#90 “Great Intercessors of the Bible”
(Hosea – Concealed by the Lord)

“When the LORD began to speak through Hosea,
the LORD said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman
and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife
this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the LORD."
(Hosea 1:2)
The Message (MSG)

I’ve always found the story of Hosea the prophet an interesting one meanly; because, Hosea takes on a different level of intercession, that of physical identification with the objects of his intercession.  For the majority of us when we identify with those we are interceding with it is in spiritual form not physical. Although there are times in intercession you the intercessor will experience an intense sense of urgency or overwhelming sense of need during intercession. These feelings are often the spirit man picking up on the emotions of the person they are interceding for.  However, for Hosea, what he had to identify with for Israel he had to live out before them in the natural not in the spirit. “When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.”

The Lord wanted Hosea to show the people just what their actions were to Him, so Hosea was instructed to marry promiscuous women because the children of Israel were playing the harlot to other gods.

How many of us would have been able to endure such betrayal as being married to someone who perused many lovers. I know some may say they know just what he went through because they too have experienced the same thing.  Hosea at this point in the history of Israel was actually identifying with Christ in that he was taking on the shame of the people in an effort to show them the era of their ways. In order to do this Hosea had to become closely identified with them and marrying Gomer helped him to do that. “So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.” You see now Hosea was identifying with God because he would be married to a wife that would play the harlot just like Israel had with their worship of false gods. We want even discuss what the religious people of that day had to say about him and his choice of wives; however they never once realized that it was they who was playing the harlot not Hosea.

Now the Lord would began to name Hosea and Gomer’s children symbolicly to represent the spiritual condition of the children of Israel, “Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel.” “In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezrel.” God will punish and bring to an end” He wanted the people to know that their deeds would not go unpunished.  “Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to Hosea,

• “Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means “not loved”), for I will no longer show love to Israel that I should at all forgive them. Yet I will show love to Judah; and I will save them—not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but I, the Lord their God, will save them.” 

• " After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. Then the Lord said, “Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”

Even though the Lord was rejecting the children of Israel He said, “Yet will I show love to Judah” we as children of the Most High God can take comfort in this one thing…our God is a merciful and loving God. “Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’ The people of Judah and the people of Israel will come together; they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.”Gomer eventually left Hosea and went back to her life of promiscuity and Hosea was content to let her go, but God said no, go and get your wife, in fact you must buy her back.

The intercession of Hosea is one with a happy ending in spite of all of the heartache he had to endure. “The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”  So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you.” God wanted Israel to know that in spite of their adulterous ways, He had a plan and that was to buy them back out of slavery.  This passage actually goes far beyond the Israelites condition at that time. In fact it came all the way into the future where we were and redeemed us back too.  

This last passage brings up a very important point of intercession; always know that your intercession goes much further than the person you are interceding for at that moment. In fact your intercession reaches forward into the future to ever generation that person’s life touches. When my great Aunt Carrie Kendrick, prayed for her family, her prayer transcended time and space and found me; without even knowing it, her legacy of pray and intercession found me, as a result of her intercession. Now my life touches generations not just here in America but around the world because of Aunt Carries intercession.

God truly loves and cares for His people and continually shows them that he does…“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.  But the more they were called, the more they went away from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images. It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them.” So too God loves us with an everlasting love. Even though we don’t always follow Him as we should. Just as Hosea redeemed his wife so too God redeemed us from our bondage as well.

My Prayer: Father God, for gives us for not always following You as we should. We do not want to be like Gomer and the children of Israel, worshiping strange and false gods.  Thank You for Your redemption plan and for sending Your Son Jesus Christ to buy us back out of slavery, paying the ransom for our sins.  As we intercede for the lives you instruct us to pray for we now know that we will touch generations with our pray that will serve you with their whole hearts. Thank you Father for your love and mercy in Jesus’ name we pray…Amen!!!

Have A Bless Day…Go in God’s Peace!

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