You Want Me to Do What?

Have you ever said this to someone or had someone say this to you?  We say this when someone asks us to do something that sounds unreasonable.  A teenager might ask this when he/she is asked to clean his bedroom or do the dishes 🙂 In life there are times when people make requests that seem unreasonable to us.  If you are a follower of Jesus, there are going to be times when God makes requests that seem unreasonable to you.  However, in that case, the requests are never unreasonable, just often outside of our comfort zone.  Many people have never read the little book of Hosea in the Old Testament.  Hosea is the first of what is called the “minor prophets”.  The last 12 books of the Old Testament are written by twelve different prophets.  Most of the books are small in size and that is why they are called “minor”.  The most well known would be a whale of a fish story called Jonah.

God makes a request of Hosea that seems unreasonable.  He asks Hosea to marry a woman named Gomer (no, not the Gomer from the old TV show..Golly!) but rather a woman who is a prostitute.  Can you imagine bringing her home to mom?  God asks Hosea to marry a prostitute and Hosea obeys.  God does this to use this relationship as an example of how Israel and Judah are unfaithful to God.  God often uses unfaithfulness in marriage as a metaphor for people turning away from God and going after other gods and idols.  But my point this morning is the “unreasonableness” of God’s request.  From my perspective it seems unreasonable.  But from God’s perspective nothing is unreasonable is it?  God knows the reason behind everything He asks us to do in His word.  Since God is holy and righteous, He could never ask us to do something that would be sinful.  In this case, it wasn’t sinful for Hosea to marry Gomer, even though Gomer was involved in sinful activity.  God wanted to show, through Hosea, how He loved His people despite their sin.

As I wrap this up, please don’t ever consider any request that God makes of you to be “unreasonable”.  It might be difficult and it might be something that you wouldn’t have chosen for yourself, but it is never unreasonable.  Perhaps as you read this something God has been moving you to do or say has come to mind.  You’ve rejected it before as being unreasonable but could you rethink that determination?  If God asks you to do it, I promise you there is a reason!