What's a Man to Do?

Hosea 3:1-5

The LORD said to me again, “Go, love a woman who has a lover and is an adulteress, just as the LORD loves the people of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.” So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer of barley and a measure of wine. And I said to her, “You must remain as mine for many days; you shall not play the whore, you shall not have intercourse with a man, nor I with you.” For the Israelites shall remain many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or teraphim. Afterward the Israelites shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; they shall come in awe to the LORD and to his goodness in the latter days.

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Sunday morning when we go down to church
See the menfolk standin' in line
I said they come to pray to the Lord
With my little girl, looks so fine
In the evening when the sun is sinkin' low
Everybody's with the one they love
I walk the town, Keep a-searchin' all around
Lookin' for my street corner girl

I got a woman, wanna ball all day
I got a woman, she won't be true, no no
I got a woman, stay drunk all the time
I said I got a little woman and she won't be true

"Hey, Hey, What Can I Do?" by Led Zeppelin

There are some who think scripture is this clean, tidy, glorious, joyous work that shows the world the power and majesty of God. Well, except for clean and tidy, this is true. The book of Hosea is one of those times when scripture is anything but clean and tidy.

Hosea is a man, a simple man, a prophet, who is called by the Lord to "Go, take for yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom." You know Billy Graham never got this word from the Lord, and we should all thank God that we didn't either. Robert Plant singing "I got a little woman and she won't be true" takes on a whole new meaning in light of this scripture.

In our life, in our society, the man is a fool for taking such a woman into his bed. In the age of AIDS, and it's still the age of AIDS, it's suicidal. In the time of Hosea, it wasn't too good either. Imaging how a man could go broke if paying two weeks wages for his wife to bring her home.

Actually, given a six day work week, the fifteen shekels of silver would take between two and three weeks to earn and the homer of barley and measure of wine would cost more. There goes a month of wages and you don't know if the kids are yours until the Maury Show hits the airwaves thousands of years later.

So what's a man to do? There are two things. The first is tough enough, be obedient. The Lord tells Hosea to take this wife of ill repute. She won't be true, and you are called to take her into your bed. What could be tougher?

Well, there's this. The second is tougher, it is to do nothing. There is nothing Hosea can do to change the ways of his wife. Well, nothing he can do in an active way that is, not in the way "men of action" think of action.

In the end, these are too much for the man of the song and he leaves her where the guitars play.

In the end, in the truth of life, the work of redeeming the woman, and the work of redeeming Israel (which is the point of this Hosea), is only possible thorough the work of the Lord God. Hosea can do nothing but love her, show her true unconditional love; even in the light of her actions. This is the quandary of the Lord and the Lord's first love Israel, but while God will never force love upon the nation, the Lord will never leave either.

This is the reconciling work of the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The work of God in Jesus Christ is glorious and joyous. The work of God is ripe with power and majesty. But it is not always clean, and it is not always tidy. Sometimes, somebody's got to get their hands dirty.