Today’s Scripture Reading (January
10, 2020): Hosea 1
Once upon a
time, there was a man who was walking along the side of a cliff. He marveled at
the view and all of the wonders that God had created. He could see the river
that brought water to the little picturesque town in the distance meander through
the valley, hundreds of feet below. The man admired the beauty of the cherry
blossoms the filled the orchard just on the other side of the river. He
breathed deeply of the crisp, clean air and watched as the sun began its slow
climb into the morning sky.
And then it
happened. The man stepped a little too close to the edge of the cliff. At
first, it was just a few stones that skittered out from under his feet. The man
scrambled to regain his balance, and he thought that he had, when the cliff
face gave way under his feet, and he began to slide over the edge. Just as the
man reached the cliff edge and as he started his freefall into the valley, the man
grabbed hold of a bush that was itself growing out of the face of the rock. For
the moment, the man had been saved.
But only for
the moment. The man quickly recognized that he had a two-fold problem. The
first was that while the bush had stopped his decline into the valley, he had
no way of changing his position. He was not strong enough to use the bush to
pull himself up with one arm and regain a footing on the top of the cliff face.
The second problem was that while the bush had stopped his fall, the bush
itself did not have a firm hold onto the wall of the cliff. Either he would
grow tired and lose his grip and fall, or the bush would lose its grip and
fall. Either way, there was a fall in the man’s immediate future.
Then the man
heard a voice. “I see you. You are okay. Just let go.”
The man
scrambled to see beneath his dangling feet. “What do you mean let go? I will
never survive the fall!”
The voice came
again. “You will survive. But you have to let go!”
The man swung a
little to the left. “I don’t see a ledge beneath my feet. Do you see something
that I don’t see?”
Once again, the
voice came from somewhere on the top of the cliff. “No. There is no ledge. But
I will catch you. And you will be okay.”
“How are you
going to catch me?”
“The ‘how’
doesn’t really matter, does it? All that matters is that I will catch you, and
you will be okay.”
“Who is this?”
The voice spoke
slowly. “And that doesn’t really matter either, does it? All that matters is
the knowledge that I will catch you!”
“Is this … God?”
“Yes. Now, let
go.”
“I don’t see
how I can survive the fall?”
The voice of
God came from the top of the cliff one more time. “You are right. You can’t
survive the fall. But that doesn’t matter, because I am going to catch you.”
The man
hesitated and then came with one more question. “Is there anyone else up there
I can talk to?”
It is how I
imagine that Hosea felt when he heard the words of God. There is a bit of debate
in the biblical community about whether Gomer was a promiscuous woman, or a
prostitute, before she became the wife of the prophet, or if this behavior
emerged later in the marriage. But that doesn’t change the truth of the passage.
Gomer was going to cheat on Hosea. The prophet was going to live a life that
would model Israel’s relationship with God.
What hits me is
the phrase “when the Lord began to speak through Hosea.” There doesn’t seem to be any
kind of a warm-up period. No “go to Nineveh and speak of my judgment over the
city” or “go tell the king that I am displeased with him.” Both of those things
seem a little more comfortable than the first words that emerge out of the
mouth of God. For Hosea, God begins with “go and marry a promiscuous woman.”
I think, if I was Hosea, my response
might have mirrored the reaction of the man on the cliff. “Is there anyone else
up there I can talk to?”
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading:
Hosea 2 & 3
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