Came

“The word of the Lord which came to Hosea”  Hosea 1:1

Came – First the messenger, then the message.  God drafts the person before He designs the proclamation.  Look over the introductory verses of the prophets.  Think about the call to Abraham, Moses and David.  Time and again, you will find that God chooses whom He wants before He does anything about what He wants.  And time and again you will discover that God’s choices are not the ones we would have picked.

Consider Hosea.  Would your church listen to a man who was married to a whore?  Would you put him on the board of deacons or allow him to give a sermon?  Would you give him any credence as a spiritual spokesman for God?  Probably not.  In fact, you might not even want him working in your business.  But God chose Hosea for His own purposes.  Would you have been able to see beyond the obvious and understand what God was doing?  Or would your preconceived notions of who God wants on His team blind you?

The Hebrew verb hayah used here tells us that God deliberately brought this to pass.  It wasn’t an accident.  Hosea just didn’t happen along.  God drafted him because God knew the man’s character.  When you look for someone to carry your message, do you look for character or are you deceived by image.  Reflect once more on the men and women that God picked.  They were a motley crew, full of common problems and sins.  It is God’s work that makes them useful, not their personal prowess.  God chooses the ones who can’t do it without Him.  He chooses the one who don’t fit our vision of “greatness”. 

What about you?  Are you a great asset to God because you can’t do it without Him?  Or are you trying to become one of those “great” people that God can’t use?  Who comes before what.  Always.  Even after the “what” is well known, God’s method is still “who” first.