Remove the Names of the Baals
.
Hosea 2:14-23
14. "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. 15. And there I will give her her vineyards, and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. 16. "And in that day, says the Lord, you will call me, `My husband,' and no longer will you call me, `My Baal.' 17. For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be mentioned by name no more. 18. And I will make for you a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land; and I will make you lie down in safety. 19. And I will betroth you to me for ever; I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy. 20. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness; and you shall know the Lord. 21. "And in that day, says the Lord, I will answer the heavens and they shall answer the earth; 22. and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel; 23. and I will sow him for myself in the land. And I will have pity on Not pitied, and I will say to Not my people, `You are my people'; and he shall say `Thou art my God.'"
Hosea is a very short book –14 short chapters—but is so full of symbolism! And full of hope and renewed promises! To summarize the story up to this point: God tells Hosea to take an unfaithful wife (Gomer). Get the parallel? Gomer is Israel. They have a son together, then Gomer has a daughter, who she names Lo-Ruhamah, which here means “not pitied,” and the son she names Lo-Ammi, “not my people.” It is believed that both the daughter and second son have been fathered by someone other than Hosea. God tells Hosea to take back his adulterous wife and restore the loving relationship they had as newlyweds. He will make Gomer faithful and loving from the moment Hosea forgives her and offers again his love and trust to his wife.
O.K. So Gomer represents adulterous Israel. One more twist/sidebar: Each province or locality had a god referred to as Baal—this god was the god of fertile crops and farm animals. Worship of the Baals involved lascivious rites and human sacrifice. That pretty much brings us up to verse 14! Oh, one last play on words: the Hebrew word for Baal is translated “lord,” “possessor,” “husband.” God, through Hosea, is promising to forgive Israel’s idol worship (adultery) and restore the marriage of Himself with His bride (Israel).
Even through sin, rebellion, adultery, ritual murder—God remains with them and in them. Finally, He has enough and beseeches His beloved people to repent so that they may enjoy the blessings of His love and graciousness. He offers them bounty and the best of everything, if they will turn back to Him. Turn away from idols. Reject the gods of our own making, of our desires. Turn to God. He will restore us, renew us, refresh us. He will wipe the slate clean and make us pure and white as new-fallen snow.
God will restore the whole world to its proper alignment—sky will answer earth, God restores the earth when He renames her Jezreel, “God plants.” With the full explanation of the symbolism of the names of the key players, this book sounds so much like life today, doesn’t it!? We make gods of sports figures, of movie stars, of ourselves. We seek to satisfy our every desire and sacrifice anything to have what we want.
God wants to restore us to himself. He wants us to no longer merely serve him, but become his beloved. He offers us love and mercy and grace, not judgment and condemnation. He wants to restore us to Himself. It’s not easy to choose God over things of this world. We can see and touch and experience worldly things. God is not a physical thing. We must go deep within ourselves to find Him. That’s not easy with the fast-paced, loud, intrusive world we live in! It’s hard to hear the voice within, the urging of the Holy Spirit, the voice of God. We can’t touch the nail-pierced hands of Christ.
But God loves us anyway. I cannot imagine that kind of capacity for forgiveness. I cannot imagine that bounty of love. I cannot conceive of God’s grace—so underserved. God loves us anyway.
I hope you spend today abolishing the Baals in your life, and turning to God the father, His resurrected Son, and the Holy Spirit as you repent and run back to your beloved.
Mary
