Boy, Who's Yo Daddy?
Hosea 1:2-10 (NRSV) Hosea's Family
2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” 3 So he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
4 And the Lord said to him, “Name him Jezreel; for in a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. 5 On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.”
6 She conceived again and bore a daughter. Then the Lord said to him, “Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have pity on the house of Israel or forgive them. 7 But I will have pity on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God; I will not save them by bow, or by sword, or by war, or by horses, or by horsemen.”
8 When she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. 9 Then the Lord said, “Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not my people and I am not your God.”
10 Yet the number of the people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which can be neither measured nor numbered; and in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.”
+++ +++ +++
After Amos, here we go with another of the four so-called eighth century prophets of doom, Hosea. A northerner, a resident of Israel the northern kingdom, Hosea is called by God to prophesy in Israel against social and cultic evils, bringing the doomsday news that God has condemned Israel and is about to bring the nation down in desolating ruin. Our R-rated first reading for Sunday, July 28 lays out Hosea’s shocking family situation, God calling Hosea to marry a prostitute so as to symbolize the nation Israel’s unfaithfulness to God. The escalating names that God tells Hosea to give to the children of this union are both droll and prophetic. My favorite is the third child, a son who, poor little boy, is named “You Little Bastard.”
Sociologists today tell us that the horrendous names that some modern American parents are making up and tacking onto their innocent babies are a factor of destiny in how the child turns out, which is to say, as a criminal. I shouldn’t wonder if Loammi grew up the neighborhood terror, ultimately stoned for some terrible crime.
The good news in Hosea is in verse 1:10 which is the prophecy that God will eventually save Israel after all. Which may signify Hosea’s name, which means “salvation.”
TW+