In the Message Remix Bible Eugene Peterson gives this introduction to the book of Hosea:
We live in world awash in love stories. Most of them are lies. They are not love stories at all – they are lust stories, sex-fantasy stories, domination stories. From the cradle we are fed on lies about love.
This would be bad enough if it only messed up human relationships – man and woman, parent and child, friend and friend – but it also messes up God-relationships. The huge, mountainous reality of all existence is that God is love, that God loves the world. Each single detail of the real world that we face and deal with day after day is permeated by this love.
But when our minds and imaginations are crippled with lies about love, we have a hard time understanding this fundamental ingredient of daily living, “love,” either as a noun or as a verb. And if the basic orienting phrase “God is love” is plastered over with cultural graffiti that obscure and deface the truth of the way the world is, we are not going to get very far in living well. We require true stories of love if we are to live truly.
Hosea is the prophet of love, but no love as we imagine or fantasize it. He was a parable of God’s love for his people lived out as God revealed and enacted it – a lived parable. It is an astonishing story: a prophet commanded to marry a common whore and have children with her. It is an even more astonishing message: God loves us in just this way – goes after us at our worst, keeps after us until he gets us, and makes lovers of men and women who know nothing of real love. Once we absorb this story and the words that flow from it, we will know God far more accurately. And we will be well on our way to being cured of all the sentimentalized and neurotic distortions of love that incapacitates us from dealing with the God who loves us and loving the neighbors who don’t love us.
As I started reading Hosea it did not take long to notice that Israel (God’s people) had really got themselves into a mess. They had essential told God we have found something better. I continued read and began to compare myself to Israel and in the beginning thought I am not like that. However around chapter 5 the words of Hosea really hit me. Hosea writes in 5:4 ‘They couldn’t turn to God if they wanted to. Their evil life is a bad habit. Every breath they take is a whore’s breath. They wouldn’t recognize God if they saw me.” Also in verse 6and 7 he writes, “When they decide to get their lives together and go off looking for God once again, They’ll find it’s too late. I, God, will be long gone. They’ve played fast and loose with me for too long, filling the country with their bastard offspring.”
Man those are harsh words but it is the truth. I have sold myself or prostituted myself to so many other things. I am like Israel. I have found so many things in my life that offer so much more than God offers. When I find those things I no longer need God. He is useless to me because I can make it on my own or with whatever I have sold myself to. I will go as far as I can and as long as I can until it is of no use and then find something else. The cycle repeats itself until the inevitable happens. I hit rock bottom. Hosea writes in 5:14, “Then I’ll (God) go back to where I came from until they come to their senses. When they finally hit rock bottom, maybe they’ll come looking for me.”
If this is you like it is me so many times in my life you do not need to wait to hit rock bottom. I do not really understand why in our mind this is the best way to live, but in the moment nothing could seem more right. But do not despair there is hope. Eugene Peterson wrote in his introduction to Hosea,” God loves us in just this way – goes after us at our worst, keeps after us until he gets us, and makes lovers of men and women who know nothing of real love.
In trying to keep this thing from being extremely long I will continue this blog tomorrow. I will look at what Hosea writes in Chapter 14 and the hope that this real love offers.
All biblical text comes from the Message Remix Bible
