An Unfaithful Wife and the Consequences.

Intro

As a culture, we have forgotten how to be faithful. We don't know how to keep our word, and be true to it no matter what may come. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in the alarming divorce rate here in the west. [find divorce rate statistics]. Since no-fault divorce was instituted in the 60’s, the divorce rate has seen a steady rise. So much so that younger generations, such as late Millennials and Gen Z, are eschewing marriage altogether. While there are no simple answers to why this is, with divorce and the lack of commitment to be true to our word, it is safe to chalk that up to a more fundamental commitment that our society is sliding further away from. And that is, our commitment to be faithful to the Lord.

The church seems to be only trailing slightly behind these trends in the broader culture, leading to rising divorce rates, including an alarming rise of singles within the church. I believe there is a correlation between that and the church's lack of fidelity to God. Throughout scripture, God uses the imagery of a husband and wife to illustrate his relationship to His people Israel. When they were unfaithful to their covenant vows, they had forsaken the LORD by committing spiritual adultery. Scripture often uses frank and very descriptive language to describe Israel’s adultery as whoring after other gods.

This imagery was used to make the people of God see the devastating nature of unfaithfulness to the covenant. This summer we are going to be spending some time in the book of Hosea. In which, God calls the prophet to denounce Israel’s unfaithfulness through his own marriage to his unfaithful wife, Gomer. So over the next fourteen weeks, we will look closely at this sign-act of Hosea, his marriage, and his children, and the extended parable which is expounded on throughout his ministry over the course of the whole book. Hosea is a stirring call to Return to the LORD and Remain Faithful.

Hosea 1

Who is Hosea and what is a Sign-Act?

Hosea

Hosea was a prophet to the northern ten tribes of Israel. After the kingdom was divided during the reign of Solomon’s son Rehoboam, the ten northern tribes were given to Jeroboam to rule over. He quickly led Israel into idolatry by introducing two “new” worship sites in Dan and Beersheba, where the people could worship Yahweh without having to go down to Jerusalem. Not only were these new sites, but he also introduced a new priesthood and different forms of worship, including resurrecting the golden calves of Israel’s past. Unlike in the south with Judah, the northern tribes were characterized by sedition and intrigues at court, with no real dynasty forming, some kings only lasting a few days. False worship and a constantly shifting monarchy led to an unstable society.

Hosea was a child during the somewhat long and prosperous reign of Jeroboam II (786-746), which was a time of expansion, attended with decadence. The kings listed represent mostly Eighth-century kings in the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel. His name has been somewhat butchered as it made its way into English, and should be Hoshea which in Greek is Yeshua: which as you know in English is Jesus, meaning God saves. He began his ministry somewhere around 750 BC until sometime before the fall of the northern kingdom to the Assyrians. His contemporaries in the North were Jonah and Amos, and in the south: Micah and Isaiah.

A prophet is a spokesman for God, he is God's lawman, prosecuting the terms of the covenant by either calling them to be faithful, or encouraging them to remain faithful offering hope by way of reminding them of God’s promises. It was a hard job, the people hated and killed the prophets because of their messages. For it wasn’t only common people that they denounced, but kings, priests, and other false prophets. That meant they were brushing up against the powerful and elite in their culture.

Sign-Act

One of the ways God had called them to declare his message was through sign-acts. These were nonverbal (nonverbal dramatizations) of the message. Some of these are simple, like Jeremiah shattering a clay jar to show how God would shatter Jerusalem (Jer. 19), others would have been incredibly unpleasant like Isaiah having to walk around naked for three years, Or Ezekiel having to cook his food on cow dung. Essentially a sign-act says Israel’s behavior is like this. Hosea begins his ministry with God’s call to perform a sign-act.

Hosea 1:2 (ESV) — 2 When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.”

The point of a sign-act was to convey in very visceral ways the messages God wants to get across to his people. Sometimes God puts his message in a story, other times he calls on his prophets to act out the story, making it even more “real” to the people.

Hosea’s Wife

In Hosea's first call, God instructs him to marry a prostitute and have children with her. All sign-acts in scripture follow a twofold pattern: a call to act something out, followed by an interpretation of its message, usually in the form of a simile. True to form, Hosea is called to act out the LORD’s relationship with Israel. Just as Hosea’s wife is unfaithful, so too has Israel been unfaithful to her husband, Yahweh.

Before we delve into the specifics of this simile, we need to address the elephant in the room. Would/did God actually instruct the prophet to do such a thing? How could he? Or is this an allegory, or merely a literary device? To complicate matters further, there is the added complication of what to make of the unnamed woman in Ch. 3. Is she Gomer, or someone else? There are no less than eight different interpretations of this enacted parable, each of which shapes the way you read the whole book in unique ways. I am not going to explain each one, many of which are a blend of opinions, but I will give you the broad outlines of the disagreements, and my own opinion. I'll tip my hat now, by saying that I agree with the biblical text as it is written, trusting that God did instruct Hosea to marry an immoral woman and have children tainted by her immorality.

Calvin believed that God would never instruct a prophet to marry an immoral woman. He thought this was merely a “vision” the prophet saw. But here Calvin errs, and introduces more problems, especially when it comes to prophetic calling. He believes that if Hosea actually did this, it would make him immoral, and undermine his prophetic ministry. Others think she wasn’t immoral when he married her but became so later. Still others think this was an allegory that he used as a teaching method, personalizing the story of Israel and her husband God, but that the “real” Gomer was chaste and holy.

However, you choose to explain away this call, you end up undermining the veracity of scripture, and the intended message of the whole book. Instead of doubt, we should always begin with trust. Knowing first that every word is inspired by the trustworthy God, “with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (Jas. 1:17). Secondly, if this doesn’t impugn the character of God that his bride, Israel, is unfaithful to him, then why would it impugn the character (and message) of Hosea? Further, nothing in this text is excusing, or making light of Gomer’s sexual immorality. If anything, it frames that sin in a personal story, highlighting its devastating effects on a marriage, and the costly sacrifice of the husband to forgive her–all of which is analogous to how God is with Israel.

So God instructs Hosea to marry Gomer, who in some way was already an immoral woman. After they are married, she conceives and bears Hosea (a legitimate son). But the paternity of the subsequent children is questionable. Notice the grammar in v. 3, 6, & 8: she “bore him a son,” “she bore a daughter,” “she bore a son.” Then it would seem from the flow of the narrative to ch. 3 that at some point she abandons Hosea for her lovers and falls into destitution, from which he redeems her, bringing her back to live with him as his wife.

Before we look at the children and the consequences of Israel’s infidelity, I want to draw out two things from Hosea’s call to take as his wife an immoral woman. First, God calls us to do hard things. Secondly, all idolatry is like committing adultery against God, whose covenant with us we must be faithful to keep.

On God Calling You to Do Hard Things

The prophets are examples to us that God calls on his people to do hard things. While the nature of your call is different than Hosea’s, his call will require you to do hard things too.

Matthew 5:10–11 (ESV) — 10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

1 John 3:13 (ESV) — 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.

The world hates righteousness. It hates those who follow Christ and attempt to live their lives in conformity to his word. The call Jesus issues you to follow him is a call to die every day. To suffer against the pangs of our own sinful flesh, which is in a constant war against the spirit, tempting us to want what we should hate. We also are called to suffer while we await the redemption of our bodies, which sag and groan under the weight of sin, and which are born slouching towards the grave.

There are general things which are common to us all that are “hard things” God calls us to do, and there are specific callings, unique to you as an individual. These revolve around the particular call God gives to you to live faithfully with what he has given to you, with your particular vocation, your particular wife and children, and this particular time and place in history.

What will you do when God calls you to do hard things? In our text, Hosea is faithful to answer the call, but other prophets, such as Jonah, were at first reluctant to respond. Will you answer the call to do “hard things” for Jesus? Or will you decide that can wait for another day? The call of God is not an easy call, and this side of glory, it never will be. You can run from it, or you can embrace the suffering, despise the shame, and for the joy set before you endure the cross.

All Idolatry is Adultery Against God

God says that Hosea should take an immoral wife and have children by her because “the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.” Gomer’s unfaithfulness to Hosea is like Israel’s unfaithfulness to God. As the rest of this book will make abundantly clear, by “forsaking the LORD” the prophet means that Israel has broken their covenant vows to be faithful to Yahweh and him alone. They broke these vows when they whored after other gods. All idolatry is adultery against God. He has made us, and we are his, we are his bride, and to forsake him is to worship someone or something else in his place, which is idolatry.

Calvin famously said that our hearts are idol factories, churning out new idols daily. An idol is anything that seduces us away from faithfulness to God. Hosea was faithful to his call, Gomer was not. If you're honest, there is a lot more of Gomer in you than Hosea. We were that immoral wife when God came and married us to himself. He stooped to us in our sinful and lost condition, and washed us clean, purifying us from all our sins, and asking only that we be faithful to him.

Sometimes in our self-righteousness, we don’t consider that we were ever immoral before being married to God. We get this false notion that somehow God picked you because of how lovely you were. But nothing could be further from the truth, you were naked and exposed as a whore through your idolatry when God came by and picked you. It was his love for you that made you lovely. “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (1 Cor. 4:7).

The pain of an unfaithful spouse is a deep wound that often leaves scars that never seem to heal. We feel viscerally how utterly devastating it is for Hosea to endure such suffering. But that only serves to illustrate that we are doing the same thing to God when we refuse to remain faithful to him. When framed in the story of Hosea and Gomer, the story of our unfaithfulness to God should jar us out of idolatry to return to the LORD and remain faithful. Not only that, but unfaithfulness has serious consequences, which Hosea’s children serve to illustrate, which we will consider next.

And the Consequences…

I will be brief here, as the rest of the book fleshes out the consequences for Israel due to her unfaithfulness to God. Each child that Gomer bears serves as a walking warning—calling Israel to repentance, lest these consequences overtake them. These children's names are a sign of God's judgment on Israel's unfaithfulness.

I remember in fifth grade, I punched another boy on the playground in the face, giving him a bloody nose because he called my mom a whore. I was defending her honor because I knew she was true to my father. But imagine if you knew your mom was a whore, and your paternity was in question because "your mom got around." Shame and disgrace marked these children, which is what the text means when it says "have children of whoredom." So, let's look at each of these children and the significance of their names.

Loss of Military Might

Notice in v. Hosea is called to name his first-born son Jezreel,

For in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”

If you recall the story of Jehu and his rise to power, it was one of the bloodiest coups in history. Elisha sends a boy to tell Jehu, a commander, this message:

“Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, I anoint you king over the people of the LORD, over Israel. 7 And you shall strike down the house of Ahab your master, so that I may avenge on Jezebel the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the LORD. 8 For the whole house of Ahab shall perish, and I will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel. 9 And I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah. 10 And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the territory of Jezreel, and none shall bury her.”(2 Ki 9:6–10).

He zealously carries out the Lord's mission, which the Lord commends him for, but in his desire to be faithful, he did not go far enough. As we read in 2 Kings 10:30:

And the LORD said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in carrying out what is right in my eyes, and have done to the house of Ahab according to all that was in my heart, your sons of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.” But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the LORD, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam, which he made Israel to sin.

The name Jezreel would remind Israel of the exploits of Jehu, but in a startling reversal, God promises through Hosea that what the bloody nature of Jehu’s overthrow of the house of Omri would also happen to Israel. Just as God used Jehu to punish the apostasy of Ahab and Jezebel, so too would God send someone to punish Israel for their unfaithfulness. God would put an end to the kingdom of Israel by breaking their military might, here signified by the bow. They would lose both king and nation as a consequence for their unfaithfulness.

It turns out that without God, all the military might in the world, and the greatest kings, will not be enough to avert the disastrous effects of turning away from God. We think as Israel did, that battles are won because of military prowess, superior firepower, better tactics, acquiring the high ground, etc. But it turns out the greatest source of victory is our standing before God. Are we walking faithfully with him, keeping the covenant, and relying on him for the victory? That’s what counts in battle.

The same principle operates in our daily lives. God gives us success, he blesses you in some way, and instead of acknowledging him, you get this creeping thought that somehow you are responsible for the lasting string of good luck. Then instead of gratitude in reliance on the kind providence of God, you begin to rely on yourself. Watch out, for with the same means that God used to lift you up, he can bring you down.

The first inevitable consequence of unfaithfulness is a loss of things that we rely on us to bring us success without respect to God. Things like money, power, influence, and security. For Israel, that was the loss of king and country, for you it may be the loss of a job, or your health, or on a societal level, the loss of our freedom. For whenever you throw off the rule of Christ, you open yourself to the rule of tyrants, who are more than willing to subjugate you and strip you of your autonomy and freedom.

Loss of Mercy

The second child Gomer conceived, as a consequence of her unfaithfulness, the child will be called Lo-Ruhama (No Mercy) For God “will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all.” (v.6). What could be worse to hear than that? The point of naming her that was to prompt a question by those who hear her name. “Have you heard that Hosea named his daughter ‘no mercy,’ he must be angry with Gomer again, she has probably been unfaithful to him. Maybe the girl is not his. Why on earth does he stay with that woman? Why doesn’t he give her a certificate of divorce?” at which Hosea could then say, “it's not her that has no mercy, but you Israel. God will no longer be merciful to you to pardon your sins.” Just as Nathan did to David, in his sin with Bathsheba. Nathan confronts David with a parable about a rich man who took a poor man's only lamb, leading David to condemn the rich man. After which Nathan says, “you are the man!” The name is provocative for a reason, to illustrate Israel’s condition.

Mercy is not getting what you are guilty of. God says no longer will I cover your sins; no longer will I hide my face from them. But I will repay you for your sins. I have patiently waited for you to return to me, yet you continue to whore after other gods. From now on, I will not restrain my wrath by showing you mercy.

Excursus on Judah

Yet, there is hope for Judah. But why does Judah show up here? It’s highly likely that the book of Hosea was compiled in the form we have it now after his life and ministry. Probably after the northern tribes of Israel were exiled by the Assyrians, but before the Babylonian captivity of Judah. Israel was a warning to Judah of what not to do. Israel was the unfaithful sister, and Judah was to learn from the consequences.

Not only would they see these things come to pass, confirming the truthfulness of Hosea as a prophet, but it would serve as an encouragement to them when they faced the same enemies that destroyed Israel. We can’t help but think of the story from Second Kings 18-19 of Sennacherib and his taunts that he would destroy Judah. He mocked Hezekiah, saying that they should not trust in their God because other nations had trusted in their gods and they were now his subjects. Hezekiah is distraught over these taunts, but God sends Isaiah to encourage him, and in answer to his prayer, an angel of the Lord attacks the camp of the Assyrians at night and 185,000 are killed. Then after returning home, Sennacherib is killed in the house of his god while he worshipped by two of his sons.

God will save Judah, he “will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen” (Hos 1:7).

Loss of their God

As bleak as this all was, it actually gets worse with the third child, and his sign-name. “And the LORD said, “Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”” (Hos. 1:9).

What made Israel unique? It wasn’t their land, or their military might, or their technological development. What made Israel unique was that they were the LORD’s people, they belonged to Him, as a wife belongs to her husband.

There have been times in Israel’s history where God has wanted to give them up as a people. At one point, he wanted to start fresh with Moses after the golden-calf incident. But now, what was only a threat will become a reality. To lose their status as God’s people, means not only that they lose all the benefits of belonging to the people of God, but they lose God himself. “I am not your God.”

God has always been much more interested in establishing an intimate covenant relationship with man, than in submission for submission's sake. He wanted a bride that he could delight in, dote on, care for, protect and love. All he asked in return was that she be faithful to him by keeping the covenant. But Israel was an unfaithful wife, discontent with the boundaries of God’s covenant love she longed for other gods. And God, as Hosea demonstrates throughout these first three chapters of Hosea, was patient, constantly sending his prophets to warn Israel to return to the Lord and remain faithful.

Conclusion

Be sure a turn from the Lord is a turn towards something else, but that unfaithfulness, akin as it is to marital infidelity, has disastrous consequences which Hosea made abundantly clear in the sign-names he gives to his children. But even amid this dire warning, we see glimmers of hope at the prospect of restoration. Israel has been unfaithful, and there are consequences, but even these God will turn and use for the good of his people. They will be broken in battle, and God’s compassion will grow cool as he turns them out saying, “No Mercy and Not my People.” But as we will see next week this is only for a time, for before too long he will restore his people from exile, and he will speak tenderly to them again saying to them “you are my people” and “you have received mercy” (Hos. 2:1)

No married person desires their spouse to be unfaithful. We are rightly horrified at the prospect. Yet, we do the same thing to God often without thinking about it. We want the benefits of being God’s people, of having our sins forgiven, but we also want to play the field. Where the Lord demands trust and loyalty we offer half-hearted commitments since it is hard to hold fast to the Lord while double-fisting idols. God will not settle for second best, and his patience, while incredibly long-suffering, does have limits. It may be that if your unfaithfulness persists he has exile in mind. Hosea’s unfaithful wife, and the children of consequence are a strong warning to Return to the Lord and Remain faithful. Amen.