Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Hosea: Surrender to the Lord

Hosea 1:1-5
The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reign of Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel.
The Lord speak through Hosea, Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord. So Hosea married Gomer, and she conceived and bore him a on.
The Lord said to Hosea, Call him Jezreel, because the Lord will punish the house of Israel for the massacre of Israel.
This is the first and longest of the 'Minor' prophets, called "The Book of the Twelve' in the Hebrew Bible. Chronologically, Amos is a few years earlier.
Why?
Hosea was one of Isiah's contemporaries, a prophet of God in the 8th century BC. He was a northerner and his message was for Israel, although he occasionally refers to Judah. He prophesied at the end of the reign of the nation's last powerful king, Jeroboam II. He prophesied for the next 40 years, until just before Samaria fell to Assyria in 722BC.
Hosea's great themes are love- God's covenant-relationship with his people - judgement and hope.
What Israel's unfaithfulness meant to God- how he continued to love his covenant people and long for their return to him- the prophet learnt through bitter personal experience, as the wife he loved betrayed and deserted him. His message comes straight from the heart. That is what makes his book so moving, so universal and so special.
Marry a woman of harlotry. Harlotry in Hosea has double meaning, describing both illicit sexual relations and religious acts of unfaithfulness.
To be a prophet of the Lord, only obey the command of Lord, and have to forsake  personal way and idea.
How?
How will I go is follow the word of the Lord, it is not my planning but the mind of the Lord. I surrender to the Lord.



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