Devotional on Hosea

2011 – Paris – Eiffel Tower

These preacher’s kids had it hard
Hosea 2: Rename your brothers “God’s Somebody.”
I’m not a preacher’s kid, but I raised one! Hopefully, my son doesn’t feel that growing up in a parsonage was all that bad. However, I’ve heard some horror stories from “PK’s.” I’ve concluded that while some of those stories are true, some are simply basic “growing up” stories that could be applied to just about any family. However, Hosea’s kids have some no-questions-asked horror stories. For one thing, their dad gives them strange names intended to preach a sermon. Two of the three, in particular, get terrible names: a daughter named “No-Mercy” and a son who gets the awful name of “Nobody.” I bet those kids needed therapy! Every time the girl is called it’s to be a sermon warning that unless the nation repents God will show them “no mercy.” When the boy is named it’s intended to declare that this “chosen people” is on the verge of being kicked out and becoming “nobody” in the sight of God. There’s a ray of sunshine near the end of the first chapter and continuing into the second. As a person might look across the hot and deadly desert to the distant cool mountains, Hosea looks down the road to a day of restoration. One thing he sees is a day for new names. When the discipline of God has done its work, children, and the whole nation, will be worthy of new names like “God’s Somebody” and “All Mercy.”
Take Away: I’m glad I live on the “all mercy” side of this story.

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