Hosea's One Message

 “The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the
reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel” Hosea 1:1, NIV

I've recently begun my devotions in the book of Hosea. After reading what is often referred to by commentators as the “superscript” (1:1) I was struck by the phrase that begins the verse - “The word of the LORD”.

It made me think of something Leif Peterson, Eugene H. Peterson's son, wrote in the Commemorative Edition of A Long Obedience in the Same Direction printed after his father's passing in 2018:

“When I was in high school I used to joke with my dad that he only had one sermon. And although it was a joke between us, I believed then, as I do now, that it is largely accurate. My dad had one message.”

So right at the beginning of this collection of sermons the editor – or Hosea himself – is telling us that all that we read over the next fourteen chapters is “the word of the LORD” that came to him during his 30-plus years of preaching. Its his “one message.”

Of course, we mostly remember him for the audacious thing he was asked to do. I prefer the Message version for its bluntness:

“Find a whore and marry her.
    Make this whore the mother of your children.
And here’s why: This whole country
    has become a whorehouse, unfaithful to me, God.” (1:2, The Message)

And later, when she went back to turning tricks again, he was commanded to go out and “buy her back” from whatever legal hole she had dug for herself. All of this and the words that would come out of a broken heart become Hosea's one message: God loves us always, he's faithful to us even when we are unfaithful to him and he pursues us relentlessly.

Over three decades Hosea ministered, preached, exhorted, and plead with the people of God to turn and return to their first love. During the course of his preaching he used similes and metaphors galore referring to Israel at different times as an adulterous wife, a stubborn heifer, a wild donkey, and a senseless dove, to name four. Nothing he said let alone did seemed to have an effect on their determination to live badly. And before he died scholars contend that he sought refuge in the southern kingdom of Judah as the northern kingdom came to an end by the ruthless hands of the Assyrians as its citizens were scattered to the winds.

Of course by that standard one could say that all the prophets of the Bible – both the “major” and the “minor” ones - ultimately failed in their calling to warn and, if possible, provoke Israel's wanton heart back into loving submission to her husband, Yahweh. For all their elocution, their fantastic use of language as well as the unusual and peculiar things they were tasked, at times, to do, the people still chose to reject the word of the Lord.

I, too, am now in my third decade of ministry. Since receiving the
call to serve The Refuge, six presidents have served our country – George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barak Obama, Donald Trump, Joe Biden and soon, Donald Trump for the second time. During that same period, America has fought over 20 of those years in the Middle East, has endured the crisis of 9/11, the banking crisis of 2008 and the pandemic of 2020. I don't know how later generations will judge my effectiveness – let alone the thousands of other servants of the Lord who have served during this same period of time. Will they say we failed to capture America's fleeting attention? Will they say we accommodated too much to the growing secular culture? Thirty-three years later is Chetek, Wisconsin better for my and my family living and serving here? Has the cause of God's kingdom been furthered because of my preaching and teaching here? Of course, I'd like to say yes but who can really say?

As I have kept tabs, over thirty-three years of ministry I have preached 1,136 Sunday morning messages from 63 of the 66 books of Scripture (I have yet to preach a single message from Obadiah, Micah and, as it happens, Hosea). That's a lot of words, a lot of times sitting at this same desk pounding out an outline that hopefully will rouse some sleepwalking disciples awake or persuade a prodigal to give it up and come back home. In the end what will they say of me? What will they say that my “one message” was?

For the last twenty years I have been a volunteer chaplain at the Barron County Jail and if that ministry has taught me anything is that I don't control outcomes. The ground is hard and many of the guys have fleeting moments of clarity that once on the street yield to old thought patterns and behaviors. But regardless of my audience be they “inside” or “outside” the same can occur: they hear the messages I preach and share, and watch my life and how I live it and at the end of the day still decide, “No thank you” and go the way they feel best.

Let me write something that all stewards of the Word know: faithfulness matters; loyalty matters; commitment matters. Hosea was faithful to the call God gave him crazy as it was. Even though the phrase had not been coined yet I think he would agree with what a later apostle wrote about his ministry: “I have finished my race.” I have long ago let go of the expectations I once had for my ministry here when I first began. It's all kind of fuzzy now but it had something to do with growing a big and influential ministry that would grab the attention of the world. Yeah. Ultimately, regardless of the outcome – fame or notoriety, distinction or disappointment - I pray to be just as faithful to the task as Hosea was until I preach my last message here and say Amen.