God, Are You Serious?

This past week we began a Sunday school series in the Book of Hosea. You know the prophet that God told to marry a … ah, well, a … a prostitute. It really is a beautiful story of how the sovereign God continues to pursue His people even when we are promiscuous in our relationship with Him. Well, the truth is we prostitute ourselves by seeking to replace God as Lord and put ourselves in His place. This is spiritual adultery. But that is not the focus of what I want to communicate in these next several blogs.

The reality is that God often calls us to do what we would never imagine doing. This happens several times in the Bible and I will try to hit some of them over the next few weeks. However, let me focus on Hosea for a minute or two. Can you imagine what had to go through Hosea’s mind when God told him to marry “HER!!!???” No doubt, she was well known throughout the town, especially that side of town. Gomer (and lets lay aside our cultural connection to Gomer Pyle) was not the girl that momma would have wanted her son to bring home … no way, not in this lifetime.

But the truth is that God had a great plan for Hosea, Gomer and His people. Several times throughout the Bible God says, “I will be their God, and they will be my people.” (I Chronicles 17:22; Jeremiah 32:38; Ezekiel 11:20; II Corinthians 6:16; Hebrews 8:10; Revelation 21:3) Yet the second, yes the second, child Hosea and Gomer have God tells them to name him “Not My People.”

God called Hosea to do something so out of the ordinary that everyone would take notice. And God did not call him to do it once, but twice. After Gomer fell back into promiscuity and was bound in slavery, God told Hosea to go and buy her back and make her is wife AGAIN.

No doubt, in the middle of the circumstances that Hosea found himself in, he had questions. I can’t help but think that he looked up and said, “God, are You serious?” The truth is though, that whatever his questions might have been there is no hint in the Book of Hosea that he wavered in his obedience to God’s call and command.

Today we live in a world where following God is going to seem absolutely ridiculous. And no doubt, we will find ourselves scratching our heads saying, “God, are you serious?” The answer is yes, God is serious, He is eternally serious. God sought to redeem Israel through the message of Hosea’s life and God is seeking to redeem a people for Himself through our lives – II Corinthians 5:16-6:1. What God is calling you to may seem absurd, believe me I am experiencing it right now in the direction God is leading me and my family, but when you are certain of God’s direction and it matches His revealed Word and is confirmed by those you are praying with, then yes, God is serious, very serious, life and death serious, eternal life and eternal death serious.

I doubt God has called you to marry a “Gomer,” but He has called you to reach a community, your family, your co-workers, your neighbors. And He is likely calling you to take the Gospel message to them in a way that has never been done before. God called no prophet before or since to do what Hosea had to do, but he continues to call His people every day to reach a people for His glory and His kingdom. I know it sounds crazy, but Christians, God wants you, and you and I have to be obedient, even when we are asking, “God, are you serious?”