I’ve mentioned in previous postings that I think God has a great sense of humor…I imagine He gets a good chuckle out of people like me throwing out requests like that - because He knows that He is going to answer that prayer in a way I could have never imagined.
I actually prayed that prayer several times, and I meant it. And God answered my prayer! When our home flooded several years back in what was called a '500-year flood', we lost most of our material goods, but it drove us closer to each other and closer to Him than we had ever been, so prayer answered! I often wonder if I should have been more specific with my request, but honestly I don't regret what happened, because of the results (but I'm not saying I want our house to flood again)!
I wonder if the Old Testament Prophet Hosea said one of those open-ended prayers too? Maybe something like… “Oh Lord, please just speak to me and tell me what to do, and I will do it – I want to hear Your Voice!”
…and I wonder if he had wondered what he had just signed up for, when God actually answered his prayer?
Hosea 1:2
When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea:
“Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry
And the children of harlotry,
For the land has committed great harlotry
By departing from the Lord.”
In reading various translations, what it seems to me is basically God told Hosea something like, “go marry an unfaithful wife, who will have children by both you and by other men. Do this as a symbol for my people, who have been unfaithful to me.”
Anybody besides me think this wasn’t what Hosea was hoping to hear? Perhaps he even asked, “Um, do you mind just repeating that? I’m pretty sure I didn’t hear that right!”
And then, as if that wasn’t enough, God tells Hosea to give his children names that translate into things like “Have no mercy” and “Not mine”… can you imagine meeting these folks at a church picnic?
"Hi, I’m Hosea, and this is my wife Gomer the harlot, my daughter, Merciless, and the boy is Not Mine.”
They might not have been invited to very many parties…
Being an Old Testament prophet was tough… other prophets had to lay on their sides in the dirt for months at a time, get thrown into pits… it seems most of them went through some pretty rough times for their God, but I’m not sure if anyone had to shame themselves in the way Hosea did.
But, of course, God not only had a reason for asking this of His messenger, but later promised restoration – not just for Hosea and his family, but for all of Israel. Hosea 6:1-2 provides this beautiful word picture of a time in the future when Israel finally stops playing the harlot with other ‘gods’ and returns to the One True God:
“Come, and let us return to the Lord;
For He has torn, but He will heal us;
He has stricken, but He will bind us up.
After two days He will revive us;
On the third day He will raise us up,
That we may live in His sight.”
The overarching lesson I get from reading Hosea is that God will point out our sin – He will not ignore it. But if we return to Him in true repentance, nothing will keep Him from coming to find us and lifting us out of the mire that we’ve put ourselves in.
He will forget our harlotry with the small ‘gods’ of this world called things like “Self”, “Lust”, and “Pride”. And He will restore us, forgive us, and love us as only He can:
Hosea 11:4
I drew them with gentle cords,
With bands of love,
And I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck.
I stooped and fed them.