In Times of Unfaithfulness

Hosea 1:2-11

Pentecost 7, July 27 2025

Holy Trinity Cathedral

“In Times of Unfaithfulness”

In the midst of conflicts, always the ones with the least suffer the most.  While the powerful pursue their agendas and control the resources, who looks after the women and children?  So often they are not heard or protected from the ruthless politics, and policies, and military decisions of those in leadership.  While rulers claim the right, who reminds them of the mercy and love of God for the people? Prophets are the ones who are called not only to speak truth to power, but to demonstrate truth in action.  Along the way, they do some crazy and dangerous things. Unpopular moves.  Sometimes misunderstood or mocked.  Often leading to great personal cost or even death.  Hosea is one of the prophets from the Hebrew Scriptures that literally and metaphorically demonstrates his faith in the love of God.

Hosea’s central message delivered to the people of Israel is pretty straightforward: “I have been the Lord your God ever since the land of Egypt; you know no God but me and besides me there is no saviour” (Hosea 13:4).  But looking around at what was happening with the kingdom, no one seemed to be following the covenant anymore.  The succession of kings  in the northern kingdom of Israel had been overthrown by a military coup.  Now there is an alliance with Syria against the southern kingdom of Judah.  Shifting allies and unstable partnerships mean compromises.  Other idols are tolerated and foreign influences undermine Jewish practices and family life.  Men are conscripted for foreign campaigns and resources are directed away from villages to the state.  Israel as a people is like an wife that has gone after other men rather than staying faithful to husband, the Lord.  There are consequences for unfaithful spouses, and Hosea preaches that there will be consequences for Israel too.

And yet, the prophet does something extraordinary.  At the prompting of a message from the Lord, Hosea goes out and finds as a wife a woman who is described as promiscuous. The Hebrew is not clear-cut: she might have been divorced, or an unmarried women with lovers, she may have been someone that the neighbours had denounced for her behaviour, she might even have been a temple prostitute (although this is less likely given the word used).  Regardless, she was not a blushing virgin but someone with a sinful reputation.  The woman Gomer is symbolic of the people of Israel, who have abandoned God to whore after other nations.  But Hosea does not find Gomer in order to stone her or punish her as an example.  Instead, he takes her into his home and has children with her.  His prophetic act is to reclaim someone who was lost, to love the unlovable. 

But then there are the children, who must have had a rough time in school.  Dad isn’t finished with prophesying yet.  As they are born, Hosea gives them symbolic names. Just as the children of Israel continue to bear the consequences for their nation’s actions, so Hosea and Gomer’s children carry the blame and the shame of the ongoing apostasy.  The first-born is Jezreel- “God sows”.  God is sowing judgement on the bloodshed that the rulers of Israel are committing.  The next is a daughter called Lo-Ruhamah- “not pitied”.  What Israel is doing condemns a generation of children to conflict and ignorance of the mercy of the Lord.  Finally, there is a younger son called Lo-Ammi- “not my people”.  The plural is a declaration not that God rejects this child but collectively rejects Israel. Although they were chosen to be people of the covenant, they have broken the bonds of relationship.  Their names, heavy to bear, reflect the reality of a society that has wandered far from the path of righteousness.  By merely being present in their community, Gomer and the children are reminders to their neighbours of how God’s heart is broken by unfaithfulness.  Unfair of the children to be caught in the midst of the much deeper conflict.  But children always are.

At the same time, there is a proclamation of hope here.  Even though Gomer was once considered a loose woman, she is valued and protected in her relationship with her husband.  And the children, who could have been unclaimed and unloved by a father, are brought up to know love and mercy in their household.  Just so God’s love reaches out even to children who have broken his covenant, who have strayed far from his commandments.  Although they have been faithless to him, God continues to be faithful, for that is God’s nature.  He wants Israel to repent and return.  Hosea proclaims that that the people cannot rely on shifting allegiances or foreign powers.  They can only put their trust in the one true God, who loves them in spite of their wrongs.  Even the children are renamed: Lo-Ruhamah becomes “Mercy” and Lo-Ammi becomes “My People”.  Jezreel’s meaning shifts from the sowing of God’s punishment to the image of Israel’s seed being as numerous as the sand of the sea.  To fulfill this prophetic work, the children of Israel need to turn back to God’s word. To love as they are loved.

This is not a prophecy that plays out in a single act, or even a single generation.  People keep being unfaithful: to one another and to God.  The prophets keep reminding folk of the truth.  And the ones in power keep trying to shut down their voices and pursue their own goals.  The children of the prophets do their part, but it takes all of God’s love to persuade humanity to be faithful.  Even today, even after God sent his only Son Jesus to bring us all the good news of reconciliation and forgiveness, we still are grappling with leaders who claim power at the expense of mercy and compassion. 

In the land of the Holy One today are children and women who are exposed to the hatred, oppression, and arrogance of powers that are unfaithful to God’s way.  In our world still there is that wantonness that Hosea saw and spoke against.  In the Middle East, atrocities are committed in the name of one God by those who do not see God’s image reflected in the victims, or who dismiss the casualties, because in their view no one is truly innocent. There are voices both within and outside of the state that are speaking out.  Marches in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are calling for an end to the war in Gaza.  Conservative Hasidic Jews are resisting the draft to compulsory military service in the Israeli Defence Force.  Vigils of women hold signs with pictures of starving children and bags of flour to remind the world of the horrors unfolding behind barricaded borders.  Petitions from religious leaders plead for a complete cease-fire and an arms embargo.  What prophetic act is needed to convince the leaders that they have strayed from the commandments the nation professes?  Like the children of Hosea and Gomer, the children today wait for a word of hope.  How we live out our faith in action is a sign to this generation.

We have a part to play by not giving in to hatred or fear or despair.  We have a part in teaching the children and youth of our communities that there is a better way.  That we serve a God who is faithful and forgiving and merciful to us. And so we are called to be forgiving and merciful to others. Love is stronger than hate.  May God help us to name our brothers and sisters in suffering and to work for their restoration as beloved children of the one God.  Amen.