This is what I said about the passage last time it was in the lectionary. It will do as an introduction. Back in 2014, there was less regulation and a lot less intimidation of those who tried to speak well and for the truth. The people blogging have changed over this period, apart from us grey beards.

And no man wants to he Hosea. No woman should be Gomer. And no child called unloved. Though our state manufactures all of these.

No man wants to be Hosea. None of us want to be divorced, shunned, belittled, abandoned. When we marry, we give our lives, our fortunes and our honour into the hands of our wives: in these days of divorce-at-will any wife can destroy their husband legally, and with the full force of he law behind them.

Perhaps the law makes women similar to Gomer, and men like Hosea, but that is not how it should be.

Most of us are not prophets: most of us are not saints, most of us would rather live in peace. The laws that entrench a low-grade war between men and women intrude into our lives, into the raising of our children, and even into our marital bed. The social justice warriors want us to turn our plowshares into swords, and destroy the peace that should be between a husband and wife, the security of our children, and move our desire, our lust, from its Godly and chaste channel into solo vice or worse.

So we will worship one thing, and that is the state. The very idolatry that Hosea was commanded to oppose.

The role of the prophet is to be a witness, in what he does and speaks. it is as unusual as a rat in a harness walking around.

The word of the LORD that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.” So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

And the LORD said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”

She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the LORD said to him, “Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the LORD their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”

When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. And the LORD said, “Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”

Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.” And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head. And they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.

Say to your brothers, “You are my people,” and to your sisters, “You have received mercy.”

(Hosea 1-2:1 ESV)

This is from the faceborg, as apparently the Oath of Allegiance is fascist or something and there are memes out saying that has been banned. You can find the best images on the dying social media sites.

What we are doing is manufacturing Gomer. Gomer was a whore, you say, what are you talking about?

I am talking about damage. We are not letting girls be girls, and enjoy that. We are encouraging them to go full Britney Spears and see the street walkers and strippers as role models. And we are importing people who will abuse them, damage them… and discard them.

Because the idea of a patriarchy is deemed by moderns to be offensive. Because God will not be honoured, because his laws do not allow the state to control all.

The policies we have: extending adolescence until one has finished a Master’s degree, removing all restrictions, not teaching women how to be safe, disarming the populace, and allowing in the stranger and the corrupt will cause our young women damage. Always has. Always will. We are still the same hairless apes we have always been.

But note the hope: in this case for Israel, and one prays for us. There is a remnant. There will be loved people. Those who do not converge and accept the state as their final moral rule and arbiter. Those who can learn from the experience of the last century, where this message destroyed Middle Europe (it was called fascism) and then the East )where it was called the Soviet).

Now we need to teach our sons well: that the system will not protect them, and to not converge. And our daughters we need to teach: to not listen to the state sponsored dietitians who have been bought out by high fructose corn starch, but to eat traditionally, exercise, keep themselves fit, be able to defend themselves, and how to read a street.

A few play fights with brothers used to sort that out when our families were big enough. Now we need to tell girls that in a fight they will lose.

And, like their brothers, how to read a street, and when to get the hell out. To not be with the stupid. To stay sober.

Because the state wants them scarred, broken and dependant. Like Gomer.