Focus Chapters:
- Isaiah 12
- Isaiah 17
- 2 Chronicles 28:16-21
- 2 Kings 16:10-18
- 2 Chronicles 28:22-25
- 2 Kings 18:1-8
- 2 Chronicles 29:1-2
- 2 Kings 15:30-31
- 2 Kings 17:1-4
- Hosea 1
- Hosea 2:1-13
Standout Verse(s):
Hosea 1:2 NLT
When the Lord first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, “Go and marry a prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the Lord and worshiping other gods.”
Observation (s):
- Hosea’s marriage to a prostitution was used a real-life scenario that depicted how Israel stepped outside their covenant relationship with God.
When the Lord first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, “Go and marry a prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the Lord and worshiping other gods.”
Application:
Prostitution refers to using yourself or your abilities or beliefs in a way that does not deserve respect. In the movie Blue Streak, Miles’ response to his police partner, Carlson’s, request for him to share more about his life, like a marriage, is: “This is not a marriage. It is a one-night stand. Wham! Bam! Thank you ma’am”. Pleasurable for the moment but useless and worthless in the end. Prostitution, like one-night stands, is something that is looked down on in polite society and viewed through lens of disdain. Why then do we prostitute ourselves out to other gods and things by stepping outside our intimate relationship with God, for “Wham! Bam! Thank you, ma’am!” unfulfilling moments?
Hosea’s and Gomer’s marriage was utilized as a depiction of Israel straying from the intimacy of their relationship with God. Gomer’s profession was a prostitute. She was out in the world selling herself. However, when she got married, her culture dictated that she leave behind her profession and cleave to her husband, Hosea. Instead of doing this, Gomer chooses to continue on the prostitution path although she has a husband who loves and cares for her and she has no need to continue in her profession. She rejected the intimacy of her marriage and its benefits for the “Wham! Bam! Thank you, ma’am!” moments of her profession. Gomer’s profession became her god. However, her god came with consequences and soon she returns to Hosea with the fruits of those moments, children.
When we enter a covenant relationship with God, we are expected to leave behind things that are outside the covenant of that relationship. However, like Gomer, some of us want to have our cake and eat it. We keep and even acquire new gods and the fruits of these ties and bring them back to our relationship with God, for Him to handle.
What “Wham! Bam! Thank you, ma’am!” moments have you sold out your intimate relationship with God for? What fruits have they yielded? Was it worth it?
