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Series: Through the Bible in Eight Great Stories #5 Prophets' Message of Warning "Message Spoken, Message Lived"
Warnings from the Prophets Before we begin today, let’s get a timeline in mind: (Years BC, Before the time of Christ) 1250 Moses leads the slaves out of Egypt. 1210 Judges rule in Canaan 1020 Saul becomes first king 1005 David reigns and establishes a united kingdom. 961 Solomon reigns and builds the Temple 922 Kingdom is divided; Israel to the north, Judah to the south 722 Northern kingdom is conquered by the Assyrians 587 Southern kingdom of Judah is conquered by Babylonians Jerusalem and Temple are destroyed People carried off into exile
We discussed how the people of God continually forgot the promise, the covenant, that they would be the people of God. This is what eventually leads to the dispersion of the northern kingdom and the destruction and exile of the Judeans. In exile, far from the land of the promise, they began to ask “how had it all come to this?” And as they did, they began reconstruct their history and in their worship remember the powerful and mighty acts of God, and the rebellion and disobedience of God’s people. If they had only listened to those who warned them this would happen. Before it had come to all of this. God had sent prophets to warn them what would happen. Prophets such as Elijah, and Hosea and Isaiah, Amos and Jeremiah. They had come with a word from God. That’s what a prophet is after all. Not a fortune teller. Not a predictor of the future. But someone who comes to speak God’s word to the people. Prophets are faithful—as God is faithful. And none perhaps illustrates that faithfulness better than Hosea. Hosea was a prophet of God during the latter part of the reign of King Jeroboam II of Israel. Jeroboam’s 40 year reign was relatively stable and prosperous. But during this time, the Israelites became comfortable. Things were good. They were easy. And it was the common perception of the time that they would always be good and easy. After Jeroboam’s death, Israel found themselves to be a minor nation caught in a conflict between two super powers—Egypt and Assyria. Israel made alliances like a fickle Survivor contestant, first with this one and then with that, trying to keep from being swallowed by either. Though Jeroboam ruled over 40 years, the next 25 years saw six different kings on the throne. Four of the six were murdered by ambitious political enemies; the sixth was captured by the Assyrians and imprisoned. But Hosea steps into this conflicted and chaotic political arena and brings a word of God’s anguish at the unfaithfulness of Israel. Hosea calls Israel back from their various forms of idolatry and immorality, warning them about God’s judgment and the consequences of continuing in their behavior. But the real power of Hosea’s message is not in what he says. It is how it is lived out in his own home. Eugene Peterson tells us that “Hosea is the prophet of love, but not love as we imagine or fantasize it. He was a parable of God’s love for God’s people lived out as God revealed it and enacted it—a lived parable. It is an astonishing story: a prophet commanded to marry a common prostitute and have children with her. It is an even more astonishing message: God loves us just this way—goes after us at our worst, keeps after us until he gets us, and makes (authentic) lovers of men and women who know nothing of real love. “ The story of Hosea breaks your heart. Hosea takes Gomer, a prostitute for his wife at God’s command. Can you see her? Her hair perhaps a bit too bleached? Her mascara thick, her shiny lipstick drawn on with a heavy hand? This will be Hosea’s wife, for better or worse. His children with her must carry names that remind Hosea daily of God’s judgment. The first, Jezreel, reminding the people daily of the bloody massacre carried out by Jehu. The second, will be called “Lo-ruhamah” which means literally, “no mercy” for God will no longer have mercy on Israel. Hosea and Gomer’s third child is named “Lo-ammi,” which means “nobody”, for “you are not my people, and I am not your God.’ The promise, the covenant could not be in worse shape. Some suggest the prefix “lo” before the children’s names designate that they are not biologically Hosea’s children, but children born of other men. God compares God’s relationship with the unfaithful people of Israel to Hosea’s marriage to Gomer. Ultimately, God declares divorce, in Hosea 2:2, saying “Plead with your mother, plead—for she is not my wife and I am not her husband, that she put away her whoring from her face. But this will not be the last word. Gomer apparently leaves Hosea and her children, to return to her former lifestyle, and God commands Hosea to go and love his adulteress wife, to redeem her from her latest partner, and so Hosea goes and pays the price of a slave, in silver, grain and wine, and purchases his wife back—but it will not be the same as before. The relationship will not be one of obedience, not that of physical union between a man and his wife. Again, this parallels God’s relationship with Israel. Though the people of God have played the role of a flagrantly unfaithful lover, God longs to redeem them, to bring them back into a relationship. But the breech is too great. Throughout Hosea we hear God’s charges against the disobedient and unfaithful people. In the end of the book we find one final chance. “Return O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Say to God, ‘take away all my guilt.’ Assyria will not save us. As I mentioned earlier, Hosea’s prophecy comes just a short time before the Assyrians capture the king of Israel, and deport the people throughout Persia. Foreign people will be brought in to resettle Samaria and the kingdom to the north. And the judgment for Israel is complete. They are indeed no longer God’s people. They become “no people.” The “Lo-ammi” of the Middle East. Hosea is just one of the many voices calling out to both Israel to the north and Judah to the south to return to God, to once again re-claim the promise. The promise we have been following since God spoke to Abraham. The promise: “I will be your God, and you will be my people.” Sadly, the people do not listen. And as we learned, it ends with a small remnant of what was once the great and mighty kingdom David reigned over—a small remnant sitting in Babylonian exile. But the prophets brought more than warnings. They also brought messages of hope. God’s word to the people that they would one day return, that God would not abandon them completely. That out of the small remnant would come a shoot—a new beginning. A new tree of life for God’s people and the promise. As we come to the table today, we are reminded of God’s great act through his son Jesus Christ to make a way for all to become heirs of the promise. We haven’t gotten to that part of the story yet in our series, but it is the part of the story that most fully includes us—invites us to be the people of God. And so it is our custom on a regular basis, to draw to the table of our Lord, to be reconnected, re-membered, into the Holy Communion of God’s people. As we prepare to come to the table to eat and drink again the body and blood of our Savior, let us sing together the first 2 verses of “I Come with Joy.”
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