Hosea 7/23/23

Introduction

I am glad to be back here at church with everyone. I am thankful that Pastor Dan gave me this opportunity to come up here and preach. I asked what you guys have been going over lately and it seems like you guys have been spending some time in the Old Testament, specifically Genesis and Exodus lately. I think it is great to spend time in the Old Testament, I used to not enjoy studying the Old Testament as much because there can be some pretty dry parts, specifically when you get into the all the laws and lineages and what tribe was supposed to do what and where they lived. But the more that I have studied those things, the more I have come to see the Old Testament as a confirmation of God’s existence and his love. Even in the boring parts of the Old Testament that we gloss over we can see God revealed through scripture.

Unfortunately i have had a few friends who have walked away from the faith, and when i ask them why they decided not to be a christian anymore they all had different varying reasons, but a common theme that I noticed and that I have also noticed in talking to atheist is that they can’t conceptualize how a loving God that we hear about in the New Testament, could be so different from the God portrayed in the Old Testament. And unfortunately they read a few stories in the Old Testament and they draw conclusions about the nature of God without truly studying or understanding the overall picture of the Old Testament. Because the Old Testament doesn’t paint a picture of a wrathful God who smites us whenever we do something wrong, but it is about a God who desires to have a relationship with mankind. God does not change, he is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. God doesn’t just decide to get nice and send his son down to us in the New Testament. Some people like to think there is an OT God and a NT God. But let me tell you, the God in the New Testament that is full of love and mercy is the same God in the Old Testament.

And this is why I wanted to talk about the Book of Hosea today. This book is one of my favorite books in the new testament because it is the perfect metaphor for our relationship with God. In our New Testament reading we read about Jesus eating at Matthews house with tax collectors and sinners. The Pharisees asked why Jesus was eating with sinners like these and Jesus turned to them and said “...go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’  For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners

When Jesus says ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’ he is quoting Hosea 6:6. He tells the Pharisees to go and learn what that means. So today we are going to dig into Hosea and see how God’s unrelenting love and desire for us to know him is revealed to us in the Old Testament.

Main Body

Hosea was a prophet of God, like most prophets in the Old Testament, they are on a mission to help Israel acknowledge that they are in the wrong and need to repent and turn back to God. In chapter 1 of Hosea we see God give Hosea a strange command, he actually commands Hosea to go and marry a prostitute. He commands one of his own prophets to marry an adulterous woman. Now God has a very good reason for doing this as we will see in Hosea 1:2-3 , If you turn your Bibles to Hosea 1 that is where we will start today. Hosea 1:2-3 says this,

“When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.” So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.”

So right away we see that God wants Hosea to marry this promiscuous woman because she is just like Israel. If we look at the relationship between God and Israel it is very similar to being married to an adulterous wife. Time and time again the Israelites turn their backs on God and worship other gods, often the baals. Now the baals were of the Canaanite relgion, with Baal being one of the most prominent gods in that pantheon. However, the Canaanites worship many different Gods, and they are most commonly refereed to as “the baals” as we will see in Hosea.

Now I don’t know if you have made it this far in Exodus yet, but I will give some spoilers here. When the Israelites are recused and led out of Egypt, not soon after they are delivered do they make a calf out of gold and begin to worship it. I mean we are talking the same generation of people who witnessed the plagues, who saw the sea part, who saw pillars of fire leading them through the desert, these are the people who turned from God and began to worship other gods. And this is just one time of many, throughout the Old Testament we see the Israelites time and time again turn to other gods and begin to worship them. After awhile of doing this God would typically send a prophet who would try to convince the people to turn back to God, normally they would reject these prophets sometimes killing them, God would punish them, they would realize they were wrong and turn back to God. This happens over and over again throughout the Old Testament. So you can see why God wants Hosea to marry a prostitute. it is the perfect metaphor for Israel. Like an adulterous wife, Israel continually breaks their covenant or relationship with God and commits spiritual adultery with other gods.

So God tells Hosea to marry this adulterous woman and then tells him to have children with her, the first child is to be named Jezreel. Now this is significant because Jezreel was a location where a terrible thing happened. Jehu was a King of Israel. though his rise to power, though initially blessed by the Prophet Elisha, quickly became too violent. He originally set out to root out the worship of baal in the Israelite land, though they were too heavy handed and killed way too many people. Jezreel was the location where there was a great massacre done by Jehu and his people. So God had Hosea name his first child this because it is a symbolism of the punishment that God is going to give to Israel.

His wife then gave birth to a daughter, and the Lord said to name her Lo-Ruhamah which means “Not loved” because he will no longer show love to Israel.

Then she had a third child, whom the Lord has him name Lo-Ammi, which means “not my people”. and god says in Hosea 1:8 “… for you are not my people and I am not your God.

So these three children have significant meaning, the first has to do with punishment, the second child’s name has to do with no longer being loved, and the third is separation, or in the context of the marriage metaphor, divorce.

Now you may be thinking, “I thought you said this book was about God’s love and mercy”. And it is, don’t worry, we are getting there.

So in chapter 2 we see how Hosea/God plans to interact with Gomer/Israel and confronts the adultery. At the beginning of the chapter we will see Hosea the Prophet addressing his children and talking to/about his wife, but God’s voice soon replaces his and it is Israel, not Gomer, who will become the target of the judgment.

Hosea 2:2- 5 ““Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts. Otherwise I will strip her naked and make her as bare as on the day she was born; I will make her like a desert, turn her into a parched land, and slay her with thirst. I will not show my love to her children, because they are the children of adultery. Their mother has been unfaithful and has conceived them in disgrace. She said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.’”

So here we see that Gomer is at a crossroads. She can either deal with her sin and come clean or face the consequences of the sin. We see that with the word ‘otherwise’ in verse three. Verse 2 talks about confronting the sin and stopping the behavior, and verse 3 and 4 talk about what is going to happen if she continues. In verse five we see Gomer choose not to confront the sin. She says instead of stopping her ways, she will just go after her lovers who give her all the food and gifts and drink. So then verse 6-13 talk about the consequences of those actions. We see that God is going to block her path, make it to where she can’t get to her loves, he will deprive her of the sin that she seeks. This happens to the point where she says alright, i will go back to my husband because at least I was better off with him. But this isn’t repentance on her part. This is her just saying well because it is no longer convenient to live in a life of sin she will return to her husband.

So how does God respond to this half hearted repentance? In vs 9-13 we see that he is going to force her to confront her sin and expose it, he is going to take everything away from her that is associated with the adultery. There is an air of entitlement with some of the things that are being taken away. In Hosea 2:12 “I will ruin her vines and her fig trees, which she said were her pay from her lovers; I will make them a thicket, and wild animals will devour them.” The things being taken away here were seen as things that were deserved, things that were associated with the sin. God will stop her festivals, her new moons, her vines,. He also takes away things that he has provided as well, my wool and linen, my grain, my wine.

But once God takes everything away there is a detox period almost. In Hosea 2:14-23 we see how God plans on restoring Israel. Lets read Hosea 2:14-23

“

14 “Therefore I am now going to allure her;

I will lead her into the wilderness

and speak tenderly to her.

15 There I will give her back her vineyards,

and will make the Valley of Achor n a door of hope.

There she will respond  as in the days of her youth,

as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

16 “In that day,” declares the LORD,

“you will call me ‘my husband’;

you will no longer call me ‘my master.’

17 I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips;

no longer will their names be invoked.

18 In that day I will make a covenant for them

with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky

and the creatures that move along the ground.

Bow and sword and battle

I will abolish from the land,

so that all may lie down in safety.

19 I will betroth you to me forever;

I will betroth you in righteousness and justice,

in love and compassion.

20 I will betroth you in faithfulness,

and you will acknowledge the LORD.

21 “In that day I will respond,”

declares the LORD—

“I will respond to the skies,

and they will respond to the earth;

22 and the earth will respond to the grain,

the new wine and the olive oil,

and they will respond to Jezreel. e

23 I will plant her for myself in the land;

I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one. g’

I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’;

and they will say, ‘You are my God.’ ”

You see, God’s ultimate plan wasn’t to punish the Israelites, but to restore his relationship with them. To us humans, when we see adultery in a relationship our first instinct is to divorce, to stop loving, to reject and separate. And that is what looked like was going to happen at the beginning of the book, i mean the kids names were metaphors for punishment, no longer loving, and divorce. But that isn’t how God operates. Instead of divorcing himself from the Israelites, he continues to pursue them and ultimately lead them back to him. Now in that pursuit we did see God punish them, and he withheld from them, but it was with wisdom of what was needed in order for Israel to have a true repentance and not a half hearted one. And in the end we see that God accepted them and even though Israel had commited this adultery he says to them

“ I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one. g’

I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’;

and they will say, ‘You are my God.’ ”

In chapter 3 we see God’s instructions to Hosea on how to deal with his wife. Now according to the law back then, if a man and woman were to be caught committing adultery, the penalty was death, which was normally stoning. So Hosea would be justified according to the law for Gomer to be stoned. But let’s read what God tells Hosea to do with his wife in chapter 3.

Hosea 3 “The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.” So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you.” For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or household gods. Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days.”

God tells Hosea to go against culture, against expectations, and instead of treating the sin with punishment, to go show love just as the Lord loves the Israelites. Isn’t this just a beautiful picture of the love that God has for us? Time and time again the Israelites turned away from God and rejected him, and yet his response to this is shown to us in Hosea. Even though the Israelites reject him, he will continue to pursue them and show them love regardless of the other lovers they take on. This isn’t the wrathful God that I hear about when people complain about the Old Testament, this is a God who despite having every right to punish us severely shows us mercy and continues to pursue us despite our rejection of him.

We see this same God through Jesus Christ. Earlier we read Matthew 9:10-13 where Jesus told the Pharisees to go learn what Hosea 6:6 means. Lets read that and see if we can learn what Jesus is trying to say now that we know what Hosea is about.

Hosea 6:6-10 says, “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings. As at Adam, they have broken the covenant; they were unfaithful to me there. Gilead is a city of evildoers, stained with footprints of blood. As marauders lie in ambush for a victim, so do bands of priests; they murder on the road to Shechem, carrying out their wicked schemes. I have seen a horrible thing in Israel: There Ephraim is given to prostitution, Israel is defiled.”

Here we see God talking about the evil that is in Israel and has been since the time of Adam. But God doesn’t want us to sacrifice animals to cover our sins or make burnt offerings. That is how they dealt with sin in the Old Law, they would make sacrifices as atonement for sin. But here, even in the Old Testament, we see that God doesn’t want any of that, he desires mercy over sacrifice, he would rather us acknowledge him as Lord than make pointless burnt offerings. He wants us to know him and for us to be known by him. Jesus told this verse to the Pharisees because they asked the question why would Jesus eat with sinners? The answer is found in Hosea, Jesus is pursuing those that are lost and in need of mercy and love just as God pursued Israel the many times they rejected him.

We fit perfectly into this metaphor as well. Just like Gomer, just like Israel, we reject God and pursue other things. We might not be pursuing other God’s like the Israelites did, but we definitely have things in our life that we prioritize over God. In this metaphor of marriage, we treat God just like Gomer treated Hosea, only coming back to him when it was convenient for us to do so. We aren’t in a commited relationship and we often fool around with other things in life, whether it is work, addictions, seeking attention from the wrong sources, or any other thing that draws us away from having a fruitful relationship with God. We can all related to Gomer in this. I mean if we treated our actual spouse like we treat God do you think you would have a very successful marriage? If i only talked to my wife once a week on Sundays and didn’t really pay attention to her at all throughout the week I can’t imagine that we would have a good relationship. But here is the good news, God wants to make himself known to us and he wants us to know him. Whether we acknowledge him or not he is still pursuing us just like he did in Hosea. No matter how many times we stray and get distracted by other things in life God is still chasing after us wanting to love us. Jesus didn’t go eat dinner with those tax collectors and sinners because he wanted to mix things up, he wanted them to know that they were loved despite their sin and the same is true for us. No matter what our sin is, or how many times we have done it, God still wants to have a relationship with us. He desires mercy and acknowledgment.

I don’t know about you, but i need that mercy. There are times where I feel like I don’t know God at all. I am guilty of being a Gomer, only turning to God when it is convenient or when I need something but all the while pursuing things of this world. Like Gomer, i am guilty of spiritual adultery. Like Israel there are times in my life where I don’t acknowledge God. But i am lucky, while I deserve nothing but death, nothing but punishment, there is a God who will show me love even though I love someone else. This God in Hosea is the same God who sent his son down to earth to die for me so that I could know him. We are often at a spiritual crossroad just like Gomer was. We can either confront our sin, repent and know the peace and freedom that comes with his love and mercy, or we can continue to try and do things our own way and fall into the same trap over and over again. I pray that we choose repentance and that we can turn and run into the arms of the father who has been chasing us this whole time. Let’s pray.