07.05.12
Hosea 2.2 2 “Contend with your mother, contend, for she is
not my wife, and I am not her husband..." NASB
Here we are in the USA on the day after Independence Day –
our national day of remembrance for breaking from the tyranny of George the
Third. On July Fourth, 1776 our forefathers sent king George of England notice
(via the Declaration of Independence) that they were no longer going to accept his rule, and a war of
revolution soon followed. King George didn’t go down without a fight; he
contended (in that war) to keep his colonies and subject them to his rule.
Hosea was instructed by God to marry a prostitute and have
children by her. Hosea’s actions were to be a picture to the nation of Israel
of the adulterous ways they had treated God by their independence from Him.
Israel had decided that God was not their God (or at least He was not their only God). And like a prostitute uses
her own body to provide for herself, Israel had decided to use their own
wherewithal to live among the neighboring nations; they decided they didn’t
need God. The sad part is they used what God had given them to further their
own agenda without Him.
Hosea’s marriage to Gomer (the prostitute) was a picture of
a declaration of dependence to God. If Gomer needed anyone to get her out of
her cycle of depravity and degradation, it was a husband; and Hosea was the
one. If Israel needed anyone to contend for them among their neighboring
nations and keep them safe and prosperous: it was God.
On the heels of Independence Day, we ought to have
Dependence Day; we ought to have a national declaration of dependence upon God.
Israel sure needed such a day; we need one too. God loves people, He loves
mankind or He wouldn’t have created us – all He ever does or will do is in
love. In love God commanded Hosea to marry Gomer with all of the social stigma
that would attend such a marriage. In love God called Israel to love Him in
return and to remain faithful to Him depending on Him to care and provide for
all of their needs. In love God calls us to that same dependence in our modern
lives to care and provide for us. All we need do in return is remain faithful
to Him… God contends with us to that end.
God probably had to do some contending with Hosea in the
first place to get him to see the purpose in marrying Gomer. God had some
contending to do with Israel to remind them of His faithfulness to care for
them in the midst of their national enemies. And God contends with us day after
day after day to remind us of His provision in all things, His presence in all
things, and His love for us in all things. Like God’s call on Israel in Hosea
2, so is God’s call on our lives as believers “…to contend for the faith that
was once for all delivered to the saints…” (Jude 3).
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