Today, I am reading and commenting on  Hosea 1-7.

I always feel bad for Hosea’s first daughter and his second son.  Can you imagine growing up with the name “Not Loved” or “Not My People”?  The other thing that I wonder about when I read this passage is did Hosea KNOW that Gomer was a promiscuous woman when he married her?  Or, did he feel called by God to marry her and then discover her to be a promiscuous woman?  I do believe that God told Hosea to marry Gomer, but I wonder if, perhaps, Hosea did not know she would cheat on him until after they were married.  In any case, God used Gomer’s behavior to illustrate the problems which the people of Israel, both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms, had with remaining faithful to God.  Then God used Hosea taking Gomer back after she had left him to illustrate the way He would take His people back after they had left Him.  There is one last thing I want to write about today.  In verse one of chapter two, Hosea writes, “Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’”  I am not quite sure to whom Hosea is addressing that, but I am quite sure it references the name he gave his second son and first daughter, the ones he named, “Not My People” and “Not Loved.”  I believe that God is calling us to call people who are otherwise unloved “my loved one”, and to say to those who are outcast, “you are my people.”

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.