It's Not an Open Marriage (2)
Boundless Love • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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A couple of weeks ago I introduced Hosea and Gomer. God had instructed Hosea to marry a woman that would be unfaithful to him.
Gomer would serve to represent Israel and Judah who had been unfaithful to God. The sad reality is THERE IS A LITTLE GOMER IN ALL OF US.
Hosea’s prophecy ends up being full of hope, but it is also full of grief.
Just about every sentence of his prophecy is laced with God’s grieving heart for His wayward people.
Today we will focus on who Gomer represented. You see, Israel and Judah had been unfaithful to God. God had every right to withhold His mercy from them because of their unfaithfulness and spiritual adultery. God had every right to give them a “bill of divorcement” so to speak, but rather He told me this...
Say to your brethren, ‘My people,’ And to your sisters, ‘Mercy is shown.’
God’s redeeming love was going to make a way for them to once again experience His mercy and be known as “His people.” As wonderful and glorious as this message was, it did not negate how wicked they had been.
This is why God demanded them to REPENT! God was not going to have an “open marriage.” They had to make a choice!
“Bring charges against your mother, bring charges;
For she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband!
Let her put away her harlotries from her sight,
And her adulteries from between her breasts;
Lest I strip her naked
And expose her, as in the day she was born,
And make her like a wilderness,
And set her like a dry land,
And slay her with thirst.
God’s message through Hosea was clear…REPENT, OR ELSE! Israel and Judah had been unfaithful and God warned them that He was suspending His marital obligation to them if they refused to put away their “adulteress” ways.
It’s really important for you to understand it was not God’s desire to just be done with them. Yes, God delivered to them a hard message, but this hard message had a REDEEMING PURPOSE! God’s purpose behind the message was to HEAL the relationship, not sever it. It was Israel and Judah who had been unfaithful, not God!
So God demanded repentance! God made it crystal clear that He wasn’t interested in having an “OPEN MARRIAGE.” He demanded that she choose to “put away the adultery.”
Unfortunately, Israel and Judah, much like a prostitute or an adulteress/adulterer had exposed their “nakedness” to her immoral lovers and now God threatened to publicly expose her to the world if she didn’t repent.
God threatened to make her a “parched land”. A land that once flowed with “milk and honey” would be incapable of sustaining life. While Israel and Judah were running to these false god’s for fertility and blessings on her crops, she would find that the very thing she desired from her other lovers would be the very thing God would strip away from her!
Not only would Israel and Judah be affected if they continued in this immoral pursuit, but God told Hosea to warn them that their descendents would also pay a price for their immorality. He said:
“I will not have mercy on her children,
For they are the children of harlotry.
For their mother has played the harlot;
She who conceived them has behaved shamefully.
For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
Who give me my bread and my water,
My wool and my linen,
My oil and my drink.’
God wanted them to know that they weren’t just hurting themselves for forsaking Him, but they were sacrificing their children as well!
They were sacrificing their children for “gods” who they thought would give them more bread, and water, and wool, and oil. They were pursuing MORE, but in reality they and their children would end up with LESS, FAR LESS!
They were deluded! They thought the more “SUGAR DADDIES” they had the better. They thought more “SUGAR DADDIES” meant more stuff, more money, more security, more food, and more clothing…but in reality MORE “SUGAR DADDIES” just meant MORE suffering, MORE disappointment, MORE confusion, and MORE emptiness!
Prophet Jeremiah quoted God best when he delivered God’s message:
for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water.
They were forsaking the SOURCE of their blessings by chasing after CHEAP SUBSTITUTES that PROMISED more blessings but in reality ROBBED them of the very thing they were looking for!
God told them that He was going to cut off all access to these other lovers! He said...
“Therefore, behold,
I will hedge up your way with thorns,
And wall her in,
So that she cannot find her paths.
God was going to block Israel’s paths to these lovers.
Even though He would build a wall and surround their paths with thorns she would continue to desperately pursue these false “gods”. God would bring her to the end of herself with no where to turn but Him and then He would open the way for restoration...
She will chase her lovers,
But not overtake them;
Yes, she will seek them, but not find them.
Then she will say,
‘I will go and return to my first husband,
For then it was better for me than now.’
The very things they were running to all of these other lovers for…the grain, the fruit of the vine, the oil, the silver and the gold…they weren’t coming from the “Sugar Daddies”…they were coming from God Himself!
They were attributing God’s blessings to false “gods.” They were attributing their blessings to someone they created rather than the One who created them.
God went on to say...
“And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees,
Of which she has said,
‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me.’
So I will make them a forest,
And the beasts of the field shall eat them.
For she did not know
That I gave her grain, new wine, and oil,
And multiplied her silver and gold—
Which they prepared for Baal.
“They set up kings, but not by Me;
They made princes, but I did not acknowledge them.
From their silver and gold
They made idols for themselves—
That they might be cut off.
They took the silver and gold that God had provided for them and turned around and used it to make BAAL idols...
You know who Baal was correct? Baal was a Canaanite “god” who supposedly controlled storms and many believed he was responsible for both agricultral and human fertility. Baal was just a demonically inspired idol that had no control. We know from the Torah that God is the One who provides the grain, fruit of the vine, and the oil...
And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you.
To remind Israel and Judah where her blessings came from God was going to remove the blessings for a time. He was going to strip the land naked...
“Therefore I will return and take away
My grain in its time
And My new wine in its season,
And will take back My wool and My linen,
Given to cover her nakedness.
She had run to other lovers for provision, when in reality He was their provision. He didn’t just provide, He was their PROVISION! Had they forgotten what God had told them through Moses? Apparently they had...
“Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God:
“Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.
“Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
“Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
“Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
“But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
“Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.
“Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
“Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
“Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.
Then God told them...
Now I will uncover her lewdness
in the sight of her lovers,
and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.
And I will put an end to all her mirth,
her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths,
and all her appointed feasts.
And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,
of which she said,
‘These are my wages,
which my lovers have given me.’
I will make them a forest,
and the beasts of the field shall devour them.
And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals
when she burned offerings to them
and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry,
and went after her lovers
and forgot me, declares the Lord.
When God uncovered her sin and exposed her, she was helpless!
When God destroyed her vineyards and fig trees, she was helpless!
When God punished her for her spiritual adultery, she was helpless!
She had FORGOTTEN God…she REFUSED to acknowledge God’s goodness and authority! In the midst of enjoying God’s blessings they forgot the very One from whom the blessings came...
When they had pasture, they were filled;
They were filled and their heart was exalted;
Therefore they forgot Me.
What was the purpose of all this destruction? Was God just vengeful and full of wrath and anger. He would have been right to just completely wipe Israel and Judah off the map, but that was not His intention. His intention was to show Israel and Judah the weakness and insufficiency of these idols and empty lovers so she could once again see Him for who He was…her Provider, her Lover, her Creator, her God!
In the midst of “NO MERCY” God once again chose to show MERCY. Though they were not acting like HIS PEOPLE, He wanted them to know they were HIS PEOPLE and so God decided to do this...
“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
Will bring her into the wilderness,
And speak comfort to her.
God would bring His people to the end of themselves, God would discipline them, not because He didn’t love them, but because HE DID LOVE THEM! He loved them too much to leave them alone, to let them self-destruct, to just turn away from them.
He loved them like a parent loves their children. Like a parent who sees a child heading into danger and maybe they have to do something extreme to get their attention, but in doing so they are seeking ultimately to rescue them, not destroy them!
God would have to destroy each and every one of Israel and Judah’s crutches before they would realize how much they needed Him and how much He really loved them.
He had to bring them to the end of themselves and bring them into a “wilderness” so they would be free from the distractions and HEAR Him so the HEALING process could begin. And notice what He did...
He “ALLURED HER.” God spoke TENDERLY to her. Oh yes, God can raise His voice when necessary, but God can also WHISPER. The idea of “allurement” is the same word in our Hebrew language as “SEDUCE.” You see Israel and Judah had been “seduced” into depravity and idolatry, and now God is “SEDUCING” them back to Himself. It’s the same idea as Delilah seducing Samson, yet God uses this passionate speech to woo Israel and Judah back to Himself, rather into sin.
He seduces her in the wilderness, where she was completely separated from all of those past lovers and He has her undivided attention! And when He has her undivided attention He will...
I will give her her vineyards from there,
And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope;
She shall sing there,
As in the days of her youth,
As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.
Do you know what the Valley of Achor is? The Valley of Achor is where Achan and his family were punished for bringing trouble upon Israel. Its name means the “Valley of Trouble.” There’s a pile of stones there that cover the bodies of Achan and his family as a reminder of the trouble that he caused the whole nation! But did you see what God was going to do? He’s going to take this valley that is known for TROUBLE and He’s going to turn it into a DOOR OF HOPE!
God said it this way to the prophet Isaiah
Sharon shall be a fold of flocks,
And the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down,
For My people who have sought Me.
Only our God can take a valley of trouble and misery and turn it into a DOORWAY of HOPE!
Look at what God was going to do for His wayward bride...
“And it shall be, in that day,”
Says the Lord,
“That you will call Me ‘My Husband,’
And no longer call Me ‘My Master,’
For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals,
And they shall be remembered by their name no more.
In that day I will make a covenant for them
With the beasts of the field,
With the birds of the air,
And with the creeping things of the ground.
Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth,
To make them lie down safely.
“I will betroth you to Me forever;
Yes, I will betroth you to Me
In righteousness and justice,
In lovingkindness and mercy;
I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness,
And you shall know the Lord.
He was going to offer her a new beginning! The betrothal period would start over and they would begin again. The name on their lips would no longer be “Baal” but “Yahweh.” The violence, and drought that had plagued their land would be removed and righteousness, justice, love, mercy and faithfulness would take its place.
Once again God told me to remind them...
“It shall come to pass in that day
That I will answer,” says the Lord;
“I will answer the heavens,
And they shall answer the earth.
The earth shall answer
With grain,
With new wine,
And with oil;
They shall answer Jezreel.
Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth,
And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy;
Then I will say to those who were not My people,
‘You are My people!’
And they shall say, ‘You are my God!’ ”
Yes the Valley of Jezreel was a place of great bloodshed and violence…but you do remember what the name means? Last week we found out that Jezreel means “God sows.” That’s exactly what God will do…He is going to turn this valley that once was known for bloodshed and misery into a valley known for grain, and wine, and oil. Not only will God sow material things, but God will SOW Himself in that land!
The name Jezreel was special to Hosea. God told him to name their son Jezreel, which at first seemed to be a pretty bad name, but after learning what God was going to do there, Hosea realized that Jezreel wasn’t a name of hopelessness after all…it was really a name of HOPE…because that’s the God we serve…He gives HOPE when all seems HOPELESS!
God would have MERCY on the one named NO MERCY because that’s WHO God is, He is a MERCIFUL GOD!
God would make a people out of NOT MY PEOPLE because that’s what God does, He ADOPTS those whom it seems are un-adoptable!
Even the Apostle Paul alluded to this in his letter to the Romans...
As He says also in Hosea:
“I will call them My people, who were not My people,
And her beloved, who was not beloved.”
“And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them,
‘You are not My people,’
There they shall be called sons of the living God.”
What does this have to do with us in 2024?
God is a Patient, Loving, Kind, Merciful Teacher, But He is Willing to Teach the Hard Way if Necessary
God is a Patient, Loving, Kind, Merciful Teacher, But He is Willing to Teach the Hard Way if Necessary
And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons:
“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord,
Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
For whom the Lord loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives.”
If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
God loves YOU so much that He is willing to pursue you and to repeatedly send you WAKE UP calls while you keep hitting the snooze button. The discipline He gives His children is not meant to DESTROY them, but keep them FROM DESTRUCTION.
But He also loves you enough to give you FREE WILL and if you choose to IGNORE the discipline and choose to IGNORE the WAKE UP CALLS you are slitting your own throat!
Something else that we see is...
God Still Demands His Bride to be Faithful…It’s Not an Open Marriage
God Still Demands His Bride to be Faithful…It’s Not an Open Marriage
Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
God DEMANDS faithfulness from His bride! Grace is not a license to sin, grace is not a license to live any way you please, and to sleep with who you want, and to act as if God isn’t God. He calls for His children to GLORIFY Him in their bodies! When we run to the “SUGAR DADDIES” of this world we are ALIGNING OURSELVES with God’s enemies!
So in His grace and mercy...
God Invites YOU to Return to YOUR First Love
God Invites YOU to Return to YOUR First Love
Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.
Does Jesus deserve to be any less than your first love? Then why isn’t He? Why does He get relegated to some unimportant place in our life?
“But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?
Why do people call Him Lord of their finances but make financial decisions without ever consulting Him? Why do people call Him Lord of their bodies, but live like their bodies are not His temple? Why do people call Him Lord of their sexuality, but not view sex as sacred and continue to pollute His temple with pornography and subject His temple to sexual relations with someone they aren’t married to?
We will never return to our FIRST LOVE until we REMEMBER and REPENT! Repentance means that we TURN from anything and everything that is hindering our walk with Christ and surrender to Him, His will and His Word!
But maybe the problem is, not that you have left your “first love”…maybe the real problem is He has NEVER been your first love. There has never been a time in your life where YOU embraced Christ as YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR and you have NEVER been made a New Creation in Christ Jesus!
