Context No. 3194 of 4322 · Hosea

Hosea 1:6-11: in context

6She conceived again, and bore a daughter. Then he said to him, “Call her name Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, that I should in any way pardon them. 7But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and will save them by the LORD their God, and will not save them by bow, sword, battle, horses, or horsemen.” 8Now when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived, and bore a son. 9He said, “Call his name Lo-Ammi, for you are not my people, and I will not be yours. 10Yet the number of the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea, which can’t be measured or counted; and it will come to pass that, in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ 11The children of Judah and the children of Israel will be gathered together, and they will appoint themselves one head, and will go up from the land; for great will be the day of Jezreel.

Hosea is told to name his children as living signs of judgment: Lo-Ruhamah, no mercy, and Lo-Ammi, not my people. God will no longer pardon Israel; you are not my people, and I will not be your God. These are bleak names to hang on a child.

But the names of rejection are not the last word. Right after pronouncing them, God promises to overturn them: the people will become as countless as the sand of the sea, and in the very place where it was said, you are not my people, they will be called sons of the living God. Both Paul and Peter take up this promise for the gospel: those who were not a people become God's people through Christ. God's grace reaches into the place of not my people and makes it the place of belonging. The name of rejection becomes the name of sonship.

Do I believe God's grace can reach even a "not my people" place in my life and make it a place of belonging as his child?

Sources

Hosea 1:10: "In the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, they will be called sons of the living God."
Romans 9:26: "In the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, there they will be called children of the living God."
1 Peter 2:10: "Who in time past were no people, but now are God's people."