Burdens

I was just reading Hosea 1—no in-depth study, just some quick research—and I was struck by how the L-rd did not ease him into the responsibilities of being a prophet. G-d didn't show up and say, "Hey, Hosea! How do you feel about maybe giving the people some messages from me? Yes? No? You don't even have to go preach to everyone right at the beginning; I'll just send you over to that little group of old people who can't hear too well anyway. Okay? Great. Now, I'm going to start you out with a small message, an easy thing...let's see...why don't you go tell them, 'Hi, this is the I AM, the L-rd your G-d, checking in. Hey, uh, you might want to stop fooling around with those idols over there...you are kinda married to Me, you know...but whatever; I really just wanted to say that I love you guys!'"

No. The L-rd is a tender and gentle guy, but He doesn't fool around, especially when His people are in major sin and rebellion. Here is Hosea's first command and first message from the L-rd: "When the L-rd began to speak by Hosea, the L-rd said to Hosea: 'Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry, for the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the L-rd.' So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son" (Hosea 1:2, emphasis added).

In essence He told Hosea, "You want to be a true prophet? Then you must understand My heart. You must know who I am so that you can cry out to the people from that intimate knowledge. My heart is breaking over Israel's unfaithfulness to Me. I am looking for someone to share My burdens, someone who will weep with me. So go and marry a prostitute, and let her bear your sons and daughters. You will understand how I view Israel as My wife and as my children; how I am provoked by her sin and how I still pursue her, even in her harlotry."

So many of us say, "I want to be a messenger. I want to be a preacher, a teacher, a pastor, a prophet." Yes, we may genuinely want to serve and aren't thinking about fame. Yes, Hosea was given power and authority on his words.

But do we really know what we are asking?