Abnormal

A giant of Gath had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot.

• 2 Samuel 21:20 HCSB At Gath there was still another battle. A huge man was there with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot--24 in all. He, too, was descended from the giant.

In order to illustrate how bad things had gotten in Israel morally speaking, God shared with us the following gruesome passage.

• Judges 19:22-29 HCSB While they were enjoying themselves, all of a sudden, perverted men of the city surrounded the house and beat on the door. They said to the old man who was the owner of the house, "Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him!" 23 The owner of the house went out and said to them, "No, don't do this evil, my brothers. After all, this man has come into my house. Don't do this horrible thing. 24 Here, let me bring out my virgin daughter and the man's concubine now. Use them and do whatever you want to them. But don't do this horrible thing to this man." 25 But the men would not listen to him, so the man seized his concubine and took her outside to them. They raped her and abused her all night until morning. At daybreak they let her go. 26 Early that morning, the woman made her way back, and as it was getting light, she collapsed at the doorway of the man's house where her master was. 27 When her master got up in the morning, opened the doors of the house, and went out to leave on his journey, there was the woman, his concubine, collapsed near the doorway of the house with her hands on the threshold. 28 "Get up," he told her. "Let's go." But there was no response. So the man put her on his donkey and set out for home. 29 When he entered his house, he picked up a knife, took hold of his concubine, cut her into 12 pieces, limb by limb, and sent her throughout the territory of Israel.

For a sermon illustration, God ordered Isaiah to go naked and barefoot for three years!

• Isaiah 20:2-4 HCSB during that time the LORD had spoken through Isaiah son of Amoz, saying, "Go, take off your sackcloth and remove the sandals from your feet," and he did so, going naked and barefoot-- 3 the LORD said, "As My servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot three years as a sign and omen against Egypt and Cush, 4 so the king of Assyria will lead the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old alike, naked and barefoot, with bared buttocks, to Egypt's shame.

God once asked His prophet to bury his underwear and then go back later to get it.

• Jeremiah 13:1-10 HCSB This is what the LORD said to me: "Go and buy yourself linen underwear and put it on, but don't get it wet." 2 So I bought underwear as the LORD instructed me and put it on. 3 Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time: 4 "Take the underwear that you bought and are wearing, and go at once to the Euphrates River and hide it in a rocky crevice." 5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me. 6 A long time later the LORD said to me, "Go at once to the Euphrates and get the underwear that I commanded you to hide there." 7 So I went to the Euphrates and dug up the underwear and got it from the place where I had hidden it, but it was ruined--of no use whatsoever. 8 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 9 "This is what the LORD says: Just like this I will ruin the great pride of both Judah and Jerusalem. 10 These evil people, who refuse to listen to Me, who walk in the stubbornness of their own hearts, and who have followed other gods to serve and worship--they will be like this underwear, of no use whatsoever.

Contrary to His usual commands to be righteous and have nothing to do with prostitutes, as a sermon illustration, God commanded Hosea to marry a whore and have children with her! I use the term, because she didn’t just have sex with strangers to make a living, a point that very rapidly becomes important to the ongoing sermon.

• Hosea 1:2-3 HCSB When the LORD first spoke to Hosea, He said this to him: Go and marry a promiscuous wife and have children of promiscuity, for the whole land has been promiscuous by abandoning the LORD. 3 So he went and married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

Later Hosea was again commanded to take an adulteress as his wife. It’s not clear whether its Gomer who as a result of her unfaithfulness was sold into slavery or a completely different woman.

• Hosea 3:1-3 HCSB Then the LORD said to me, "Go again; show love to a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, just as the LORD loves the Israelites though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes." 2 So I bought her for 15 shekels of silver and five bushels of barley. 3 I said to her, "You must live with me many days. Don't be promiscuous or belong to any man, and I will act the same way toward you."