People

And the Lord said, "Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God."
Hosea 1:9 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/hos.1.9.ESV

What shocking words for a man with a shocking calling in life! Hosea was called by God to marry an unfaithful wife who he'd eventually have to buy off her pimp! God didn't have it in for Hosea, He used his love for his wife Gomer as an illustration for His love for His unfaithful people.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse for poor Hosea, just look at the name he had to give the child in this verse: Notmypeople. That poor boy was bound to be bullied in the playground, and probably would have preferred to introduce himself as Bob! But that child was yet another illustration for wayward Israel.

Notmypeople, bless him, prophetically warned Israel that they were going to be conquered by Assyria and assimilated into oblivion. He who has ears, let him hear what the Spirit is saying: today is the day of salvation, tomorrow isn't guaranteed. If you are not one of God's people, you need to become one before your time is up.

So far, so bleak. But beautifully, in one of his letters, the previously xenophobic Peter says to his Gentile Christian readers, 'once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart.

'Dear Lord, what a sobering verse from a sobering book! Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner, in Christ's powerful name, amen'

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