Passion to Save the Lost Part 2
Passion to Save the Lost • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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What’s a Marriage Worth?
What’s a Marriage Worth?
We live in a day where it seems everything is about personal and immediate gratification. It seems everything is disposable and cheapened. But this is nothing new. Throughout the Scriptures we see where man has devalued relationship and life itself. One particular story in Scripture that stands out, regarding prodigals and lost sheep in light of God’s enduring mercy, is found in the book of the Prophet Hosea.
The Prophet Hosea had lived through a few righteous kings but also several really wicked kings (760 to 720 B.C.) in a divided kingdom after David and Solomon. In fact, his name comes from the same root Hebrew word as Jesus, Joshua and Jason meaning salvation. Hosea has watched Israel become an extremely adulterous nation and turn far away from her God that has delivered her many times over.
In this story, God has the prophet marry a woman, in prophetic similitude of Israel’s relationship with God, to reveal how much she has broken the Father’s heart.
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.” So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
Why would God do such a thing as to have a holy prophet marry a whoring bride? What is a whore by definition? It is defined as a person (male or female) who commits adulterous sexual acts promiscuously for personal gain. In the Hebrew, the word for adultery and idolatry mean the same thing. They are both the breaking of covenant or prostitution of intimacy. In fact, the Hebrew word zimmah זִמָּה is used for both adultery and idolatry meaning wickedness, uncleaness, lewdness and immorality (the transgression of God’s ethical standard of righteousness).
The reason God would do such a thing with Hosea and Gomer is to reveal His love for Israel and Gomer. God was not trying to condemn or exploit Gomer but call her to repentance and right relationship in holiness (sacred sanctification; monogamous devotion).
This is why “marriage” is so sacred to God. This is why the world has so cheapened and perverted it. You cannot truly understand the heart of the Lord if you do not understand His sacred view of the sanctity of the marriage covenant. To try and have an intimate relationship, like that of a husband and wife, outside of the covenant of marriage God views as sinful, immoral, and idolatrous. So many want the divine benefits and favor of a covenant marriage without actually entering into the covenant itself. In this story of Gomer, she, like Israel, wanted to have her cake and eat it to. She wanted the benefits of marriage covenant but she also wanted the pagan ways of the world. In Hosea, God is trying to get Israel and Gomer to remember the value or worth of the covenant that they had.
Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take with you words and return to the Lord; say to him, “Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips.
Many scholars debate if Gomer was a prostitute or not when Hosea married her. Or, did God already know something of her heart’s bend towards promiscuity before the prophet married her? Knowing the consistency of God’s character and law I would say she was not a prostitute when Hosea married her but her heart was promiscuous with the pagan world around her. God would not contradict His own law and integrity. God knew her heart just as He knew man’s inclination towards Yetzer ha Ra (evil) and Israel’s inclination towards idolatry.
And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them.
Regardless, the intent of God to reveal the weight of our sin breaking His heart remains. Since the beginning, we find that Adonai is a God of covenant and that He has chosen to reveal that about Himself through a covenant we call “marriage” (b’riyth בְּרִית) which is defined as a covenant.
In Genesis we see God make several covenants. He makes a covenant with Himself, He makes a covenant with creation, He makes a covenant between Adam and Eve, and He makes a covenant with Abraham. We also see in Scripture that God makes a covenant with Israel. God does not take marriage (covenant) lightly. God reveals to us Himself, His holiness, His mercy His desire and intent for us through covenant. It is through covenant in Christ alone that we are redeemed and given salvation. How can we take so flippantly the covenant of marriage among our own yet expect to tell God we value our covenant of marriage with Him through Christ? We cannot have our cake and eat it to.
This we see illustrated in the story of Gomer. First, we see the names of the children and their prophetic revelation. Jezreel refers to Israel’s captivity to the Assyrians and the justice to be brought to the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel. Second, Hosea and Gomer have a daughter who God tells them to name “No Mercy”. And third, they had a son who God named “Not My People”.
And after these three children Gomer returns to the environment of adultery and idolatry that has been drawing her heart away. But God sends Hosea to pay the price of her redemption after having prostituted herself in pagan adultery and idolatry.
And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.”
It is interesting to note that Gomer’s father’s name, Diblaim דִּבְלַיִם meaning “two cakes”. The Hebrew word for “cake” here is ashisha אֲשִׁישָׁה which tells us that these are not just any “cakes” but are pagan sacrificial offerings. And the root of this word is ‘es אֵשׁ meaning fire and the anger of God. So, you see further the context of the story of Gomer here in Hosea. God is addressing the adultery and idolatry of Israel.
The truth is that we all carried “de blame” of adulterous and idolatrous hearts kindling the wrath of God. But like Gomer and Israel, God has shown us His great mercy.
and I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’ ”
“And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’
And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.
Notice the contrast and dichotomy (mutually exclusive: nothing can belong simultaneously to both parts) that God presents. The Hebrew word ba’al בַּעַל means husband or Lord. But they had taken other gods as husbands or lords. God is saying that you cannot have it both ways.
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?
The Greek word Belial Βελίαλ is derived from the Hebrew Bliya’al בְּלִיַּעַל meaning worthless, evil, wicked, ungodly apostasy. In other words, there should be nothing of wickedness, worthlessness, evil and ungodly in our relationship with God or each other.
Through Hosea and Gomer’s marriage, God is trying to show Israel what a “marriage” or “covenant” is worth. The value I place on my marriage is directly related to the value I place on my wife, my children and my God. And if we as believers do not place the highest value on this covenant with our Lord to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength and love each other as ourselves, how then shall we lead those who are lost to such great a salvation?
