Not My People

And the Lord said, "Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not my people and I am not your God."  --Hosea 1:9

Last weekend I went to my nephew's wedding.  He is what some would call "special".  He has a way with words.  When he and I get together in the same room, puns run amok.  At one point in our hilarity (when no one else in the room was laughing), I said, "I love you, man.  You speak my language."  His new wife chimed in, mockingly saying, "He is my people."

Many times people want to distance themselves from others.  To keep from having guilt by association, they proclaim, "I am not one of them."  Said another way, "Those are not my people."  It may be used to distance oneself from one's in-laws or some other branch of the family.  It may be spoken in political terms, in opposition to a position the state or local government has taken.  An example might be a strong proponent of civil rights declaring that he or she will not be a party to discrimination, especially if they feel that laws or ordinances are discriminatory.  Nationally, one might voice his opposition during a protest rally by holding a sign saying, "Not My President."

In my last post I talked about a child of the king who was living in a town called Lo-debar, which we learned means "no pasture" or "no word."  By the mercy and grace of King David, this man was given a place at the king's table.  His land and fortune were restored.  He was not related to David, but he was treated like a prince.  The Hebrew word "Lo", meaning "no" or "not", is used two other times in the Old Testament.  Both of these uses are in the book of Hosea.

The back-story of Hosea is pretty amazing.  God directs Hosea to be a living object-lesson for His people.  As the book opens, God randomly commands Hosea to take a woman with a history of harlotry to be his wife.  "When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, "Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry; for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord." (Hosea 1:2)

The woman that God has picked out for his spokesman Hosea to have and to hold from this day forward was a woman who had not been faithful.  She had not been pure.  She had not kept herself a virgin for her future husband.  Most parents I know try to raise our daughters with these virtues.  By adhering to these morals, we hope that the man who eventually asks her to be his forever is also himself godly, virtuous, and moral.  Yet Hosea, a man of God who has kept the Law, is told to go out and find a loose woman, one who has not only given herself to others, but has accepted payment for it.  She has sold herself, yet is loved by none.  Hosea promises her no money, but instead gives her a family, a sense of belonging, and genuine love.

God wants us to know that He wants to offer Himself to us like that.  He knows that we have not kept ourselves away from other gods; He know we have sold out our virtue to idolatry and sin.  Yet He offers us His provision, His protection, and His perfect love.

As the story of Hosea and his family goes on, his family gets bigger.  His first son is born, and God says, "I want you to name him Jezreel."  Jezreel means "God will sow".  There is a fertile valley in Israel called Jezreel--much good food is grown there.  But there is also a warning to the people of Israel:  God may sow grain so His people will have food to eat; but He may also sow seeds of judgement.

Do you remember the song "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"?  Julia Ward Howe first published these words in The Atlantic in February, 1862, linking the judgment of the wicked at the end of the age (see Isaiah 63 and Revelation 19) with the American Civil War.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword
His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps,
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps:
His day is marching on.

I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal";
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,
Since God is marching on. 

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.

In the same way, God told Hosea to use his son Jezreel as a warning to the sons of Israel, that God could sow seeds of destruction if they did not turn back to Him.  Sadly, the people did not heed God's warning.  That is why when Hosea's daughter was born, they called her Lo-ruhamah.  "Then she conceived again and gave birth to a daughter.  And the Lord said to him, "Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel, that I would ever forgive them." (Hosea 1:6)

"Ruhamah" can mean to love deeply, have mercy, be compassionate, have tender affection, and to have compassion.  This pretty much describes the love of God.  Yet he told Hosea to put the "Lo" in front of it, meaning "not" or "without".  Since God saw no response to His offer of love, protection, prosperity and blessing, He exercised His right to withdraw the offer.

You may be thinking, "Wait!  That goes beyond what I believe about the nature of God.  Doesn't the Bible say that God is Love?  Isn't that love abundant and free to all?"  Yes, He is all that and more. But the Bible also says, "I Myself will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the Name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion (ruhamah) on whom I will show compassion." (Exodus 33:19).

Paul expounds on this in Romans chapter 9.  He says we cannot possibly accuse God of injustice.  At the same time, God demands that we love Him will heart, soul, mind and strength, and to some He gives that ability.  "So then it does not depend on the man who wills (to obey) or the man who runs (from obedience), but on God who has mercy." (Romans 9:16).  Paul reminds us that it was God who hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that He could demonstrate His power through the sons of Israel, that His name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.  "So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires."  (Romans 9:18)  Lest we shout, "Unfair!  God is completely unfair," Paul gives this answer:  "Who are you, O man, who answers back to God?  The thing molded will not say to the molder, 'Why did you make me like this,' will it?  Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?"

Going back to Hosea, God underscores His message to the people by giving another name to Hosea's third child, a son.  "And the Lord said, 'Name him Lo-Ammi, for you are not My people and I am not your God." (Hosea 1:9).  The Hebrew word "Ammi" can mean people, nation, members of one's people, compatriots, country-men, kinsmen or kindred.  God was telling the people through Hosea that you are none of those to Me.

He was essentially writing them out of the will, without pity.

At the time of Hosea's ministry, the people of Israel had five books in their sacred writings.  They called their Bible the Torah, or the Law.  If they had picked up the book of Deuteronomy and had read Moses' last words to the sons of Israel before he died, they would have remembered this covenant language:

Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.  All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the Lord your God:  Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.  Blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock.  Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.  Blessed shall you be when you go in and blessed shall you be when you go out.  The Lord shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways. --Deuteronomy 28:1-7

What was the commandment that they should follow?  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and will all your strength, and with all your mind.  And what would happen if they didn't keep their end of the bargain?  It is outlined in Deuteronomy 28:15-68.  Notice that the blessings seemed to be all-encompassing, but were summarized in 14 verses.  The curses, however, take some 53 verses to delineate.  Not only are there promises like "cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country", but all of the blessings will be reversed.  Not only that, but Moses foretold the diaspora, the scattering of the people throughout the nations.  He prophesied that they would be enslaved by their enemies.  He prophesied despair, underscored by nightmares so vivid that they would be afraid to sleep.  Finally God says through Moses that some might escape back to Egypt, where God had said they would never return. "And there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer." (Deuteronomy 28:68)

With this promise as background, God makes one more example of Hosea's family.  Hosea's wife Gomer leaves her husband and three kids, and goes back into the streets.  It doesn't work out for her, and she finds herself on the slave market.  This is not like the movie "Pretty Woman", where the prostitute has a say over whom she does business with and for how long.  Gomer was sold as a slave in the open market.  She now belonged to a man who treated her like cattle.  Her freedom was gone.  Her family was gone.  Her fortune, such as it was, was gone.

God directed Hosea to go and buy her back.  He was to pay the full price for her, and bring her back home.  He was not to shame her.  He was not to humiliate her.  He was to redeem her and restore her to her place as wife of the man of God, and as mother to her children.  This was a foreshadowing of the redemption that Jesus made for us for our sins.  He paid the full price, taking the full wrath of God in our place.  Paul says in Romans 9:25-26, "As He also says in Hosea, 'I will call those who were not My people "My people," and those who were not beloved "My beloved".  And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, "our are not My people," there they shall be called sons of the living God'."

Restoration is real.  It was available in the Mosaic law, as we see in Deuteronomy 30:

So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind in all nations where the Lord your God has banished  you, and you return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons, then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you....Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live. --Deuteronomy 30:1-3,6

Note that the mark of the covenant has changed.  No longer is it required that we have an outward sign of circumcision.  Instead, if we demonstrate true repentance and place our faith solely and completely in Him, then He will circumcise our hearts.  The source of our love will get a make-over, and the hard calloused shell will be cut away.

Please understand that I am not espousing a works-based salvation.  We can never love God enough in our own heart, never focus on God enough in our own mind, never do enough for God in our own strength for Him to accept us.  What I am saying is that I believe Scripture is clear:  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9) If we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, and believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead, we will be saved. (Romans 10:9).  However, I do not believe in Universalism.  The promise of blessing in John 3:16, "that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life," is nullified to those who will not believe.  Yes, grace is amazing.  Yes, God's love is far-reaching; but if you do not appropriate that grace into your life, if you do not accept his redemption, then you are under a curse.  You are unloved; you are not His people.

I saw a meme when I was preparing this essay that said this:  "Just because I am giving up on you doesn't mean I never loved you.  It just means I realized you never loved me."  Please don't harden your heart toward God.  I don't want for you to hear God say "I am giving up on you--not because I never loved you, but because you never loved me."