Hosea - Act 2

Have you ever heard a name and wondered just what the parents were thinking when they chose that name?

For example: Bob Geldorf and Paula Yates names their daughter Fifi Trixibelle…yeah…what were they thinking? Or Sylvester Stallone’s son – Sage Moonblood. I mean…it’s a herb – Sage! What were they thinking? Or Rob Morrow named his child Tu…as in Tu Morrow. What were they thinking? Have you ever had that sort of experience?

My wife, Ingrid, will tell you that we nearly had a name like that in our family. We have two sons, called Kevin and Connor, but had we had a daughter, I would have wanted to call her Skye! Right! It’s a lovely name…I’m just going to ignore the rest of you who are pulling that “What are you thinking face, right now!”

When it comes to naming children today, parents have many reasons. For some, it’s a family name. For others, they look for a meaning or purpose behind the name. And for many, it’s a name that sounds nice. We aren’t typically a culture that name our children after events of significance, historical purpose, or political agenda.

But that isn’t true of other cultures, and it certainly isn’t true of the culture during the time of Hosea.

If you are joining us this week for the first time in this series, we are in the middle of a series called Three Little Words. Our series is about a love story, between a man called Hosea and a woman called Gomer. It comes from a small book in the Bible called Hosea.

The book opens by telling us that Hosea’s relationship with a woman called Gomer is a metaphor for God’s relationship with His people and in a larger context, how God sees us. Gomer is described as promiscuous, but we learned last week that her description isn’t her definition. Rather, her definition is based on being chosen. In the same way, we don’t need to live under the weight of the adjectives that describe us. Instead, we can be defined by the fact that God, through Jesus, chooses us.

Now, because this is a love story, we are using the three-step plot line of love stories from the movies to help guide us. That three-step plot line begins with the introduction of the characters (we looked at that last week), the growing conflict where love is in danger (that’s this week) and then resolution of the conflict (next week).

Think about your favorite love story. They all have a conflict point. Like the time in How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days, when the double bet is discovered. Or perhaps it’s the double love interest in Bridget Jones’ Diary or the meddlesome father in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. There’s the marriage breakup in The Story of Us and the incredible involved but insanely popular love story of Darcy and Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice. All good love stories have conflict where love is in danger.

This week, we will be thrown into the conflict of the love story between Hosea and Gomer. We called this series, Three Little Words because in each section of the story we find that the story hinges on a little word…three weeks…three little words – words that can change the story, words that can change our story.

We left our love birds last week with them getting married. Here’s what happens next.

“So, he married Gomer…and she conceived and bore him a son (called) Jezreel.”

Hosea 1:3 (NIV).

The love birds are quite literally in a honeymoon phase. In love, married, growing in their work and growing their family with the birth of a child – a stereotypical family.

In a few short verses, we are told that Gomer gives birth to two more children.

Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter (called) Lo Ruhamah. ⁸After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. ⁹ (called) Lo-Ammi”.

Hosea 1:6, 8

The names of the children were chosen with purpose and significance and are part of the story. Buried within the birth of these children is a conflict…a relationship ending conflict. Let’s explore these children’s names a little closer.

The First Child - Jezreel

Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. ⁵ In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.” 

 Hosea 1:4 (NIV)

Ok, wait a moment. I wanted to call my daughter Skye and my wife vetoed it faster than a Yankee fan leaving Fenway Park after bad mouthing the Red Sox! I would have loved to see Gomer’s face after Hosea comes home from work with his wonderful naming idea for their son!

What is Hosea thinking?

Jezreel was a place of significance in Israel history: the sight of a massacre and political coup and a place with religious significance for Israel. It was a reminder to the people of a violent life without God, one where God’s love is absent. The name signifies a place of judgement without grace, life without love, loneliness without connection.

Think about Gettysburg for the moment. Gettysburg is a place with incredible significance in American history. It is a place of death, a place where the blood turned the ground to marsh; a place where in the immediate days following the battle corpses outnumbered residents by four to one. Yet today, it is a memorial, with a college and many visitors. Imagine calling your child Gettysburg.

That sounds like a terrible name to call your child. And I don’t recommend it. It sounds traumatic, but significant. Poignant, yet disturbing. But this is what God wants to do through Hosea. He wants to use his life, his relationship and the children in that family as a metaphor to explain who he is and what he wants for his people.

God wants Israel to remember what life is like without him Without God there is no grace, no love and no connection. There is just violence and death. It sounds hellish, and that is the point! God doesn’t want them to experience that, but in good psychological work, he is reminding them of the pain of brokenness to motivate them to pursue something better in the future.

Do you have a memory like that? Do you have a situation, an event, a place or time in your life that is a reminder of pain and heartache? Perhaps it’s your biggest regret, or a memory of something bad that you wish you could forget. You ask God to take it away, but it stays in your memory. There’s something helpful about that. The memory of the pain can be a motivator to avoid a similar situation in the future. So, it becomes a warning sign. Or sometimes our greatest regrets, our greatest hurts become the very means by which we help others. So, we help others learn from our bad experiences.

Perhaps you’re in that time right now, a hellish existence filled with pain…God wants you to know…he has something better for you, he has a life of grace, love and connection for you. He will help you through this to find that better future. That is the symbolism of the name Jezreel.

The Second and Third Child

The passage moves on to the second and third child

⁶ Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means “not loved”), for I will no longer show love to Israel, that I should at all forgive them… ⁸ After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah Gomer had another son. ⁹ Then the Lord said, “Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God - Hosea 1:6, 8 (NIV)

She is called “not-loved”. He is called “not my people”.

What terrible names for children! What terrible names for people! It is hard to fathom. I understand if you look at this story and think it’s crazy. I’m with you! It is crazy. It is crazy to call them these names. It seems outright cruel and you would probably give those parents a look of utter amazement and disbelief if they introduced their children to you as Not-loved and “Not-my-people”.

But…maybe…there’s a reason for it. Let me explain with this story. You see, back in 2004, a massive earthquake hit just off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. It was a 9.3 magnitude earthquake that sent a series of tsunamis across the ocean killing somewhere between 230,000-280,000 people. When one of the tsunamis hit the village of Baan Nam Khem in Thailand, it destroyed it. Mrs. Od Judet was eight months pregnant at the time. Listen to her story…

Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0jqDVLpt34 (play to 1:24)

Out of context, the name Tsunami, sounds like a terrible name to call a child. It brings back memory of the deaths in her village, the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and the memory of the devastation it caused. It would seem a cruel name for a child to bear. But, that name also brings back memory of her survival and the hope that child represents.

Remember, Hosea’s situation is unique. There is a specific message God wants to convey through these names. For Jezreel, it’s a reminder of what life without God might look like. For Lo-Ruhamah and Lo-Ammi, it is a reminder that the people who hear the names of these children being called are acting in ways that are unloving. They are acting unlike the people of God. They are a people who are acting cruel and merciless. They are a people who degrade themselves and act in terrible ways rather than worshippers of God. They don’t act or look like the people they are supposed to be. Each time the children are called home to dinner, each time Hosea mentions his children, it pings on the ears of the people of Israel that they are not acting or living like God wants them to.

The same could be said for many of us today. We don’t act or live the way God wants us to. For some of us, like Israel in the passage, we know how God wants us to live, but we have chosen not to live that way. And the result of that choice is less than we expected. The result is painful or worse – hellish.

For others here, you don’t know how God wants you to live. This whole religious thing is a mystery, but you are here, looking for something, looking for someone. Perhaps you came here because your friend invited you and you didn’t want to be rude, or got tired of saying no, or perhaps you came here because something has intrigued you. Perhaps it’s something missing, or something that’s not right, or something that’s just a little off in your life and you wonder if there’s something else to experience.

The names of these children tell us about life without God – hellish, not loved, not his people. But the actions of Hosea tell us something different…something amazing. And those actions come right after our little word. But first, a little context that makes this story more meaningful.

There’s an interesting comment about the way these children are described in this passage. Jezreel is introduced in typical fashion as the child of Hosea and Gomer. But Lo-Ruhamah and Lo-Ammi are not. Jezreel’s birth is described as “(Gomer) conceived and bore him a son”. That formula of “conceived and bore him” is a common way of showing that the child is the descendant of both Hosea and Gomer. The other two children are introduced as being the children of Gomer, but not necessarily Hosea’s. In fact, some commentators, believe these children were not Hosea’s children at all, but rather the children of an affair or affairs of Gomer. And that is the depth of the conflict – she has betrayed him through an affair, fallen pregnant and had illegitimate children.

If that is true, then the second and third children’s names are statements of truth – not born out of their love and not the descendants of Hosea – not loved and not his.

But Hosea’s actions about these children is something remarkable. Since they are not his children, he could ignore them, discard them, kick them out of his life and away from his protection. But he doesn’t, instead he names them and includes them in his family. He offers them connection, protection and a home. He offers them love and belonging.

And that is the point God is making. The people may be acting unloving, they may be acting unlike His people, they may be acting in a way that is unfaithful and so deserving of a life without God, without grace, without love, without connection YET God will love them, include them and be with them anyway!

And God wants you to know that too. That regardless of what you have done in the past or how you are acting now, YET he loves you, YET he includes you and YET he builds a relationship with you!

And where do we find that – in the very next verses of chapter 1 and 2. In fact, if we hold onto that possibility that the second and third child might not be Hosea’s we will find that these next verses take on a whole new meaning. Just before chapter 2, amid the terrible names of these children we find our little word for today, that I have mentioned already.

Call him Jezreel, call her Not-Loved and Call him Not-my people…YET

¹⁰ “Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’ ¹¹ The people of Judah and the people of Israel will come together; they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.

“Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’

Hosea 1:10-2:1 (NIV)

The word Yet, is our little word. In Hebrew, it is the same word translated as “So” from last week.

It is the word on which this story hinges. It is the word that changes this story of craziness about terrible names for children into an action of God that is so loving and profound it transforms people. It is a word that changes destinies and impacts futures. It is a word that shows God for who he is, someone who wants to love, who wants to be connected to you, who wants to be gracious and merciful. That little word, Yet, says God isn’t done with you. It says God isn’t finished with you.

Hosea loves these children as his own. He includes them in his family and lineage. He, by his actions, declares that they are loved and are his people. They do not suffer the burdens of their names, they enjoy the blessings of his actions. That is the message God wants to convey to Israel and to you and me today. While you act unloving and not like my people should act, YET you don’t need to suffer the burdens of those names, instead enjoy the blessings of my actions.

Here’s what it means for us!

I don’t know the names you have been called by others, or the names you call yourself. Maybe the names speak of terrible things you have done, names of a past or present that you think isn’t acceptable to God YET God loves you. You might suffer under the burdens of those names YET God wants you to enjoy the blessings of HIS actions.

You might have said and done things that leave your life feeling lost and alone – a hellish existence like the name Jezreel implies.  You might have said and done terrible things that make you feel unloved and unwelcome, like the names Not Loved and Not My People imply.

YET…pay attention…YET God says, despite those things that he wants you with him because being loved by God, being His person is dependent on his actions and not the burden of the names we call ourselves. God wants to change your identity from being focused on what you’ve lost or done to being focused on what he does and what you are…loved. You no longer need to carry the burden of those names, you can enjoy the blessings of God’s actions. You are loved. We are loved.

We are loved despite our actions and our failures.

We are loved despite our past, present or future.

We are loved because God loves us!

The little word “yet” in chapter 1:10, changes the whole story. When Hosea writes out this part of his life in his poem in chapter 2 he plays with this little word YET. Using the marriage image, he describes how a betrayed spouse might respond, with anger, rejection and hatred… YET God chooses not to. Instead God says, “Therefore, I will allure her, I will speak tenderly to her, I will respond and show my love to those called ‘Not my loved one and I will say to those called ‘Not my people, ‘You are my people.”

In another poem, Hosea describes Israel and God like a little child being raised by a father. He draws on his own images of raising these children who were not his own.

³ It was I who taught them to walk, 

taking them by the arms; 

but they did not realize 

it was I who healed them. 

⁴ I led them with cords of human kindness, 

with ties of love. 

To them I was like one who lifts 

a little child to the cheek, 

and I bent down to feed them. 

Despite the growing conflict between our lovers, with possible affairs and illegitimate children, the actions of Hosea shine like a light in the darkness of the conflict. He has children who are not his own, his wife has left him and his life might seem in tatters. YET, instead of rejecting the children and Gomer and moving on with his life, Hosea reaches out with love. We will look at his actions next week as we look for the resolution of this story.

Conclusion

But for now, the story of the names of these children, and the promises of God’s actions leave us plenty on which to think and act. I don’t know about you, but I know the burden of a name. You see, my name comes from my grandparents. I was named after a hat company. I am told it was a name they saw while coming to visit me in the hospital. They liked it, my mother liked it, so that is what I was called.

Dorian. The most famous person at the time was a woman called Dorianne Berry, and so I was mercilessly mocked for having a girl’s name. I was teased and bullied for that name. As a teenager, with some friends, we began to look up the meaning of our names. When it came to my name, the book said my name meant “intruder”.

I felt the burden of that meaning. For much of my life I felt like an intruder and with it came the pain of feeling excluded. Even to this day, being intentionally excluded, especially by people I love, cuts me to the core of my being. For much of my life my experience with people is that of an outsider – looking in, wondering if I am included and wanted. The meaning of my name resounded in my head repeatedly. It shaped my identity.

Then my uncle told me in passing about the Greek meaning of my name: dorea – gifted. He said it in passing as though it was something small. Not for me. An identity shift happened. No longer was I an intruder but rather I was gifted. The burden of my name was replaced with the blessing of God’s action. He had gifted me and I could use those gifts for others.

God wants us all to know that the burdens of the names we call ourselves when we are in those dark and dreary places can be replaced with the blessings of his actions. While we might look at ourselves and call ourselves terrible, cruel and despicable names, God looks at us and says, YET we are loved.

Will we respond to the names that resound in our head, the names that tell us we are alone, broken, unloved, names that put us on the path to a hellish existence OR will we respond to a God who says, YET WILL I LOVE YOU.

I want you to experience the love of God. Here’s how. I’m going to suggest some steps you can take…listen closely, and perhaps one of these might be the right step for you to take. My encouragement, make that step today.

·       Start the recovery process – Faith Community in Hopkinton offers Celebrate Recovery every Wednesday to help people with hurts, habits and hangups from life. Just come. Maybe that’s what you need to experience the love of God.

·       Stop doing it alone.

o   Join a group

o   Join a team – there’s nothing better than blessing others with what you have. Especially consider the kids in our church.  Each week a few hundred children gather downstairs for a phenomenal experience we call Faith Kids. Trust me, this is not your mother’s Sunday School. This is an amazing experience. But it needs volunteers to use their gifts and abilities to share the love of God with these kids. Come alongside these children and join the Faith Kids team. Stop doing it alone.

·       Ask someone to help

·       Remind yourself of the love of God – this week read John 15:1-17 each week in a different translation. Read it and let it seep into your soul.

Don’t leave here carrying the burdens of the names you have been called or you call yourself. Leave here with the promise of the blessings of God’s actions – actions that speak loudly...we are loved.

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So many people feel that God is violent, angry and judging them in this world. Far too often, as Christians, we repeat the names of judgment and hate on people. But we have a better example to follow. We have the example of a savior who, while being crucified, said “forgive them”. We have the example of Jesus, who looked into the eyes of his close friend, Peter, as he denied knowing him, YET, later, made him a meal and commissioned him to continue his work. We can be the sounds of condemnation increasing the burden of the names people call themselves, or we can be the voice of blessing, pointing people to the actions of Jesus who says to everyone, “You are loved”. This week, be the voice of blessing and tell as many people as you can, “You are loved”.