Sadly there are many stories on social media of fathers who discover that their children are not theirs. Even after many years they find out by chance that their DNA does not match. Is there anything more devastating?
Look at these verses.
“I will not show my love to her children, because they are the children of adultery. Their mother has been unfaithful and has conceived them in disgrace. She said, “I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.” Hosea 2:4-5
We don’t know whether Hosea knew all the time (though the prophecy starts with the assumption that these are his children) but certainly now after many years, the children are grown, he knows. Gomer has gone again. She has been unfaithful to their marriage vows. She has returned to prostitution and somehow Hosea has found out that the children he thought were his were a direct result of those early years of infidelity. “… they are the children of adultery”
Why does Hosea earlier plead with the children to stop their mother but then here (perhaps some time later) he condemns them?
Do you know those situations where the children side with the spouse who caused the trauma in the family and not the innocent spouse? Maybe his children were deceived and manipulated.
We can feel Hosea’s pain. Can we feel God’s?
God has watched His people claim to belong to Him and yet follow the gods of Baal and Asherah. This was blatant syncretism. They taught their children their ways.
What was happening is still taking place and even more so in 2023. So we see ‘Christian Church-goers’ holding the Bible in one hand with its orthodox beliefs and practices and in another hand they hold the gospel of the world which says God is love so do what you want. Is that what we teach our children now? Do they become part of our adulteress ways before God?
And that might not be you. But perhaps we can look at what we are truly passionate about? Is it Jesus? Or is it the things that surround Jesus? Our buildings and programmes, our numbers and finance and our popularity? Individually where do you put your total trust? In God alone? Or do you feel you need to fight for your rights?
Why did Gomer go after her lovers? It wasn’t for sex. It was for food, water, wool, linen, olive oil and drink. For sustenance, for clothing, for skin-care and for alcohol. Didn’t Hosea give her those things?
Why do we look to other provisions than continue to trust God for them? Are we really unlike Gomer?
Missions Paul 