Picture Mercy

The book of Hosea shocks me every time. Hosea, was a prophet of God, and as a prophet of God, he was called to a difficult life. The very first time God spoke to him was to tell him to go marry “a wife of whoredom” (1:2) and father children with her. Hosea obeyed. He married Gomer, whose faithfulness he could never trust, and fathered children of whose legitimacy he could never be certain, all to paint a visible, flesh and blood picture for God’s unfaithful people.

And then there were the children. God commanded Hosea to name his first child, a son, Jezreel, as a reminder of the wickedness of the kings of Israel. His next baby, a girl, was to be named No Mercy, and his third child, another son, was to be named Not My People. As a mother of two children of my own, I can’t imagine making them live with names that represent God’s rejection.

We are never told what Jezreel, No Mercy, and Not My People were like. We don’t know if they were happy children, if they were gentle or funny or sweet, or if they were as miserable and God-forsaken as their names might suggest. All we know is that these children did not choose their names or their fate. They were conceived, born, and named for a singular purpose, to be flesh and blood signs to the faithless and rebellious kingdom of Israel. Whoever saw them, whoever heard their names called in the street, whoever knew they were the children of the prophet Hosea were receiving the message that God was sick of Israel’s unfaithfulness; that He was tired of their pursuit of worldly wealth, comfort, and political power; that His mercy was coming to an end; and that He would soon reject Israel if they did not repent.

I put myself in the shoes of Hosea, and in the shoes of his children. What is it like to be chosen by God not to live your own dreams, not to follow your own path, not to express your own unique personality? What is it like to have only one purpose - to be a living, breathing reminder of God’s holy character, of His hatred of sin, and of His faithful love for all those who turn from their sin and come to Him?

Then I remember the words of the apostle Paul, “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:19-20). I’m a Christian. I was bought with a price. God’s call on Hosea’s life shouldn’t shock me at all.

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Pet. 2:9-10).

As Christians, we have been given names: God’s People and Received Mercy. And we are called not to fulfill our worldly dreams, but to serve as flesh and blood pictures of Christ, in whom the words of Hosea find their fulfillment.