This entry will end up a permanent fixture on my blog at some point… Alan, sorry to go against your advice at keeping it short – I promise it’ll be the only one. The book of Hosea has been a rich well in my life – this little, obscure book helped put me back together when my life only existed as broken pieces. For those of you less familiar with the story, Hosea is the husband married to a harlot. [Love how the scriptures make graphic the state of our rebellion against God.] Actually, God commands Hosea to take for himself a wife of harlotry as a picture of how God’s people have played the harlot in their relationship to Him. Gomer is her name, and it might as well have been Mollie, as you will see that I join myself to other things than God for no better reasons than she did. In Ch 2 [I detest chapter assignments in scripture], there is a laundry list of things God plans to do to “her” – all of them justified for someone like Gomer who had turned away from her covenant relationship to pursue other lovers. However, following the list there is this amazing move of compassion (v14) Therefore, behold, I will allure her, Bring her into the wilderness And speak kindly to her. Then I will give her her vineyards from there, And the valley of Achor as a door of hope. And she will sing there as in the days of her youth, As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt. So the woman who pimps herself out to things that only take from her and cannot give – the woman who does this IN THE CONTEXT OF- INSIDE OF – FROM THE COMFORT OF a covenant relationship – God – moved with compassion says ” I will allure her, and speak kindly to her. ” UH – it moves me. Ever ask yourself why, when people are in such a wonderful, loving relationship with God is it so easy to treat it like trash? Why do I find it so easy to spit on grace? Well, in a nutshell, because very little in my formative past gives me the ability to know how to behave in a healthy relationship. Give me addictive behaviors, codependency, abuse, inmeshment… I can do that all day long. But come at me with unconditional love, warmth, compassion, a genuine desire for what’s best for me – and I come UNGLUED! [Not so much now, but certainly when I first encountered Hosea] So if I were to lay bets, I would say the reason Gomer kept going back to harlotry was because it is HARD to know how bad you are and have someone in your life DECLARE you loved and worthy by their words and actions. [Like my husband Bill does] door of hope… Do you know the story of the Valley of Achor? – If you don’t, look it up… Achan goes against God’s command and keeps some of the plunder of a recent victory hidden in his tent. When it finally comes to light, the judgement is that he and his whole family must die. The method is stoning, the location is the Valley of Achor. When I close my eyes, I am Gomer and Achan in one person. I am in the desert-like Valley of Achor and all around me, kind of up on the ledge of the valley are all of the people, stones in hand. And believe me – I deserve it. Not only am I depraved, but I am dirtied by the world/people I have lived through. So, I’m right there with them. Go ahead, stone me, get it over with… And then, He comes. Jesus shows up in the story. Don’t look for Him in person in the scriptures, but He is there in my interpretation. He enters the story and says in front of all those (you) people I will betroth mollie to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth mollie to Me in righteousness and in justice, In lovingkindness and in compassion, And I will betroth mollie to Me in faithfulness. Then she will know the LORD. All the rocks get put down and He walks me out of the Valley of Achor. He doesn’t just come and pull me out of there by the hair of my head/scruff of my neck… He betrothes me to himself in righteousness, justice, lovingkindness, compassion and faithfulness. UH – that’s GOOD STUFF! So that was me, that day when I read this passage for the first time. And now, forever linked to the place I was condemned to die, I see a door of hope – Jesus, the door of hope in the Valley of Achor. Clearly, I am not able to do it justice with my puny words. Even though I use so many!
