Lo-ruhamah the second child

Hosea’s wife Gomer bore a second child. This time it was a daughter. God commanded that the child be given the name Lo-ruhamah. This also was a prophetic name, and its meaning is “not loved” or “not shown compassion.” God said, “For I will no longer take pity on the house of Israel, that I would ever forgive them.” God had shown compassion to the people of the northern kingdom of Israel many times up to that point, but this indicates that the limit had been reached. God would use Assyria as the instrument of His judgment to judge the northern kingdom of Israel. In contrast to this, the people of the southern kingdom of Judah are promised God’s mercy and love. “But I will take pity on the house of Judah and save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow, sword, battle, horses, or horsemen.” This verse has an interesting grammatical structure. The subject is God, yet that same God says that He will “save them by the Lord their God.” This implies that God is the Triune God. This promise was fulfilled when Sennacherib, king of Assyria, besieged Jerusalem. “Then it happened that night that the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when the rest got up early in the morning, behold, all of the 185,000 were dead” (2 Kings 19:35).

The heart of the prophet

Let us try to imagine Hosea’s feelings here. Any parent would want to give their daughter a hopeful, lovely name. There are countless parents who give their child a name that reflects love but none who would name their child “Not Loved.” Yet Hosea called his own daughter Lo-ruhamah (not loved). By doing so, he was able to align his own heart with God’s pain and sorrow. When God judges us, He does not do so with delight. God judge sinners with grief. A prophet takes that divine pain upon himself as his own and speaks God’s word to the people. As disciples of Christ, let us also allow the pain and sorrow of God the Father to become our own.