The Consequences of Sin

Consequence (2-5)

Alienation (2)

When Adam and Eve sinned, the first result was their alienation from God. This is what happens to Gomer:

Hosea 2:2 (ESV)

2 “Plead with your mother, plead—

for she is not my wife,

and I am not her husband—

that she put away her whoring from her face,

and her adultery from between her breasts;

Gomer has abandoned the marriage almost as soon as she was joined to Hosea as his wife. This is a warning for her to stop her adultery lest she be divorced on legitimate grounds.

Gomer depicted the Israelites, who by their worship of false gods (Baal) committed adultery against God and violated their union with Him. They were breaking God’s covenant with them (you shall have no other gods before me - Ex. 20:3).

It appears that Israel presumed upon their covenant relationship with God. They thought their covenant heritage meant that God would never cast them out, even if they were unfaithful. But God demands that she put away her whoring (v. 2).

The prophecy of Isaiah against Israel describes this well

Isaiah 59:2 (ESV)

2 but your iniquities have made a separation

between you and your God,

and your sins have hidden his face from you

so that he does not hear.

Shame (3-5)

Hosea 2:3 (ESV)

3 lest I strip her naked

and make her as in the day she was born,

and make her like a wilderness,

and make her like a parched land,

and kill her with thirst.

One commentator noted that in some ancient rites, when a husband divorced his wife for adultery, he would strip her naked before the community, thus displaying the shame of her sexual sin.

For Israel, this was probably a reference to the shame and humiliation that the people were about to receive at the hands of the Assyrians. Their weakness would be revealed to many.

Gomer and Israel would become a pathetic spectacle. Made to be like a wilderness and a parched land and will die of thirst.

No satisfaction in her adulterous ways.

The shame did not end with Gomer. Her children suffered this shame as well:

Hosea 2:4–5 (ESV)

4 Upon her children also I will have no mercy,

because they are children of whoredom.

5 For their mother has played the whore;

she who conceived them has acted shamefully.

For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,

who give me my bread and my water,

my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’

Israel was drawn away from faith in the true God so that the way of His mercy was unknown to them.

Provision (6-15)

Painful protection (6-8)

Saving her from herself

a little context here: We know from verse 5 that Gomer was going after her lovers to get something from them. She a discontented wife to say the least.

She depicts the unsettledness that was true of Israel in their idolatry. They pursued the false gods of the Canaanite cult that was centered on fertility as its god. This explains why sex was so central to their acts of worship. Baal was seen as the source of all fertility and worshipping him would ensure good harvests which would lead to prosperity.

God responds out of love for His people.

Hosea 2:6 (ESV)

6 Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns,

and I will build a wall against her,

so that she cannot find her paths.

The imagery would have been familiar to Hosea’s audience. Walls of thorns would be used to inhibit the straying of livestock. It was a protection for them.

God would place barriers in Gomer’s path to disrupt her relationships with her lovers. Protecting her from herself.

And God’s aim is made clear in verses 7-8:

We are reminded of God goodness both in protecting us from the full consequences of it (v. 7)

Hosea 2:7 (ESV)

7 She shall pursue her lovers

but not overtake them,

and she shall seek them

but shall not find them.

Then she shall say,

‘I will go and return to my first husband,

for it was better for me then than now.’

And reminding us of His goodness towards us (v. 8)

Hosea 2:8 (ESV)

8 And she did not know

that it was I who gave her

the grain, the wine, and the oil,

and who lavished on her silver and gold,

which they used for Baal.

Painful Discipline (9-13)

Reminding her what she really needs

Evidently, Gomer did not receive the loving efforts of her husband. She did not repent of her adulterous ways, so the Lord responds with His loving, yet painful discipline.

Since being provided with what she needed did not bring her back, what she needed was withdrawn.

Hosea 2:9 (ESV)

9 Therefore I will take back

my grain in its time,

and my wine in its season,

and I will take away my wool and my flax,

which were to cover her nakedness.

Israel had a concern for the fertility of their land, and appealed to the god of fertility to provide for it. The true God disciplines them by taking away not only the fertility of their land but their presence in the land.

With no wool for clothes (v. 9) Gomer’s nakedness would be exposed, just as Israel’s poverty would lat bare the emptiness of her idolatry.

This brought about shame:

Hosea 2:10 (ESV)

10 Now I will uncover her lewdness

in the sight of her lovers,

and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.

God would also remove the joy from Israel’s feasts.

Hosea 2:11 (ESV)

11 And I will put an end to all her mirth,

her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths,

and all her appointed feasts.

The feats and weekly sabbath were given to Israel for her spiritual nourishment and blessing.

God will not bless idolatry in whatever form it appears and for whatever reason we engage in it.

Idolatry reflects a forgetting of God.

Hosea 2:13 (ESV)

13 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.

Pursuing Love (14-15)

The Valley of Achor

Joshua 7 tells us of how, after the Israelites cast down the walls of Jericho, they spied a small force at the nearby town of Ai. Joshua sent up a force of 3000 men, who were impacted with many casualties. The cause of the debacle was discovered in the tent of Achan, who had stolen forbidden treasures from the fall of Jericho. When Achan’s sin was disclosed, he was stoned to death and his remains were burned in the Valley of Achor.

The name Achor means trouble, but when we get to v. 15, we see a stunning reversal. Hosea foretells that the place of judgement would become an instrument of mercy:

Hosea 2:15 (ESV)

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.

So this is God’s third response to the sin of Gomer. First was painful protection, then painful discipline now pursuing love. All of this to reclaim His people.

Hosea is seeking the heart of Gomer and God was seeking the heart of Israel.

Hosea was going to take Gomer back to the place where they fell in love. God was calling to the people of Israel to recall the place from where He set His people free from their bondage.

The Valley of Achor is pictured as a place where Israel’s love for God was purified. It was a place of trouble, but also a place where God’s grace would shine.

In the valley of Achor, one man died so that God’s judgement on sin was turned aside. In the first Valley of Achor, it was Achan who died for his own sin. But who would die in the valley to which Hosea says God will bring His people? The answer: Jesus Christ, God’s own Son, who had no sin of His own but died for the guilt of all who trust in Him. God placed our “trouble” on the back of the only pone who could bear it, so that there at the cross a door of hope would open for all who believe.