# Hosea



## FormerSelf

I don't know if anyone has ever read the book Hosea in the Bible, Torah, Tanakh...whatever you call it. It is about a prophet who God tells to go marry a wayward woman. Hosea, is like whaaaaat?, but God says man, I got something to say about my peeps, and I'm am going to use the hell you are going through to be an example for the people. So Hosea marries her, and she starts breaking his heart...and then God is like...alright use that to talk to my people of how it is like when my people walk out on me, chasing after affairs with other gods, money, and stuff! You let them know, cos stuff is going to go down because of it.
I've thought of this story a lot because of what I went/going through. Each time his wife came back, Hosea let her come back...which also reminds me of the parable of the prodigal son...where kid says, yo dad, gimme what you are going to pay me when you plan on dying, cos I am out. Father says, here, take it. Could you imagine someone doing that...saying that to your parents? So he parties, lives it up, blows all his inheritance money..and years later says, man I messed up...I wanna come back home...but I know I blew it. I'll just sneak in by getting some lame-ass job...and sleep in the pig pen...that's what I deserve after all of this. BUt when he shows up, his dad runs to him, looking like a fool, so happy that his son is back...and the things he gives his son symbolically represents full restoration and authority. Thats what we are to God when we come back to Him...but how should we be toward a wayward spouse? LOVE IS A RISK. And God risks that with us everyday...but always takes us back. This is what I stood by all these years...to always be forgiving to work things out. BUt lately i have been remarking, that I am not Hosea. I told God that if you want this to reconcile then you have to do something with my heart, cos I am done.
My wife had a dream the night (two weeks ago) she said that her mind was made up, she is divorcing me. We tried intensively to talk and work things out, setting up lots of goals to follow through...but she just couldn't do this anymore. So she dreams that night that her wedding ring broke in half. I tell her, "Well I agree...cos you know each time you have done this, I have always fought for us, believed things could be better if we both invested fully, but this last time, I felt something broke...like a piece of metal bent back and forth too many times. It's in God's hands now."
But I wouldn't lie to you if I still didn't feel some ambivalence about it...having so wanting to align my life to biblical examples like how God will always take us back...and how Hosea always took his wife back. But I am not God...I am not Hosea...and even though I felt I have followed the examples...of always seeking reconciliation...I can't tell you how relieved I am that she will be out of my life! I know a lot of you will be like, "DUH!!" but really this is such a huge paradigm shift for me...just saying "I'm done." and not planning to ever take her back if/when she screws up her life. Still I know that God will take her back...he can restore her...and that's what I've been saying to God..."She's ALL YOURS"...but I know God has this serious sense of humor, bathed in irony. Still, I have to admit I a m not healthy...I have issues of codependency...and I can't let that be intertwined in my spirituality, muddling up my mission. *So if I take her back, it will be because God wills it and changes my heart...and not because I am powerless to say no to her.*


----------



## FormerSelf

I guess now that I think about it, I don't think I will ever let her back in. I am reminded of my cousin who is divorced to a woman who developed schizophrenia...he is remarried, and he and his new wife still look after his ex..and I think that is pretty cool.
If she calls all broken and beaten up, saying I made a mistake...she will never be restored to as my wife. That is my decision. However, one day i hope to walk in complete forgiveness and not holding onto bitterness...making room for new people in my life who will love and support wholeheartedly.


----------



## Runs like Dog

Haftorah Bamidbar (Hosea 2:1-22) was last week's portion. The parshat concerns a national census - not really all that enthralling but somewhat allegorical while noting the practical necessity of such. But the haftorah seems to veer off in a completely different direction

Hosea
Chapter 2
1. And the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which shall neither be measured nor counted; and it shall come to pass that, instead of saying to them, "You are not My people," it shall be said to them, "The children of the living God."
2. And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head, and they shall go up from the land, for great is the day of Jezreel.
3. Say to your brethren, "Ammi," and to your sisters, "Ruhamah."
4. Strive with your mother, strive, for she is not My wife, and I am not her Husband, and let her remove her harlotries from her face and her adulteries from between her breasts.
5. Lest I strip her naked and leave her as [on] the day she was born; and I make her like a desert, and I set her like an arid land, and cause her to die of thirst.
6. And I will not pity her children for they are children of harlotries.
7. For their mother played the harlot; she who conceived them behaved shamefully, for she said, "I will go after my lovers, those who give my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drinks. "
8. Therefore, behold I will close off your way with thorns, and I make a fence against her, and she shall not find her paths.
9. And she shall pursue her lovers and not overtake them, and she shall seek them and not find them; and she shall say, "I will go and return to my first Husband, for it was better for me then than now.
10. But she did not know that I gave her the corn, the wine, and the oil, and I gave her much silver and gold, but they made it for Baal.
11. Therefore, I will return and take My corn in its time and My wine in its appointed season, and I will separate My wool and My flax, to cover her nakedness.
12. And now, I will bare her disgrace before the eyes of her lovers, and no man shall save her from My hand.
13. And I will terminate all her rejoicing, her festival, her new moon, and her Sabbath, and all her appointed seasons.
14. And I will lay waste her vine and her fig tree, [concerning] which she said, "They are my hire, which my lovers have given me," and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour them.
15. And I will visit upon her the days of the baalim, to whom she burnt incense, and she adorned herself with her earrings and her jewelry, and went after her lovers, and she forgot Me, says the Lord.
16. Therefore, behold I will allure her and lead her into the desert, and I will speak comfortingly to her heart.
17. And I will give her her vineyards from there and the depth of trouble for a door of hope, and she shall dwell there as in the days of her youth, and as the day of her ascent from the land of Egypt.
18. And it shall come to pass on that day, says the Lord, you shall call [Me] Ishi, and you shall no longer call Me Baali.
19. And I will remove the names of the baalim from her mouth, and they shall no longer be mentioned by their name.
20. And I will make a covenant for them on that day with the beasts of the field and with the fowl of the sky and the creeping things of the earth; and the bow, the sword, and war I will break off the earth, and I will let them lie down safely.
21. And I will betroth you to Me forever, and I will betroth you to Me with righteousness and with justice and with loving-kindness and with mercy.
22. And I will betroth you to Me with faith, and you shall know the Lord.


So what do you think about 16-22? What does it tell you?


----------



## FormerSelf

Well to me, the text talks about the Lord's intentions to enrich his covenant with his people...where it is more than just an authority-based relationship, but one of intimacy...and eternal betrothal like unto marriage. God shall marry His people...regardless of how he had brought punishment upon them like he had disowned them.

That is what I get out of it...but in terms of personal applicability...it is hard to say at least in terms of my marriage. I know that it is important to not compartmentalize our spiritual walk with our lives...so I don't want to close myself off to how I can be more like God. I just hoped our past circumstances would have led to the scenario as what the Lord is speaking through Hosea...that a covenant is a covenant..and God will NEVER go back on His promises...more so to the point that he is willing to take His people through tough circumstances. 

In Christian tradition, in marriage, the minister will almost always compare the wedding and joining of the rings as a symbol of the union between Jesus Christ and His Church, God and His people...and that we honor Him in maintaining that covenant, but also express his undying commitment to the world by the way they see us commit to one another. I AM SO THERE! This is why it just is so devastating for me...how important it was for me to see this to the end. But I have to say I've lost hope for marital reconciliation...we have gone through this..it had turned around before, but instead of enrichment and a deeper intimacy...we are 90 days from being divorced. At the same time...my wife I feel is on her own path...and I do hope she eventually finds reconciliation with God...whichever desert he leads her through.


----------



## Mr Blunt

To Formerself
In contrast to Hosea, God authorized the killing of His people when they worshiped the golden calf (Exodus chapter 32). In addition in Matthew 19 Jesus states that divorce is allowed for sexual immorality. God can do what He wants and it is right.

My thoughts on Formerself and the bible:

We are to strive to be like God but will never get there. That is not an excuse to quite trying. In my understanding God demonstrates His nature with many stories including Hosea. *A few of God's nature’s attributes are justice, mercy, grace, and forgiveness.*

With *Justice* alone your wife should be divorced assuming she has committed sexual immorality. She will have to live with the consequences of her actions.

With *mercy*, you do not have to give her the full justice, you can lighten the consequences

With *grace* you will take her back and restore her if she desires.

*Forgiveness* can be applied to all three above but forgiveness does not have to include mercy or grace. True forgiveness eliminates bitterness and resentments

*The thief on the cross was forgiven but he had to live with the justice of his consequences.* They killed the thief after Christ told him that he would be with Him in paradise


Just my interpretation of the Bible and my life experiences


----------



## FormerSelf

Mr Blunt said:


> Just my interpretation of the Bible and my life experiences


Good thoughts. Gave me a lot to think about.


----------

