How both privileged and devastating it was for Hosea to be chosen to reveal Your heart toward humanity; to be the one who would live out the expression of Perfect Love, knowing and experiencing both delight and gut-wrenching grief – the extremes of emotion that can only be known by one who has truly […]
God, You ask Hosea to take to himself (Hosea 1:2 NKJV), Gomer. You ask him to unite with her, take her to himself in closeness, in vulnerability, and in genuine care for her – to join, to marry, to make her his own precious wife – for life. You are not just asking Hosea to […]
Casual def – easy going; happening by chance; fortuitous; without definite or serious intention; careless or offhand; passing; seeming or tending to be indifferent to what is happening; apathetic; unconcerned. The words, take to yourself, meant for Hosea to make Gomer his. It was a relationship to be had solely with each other. He was to […]
I’m into James Arthur at the moment. Just loving his lyrics and sound. He has written a song, “Let me love the lonely” – it is perhaps unknowingly to him, a deeply spiritual song, whose lyrics speak of the desire to have someone who will love us intimately. I have listened to it often, lately. If the […]
God, the reason You ask Hosea to marry Gomer is revealed. It was for privileged and devastating personal insight, but it was also for Hosea to relay the heartache and grief You feel. Through his didactic life-experience and instructive word to Your beloved Israel, he portrays Your heart. “Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife […]
God, You are angry. Anger, the emotion of betrayal. Anger from injustice. Anger from deep hurt. Anger aroused from what has become of the very best of Your creation. It feels like the rest of Hosea 1, is Your expression of anger through the deep hurt and injustice You feel. I have often wondered after reading […]
I love theatre. It’s rooted in the love of a good story. I love that feeling of excited anticipation – the cacophony of the orchestral instruments as they do their final tuning, the crowd noise quietens, the house lights dim, the stage lights brighten, the opening music plays, and the curtains part – all together […]
… is another man’s treasure. Israel’s is a story of a people whose once former glory is lost. They, now worn and worthless, are tossed out from the surrounding nations – yet they are treasure in the heart of their God (Deuteronomy 14:2, NIV). In their story is a parallel scenario, of a woman, Gomer – Having […]
Hosea 4 onwards, is the writing of a scribe, the voice of a prophet, telling of the offense felt by a God, a Lover, who has been wronged. As the people murmur among themselves about what could this picture of Hosea and his prostitute wife mean, You, God, send out its message. As it spreads […]
Even the priests… In relating to Hosea the offense You feel towards Israel, You lay Your complaint about the priests – those set apart for the purpose of leading the people into knowing You, but who too had become corrupt. And like Hosea, as he writes Your words down, I hear the ache of things […]