Jump Start # 1340

Hosea 1:2 “When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, ‘Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry; for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord.”

Our verse today, directed to the prophet Hosea, is one of the most difficult passages to grasp. The nation of God’s people was broken. Idolatry was just as common as anything. They had broken so many of God’s commands and their heart was not dedicated nor remorseful. It was a sad condition. Prophet after prophet had been ignored by the nation. So when God calls Hosea to the scene, He wanted to prophet to experience what the Lord was going through. The prophet was to love and marry a wife whose heart was unfaithful. There would be children born, but they would not belong to Hosea. The prophet was living in his marriage what God was experiencing through their undedicated hearts.

One can only imagine the nightmares that Hosea experienced. He must have wondered many nights where his wife was. He must have thought ‘what have I done to make her turn to others?’ How many tears he shed over his unfaithful wife. How angry he must have been when she did return home. The home of this prophet  wasn’t happy nor pleasant. It was not a dream marriage.

A lesson for us in the experiences of Hosea is that we often fail to understand what our sins do to God. It is easy to see only what it does to us. We can ease the wrong of sin but thinking no one got hurt. It’s easy to think that sin only becomes wrong if one gets caught or if there are major consequences. Without getting caught, sin doesn’t seem so bad. A little lie here. A bit of porn there. Crossing the border ethically, morally now and then, not so bad as long as you don’t get caught and nothing really bad happens. Such thinking deadens us to the wrong of sin. It also blinds us to what sin does to God. This is what Hosea teaches us. God is crushed by our sin. God is disappointed by our sin. God is hurt by our sin. It doesn’t have to be major. It doesn’t have to have huge consequences. No one else even has to know, God does.

A little wrong can never be right. A little wrong doesn’t make us better. A little wrong doesn’t spice up the marriage, improve our walk with the Lord nor turn us into spiritual giants. A little wrong is like a cancer within us. Ignoring it isn’t good. It won’t go away. Most likely, it will grow and get worse. That’s what sin does to us.

The holiness that God demands of us and the obedience and respect to His word that comes with discipleship ought to make us run as far as possible away from sin. But that’s not happening today. Too many are coming right up to the edge of wrong and looking over the side. Some are sticking their big toe over the edge just to see what it is like. Maybe I’m getting too old fashioned but it seems like more and more folks want to run up to the edge of things. Bring up the subject of drinking alcohol and you’ll find plenty of people today who see nothing wrong with it as long as you don’t get drunk. Don’t get drunk, but up to the drunk point, you’ll find more and more young Christians who see nothing wrong with it. Have a prom or a wedding and you’ll find more and more Christians who throw out modesty because it’s a special occasion. Modesty doesn’t count in weddings. Really? Next will come smoking marijuana. As more and more states approve of that, more and more Christians will begin to consider the possibility and the value of it.

I wonder what would happen if God allowed us to see and experience the horrors of sin as Hosea did first hand. The nation probably thought a little idolatry would be alright. It might even open doors to the nations nearby. How wrong and how naïve they were. How blind they were. These things were not helping them in their walk with the Lord. Idols were not making them more righteous. Sin never does.

God is hurt by our wrong choices. Our relationship with God takes a hit by our wrong choices. No one may know, but it affects us and it affects God. There may not be any major consequences, but God has been hurt by our sin.

Another powerful lesson from Hosea is about God’s love and God’s forgiveness for a wayward nation. It was demonstrated by Hosea’s love and forgiveness toward his unfaithful wife. God never gives up on us. He loves us to the end. He is always hopeful for the best. He longs for us to come back to Him.

Hosea is a great lesson about us and God. It’s powerful. It’s touching. It makes us take a long look at what we are doing.

Roger