Brokenness in Hosea
This past Thursday our community group discussed the second chapter of Hosea. It starts out with brokenness; within the first five verses we saw the consequences of Gomer’s unfaithfulness in marriage and her utter hopelessness, which reminded us of what Paul writes in Romans 1:24-35,28-32 as people were being given up to the sin they craved.
For myself and the rest of the group, we were completely blown away by verse 8. The ramifications of this verse aren’t completely apparent at first glance. But by reading it literally, we saw something nearly unbelievable. Gomer believed that her lovers were giving her good gifts, but in this verse we see that Hosea has actually given these gifts to her lovers for them to give to her! Nearly unanimously our group seemed to say, “What! Why?” This is definitely not something any of us would do to win back an unfaithful spouse. It seems that Hosea actually loves this woman and wasn’t married to her just out of obligation. He’s caring for her in the midst of her unfaithfulness so she doesn’t go without. This is a powerful, selfless love. In fact, we see that Hosea is being spurned as his gifts are being used in idol worship and without thought for him. This makes God’s love for us so much more real and gracious. He gives good gifts to those who hate him and would use the gifts to hurt others or worship themselves. Ultimately God allowed us to destroy the greatest gift, his only son.
The language begins to shift in verse 9 so that the focus seems to be on the relationship between Israel and God. The good gifts are taken away and Israel is made desolate and undesirable. But it’s at this low point in the “wilderness” that God begins speak tenderly to Israel and woo them back to himself. In fact the Valley of Achor (meaning “day of trouble”) becomes the “door of hope.” How does the day of trouble become hope for Israel? This is where the story gets even better. In Joshua chapter seven we learn that the Valley of Achor is named after the death and punishment of Achan for his sin during the conquest of the Promised Land, which cleansed the entire nation of Israel from that particular sin. This is strikingly similar to Christ who took on the ultimate trouble of the cross and God’s wrath to cleanse us from our sins. In this way the Day of Achor is a door of hope! There is one major difference between the two stories. The people of Israel and Achan suffered because of their sin, which means that they deserved their punishment. Christ on the other hand was sinless, yet was punished on our behalf even though we deserve to be punished for our sins.
The chapter started out with a the hopelessness of a broken marriage because of sin, but throughout the chapter we see the redeeming love of God providing hope and calling us back to himself. This Thursday we get into chapter three, which is one of the most exciting chapters in the entire Old Testament!
The community groups at our church are going through the book of Hosea every Wednesday (in Ewa) and Thursday (in Waikele/Kapolei). You’re welcome to join us any time.