Part 2: Calling
Day 13: The calling of Hosea
Hosea 1:2-11
Often people in the West, including those of us who grew up in prosperous areas of the world like the U.S., expect that prospering is a birthright. We evaluate our actions and plans and surmise that if we follow a good plan and do the right things, everything will turn out well. We may even begin to assume this is God’s will. If we live in closeness to God and his call on our lives, all the metrics that measure satisfaction will go in our favor. We expect our kids to grow up healthy and to hold our world view. We imagine our careers turning out successful, and we especially expect happy marriages. When any of those things do not turn out well, many of us re-evaluate and try and figure out where we went wrong, where did we do something outside of God’s will.
In today’s reading we see that Hosea is in God’s will and God calls him to an unhappy marriage. He marries a prostitute who is unfaithful to him. In that marriage Hosea gives us a picture of how God feels when we commit spiritual adultery and run after other Gods. In fact, God is so committed to this metaphor that instead of God commanding hopeful names for Hosea’s kids he commands names of condemnation.
God may be calling you to something that seems less than prosperous. Whether he calls us to persevere in a hard job situation, to stick with children who are trying to walk away, or even an unhappy marriage. Faith in God does not always lead to material happiness, for many of our hero’s faith in God took them places they would not have chosen. John Calvin was asked to lead a particularly contentious city when all he wanted was to be an academic. Mother Teresa labored her whole life for the poor and was sad at the end of her life feeling that God abandoned her. Jim Elliot was killed on the mission field before getting the chance to see his kids grow up. None of these folks were in active disobedience to what God had called them to. Are you waiting out your disappointments hoping to be happy again or embrace them as a way of becoming Holy?
Prayer for times of suffering or weakness: Dear Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; I hold up all my weakness to your strength, my failure to your faithfulness, my sinfulness to your perfection, my loneliness to your compassion, my little pains to your great agony on the Cross. I pray that you will cleanse me, strengthen me, guide me, so that in all ways my life may be lived as you would have it lived, without cowardice and for you alone. Show me how to live in true humility, true contrition, and true love. Amen.
In today’s reading we see that Hosea is in God’s will and God calls him to an unhappy marriage. He marries a prostitute who is unfaithful to him. In that marriage Hosea gives us a picture of how God feels when we commit spiritual adultery and run after other Gods. In fact, God is so committed to this metaphor that instead of God commanding hopeful names for Hosea’s kids he commands names of condemnation.
God may be calling you to something that seems less than prosperous. Whether he calls us to persevere in a hard job situation, to stick with children who are trying to walk away, or even an unhappy marriage. Faith in God does not always lead to material happiness, for many of our hero’s faith in God took them places they would not have chosen. John Calvin was asked to lead a particularly contentious city when all he wanted was to be an academic. Mother Teresa labored her whole life for the poor and was sad at the end of her life feeling that God abandoned her. Jim Elliot was killed on the mission field before getting the chance to see his kids grow up. None of these folks were in active disobedience to what God had called them to. Are you waiting out your disappointments hoping to be happy again or embrace them as a way of becoming Holy?
- What is one of your greatest disappointments from your life? Is it recent or has it been with you for a while?
- Christ was the man of sorrows. Does it help to know that even God had sorrows?
- The Book of Hebrews reminds us that Jesus endured the cross to access “the joy set before Him.” Do you ever doubt that your hardships cultivate joy? Have you told that to God in prayer? Do you trust him with that admission?
- Hosea ends this section with an oracle of Hope. Reflect today on the things that are hopeful in the midst of your hardship. Does it change your feelings about that hardship?
Prayer for times of suffering or weakness: Dear Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; I hold up all my weakness to your strength, my failure to your faithfulness, my sinfulness to your perfection, my loneliness to your compassion, my little pains to your great agony on the Cross. I pray that you will cleanse me, strengthen me, guide me, so that in all ways my life may be lived as you would have it lived, without cowardice and for you alone. Show me how to live in true humility, true contrition, and true love. Amen.