Hosea 1:2-3 (ESV)
2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” 3 So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. How would like it for one of the first things God says to you be something that seems so random and so controversial? How would you like to be Hosea introducing her to his parents or at the family reunion? "Mom, Dad this is Gomer, she works on the corner of whore and dom but you should get used to calling her daughter."
But right out of the gate, God says to Hosea, "We are going to shake things up around here and to do this you are going to do something that won't make sense anywhere but in your heart."
Truth is, God was using Hosea's marriage as an illustration for how His children (the Israelites) were treating Him and if you keep reading you get to see God's heart for those that are His and what He desires for us. But that is not what has been striking me today.
What is grabbing hold of my heart since this morning is where in my life is God wanting to shake things up by doing something as crazy as this in order to show the world His great love? Most of us want the benefits of life with God as long as it doesn't cause friction or discomfort in our lives. I dare say that if God told 98% of us to do something as ludicrous as what He told Hosea, we would walk away laughing.
Truth is, He has asked us for the ludicrous. He has told us to lay our lives at the foot of the Cross so that we can experience freedom and love and true living. He has said that as we do life with each other His work in us should be what is noticed as light invades the darkness. We must decrease so Christ can increase all the more.
What we have to come to grips with is whether or not we will "marry the whore" (men I would not recommend trying to crack a joke about your wife here. That probably won't end well:)) or "walk away laughing". Doing one will lead to freedom and an abundant life; the other will lead to oppression and boredom.
So what if all believers lived on this plane, where when God calls us to do things that the rest of the world wouldn't understand we do them because we are living for the applause of the One who made us, saved us and knows how we can live up to our full potential?
What if the children of God lived in such a way that it was obvious we are His?
Heart and Soul,
BAG
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