Chapter One
An Unlikely Love Story
Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless
mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no
less than in the excitement and gladness: touch,
taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart
of it because in the last analysis all moments are
key moments, and life itself is grace. Frederick Buechner
* * *
I wouldn't mind looking like Julia Roberts. It's not
that I'm really unhappy with my own looks-though
I wouldn't mind having my pre-forty-year-old
metabolism back-and I don't have any aspirations
to be a contestant on Extreme Makeover. But
with her close-to-perfect figure and megawatt smile,
Julia always seems to get the good guy. At least
in the movies. And the film that probably best
showcases her appeal is Pretty Woman. That movie
launched her career as a superstar and was also one of the
highest-grossing romantic comedies in recent history.
Read Hosea 1-3 in the New Living Translation
or The Message and synopsize these chapters
in your own words.
If Hollywood optioned the rights to your life
story, what actress would you choose to play
yourself? Why?
You probably remember the story line: Julia
Roberts portrays a likable prostitute (she doesn't
really want to be a lady-of-the-evening-she just
doesn't have any other viable choices-but we're
led to believe that she still has a good heart and
certain values she wouldn't compromise!) opposite
handsome Richard Gere's extremely successful
businessman character. Theirs is a very unlikely
romance, which began when his curiosity and sheer
pragmatism intersected-he had never learned
how to drive a car with a manual transmission and
needed someone to drive his borrowed stick-shift
sports car. After a few hours in Julia's charming
presence, which did not include a stereotypical
fishnet-hose-and-bad-teeth prostitute persona,
Richard asks her to be his no-strings-attached date
for several weekend business functions.
Of course, within a short time they become smitten
with each other and go on to overcome her
profession, his fear of commitment, and the dismay
of his clued-in business associates. By the end of
the movie, they have fallen madly in love. It sounds
pretty far-fetched, doesn't it? Only Hollywood
could write a story where a gum-smacking prostitute
ends up with a good-looking, Ivy League-educated
millionaire, right? Well, not exactly. I
think Tinseltown borrowed the "very bad girl gets
very good guy" plot from an Old Testament book
called Hosea.
It's been said that all great stories include the
four main themes of Scripture: Creation, the
Depravity of mankind, Redemptive love, and
Death (or Heaven). Which one of your favorite
books or movies is a good example that
incorporates those themes?
Polygamy, Politics, and Pagans
Hosea kicks off a twelve-book section located at the
very end of the Old Testament, commonly called
the Minor Prophets. I used to think they were
called minor because the men who wrote them were
diminutive! But they're actually designated this
way because they're relatively short books, unlike
the longer prophetic books like Isaiah and Jeremiah.
Yet, in spite of their brevity-most are no
more than a few chapters in length-the Minor
Prophets are full of passion, intrigue, and unforgettable
images of God. And my favorite image of all
is found in Hosea, the first stop on our tour.
However, before we begin our trip, we need to
learn a few things about this divine district we'll be
visiting. Now, for those of you who tend to take
mental field trips during history lessons, I suggest
you grab some coffee and dark chocolate to help
you focus because the following information is the
key to enjoying the rest of the tour!
The twelve Minor Prophets were written over a
span of about four hundred years (from 835 BC
to 400 BC), after the reigns of David and Solomon.
And those four hundred years represent an
extremely tumultuous time in Israel's history.
They were in turmoil partly because of bad leadership.
After forty years of strong leadership, King
David died, leaving the keys to the throne to his
smart son, Solomon. But although Solomon's SAT
scores were at the top of the class, he
flunked the final exam of leadership.
Solomon was a brilliant, literary man (he wrote
most of Proverbs, and possibly some of the other
Wisdom books) with a bevy of beautiful wives from
other countries. In the beginning of his reign, he
followed in his father's wise footsteps. But then he
made the dumb decision to let his foreign wives
continue [practicing the idolatry they grew up with
instead of converting to faith in the one true God,
Jehovah. Furthermore, Solomon foolishly allowed
those same pagan wives to control the kids. So when
he died and the need for a successor arose, chaos
broke lose in the harem. His Jerry Springer version
of a family couldn't begin to agree on which of his
sons should become the next king of Israel.
Read 1 Timothy, 3:1-5 and 8-12. Why do you
think God included being a good father in the list
of qualifications for church leadership? What
parenting characteristics do you think best correlate
with effective leadership?
The infighting that followed Solomon's death
resulted in a vicious split in the kingdom of Israel.
The northern kingdom retained the name Israel, and
is sometimes also called Ephraim, which was the
name of Israel's largest tribe. The southern kingdom-now
called Judah-retained Jerusalem, the
beautiful "City of God," as its capital. The gist of this
split in God's family is that His people now warred
amongst themselves as often as they fought with
foreign nations.
Finally, the theocracy of Israel was in turmoil
because rather than trusting God to protect them,
they made alliances with former enemies like Assyria
in a dangerous game of political roulette. When they
aligned themselves with people they used to cross
swords with, they also swung the door to their
sanctuary wide open, allowing other religions to
waltz into their once monotheistic way of life.
Instead of being "one nation under God," Israel was
becoming a compromised spiritual smorgasbord.
Needless to say, they were in a heap of
trouble.
How would you compare Israel's inner turmoil
with the segregation and jealousy among Christian
denominations today? If you attend a church
that is affiliated with a specific denomination,
was there a unique issue or tradition that
attracted you to it in the first place?
Several notable Bible scholars assert that God's
prophets only spoke when Israel was in trouble,
that God normally communicated to His people
through kings and priests and He didn't use prophets
until things really got out of control. And things
were certainly out of control in Hosea's hometown,
spiritually speaking anyway.
Like Charles Dickens's opening line in A Tale of
Two Cities, it was "the best of times and the worst of
times" in Jerusalem. It was the best of times because the
national economy was thriving and Judah was experiencing
unprecedented favor with surrounding nations. But it was
the worst of times because God's chosen people were turning
their backs on Him. They were spending more time at the
mall than the synagogue. They were frolicking in their
newfound freedom and material excess and flinging loyalty
to God out the window. Hedonism replaced holiness. So God
chose Hosea-and Hosea's marriage-to express His
disapproval and to forecast the consequences of Israel's
actions.
Read Exodus 34:14-16; Deuteronomy 32:16;
and Isaiah 62:5. How does our "marriage" to
God differ from a human marital relationship?
In what ways are they similar?
Dating Diblaim's Daughter
While we know much about ancient world powers
and monks who made dating mistakes (no pun
intended), we know very little about this man
named Hosea. Based on the content of his prophecy,
we do know that it was written in the eighth century
BC, and that he preached during the reigns of four
successive kings of Judah (somewhere between 770 to
710 BC). We also know that Hosea's name literally
means salvation in Hebrew. But other than
that, all we know about him comes from the poignant
story God asked him to live and record.
Thus, in the absence of knowable details, I'm
going to use considerable creative license to
describe what Hosea might have been like.
Since he was a prophet, and therefore an all-around
good guy, I picture him wearing high-water pants,
a short-sleeved white shirt with a tie his grandmother
gave him for his bar mitzvah, old-fashioned black
leather oxfords, and Coke-bottle glasses. He was the
vice president of his high school math club and a
loyal member of the FPGCP-the Future Prophets of
God's Chosen People-club. Definitely not the type
of guy who cruised questionable watering holes looking
for chicks. Frankly, Hosea wasn't the type of guy who
had a girlfriend. He probably didn't even go to his
senior prom . he just stayed home and played
Nintendo.
So what God asked this nice guy to do next was
all the more surprising:
When the Lord first spoke through Hosea,
the Lord said to Hosea, "Go, take to yourself a wife
of whoredom and have children of whoredom,
for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking
the Lord." Hosea 1:2
The girl God told Hosea to marry had a social
life very different from his. While he'd never taken
a date to a Friday night football game, her phone
number was plastered all over the boys' locker room.
She was a quintessential party animal who'd been through
more boyfriends than Jennifer Lopez. And it was her bad
behavior that made her the perfect metaphor for God's
chosen people, because they had a pretty racy reputation
too. They'd betrayed the Creator of the universe by
indulging in meaningless flings with idols and numerous
affairs with false prophets. Faithfulness wasn't their forte.
It's amazing that Hosea doesn't question God in light
of His request. He doesn't protest, "Hey, wait a minute, God.
I don't like this idea! I don't want my marriage to be some
prophetic metaphor! I want to marry a nice girl, not some
tramp who's been with every guy in the neighborhood." Hosea
doesn't say anything. He simply obeys God:
So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of
Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
Hosea 1:3
Many people-including theologian and church father
John Calvin-have questioned why God would ask one of His
children to marry a woman He knew would commit adultery.
If you had to write a paper or engage in debate on this
subject, how would you justify God asking Hosea
to marry a "whore"?
When God asks me to do something difficult and I do
what He says, I typically expect a good return on my
investment. Especially if it cost me personal
inconvenience or emotional pain. For instance, recently
I was given too much change at a fast-food drive-through
window. When I realized I'd been mistakenly given change
based on twenty dollars instead of ten, I turned my car
around, parked, and went into the restaurant to give the
extra money back. I was in a big hurry and didn't really
have the time to go inside-that's why I was picking up fast food from a drive-through in the first place.
But I didn't want anyone to get in trouble when they came
up ten bucks short in the register at the end of the day,
plus God's pretty clear that honesty is important, even
when it comes to little things.
However, when I went inside that trashy taco joint
and briefly explained the situation to the cashier,
you would've thought I passed her a note that said,
"This is a stickup and I'm wearing men's underwear,"
because she seemed alarmed and kind of disgusted at
the same time. Then she sighed in exaggerated
exasperation and told me to wait because she was
going to have to get the assistant manager in order
to straighten things out. Things didn't go much better
with him, though. He told me that my actions weren't
covered in their training manual and he wasn't sure
how to put money back into the register without
some type of transaction. I explained that I "just
wanted to do the right thing" and he gave me the now
familiar "thief wearing boxers" look.
I ended up leaving the money on the counter and
walking out of the restaurant with several pairs of
eyes watching me warily. I didn't expect a parade or
a story in the local paper lauding my integrity, but
I didn't expect to be treated like a wacko either.
Sometimes doing the right thing doesn't get the
response you hope for. God doesn't promise an immediate or public blessing as a
result of our obedience.
Hosea found that out the hard way.
What's the most difficult thing you've sensed
God asking you to do recently?
(Continues.)
