“NO! NO! NO!”

A series on the book of Hosea
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Hosea 1:1-11 

[The story about Hosea is a story about the relentless love of God. Hosea was a prophet who spoke out against the idolatry of the Israelites as they pursued the pagan gods of Baal and Asherah. His life became an allegory about the unfaithfulness of Israel and the relentless love of God.]

  

In the movie “Fiddler on the Roof”, Tevye has three older daughters who, contrary to tradition, decide for themselves who they will marry. With the first two, he is able to accept the marriage because they’re within the faith. Not so with the third.

 

She decides to marry a Russian who is completely outside of the Jewish faith. There’s a heartbreaking scene where Chava, the youngest of the three, approaches her father asking him to reason with her.

 

Tevye goes through the same thought process that he did with his first two daughters. But, in a painful climactic outburst, he yells, “NO! NO! NO!” Then, without saying a word to Chava, he turns his back on her and walks away. As far as Tevye is concerned, Chava is unfaithful and is dead to the family.

 

Hosea knows all too well what that feels like.

 

² When the Lord first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, “Go and marry a prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the Lord and worshiping other gods.”     NLT

 

Hosea knew firsthand what it was like to have an unfaithful wife. Every time she stepped out of the door to go to the market, he would wonder. When he left the house to go to the synagogue, he would wonder. Anytime she was going to the well for water, he would wonder.

 

And when his wife was unfaithful, Hosea would have been heartbroken.  Each child that was born would have reopened the wound of Hosea’s heart. Even their names were a reminder, and would have made his heart ache more. This is exactly how the Lord felt when Israel was unfaithful.

 

Although there were consequences to Israel’s sin, ultimately the Lord loved her and desired a relationship with her. God is a God of mercy, grace and love.

 

¹⁰ “Yet the time will come when Israel’s people will be like the sands of the seashore—too many to count! Then, at the place where they were told, ‘You are not my people,’ it will be said, ‘You are children of the living God.’          NLT

 

Like Tevye, I can imagine the Lord struggling between His love for us and His hatred for our unfaithfulness. And, if it wasn’t for the sacrifice of His one and only Son, He would be compelled to tell us, “NO! NO! NO!”

 

But thankfully, like the Lord did for Israel, He provides for us to be the “children of the living God” as He relentlessly pursues us with His unconditional love.

 

Copyright 2023 Joseph B Williams

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