{"id":7739,"date":"2016-07-15T00:05:03","date_gmt":"2016-07-15T07:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=7739"},"modified":"2016-07-14T10:31:03","modified_gmt":"2016-07-14T17:31:03","slug":"unfaithful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2016\/07\/15\/unfaithful\/","title":{"rendered":"Unfaithful"},"content":{"rendered":"

The LORD said, \u201cHosea, Israel has betrayed me like an unfaithful wife. Marry such a woman and have children by her.\u201d So I married Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and we had a son. <\/p>\n

Then the LORD said, \u201cHosea, name your son Jezreel, because I will soon punish the descendants of King Jehu of Israel for the murders he committed in Jezreel Valley. I will destroy his kingdom, and in Jezreel Valley I will break the power of Israel.\u201d <\/p>\n

Later, Gomer had a daughter, and the LORD said, \u201cName her Lo-Ruhamah, because I will no longer have mercy and forgive Israel. But I am the LORD God of Judah, and I will have mercy and save Judah by my own power\u2014not by wars and arrows or swords and cavalry.\u201d <\/p>\n

After Gomer had stopped nursing Lo-Ruhamah, she had another son. Then the LORD said, \u201cName him Lo-Ammi, because these people are not mine, and I am not their God.\u201d <\/p>\n

Someday it will be impossible to count the people of Israel, because there will be as many of them as there are grains of sand along the seashore. They are now called \u201cNot My People,\u201d but in the future they will be called \u201cChildren of the Living God.\u201d Israel and Judah will unite and choose one leader. Then they will take back their land, and this will be a great day for Jezreel. (Hosea 1:2-11)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The worst job in the world is to be God\u2019s prophet. In order to illustrate Israelite behavior, prophets became God\u2019s performance art. The Israelites had betrayed God and chased after other gods. Therefore, God had Hosea purposely find a woman who would behave toward him just as the Israelites had behaved toward God. In marrying Gomer, Hosea had no illusions about what he was getting himself into. And from the very first day, she continued to live and act like the prostitute she was.<\/p>\n

And the performance art extended to his children. The name Jezereel was given to his son as a symbol of God\u2019s displeasure with what Jehu had done. The name \u201cLo-Ruhamah\u201d means \u201cunloved\u201d while \u201cLo-Ammi\u201d means \u201cnot my people,\u201d standing for what Israel had become. <\/p>\n

After repentance and restoration, however, the Israelites would be \u201cas many as the grains of sand on the seashore.\u201d The phrase is hyperbole, not literal. It simply means that there will be a lot of them. Hosea\u2019s wife would one day become faithful to him, just as one day Israel would become faithful to God. Both Hosea and God get to have a happy ending.<\/p>\n

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The LORD said, \u201cHosea, Israel has betrayed me like an unfaithful wife. Marry such a woman and have children by her.\u201d So I married Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and we had a son. Then the LORD said, \u201cHosea, name … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7739"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7739"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7740,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7739\/revisions\/7740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}