post 1

Soooo, this is kind of an awkward first blog post.  The topic at least is.  But, I can't stop reading this part of scripture these days.  It has a hold of me (and I even named the blog because of it!)

So.  Hosea 1.  Here we go.

When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea:

“Go, take to yourself a wife of unfaithfulness and have children of adultery,
for the land commits great unfaithfulness by forsaking the Lord.”  

So he went and took Gomer and she conceived
...and bore a daughter.
And the Lord said to him,
“Call her name No Mercy, 
for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel,
to forgive them at all."

Then Gomer conceived and bore a son. 
And the Lord said, “Call his name Not My People,
for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”

Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea,
which cannot be measured or numbered.
And in the place where it was said to them,
“You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.” 

 This passage is so intense.  I can't remember the last time I read something and realized how intense this situation was.  God instructs the adultress and her husband to name their daughter "No Mercy" and their son "Not My People." Yikes.  Jeez.  That is no joke.  But then He says they WILL become His people.  Someday they won't be children of sin, but children of the Living God.