Fear Of God // Stand In AweSample

Hosea & the Fear of God

I wonder if you’ve ever been asked to do something that doesn’t make any sense to you? It’s like you’ve only been given one piece of the puzzle, and you’re left hopeless, not knowing how it will all work out. Although when you look back you can see how all the pieces fitted together, in the moment it can be difficult to understand how it’s all going to work out. This is exactly what happened to Hosea!

The book of Hosea tells a powerful story, in which the prophet Hosea receives a word from God that he should marry a prostitute. Even though Hosea knows that this woman has a questionable background, and that he will be shamed in the society he lives in, he does what God asks and marries this woman. The story escalates further though, when this woman cheats on him after they get married. 

Yet again, God asks Hosea to take her back as his wife. After all that Hosea had gone through, he still goes after this woman, takes her back and commits himself to her. I can imagine how confused Hosea must have been; he knew that God himself was asking him to do something, but God’s request didn’t make any sense or line up with the reality he was in. He couldn’t see the big picture of what God was asking him to do, yet he stayed faithful and obeyed the voice of God.

To understand this story, we need to understand the way society worked at that time. It was completely dominated by honour and shame and there would have been nothing more shameful than what Hosea went through. Yet there's no mention of Hosea worrying about what people thought. He had a fear of God operating in his life long before this request was made of him, which worked as an antidote to the fear of man.

Hosea had a choice to make; to give into the fear of man or to embrace the fear of God. All of us will have times when we can choose to give into the fear of man, and for all of us this will look differently. But the challenge is to always remember who God is! The fear of man will only cause you to fall back, whereas fearing God will push you forward into all God has for you.