Tuesday, December 9, 2014

HOSEA 1-4:

Hosea was a prophet in Israel around 710 B.C.  This was during the reign of Jeroboam II.  The first 4 chapters deal with both the adultery of Israel and its people and the adultery of Hosea's wife Gomer.  The intent seems to parallel the absolute rebellion of Gomer in adultery to the rebellion of Israel from God.  "...because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord."  Hosea is commanded by God to continue to seek after Gomer, to buy her back from her life as a prostitute and restore her as his wife.  "Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods...".  

3 JOHN: 

This letter is a personal one, written 90 A.D., sent to Gaius in rebuke of Diotrephes regarding his refusal to accept them as traveling teachers.  He commends Gaius for being a refuge for those that are traveling, loving them as brothers even though they are strangers. "Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers, even though they are strangers to you.  They have told the church about your love.  You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God." (5-6) He ends the letter telling him that he has far more to discuss but will wait to do it face to face.

JOURNAL:

The grace and love of God is overwhelming.  Hosea being instructed to buy back Gomer is beyond human capacity to love.  This kind of love only comes from God.  It is not romantic, it doesn't have nice background music as two separated lovers embrace.  It is heartbreaking and messy.  It is the same love demonstrated as Jesus is betrayed, abandoned, whipped, spit on, ridiculed and finally killed.  Homer paid money to buy back his wife.  Jesus paid with his life to buy us.

It is hard to read this...it is hard to face many things in life.  I find often that I want the fairy tale.  I want the ideal and tend to get discouraged when life doesn't look that way.  It is in reading of Homer and the lives of all the prophets that I realize that the fairy tale is something far different than what is played out on a disney movie.  Yet it is a fairy tale...Frederick Buechner says it well...

“It is a world of magic and mystery, of deep darkness and flickering starlight. It is a world where terrible things happen and wonderful things too. It is a world where goodness is pitted against evil, love against hate, order against chaos, in a great struggle where often it is hard to be sure who belongs to which side because appearances are endlessly deceptive. Yet for all its confusion and wildness, it is a world where the battle goes ultimately to the good, who live happily ever after, and where in the long run everybody, good and evil alike, becomes known by his true name....That is the fairy tale of the Gospel with, of course, one crucial difference from all other fairy tales, which is that the claim made for it is that it is true, that it not only happened once upon a time but has kept on happening ever since and is happening still.” 
― Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale

"God loves you! So do I! Make it a great day!"