Hosea 1:8

Hosea 1:8 says, Now when she had weaned Loruhamah, she conceived, and bare a son.  Verse two adds, Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.  After a time, when their daughter was older, they had another son.  Hosea was told to name him Loammi, which means for you are not My people.  So far, the only prophecies that we have recorded of Hosea were his marriage and the birth and naming of his children.  As followers of Christ today we need to acknowledge that God reaches out to the world through our lives.  We need to live our lives so that even the ordinary, everyday events are a witness to God.  Loammi means you are not my people.  This was a message to those who prided themselves on being Gods people, but then refused to follow His leadership.  God did not forsake them but allowed them to suffer the consequences of abandoning Him. We need to understand today, that as followers of Christ, if we stop following God in everyday life, we will be allowed to suffer the consequences of that failure.  This does not mean that we are no longer saved, but it does mean we become ineffective in our witness for Christ.  Though they still thought of themselves as the people of God, simply by the fact of their birth, God said that by their actions they proved themselves to be not His people.  The way we live our lives today should show Christ to the world.  Verse ten adds, Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.  God still had not forgotten His promise to Abraham.  The promise was made in relationship to the covenant between God and those seed of Abraham who followed God in faith.  The number of those who were following God faithfully might have dwindled, but there was coming a day when God's way to redemption would be put in place, and then the followers of God would come from all people in all the world, not just the nation of Israel.  This had been the role of Israel, to proclaim God to the whole world, but they had become exclusive, feeling superior to the Gentiles.  God promised that in that place where it was said that they were not His people that they would become much more, being called the sons of the living God.  We know that this is what happened when Christ came to redeem all mankind, and the gospel went to all people.  Verse eleven concludes, Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel.  Though Judah and Israel were now divided, there was coming a day when they would again be united into one nation.  The Jews would be reunited, but the gospel would go to the Gentiles as well.  The descendants of Abraham were to be God's people by faith in Him, but they had come to believe that they were His simply by being born into nation of Israel or Judah, in this case. When Christ came, He came to save everyone who believed in and professed Him as Savior and Lord. We as followers of Christ must be careful that we don't start believing that we are God's children based on where we were born or any other factor except faith in Christ.