The Prophet and The Prostitute (Part 4)

Restored

Hosea 2:14-23

Scripture

Hosea 2:14-23

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,

and bring her into the wilderness,

and speak tenderly to her.

15 And there I will give her her vineyards

and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.

And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth,

as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

16 “And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18 And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. 19 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.

21 “And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord,

I will answer the heavens,

and they shall answer the earth,

22 and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,

and they shall answer Jezreel,

23 and I will sow her for myself in the land.

And I will have mercy on No Mercy,[h]

and I will say to Not My People,[i] ‘You are my people’;

and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”

Pray

God help us to have Your heart

Story

Story about getting lost in the snow with everyone while trying to record a bigfoot video

Application 1

God uses hardship to remind us our need for Himself

Remember, Israel has been portrayed as God's bride. After a time of going through the consequences of rebelling against Him, God is now going to be sweet to his bride in order to show that it was all for a purpose: so that the nation would come back to Him.

The vineyards that God had taken away would be restored. The days of trouble would be over. That's what the Valley of Achor was called: "The Valley of Trouble."

Do any of you remember when someone you had a crush on first looked your way and smiled? Did your legs become jelly? Did you awkwardly smile back? Did a conversation start up that eventually became the starting point of your relationship?

Hosea is saying that Israel will respond to God like the first time you responded to your crush: excited, giddy, head over heels.

The nation of Israel put a huge focus on being led out of Egypt and through the Red Sea. That was the defining moment for the nation of Israel, and they worshipped God on that day because He was their great salvation.

Through the years, Israel forgot their first love. They forgot about God. So Hosea is saying that the nation will respond to God like they did at first: with love, worship, and adoration.

God wants pure wholehearted obedience and worship

The last time we heard, "This is the Lord's declaration," it was at the end of the judgment that was going to happen to Israel.

This time, it’s to declare that Israel would return to Him. Remember the last chapter, how Israel had still observed some of the Sabbaths, festivals, and other celebrations, they were combining those practices with Baal worship. They had mixed the name of God in with the name of Baal.

Baal worship involved prostitution. Baal was a fertility god, and so to get the attention of a god of sex, what do you think the people thought was an appropriate thing to do in the temple of Baal?

The Hebrew word for Baal sounds a lot like the word "husband." So God here is saying that Israel will no longer look for a one night fling relationship with someone who'll throw them out on the street as soon as they are done with them. No, instead God is saying that Israel will come back to a loving, trustworthy, and faithful God who will care for and deeply love His people.

God is now saying that He'll ensure that the nation of Israel would forget the false gods they worshiped and would no longer mix the worship of the one true God with any false god.

And instead of acting like a prostitute, going back and forth from Baal to God, the nation of Israel would now be a faithful companion to God. They would be as devoted to God as He was to them.

God was ensuring that when the relationship was restored, it wouldn't be a failed attempt. It would be complete.

In verse 12, God says that He would send the wild animals to eat the vineyards of Israel. Now that the relationship is being restored between Himself and Israel, He will cause the animals to be at peace with Israel.

And even better than having your vineyards not be destroyed by natural causes: God is promising that the Israelites will be at peace with their neighboring countries, as well.

How wonderful is God that He is able to keep both natural causes from destroying land, and nations from attacking each other in order to destroy?

Our God is beautifully sovereign and desires to care for His creation.

Think about soliciting a prostitute. It's not exactly something you would do out in the open. You'd do it secretly. You'd probably pray that no one ever found out. And you certainly wouldn't be looking for a faithful companion. You'd be looking for a one-night thing.

Then, take a look at how God will take Israel to be His wife. God is saying that He will take Israel to be His wife, and there won't be any questions. No one will wonder about either one's motives. Instead, it will be done right.

No baby born eight months after the ceremony. No shotguns pointed before "I do" are said. Everyone will know about it, too. No secret marriages, this one is out in the open.

Everything will be right.

It's almost impossible to be a Christian, read these few verses, and not think of Jesus. By His death on the cross, we are made perfect in God's sight. Jesus' perfect life is credited to us.

Now, God has His bride (the church: everyone who follows Jesus) as His forever. We live with God for eternity.

And the best part? Yes, salvation. Yes, Jesus. But in the end, we—the bride—will KNOW God. Oh, we see Him in glimpses now. We see a small portion of Him now. But when this time comes, we will know Him fully. We will be eternally resting in God and the knowledge of Him.

Story 2

Story about spending all day looking for my favorite shirt to wear on a date even though I had a ton of others

Supporting Scripture

Luke 19:10

10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Application 2

God seeks to restore us

Each of Gomer's children gets a nod here. It’s like God is saying, “Hey, remember when I said that I will no longer be your God because you’ve chosen not to be my people? Well, there will come a day when you come to senses and come back to me. And guess what? I’ll be your God, because, really, I’ve never stopped being your God. You’ve just realized that it “was better for me with my former husband.”

Sound familiar?

And remember when God said He would no longer have compassion on the people of Israel? He would no longer care about their misfortune and their trails and their woes? Well, God is now saying, “I’ve always cared for you. I just sent those trials your way so that you would see how much I loved you. I wanted you to run back to me. Now that you’ve been through thorns and climbed over walls and lost your way looking for a path that leads to destruction, come home.”

And Jezreel. Well, God is now using the name for what it actually means and not what comes to mind when people think of the city’s history. The name means “God plants.”

Those grains and wines that God had taken away would grow in fresh vineyards and new fields. God would plant the nation of Israel again so that they would flourish and grow as they had in the past.

And so what do we do with this? What do we do with a God who seeks to restore us even after He’s the one who has allowed us to be led us into exile?

Well, you can respond in one of two ways:

I think you can be bitter and unforgiving in God’s direction. You can resent Him for sending you into exile and letting you go down the paths that, honestly, you wanted to go down anyway. You can shake your fist at Him and say “What? NOW you want to bless me? You had your chance God, I’m done with you!”

Or, you can embrace God as you would a long-lost friend. You can run to Him as you would someone you had forgotten you loved with all your heart. You can respond to Him by remembering that in everything, God had His glory and your best interest in mind.

So how will you respond?

And if you don’t know ... just wait to be blown away by the next chapter!

Pray

God help us to respond to your invitation