OPERATION Ruhamah Ammi: Extending "THE HANDS"

I invite you to take a trip with me through your imagination. The time is ancient Israel about 2700 years ago. You’re a child, a young girl, and have grown up most of your life without your mother. She abandoned you because she was a harlot. Matter of fact, she not only abandoned you but she abandoned two other children and a loving husband, the man you now call father, as well. He is not your biological father. While he and your mother were married, your mother conceived you through harlotry. Imagine growing up with that stigma. Imagine going through life being an outcast to society for the sins of your mother. No respectable Jewish person would even associate themselves with you. When you go to school, you’re segregated, the other girls ridicule you, and they consistently harass you because they know about your mother and about you. Your name is “LO-Ruhamah”, which translates, “I will have no mercy.” You have two brothers, one who has the name LO-Ammi, that translates, “You are not mine.” Even the very names are a picture of you and your brother’s exiled status. Your mother has been gone so long, you can barely remember her.

There is hope to your story. Your father, a man named Hosea, loves you and your brothers very much. As those in society outcast you, label you, and torment you, Hosea has his arms outstretched wide and embraces you. Everyday the realization that you have been abandoned fades because Hosea meets you with love everyday; drying your tears, hugging you, and holding you. Even though he is not your father, he has given you and your brothers exclusive rights to call him, “daddy”. You have peace in your life. When everyone else calls you Lo-Ruhamah, your daddy calls you Ruhamah, because you are a picture of mercy. Not only you, but your brother Lo-Ammi, he calls “Ammi” ; because he has accepted him as his own son.

This imaginary excursion may seem far fetched but it actually did happen and is recorded in the Old Testament of the Bible in a book called Hosea. This is an account about Hosea, his wife and their children. However, it is more than just a record of true events; it is a spectacular picture of a redeeming and undying love, an epic supernatural love. Not only of the love Hosea had for his wife but a greater representation of God’s undying and endless love for sinners like you and me. Hosea embodies the story of Christ’s redemption of mankind.

Here is a picture of the day which Hosea lived. The land of Israel was in deep depravity. God tells Hosea how dark the days were. He said there was no faithfulness, or kindness or even the knowledge of God; there was swearing, deception, murder, stealing, and all sorts of sexual vices. The preachers and priests were corrupt. They no longer taught the knowledge of God and they became fortune seekers, gaining wealth from the sins of the people. Every corner of every city was full of drunkenness, idolatry, and harlotry, and every man was out for himself. The people flaunted their wickedness with prideful boastings.

Often times in the Old Testament of the Bible, God reveals Himself to His people in metaphorical ways. In the life of Hosea, God reveals His redemptive purpose for not just Israel but for any human throughout the course of history. It is God’s desire to seek and to save that which is lost.

Hosea was instructed to marry a wife of harlotry. Even though Hosea was married to his wife and loved her dearly she would not turn from harlotry. She bore Hosea one son, named Jezreel. Later she conceives two more times, both of which, Hosea is not the father. The first child conceived out of wedlock is a girl. God tells Hosea, “Name her Lo-Ruhamah (No Mercy), for I will not have mercy upon the house of Israel.”
The second child born out of wedlock is a boy God named Lo-Ammi. This name means, “ You are not my people.” The Lord God was showing the people of Israel that they are not His, because of their choice to not follow the Lord and all His statutes. Even though God names the children in Hosea Chapter 1; in the first verse of Chapter 2, God in His redeeming love calls the children Ruhamah and Ammi, the meanings opposite of what they were named in Chapter 1.

The whole book of Hosea is about redemption. Each aspect of Hosea’s story is a picture of Christ’s redeeming work for mankind. Hosea’s life is also a picture of a believer’s life. I believe that each area of my life should picture God’s redemptive plan whether it be in my marriage, as a father to my children, in my work place, or in my everyday life. Amanda and I have decided that, like Hosea, adopting children that are not ours, have been abandoned, and for other reasons may even be considered the lepers of modern day society, is a clear picture of Christ’s rescuing love for sinners. We are setting out not just to give these children a better life but we fully believe that God is to get the glory through adoption. Although, our adoption of these children at best is temporal, restricted to the time we have here on earth, it is a definitive picture of Christ’s eternal adoption of us. It is our hope and prayer that God would get the glory in these kid’s lives and that one day they might stand with Him as He shows them “mercy” and calls them “His” as they seek a personal redemptive relationship with the Redeeming Saviour!

~Jason

Hosea 2:24

…and I will have MERCY upon her that obtained not mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, THOU ART MY PEOPLE and they shall say THOU ART MY GOD.