“There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the days she came up out of Egypt.”
~ Hosea 2:15
Hi James and Ellen,
How do you feel when you hear that a guy, gal or kid – who you know, did something that he or she should not have done? How do you think God feels when a guy, gal or kid – who He chose or who He elected to be one of His adopted kids before He created planet Earth, does something that he or she should not have done? Your grandpaa first of all believes that God knows everything that is going to happen before it happens. If guy, gal or kid – who you know, does something that he or she should not have done, your grandpaa believes that God in His divine way had predestined that the guy, gal or kid would do what looks like he or she should not have done. Your grandpaa also believes that God leaves the guy, gal or kid who does something that he or she should not have done feeling His displeasure. Why do you think that God preordained you to do things that you should not do? What is something that you know that you should not do but you do because God . . . do you think that it is okay for you to get angry, that it is okay for you not to do what your dad and/or ma asks you to do, that it is okay for you to say words that your dad and ma have told you are not nice words to say, that it is okay for you to lie and that it is okay for you to steal money? Do you think that it is okay for your ma – instead of just staying with your dad, stays with other guys?
Your grandpaa knows that as easy as it is for guys, gals and kids to know what is wrong for them to do; that it is also that hard for guys, gals and kids to keep from doing things that they know are wrong to do. Your grandpaa knows that you will always want to do what is right for you to do but . . . when those times happen when you do things that you know were not right for you to do, what do you hope will always happen? God chose the Israelite people group to be His specially chosen guys, gals and kids. God implanted a new belief paradigm into the Israelite people group’s guys and gals so that these guys and gals would only worship Him instead of worshipping wood, rock or metal idol gods. Because God cannot be seen while a wood, rock or metal idol god can be seen, the Israelite people group’s guys and gals would opt out of worshipping God and they would go back to worshipping things that they should not have been worshipping. Because God is an omnipotent God – meaning that God can do and is doing all things as He is all powerful, God could have kept His specially chosen guys and gals from opting to worship inanimate wood, rock or metal objects versus worshipping Him as a living, all knowing God. When a guy, gal or kid opts to do something that he or she should not do, the guy, gal or kid is conveying to other guys, gals and kids a will that he or she thinks allows him or her to be free to do or say whatever.
God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids who were a little over 2700 years ago living in Israel were on the verge of having an enemy nation – Assyria, overrun Israel’s land area, God ascribed Hosea to be His spokesman to His specially chosen guys and gals. God did not want Hosea to just speak for Him; God wanted Hosea’s life to act as an example for Him to the guys and gals who were living in Israel to show them how He was going be there to help them again one day. God told Hosea to marry a gal whose name was Gomer. Before Hosea married Gomer, Gomer was a prostitute. Three kids – two boys and one girl, were born to Gomer and Hosea. Even though Gomer had a very caring husband and three kids, God impressed on Gomer to go and stay with other guys as an adulterous. God’s objective here for His specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, was to have them see themselves as a Gomer. God wanted the Israelite people group’s guys and gals who worshipped wood, rock and metal idol gods to recognize that they were adulterers and adulteresses. Hosea 2 explains why God had Gomer leave her family and home. God used Gomer as a real life example of how His specially chosen guys and gals were being unfaithful to Him and what He was going to do to them. God was sending a message through Hosea to His specially chosen guys and gals that he was going to drive them off the land that He had given to them to always to have to live in as their very own land if . . . just like God drove Gomer away from the husband – who she could have been very blessed living with if she had decided that she no longer wanted to have anything more to do with other guys. Just as Gomer decided that she still wanted to be with and to stay with other guys besides Hosea, God’s specially chosen guys and gals decided they wanted to worship wood, rock and metal idol gods instead of just worshipping the one true living God. Do you think that Gomer was able to go back into her house after she left her house to have liaisons as a prostitute with guys? Do you think that God’s specially chosen guys and gals would ever be able to get back into the land that God . . . once God had Assyria’s army overrun the land that . . . verse 15 says, “There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the days she came up out of Egypt.” The real life example of Gomer was for God’s specially chosen guys and gals to see what God’s desire was for them. God’s specially chosen guys and gals can literally see through Gomer a God Who will never forget them – that what God really wants is for His specially chosen guys and gals to be reconciled with Him again. God will do whatever He knows that it will take for His specially chosen and elected guys, gals and kids to be reconciled with Him. God will still allow His specially chosen and elected guys, gals and kids to do things that they are not to do so that they will know what it is like to not to be in His grace but then after realizing their sin, to know what His mercy is like. If you want God to fill your lives with hope, don’t pull a Gomer.
Hosea 2 (235)