• Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
"The Word of Jehovah," poetry

"The Word of Jehovah," poetry

Paperback

General Poetry

ISBN13: 9798656251853
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Jun 23 2020
Pages: 78
Weight: 0.45
Height: 0.16 Width: 8.50 Depth: 11.00
Language: English
Revised Edition: LukivPress (Victoria, BC), 2022.

Introduction

Go, take to yourself a wife of fornication, Jehovah says to Hosea (who in 804 BCE begins his 59-year career as a prophet). He marries Gomer, and they have a son (Jezreel), but her next two children, apparently, are illegitimate: Lo-ruhamah (a daughter) and Lo-ammi (her second son). Why would Jehovah tell Hosea to marry such a woman? Do their marriage and her adultery prophetically describe a larger drama?

Yes, they do. Lo-ruhamah and Lo-ammi refer to Jehovah's eventually withdrawing mercy from the ten-tribe northern kingdom of Israel (referred to as Ephraim). They also refer to his eventual rejection of the nation for its spiritually adulterous choices.

Note, too, Jehovah's early forgiveness of Israel's apostasy from true worship and rejection of the Mosaic Law that prohibits murder, theft, fornication, and any form of false worship such as devotion to the Baals and calf idols (spiritual fornication) finds reflection in Hosea's taking back adulterous Gomer. But Jehovah's forgiveness would come to an end; he would allow Assyria to devastate, to conquer, Ephraim in 740 BCE, in line with Hosea's prophecy in chapter 13, verse 16: Samaria [referring to Israel (also called Ephraim)] will be held guilty, for she has rebelled against her God. By the sword they will fall, their children will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women will be ripped open. What a tragic end-the result of the Israelites' gross lack of appreciation for their heavenly father for over two centuries (997 to 740 BCE).

Why does Jehovah tell Hosea to marry a woman of fornication? One reason: as a warning to Israelites of the northern kingdom to abandon their apostate, rebellious, disobedient choices, and repentantly make better ones.

Do they listen?

An excerpt

9.

Upon a divan of thorns,

Also in

General Poetry