Punish - Pity - People

. . . it shall be said to them, "Children of the living God." 

 - From Hosea 1

Hosea had a decidedly anguished life. As a prophet, it seems, the nature of his prophesying seems to have been, to conduct his life so that he might experience, in parallel, what God had been dealing with, for generations, via the infidelities of His people Israel. 

The passage seems wrought with inconsistencies. Is God done with Israel, once and for all? Or what does it mean, though, that Judah will retain some favor in God's eyes?

Hosea's three eldest children received names with bitter meanings. One of the child's names represents God's punishment. The next represents God's withholding of pity, from Israel. And the third bears the message of "You are no longer God's people."

Somehow, those three kids got through life, with such names that may cast them as pariahs. Every time you said one of their names, you were reminded of God's horrible judgments upon His own chosen people.

But there's an interesting twist at the end - which is often the case when it comes to God ("but God . . . "). 

The people that had been pronounced no longer God's "people," are now called "Children of the Living God." Somehow . . . God is going to remain true to all of His pronouncements and dictates. He will not fail in a single iota of His assertions.

He gets around all of it, by converting what were once His possessions . . . His PEOPLE . . . into His family . . . His CHILDREN. 

And now we see how Hosea, with a wife and children that bring him such constant grief, can love them anyway, can love them as God does: They are his kids! 

And in thinking about other religions and how they may talk about being members of a nation, or a people, always remember: While they are a people, or a nation . . . we are a family.