NIV Application Bible Podcast: Episode 16 (Hosea 16)

• Gosh, how many times have I stood on a rock given my attention and my affection to things other than God? And how many times have I sensed God through Jesus? Say, Lisa, come home. [Music] Hey y’all. Welcome back to the NIV Application Bible podcast. We’re at the beginning of a 12book session at the very end of the Old Testament I love.
• It’s called the minor prophets. I used to think they were called minor because they were little itty bitty guys who were like on keto or paleo. But that’s not the reason they’re called minor prophets. They’re called minor prophets because their prophecies are just shorter than long- winded prophets like Isaiah or Jeremiah.
• And the very first one of the minor prophets, he’s my favorite. His name is Hosea. and you just you can hardly believe his story. So I’m just going to read the highlights. The the beginning of Hosea starts like this. The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beer during the reigns of Usiah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam, son of Jehoash, king of Israel.
• When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her. For like an adulterous wife, this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord. Now, you got to stop here for just a second. Hosea is a good guy. He’s a prophet. Now, Israel is in a cray cray chapter of their history.
• They they’ve come into the promised land, and it’s almost like as soon as they got into Canaan, they just went nuts. And so, they’re running after all these other little G gods while the only true God is saying, “Come back to me. come back to me. And so he sends these prophets, Hosea being the first to say, I want y’all to return to me, and if you don’t, there’s going to be discipline.
• And with Hosea, God’s request is just, it’s pretty shocking. He says, “You’re going to marry a girl who’s going to break your heart.” As a matter of fact, her numbers all over the boy’s locker room. I’m taking the tiniest bit of liberty with Hebrew, but this is close. She is going to betray you. And what’s shocking is is right after God says that it says, “So he married Goomemer.
• ” Isn’t that amazing? That kind of just immediate obedience. I want to be more like Hosea when God tells me to do hard things. Sometimes I hesitate. Goomemer went immediately even though God had already told him she’s going to break your heart. So he married Goomemer, daughter of Dibbleum, and she conceived and bore him a son.
• Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call him Jezrael because I will soon punish the house of Jahoo for the massacre at Jezrael, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. In that day, I will break Israel’s bow in the valley of Jezrael.” Y’all, that sentence alone, goodness gracious, the picture it paints, you’ve got this really good guy.
• He He’s a prophet of Israel. So, if this were to happen in our context in modern culture, just imagine a guy who oh, like the good guy from your high school, you know, he’s president of the math club. He uh is is I don’t know, he’s a merit scholar, you know, but too shy maybe to ask a girl to prom.
• And then you’ve got the the girl who had the worst reputation in your high school. In my high school, of course, this was a hundred years ago while dinosaurs still roam the earth. Um, the bad girls in my high school hung out in the back of the skating rink because it was dark in the back of the skating rink in our little town and that’s where the bad girls went to make out with the even older bad guys who drove hoopty cars and listened to AC/DC.
• So, I know that’s kind of wild and it is not in the Bible. That’s in my imagination, but that’s kind of the picture I get. You’ve got this just penultimate good guy and you’ve got this this girl that at least everybody calls bad. You know, her numbers all over the boy’s locker room. And God says, “I want you to go and marry her.