Yowza!

I'm back and I read: Hosea 1-4

I think I complained about how hard it was to tell who is saying what in the book of Hosea, whether it's God speaking or Hosea himself, but I'm starting to get it down. God's quotes are in parentheses, Hosea's aren't.

Anyways, the second chapter of Hosea is pretty, well, YOWZA! God is telling Hosea all this stuff about how he is going to take his wife into court and divorce her, ruin all her lovely things, expose her for who she is, and all sorts of other not very nice stuff. I get the distinct impression that he's pissed.

But then you get to verse 14 and you get this, "And now, here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to start all over again. I'm taking her back out into the wilderness where we had our first date, and I'll court her. I'll give her bouquets of roses."

So, typically when there's a divorce between humans it's a pretty nasty affair and that's where things end for a marriage. Not God! He's pissed, oh is he pissed. But all of a sudden he turns the whole thing on his head and says, "I love you. Let's give it another shot."

Honestly, reading this I see now how Hosea is a prophet. Right up until verse 14 you have the Old Testament. But when God is ready to start dating again, it's a whole new relationship built on love rather than fear. That's where Christ comes in and this is a beautiful metaphor for how his sacrifice changes everything: "'At that time"--this is God's message still--"you'll address me, 'Dear husband!' Never again will you address me, 'My slave-master!'"

Makes you kinda glad you live when you do, huh? :P