Saturday, September 27, 2014

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Hosea 1:1 - 2:1

Talk about getting a point across! Remind me never to ask God to host The Dating Game. It is so interesting that God doesn’t just convey a message to the prophet Hosea. God makes him live it. God doesn’t just give him words to preach to the people of the Northern Kingdom; God invites/instructs Hosea to feel what it is like to have a pact with a rebellious, unfaithful partner. That Gomer is a prostitute or promiscuous woman is not just a powerful metaphor. It’s likely a reference to the way in which the people of the Northern Kingdom had fallen into the worship of pagan deities, and participation in fertility rites.

Even though punishment is foretold (i.e. the invasion of the North by the Assyrians), God still stands by his people, as expressed in the words of hope that end chapter one and begin chapter two. And God isn’t oblivious to that very basic human need for offspring. Just look at the covenant with Abraham from Genesis 22, and alluded to in Hosea 10:10. 

“I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.” (Genesis 22:17)

I think we need to recognize that there is a profound difference in accepting God’s promises, that is, living in relationship with God through trust, rather than by trying to manipulate nature and its gods through fertility rites. (For an interesting meditation on this, check out the ORIGINAL film The Wicker Man -- NOT the REMAKE.) 

Is your own personal lived faith, and our shared faith, marked by trust and faithfulness? Or is it characterized by self-centredness and the ‘twisting of God’s arm?’ To get more specific, what about your ideas about the crucifixion? Faith and love, or basically a pagan sacrifice?

- Matthew Kieswetter