The God of Faithfulness

Introduction

Old faithful erupts every 60-90 minutes.

Brad showed us this theme of redemption revealed through the story of Hosea, Gomer, and their three children. How God would take these people who have sinned against God, have given themselves to others, but God is willing to pay the cost for His people to come back to Him.

Chapters 4-14 of Hosea aims to extend this theme out. Chapters 4-7 we see God accuse His people in a similar way to the children of Hosea. That they have not desired God, therefore they will be scattered. They have followed other gods and nations, therefore they will not be His people, and they refuse to repent therefore God will not have compassion on them and God lays before them the judgment they deserve.

But chapters 8-14 give us a different tone. It is a conversation between Hosea and God. Hosea, as one who has followed God’s call to marry Gomer and to redeem her, uses this experience to speak to God on behalf of the people as He desires for God to do the same for wayward Israel. God answers, by saying He desires the same, but first the people must seek Him and repent of their sins.

Throughout it all, though, one thing is clear.

In a world of unfaithfulness, God is faithful to His promises to His people.

What is God “faithful” to? Specifically we are going to see God’s covenant to His people. He has covenant faithfulness. Throughout the book God will point back to how He has been faithful to the covenant(s) He has made with His people, while also showing how the people have been unfaithful to Him.

Hosea 6:7 “But they, like Adam, have violated the covenant; there they have betrayed me.”

Hosea 7:13 “Woe to them, for they fled from me; destruction to them, for they rebelled against me! Though I want to redeem them, they speak lies against me.”

Hosea 9:10 “I discovered Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your ancestors like the first fruit of the fig tree in its first season. But they went to Baal-peor, consecrated themselves to Shame, and became abhorrent, like the thing they loved.”

But as Hosea 11:8 shows us, God will show his faithfulness even as He knows the people have turned away from Him.

Hosea 11:8 “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I surrender you, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? I have had a change of heart; my compassion is stirred!”

What becomes abundantly clear is that God has not changed, He has not been unfaithful to His promise, in fact He is doing what He always told them He would do, bring His people back to Him. But sometimes that is a painful journey.

So how will God show them He is faithful? He will use metaphors in order to remind the people of His character. They have forgotten Him but He will use image after image to remind them of His faithfulness

Hosea 11:1 “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.”

Hosea 14:4 “I will heal their apostasy; I will freely love them, for my anger will have turned from him.”

Hosea 7:12 “As they are going, I will spread my net over them; I will bring them down like birds of the sky. I will discipline them in accordance with the news that reaches their assembly.”

Hosea 13:6–8 “When they had pasture, they became satisfied; they were satisfied, and their hearts became proud. Therefore they forgot me. So I will be like a lion to them; I will lurk like a leopard on the path. I will attack them like a bear robbed of her cubs and tear open the rib cage over their hearts. I will devour them there like a lioness, like a wild beast that would rip them open.”

Hosea 14:5 “I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like the lily and take root like the cedars of Lebanon.”

Hosea 14:8 “Ephraim, why should I have anything more to do with idols? It is I who answer and watch over him. I am like a flourishing pine tree; your fruit comes from me.”

It reveals that in God’s faithfulness He will bring judgment, but only in His desire to bring His people back to Him. And what we will see at the end that God has a plan to restore His people, He has prepared a way for their salvation.

So at it reveals to us God’s faithfulness there are three major actions we are called to take. Respond to God’s faithfulness, reject the world’s wisdom, and repent of our sinfulness.

Respond to God’s faithfulness (You are who you say you are)

This point could be summarized by one verse.

Hosea 4:6 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will reject you from serving as my priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your sons.”

What kind of knowledge have they rejected? Knowledge of God. Specifically the knowledge of God’s faithfulness.

-They haven’t rejected all knowledge. They will listen to the knowledge of their idols, of the nations, of their religious leaders. They will seek our superstitious signs and rituals for the hope they will get some luck from the universe. But they reject God.

Hosea 6:4–6 “What am I going to do with you, Ephraim? What am I going to do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning mist and like the early dew that vanishes. This is why I have used the prophets to cut them down; I have killed them with the words from my mouth. My judgment strikes like lightning. For I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

6:1-3 Israel says they want to return to God, but God questions how serious they really are about it. Because their love is like the "mist". It’s wishy washy. They might love God when He gets them what He needs but then they go back to their idols. God doesn’t want them just to say the right things, He also wants them to have knowledge of His character.

We can’t equate right actions with godliness.

At several points Hosea makes clear that it isn’t just doing the things they want God wants them to do. This is make clear in...

Hosea 6:6 “For I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

-What this shows us is that Hosea isn't just focused on "morality" and having a nation that does the right things. Instead, He desires a people who love Him, people who have transformed lives. The people have allowed for the idols and templs and religious practices to get in the way of true knowledge of god.

In order to respond to His faithfulness we need to truly know His character

Why can’t they find the Lord when they go out and seek Him? Because they don’t actually know God. They might be searching for God but in all the wrong places.

A lot of us treat God like a middle school crush

-The people look at their sacrifices to God like their sacrifices to other deities, magical acts to get them what they want. They try and manipulate God but God tells them that He doesn't desire sacrifice but rather relationship with His people.

-How do we give God our "burnt offerings" rather than faithful love and knowledge? When we think just coming to church and doing the right things is what saves us.

-A contemporary way of saying this might be "I desire devotion and not just Sunday morning worship, one act of service a week, and a Bible reading”

Reject the world’s wisdom (The world is not who they say they are)

Three groups that are unfaithful

Religious leaders

God will have serious issues with their religious leaders.

Hosea 4:4 “But let no one dispute; let no one argue, for my case is against you priests.”

The priests are the ones who have led the people away from God. Although all the people have sinned, the people should be looking at their leaders as the ones whom the evidence is stacking up against.

The consequence of the spiritual leaders not directing the people towards God is that God does not hold it against the daughters and the people of Israel. Because the "men themselves go off with prostitutes."

-This lack of spiritual leadership has led to the ignorance of the people towards true knowledge of God.

-But not just ignorance. The religious leaders were corrupt.

Hosea discusses the "increase" of priests in Israel. That in the prosperity that has come to Israel, there are now more priests as well, but with this increase is also prosperity, power, and opportunity for corruption.

-The priests were "feeding on the sin of my people"

James 3:1 “Not many should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we will receive a stricter judgment.”

-We should be wary of putting our trust into leaders

But now, under Christ, each of us is considered a priest, we have all be called to direct the world to the truth of the Gospel.

-This makes us consider, before we start to condemn the world, to consider our own sin.

The Nations

Hosea 7:8–12 “Ephraim has allowed himself to get mixed up with the nations. Ephraim is unturned bread baked on a griddle. Foreigners consume his strength, but he does not notice. Even his hair is streaked with gray, but he does not notice. Israel’s arrogance testifies against them, yet they do not return to the Lord their God, and for all this, they do not seek him. So Ephraim has become like a silly, senseless dove; they call to Egypt, and they go to Assyria. As they are going, I will spread my net over them; I will bring them down like birds of the sky. I will discipline them in accordance with the news that reaches their assembly.”

-"The flat disk of dough (shaped like pitta bread) was clapped onto the side of the oven and left unturned by the baker. The result was inedible raw dough on one side, scorched crust on the other. It may not be pushing the imagery beyond its bounds to say that Ephraim’s side that was turned towards the nations was badly burnt, while the other side—the unpalatably weak commitment to Yahweh—was underdone." - Hubbard

Israel sought military protection and trusted in their own leaders and other nations rather than God. But their lovers will fail them.

The idols and pleasures of the world

What happens to these people who have rejected the truth of God? They are unsatisfied by all the things of the world, it doesn't last, it can't supply their needs. It lies about the benefits it offers. Much like the serpent in the Garden, it makes promises that it can't fulfill.

Hosea 4:10–12 “They will eat but not be satisfied; they will be promiscuous but not multiply. For they have abandoned their devotion to the Lord. Promiscuity, wine, and new wine take away one’s understanding. My people consult their wooden idols, and their divining rods inform them. For a spirit of promiscuity leads them astray; they act promiscuously in disobedience to their God.”

The sad news is that their idols can’t give them what they desire, they won’t be satisfied.

Some illustration about a company that had a good reputation that was quickly ruined. Enron? Ford with the lawsuit scandal?

We become what we worship

Hosea 4:16 CSB

For Israel is as obstinate as a stubborn cow. Can the Lord now shepherd them like a lamb in an open meadow?

-They are stubborn like a cow (they refused to go where God led them in order to give them peace)

-They are attached to idols (they have been "entranced" by idols)

-They are prone to drunkenness and promiscuity (when they run out of alcohol they turn to sex to solve their issues, but neither satisfy them.)

This passage should make us ask the question, if we see spiritual promiscuity around us, what leaders are people listening to? Who are the voices that "lead" us?

The world will always lead us towards disorder, not to order.

Hosea 4:3 “For this reason the land mourns, and everyone who lives in it languishes, along with the wild animals and the birds of the sky; even the fish of the sea disappear.”

What we see is a "de-creation" account. a reversal of the order God created. We see this many times in Scripture. It shows us how all creation suffers when God's people turn against Him.

Often we see technology as the thing that is bringing us closer to order, that brings us more knowledge. But often what we find is forbidden knowledge, we find something that we go to for fulfillment rather than God.

Repent of our sinfulness (I am the unfaithful one, not God)

Hosea 10:3–4 “In fact, they are now saying, “We have no king! For we do not fear the Lord. What can a king do for us?” They speak mere words, taking false oaths while making covenants. So lawsuits break out like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field.”

Hosea 4:1 summarizes the people not repenting

1. No integrity

The word for "truth" or "faithfulness" deals with a desire to search for the truth and to follow it. It isn't just honesty or loyalty (not just sacrifice) but a desire to live out faithful lives.

2. No compassion

The word for "love" is about doing good based off of grace than then necessity. Something beyond what is expected, something undeserved. Reminding them of God's character, that He freely gives to them. While the people had been self-centered.

3. No knowledge of God

Their lack of knowledge of God. Both doctrine about him and what He requires (like what is in the 10 commandments) but also a people who desire relationship with God. They have embraced a false teaching about God and don't know Him.

Often we blame our circumstances and troubles on God changing rather than recognize God has never changed and we change constantly.

Hosea 11:3 “It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the hand, but they never knew that I healed them.”

In the suffering they experience the people call out "My God, we know you!", very reminiscent of "God, didn't we do many things in your name?"

Why are they confused? Because they think that God is the one who has changed His standard, they believe they are doing the things He had asked them to do. When in fact, they didn’t know God, they didn’t know His commands.

-They do a lot of things they "think" God will want. They install kinds and leaders, but they aren't the ones God desires.

-They think they are reaping, but only to the wind.

-Instead of doing the work to receive love, they have "paid" for love. Paying off the nations and the idols in order to feel pleasure.

This can cause us to feel frustrated, asking “God, where are you? Aren’t you supposed to be here? I’m doing what you asked of me!” But really, our hearts are far from Him.

We think of God as a harsh judge, who demands perfection from us.

We othink of God’s holiness in relationship to His judgment, but God’s holiness also relates to His holiness. In order for the people to enter into His presence them must first respond to His character.

Have you ever known a punishment you had to give but hated having to give it?

Hosea 11:9 “I will not vent the full fury of my anger; I will not turn back to destroy Ephraim. For I am God and not man, the Holy One among you; I will not come in rage.”

We have many times turned our back on God but yet God has been faithful.

But what God hopes is that in His departure that they might “recognize their guilt and seek my face” and that they will “search for me in their distress”.

God’s condemnation is seen in light of the call to repent and turn back to Him

This book finishes with God calling on the people to repent from their sins and turn back to Him, it is a love song to His people.

-God will "forgive" their iniquity

-God will save them from their enemies

-God will "heal their apostasy", He will help them in their desire to turn back to Him.

-God will bring them back to their land.

-God will make them grow abundantly, rather than be barren

God’s faithfulness is most fully seen in the cross

The story of Gomer as our story

Hosea 13:14 CSB

I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death. Death, where are your barbs? Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion is hidden from my eyes.

Hosea 6:2–3 “He will revive us after two days, and on the third day he will raise us up so we can live in his presence. Let’s strive to know the Lord. His appearance is as sure as the dawn. He will come to us like the rain, like the spring showers that water the land.”

1 Corinthians 15:4 “that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,”