Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the LORD said to Hosea, "Call her Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer show love to the house of Israel, that I should at all forgive them. 7 Yet I will show love to the house of Judah; and I will save them--not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but by the LORD their God." Hosea1:6-7
Hosea is a prophet to the Northern Kingdom, Israel. They have been unfaithful to the extreme. Violence and bloodshed (as seen symbolised by the first son, Jezreel) were the order of the day and rampant idolatry was their hallmark.
A bit of background: The Southern Kingdom Judah were more faithful. The NIV Study Bible reminds us that when the Northern Kingdom was finally defeated by the Assyrians in 721BC there were refugees who fled to Jerusalem enlarging the population and requiring an extension of the city walls and King Hezekiah carved an underground aqueduct out of solid rock to bring an ample water supply inside the city walls.
This aqueduct and Divine Intervention (See 2Kings 19) enabled Jerusalem to survive the siege of Sennacherib in 701BC.
Here in our passage, Gomer's second child is called "Unloved" (That's what Lo-Ruhamah means) whereas love and mercy is shown to Judah, and we are reminded that Judah was saved by God and not by military might.
It seems that reliance on horses was a big part of Israel's failure:
They believed in their military might and strategic alliances.
It was self-reliance to the point of self-destruction.
We often recoil at the "harshness" of the naming of Hosea's children - especially "Lo-Ruhama". But we need to recognise that it is sometimes our own self-reliance puts us out of the reach of God's love.
Are you too self-reliant? That's why worship is so important - it affirms that we are not God and that we need Him.
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
