant made with Abraham (Genesis 15), God claimed that all of his descendants would be His chosen people...and yet, due to their prostitution to pagan gods, YHWH denied them as His people...declared He was no longer their God.
TO SUMMARIZE
All this was done not because God is capricious but because of Israel's faithlessness and inability to give God His rightful place as their God. Instead, they worshiped false idols and fell into immorailty through pagan orgies and temple prostitution.
For this reason, God punished Israel, teaching them that He alone has the power to unearth and to sow, the power to wipe and to create, the power to disclaim and claim. God alone can hold or let go of Israel.
PERSONAL MUSINGS
The questions as I began studying Hosea was: how does this relate to my own life and my own actions?
I realized that by allowing other things, whether it be drugs, sex, money, or even my own pride, independence and self-reliance, not to forget the penchant to worrying without seeking God, I take away His rightful place as the One and Only true God in my life.
Prostitution can easily be defined as the lack of respect for what has worth and value. It is the same as taking a valuable diamond and throwing it into the coal bin...it does not belong there.
I constantly prostitute myself to my worries, my desires, my wants and my capricious nature. I constantly seem to want to do God's job in my life, taking away His rightful place as the One who dictates and leads my life down His chosen path, not mine.
Why is it that I forget so easily that God has chosen to love me and show me mercy, that He has covered me with His mighty hand and said "You are mine, I've chosen you, died for you and live for you so that you may have eternal life with me...in me"?
How come I have to be constantly broken like a bow in the Valley of Jezreel to be able to see that I am, once again, prostituting myself to the idols and pagan gods of this world...a world I do not even belong to. My soul is in God's hands, my life in His plans, and yet, I turn away, again and again, and only in pain do I turn back to God, do I come back to be forgiven, healed and loved...then I go and do the same once again.
A prostitute, a sinner...I am unfaithful, soiled and unworthy of the passionate love of my God.
The very idea of Him denying me as His child makes my soul cringe...can you imagine the darkness and desolation that would result in being denied by God?
To be broken is to be healed. To be withheld is to be given to overflowing...to be denied...the agony is unimaginable and only one person experienced that total darkeness...Jesus Christ on the cross..."My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34).
Thanks to His Son experiencing that denial of YHWH, I won't have to...ever.
I praise Him for loving me despite it all, for breaking me again and again so that I may, one day, learn to keep my hand in His and no longer try to tug away and go on my own way.
Thank you LORD for Your sacrifice, for Your love, and even for the breaking of my sinful nature.
Painful it may be, but healing is what You seek...it's what I need.
TO CLOSE
It's been a while since I've done a personal Bible study on my own...and I've forgotten how good it feels to be able to share my discoveries and thoughts of what I study and learn. Scripture is the breath in our lungs as believers and followers of Christ...
So I've realized, and I hope to remind myself again and again, that not studying Scripture is the equivalent of holding my breath...it's uncomfortable and not to mention deathly.
Hope y'all learned something new and have reached out to God, thanking Him for breaking you, for giving you mercy-love, and for denying His Son Jesus Christ so that you would no longer be denied by Him.
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