Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Hosea 3: In The Place Of God

Prophets are sometimes called to enactments where they stand in the very place of God.

So it is with these five verses of Hosea 3.  Hosea receives a commission to go and take for himself an adulteress wife.  He is to serve as a living metaphor before the nation, representing God in relationship to faithless Israel.  Just as Israel has "played the whore" and chased after false gods like the Baals, so, too, does Hosea's wife demonstrate what that kind of infidelity looks like in the flesh.

Fortunately, God is not calling Hosea to do this just to demonstrate his justice or anger; rather, the story is intended to end in hope as the prophet foresees: "Afterward the Israelites shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; they shall come in awe to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days" (vs. 5).

Is this a promise of Israel turning to the Lord in the final days?  Some modern-day prophets think so!

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