Read Hosea Chapter 1
Quit Pretending!
God speaks to Hosea the prophet and has him marry a prostitute who is unfaithful to Hosea, as a way of showing how Israel is unfaithful to the Lord. Together Hosea and his wife, Gomer, have a child and give birth to a son. God said to name him Jezreel for he is a sign of how God will punish Israel and end their kingdom.
Gomer has a second child, a daughter, but it never gives reference to being Hoses’s child which gives hint to the fact that the child is a child of unfaithfulness. For God said to give her the name Loruhamah meaning “compassion” because God will no longer show compassion for Israel because of their unfaithfulness.
Then Gomer gives birth to a third child, a son, and again gives no reference to being Hosea’s son. God says to give him the name Loammi meaning “my people” because God will declare to Israel ” you are not my people.”
Despite the fact that God rejects the unfaithful Israelites, he gives a message of Hope: he says a day will come when I will again call Israel my people and will bless them.
God calls it just the way he sees it. He doesn’t play “pretend.” Israel is being unfaithful to him and compares it to a prostitute being unfaithful to her husband. He doesn’t sugar coat the fact they are being unfaithful. We are either following the Lord or we are not. We may want to pretend we are followers of Christ because we call ourselves a “Christian” but God knows our inner heart and our motives. Just because we pretend to be followers of Christ doesn’t mean we are. It’s time to get real with God, because although he calls us “not his children” his arms are open wide and ready to receive us as his children. That’s always the hope we have with the Lord. He’s always willing to forgive and accept us again into his family.
Are you pretending? Let’s get real today.
