Relentless Love (Hosea) - Week 5
Relentless Love • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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- So this morning we are concluding our series “Relentless Love” where we have been looking at the life and teachings of the ancient Jewish prophet Hosea.
- And if you’ve missed parts of the series, you are welcome to go back onto our Facebook page and catch up, but for this morning I want us to consider one final idea that we can learn through Hosea’s life and teachings.
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- Hosea 1:2-3
o The Lord began to speak through Hosea. He said to him, “Go. Marry a woman who has sex with anyone she wants. Have children with her. Do this because the people of the land are like that kind of wife. They have not been faithful to me.” So Hosea married Gomer. She was the daughter of Diblaim. Gomer became pregnant and had a son by Hosea.
- We’ve returned to these words again and again over the last five weeks.
- Because this is the entire message of Hosea in a nutshell.
- As we said in our first week, if anyone knows anything about Hosea, they know about this.
- Hosea and Gomer.
- The faithful husband, and the unfaithful wife.
- Fourteen chapters are all summarized here.
- And, in my study for this series, I came across scholars and commentaries that would address these words in the following way:
- “Think about this, Hosea is a good man, a righteous man, a respected Jewish prophet.”
- “And God tells him to do this.”
- “This would cost him his reputation in the eyes of many.”
- “This would cost him his comfort.”
- “This would cost him a lot.”
- “How much did Hosea give up to be obedient to God’s call on his life?”
- “And how willing are you to do the same?”
- “Is there anything God could ask you to do that would be too much?”
- “Hosea didn’t say ‘no’ to God, so make sure you don’t say ‘no’ to God either.”
- Oof.
- There it is.
- Mic drop.
- And I think there’s a place for that perspective, and perhaps that’s something that we can address at some other point in the future.
- But as I mapped this series out, as I tried to break things up into 5 weeks of sermons for you, I just couldn’t stomach the idea of ending the series that way.
- “Hosea was obedient to God, now let’s go and be obedient to God.”
- It just didn’t sit right with me.
- Why?
- Because that assumes that in this analogy that I am the Hosea of the story.
- And I’m not.
- These words right here tell me who Hosea is representing, and it’s not me.
- It’s God.
- God is the Hosea in the analogy.
- Which would make me… the Gomer.
- And so I think there’s a place to talk about obedience to God, and I believe that the sacrifices of those who have followed God are good for us to consider.
- But, with one last week in this series, I want to end it a little differently (or perhaps, at the opposite end of the spectrum).
- I want to speak, not to the “Hosea’s” who are obediently following God’s calling on their lives.
- Rather, I want to speak to the Gomer’s, to all of us who struggle with faithlessness, we walk the wrong directions, we get ourselves into messes that we can’t get out of.
- Because if you learn nothing else from this series then I hope and pray you will learn this.
- Gomer is unfaithful, and that unfaithfulness does not prevent Hosea from loving her, pursuing her, and bringing her home.
- And I am unfaithful, and you are unfaithful.
- We are sinners.
- And that sin, that unfaithfulness, that mess, that chaos, that doubt, that mistake, at absolutely no point is able to stop God from pursing us and chasing after us and bringing us back home.
- His love is relentless.
- It is wastefully extravagant.
- It is prodigal.
- It is reckless.
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- Hosea 2:19-20
o I will make you my wife forever,
o showing you righteousness and justice,
o unfailing love and compassion.
o I will be faithful to you and make you mine,
o and you will finally know me as the Lord.
- Hosea is bringing this message from God, at a time when Israel was headed towards its eventual exile and scattering by the Assyrian empire.
- And Hosea brings this message of future hope.
- And the language used here is of a marriage, it’s of a betrothal.
- Where God speaks of a future day when He will make a new covenant.
- God has seen generation after generation of sin, countless instances of unrepentance and unfaithfulness.
- And God chooses to say “I will not end my covenant, I will renew it. I will make it new and make it better.”
- Maybe you’ve been there, or maybe you know someone who has been there, but sometimes when couples go through some dark period in their relationship, and they decide to stick together and make things work, when they come out the other side sometimes they choose to have a vow renewal ceremony.
- A way of saying, to one another and to everyone around them who has been walking with them through the valleys and struggles and hard times, “we are still in this together.”
- It doesn’t undo the hard times, it doesn’t make everything in the past disappear.
- But there’s a powerful moment where, depending on the language used, it’s the idea of “From this day forward, I commit – I recommit – to you.”
- And, through Hosea, God is inviting His people to a vow renewal ceremony.
- But it’s even better than that, because from what we read about in this second chapter (right still in the thick of the comparison between God and Israel and Hosea and Gomer), but we see that God is promising a fresh beginning, not merely a temporary rewriting of a tired old covenant.
- This would be echoed by the prophet Jeremiah later, writing as Judah faced their own exile under the Babylonian empire. (Hosea 2:14-23, compare with Jeremiah 31:31-34)
- It’s not a promise that the ultimate goal is simply to return to the land and regain political, material, worldly power (and then continue to go back and forth in following God).
- Instead, it’s a promise that the ultimate goal is something brand new.
- A new covenant.
- Written on a new heart.
- That will last forever.
- This is what God is calling His people to.
- Because of his righteousness, justice, unfailing love, and compassion.
- Because He is faithful – even when we are unfaithful – God will not give up on us.
- It’s not about what we deserve, it’s not about what we bring to the table.
- It’s all about Him.
- Because He is the “Hosea” of the story.
- And we are the “Gomer.”
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- Hosea 4:4a
o Don’t point your finger at someone else
o and try to pass the blame!
- This verse is specifically about the priests – the religious leaders – who wanted to shift the blame elsewhere for the state of how bad things had become.
- And I think it’s fair to say that many of us “good religious Christian-types” maybe need to consider these words ourselves.
- Because Hosea is teaching, he’s ministering, over the course of decades, calling people to repent and turn back to God.
- All of that stuff that you expect the Bible to have, even if you don’t know that much about the Bible to begin with.
- “Stop doing the bad things!”
- “Start doing the good things!”
- “Or else there’ll be trouble!”
- Hosea’s giving this message, and there are some who are nodding along going “Ya! You tell them!”
- They are pointing their fingers, saying “Those people over there are definitely a problem.”
- A number of years ago I was humbled, just absolutely broken, by this challenge from author Jonathan Mckee.
- Basically the idea was, that when you think of “sin”, what comes to your mind.
- Don’t say anything out loud, but just think about this.
- If someone said “What do you think is a sin?” what comes to your mind?
- What are the first, gut reaction “sins” that pop right to the forefront.
- Now, here’s the thing.
- Whatever you’re thinking of, if those are the sins that cause your fingers to point outwards, rather than point inwards, then I think we’ve got a problem.
- Because the church in our culture has done a pretty good job of telling other people about the sin that THEY need to get rid of, all the while ignoring the sin we want to downplay because those are the ones that we struggle with.
- If someone ever approaches us, right out of the blue, and says “Hey, tell me the first sin that comes to your mind”, I hope that the first thing would be something that we are dealing with ourselves, something we’ve struggled with, something we are in the process of repenting of (turning away from to go in another direction).
- Because we can’t look at the state of our neighbourhood, the state of our city, the state of our province, the state of our country, the state of our world, and think “Man, if only everybody else would get their act together, things would be so much better”
- Because I am the Gomer, and the finger of blame needed to be pointed squarely at me.
- Let’s take this idea a little bit further:
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- Hosea 9:7
o The time when God will punish you is coming.
o The day when he will judge you is near.
o I want Israel to know this.
o You have committed many sins.
o And you hate me very much.
o That’s why you think the prophet is foolish.
o You think the person the Lord speaks through is crazy.
- This is a common theme throughout the Jewish prophets and even up through the time of Jesus and His first followers.
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- That when we are in times of rebellion and sin, when we are off doing our own thing going our own way, then the words of “the prophet” (the words of the Scriptures, the words of those who are trying to draw us closer to God) are just seen as foolishness.
- Because anything that doesn’t support the decisions we want to make, must not be a voice worth listening to.
- When we are the “Gomer” we will surround ourselves with an echo chamber of people who look like us, think like us, talk like us, believe like us, and cheer us on no matter what.
- And it produces more unfaithfulness, more bad decisions, more sin.
- I came across this quote in my study for this morning, and this is good advice for anyone, regardless of what you believe in.
- Whether you want to apply this to your life with Jesus, or just your life in general, this is something that should be applied across the board.
- “We all listen and read selectively, focusing on what seems to support our present lifestyle and ignoring a radical reordering of our priorities… listen to people who think your approach is all wrong”
- Is there something in our lives that someone is trying to lovingly and graciously warn us about? But because we don’t want to listen we’ve already decided what we’re going to do and we will disregard anyone and everyone who doesn’t support the decision we’re going to make?
- The history of Israel (and Judah) is one where God sent prophet after prophet, warning after warning, chance after chance.
- What message is God trying to get through to us, and we need to listen and respond accordingly?
- As we’ve already discussed in this series, we know how this is going to end for the northern kingdom of Israel.
- They are not going to listen to Hosea.
- They are not going to respond to this picture that they are the Gomer, and God is the faithful Husband who is calling them to come back to Him in a loving relationship.
- And they will be conquered, exiled, and scattered.
- After Hosea, the northern kingdom of Israel will fall, and never rise again.
- However, the people of Israel were not finished.
- God was not done with them.
- Their story continues to lead to Jesus, who offers forgiveness and reconciliation to all who follow Him.
- The new covenant that was prophesied by Hosea (and others) would finally come.
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- Hosea 6:4-7
o “O Israel and Judah,
o what should I do with you?” asks the Lord.
o “For your love vanishes like the morning mist
o and disappears like dew in the sunlight.
o I sent my prophets to cut you to pieces—
o to slaughter you with my words,
o with judgments as inescapable as light.
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o I want you to show love,
o not offer sacrifices.
o I want you to know me
o more than I want burnt offerings.
o But like Adam, you broke my covenant
o and betrayed my trust.
- This is the good news for Gomer in Hosea, this is the good news for us from God.
- Our love vanishes.
- But God wants us to show love, and He wants to show us His love.
- Which means that in this new covenant we will experience a new love that does not vanish.
- In the following verses God goes on to say that even though our love vanishes, He wants to restore us (6:11), heal us (7:1), and redeem us (7:13).
- But also make note of this.
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- “like Adam, you broke my covenant.”
- Hosea’s don’t break the covenant, God doesn’t break the covenant.
- Gomer’s do.
- Adam’s do.
- And we need someone who can help us out of the mess we’ve made.
- As the Apostle Paul would word it, hundred of years later:
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- 1 Corinthians 15:45-47
o The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person.” But the last Adam—that is, Christ—is a life-giving Spirit. What comes first is the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later. Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven.
- This is the repetitive cycle of disobedience and fallenness that Israel found themselves in that we’ve talked about in this series.
- And not much has changed over the last few thousand years.
- We make the mess.
- We try to fix the mess ourselves.
- We make things worse.
- We try to fix it ourselves again.
- We make it worse still.
- And so on and so forth it goes.
- But Hosea looks ahead to a future day where this cycle will be broken.
- And Jesus ushered in the new covenant so that we would not have to live such a defeated and hopeless life.
- Ever since the creation story, things have been going wrong.
- But a second Adam has come.
- The last Adam has come.
- And He has set in motion a new covenant, a plan to make everything right again.
- As the Apostle Paul would famously say, for anyone who has ever felt like “I don’t do the things I want to do, but I find myself doing the things that I don’t want to do”, that feeling has been true all throughout the human experience.
- But, there is an answer to it.
- There is a way out of the cycle.
- One way that leads to freedom from these repeated, constant, continual cycles of disobedience and never being the person we feel like we are meant to be.
- What’s the answer?
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- Romans 7:24-25a
o Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.
- Or, as Hosea puts it:
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- Hosea 13:4
o “I have been the Lord your God
o ever since I brought you out of Egypt.
o You must acknowledge no God but me,
o for there is no other savior.
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- Now these are the sorts of things that can make people mad.
- “The answer”
- “no God but me”
- “there is no other savior”
- These exclusive claims can be very divisive.
- But what if we considered them in a different light?
- Because sometimes we hear these exclusive religious claims as if Jesus is saying that He is the only way because He is blocking all of the other possibilities.
- As if maybe there are other good and possible saviors and ways and answers, but Jesus is so insecure that He wants us to only come to Him.
- But maybe that’s not it.
- What if God is trying to get through to us, not with anger and judgment in His voice, but rather with love, compassion, and maybe even heartbreak.
- “You guys, no one else is coming for you.”
- “No one else can save you.”
- “No one else can redeem you.”
- “No one else can help you.”
- “I’m the only one who’s going to come for you. I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
- “There’s no one else behind me coming along after to pick up whoever remains behind.”
- Jesus is the answer.
- Jesus is the Saviour.
- He is the second Adam who can free us from the destructive cycles of sin and disobedience that humanity has been dealing with for millennia.
- A few verses later in Hosea we read this.
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- Hosea 13:9
o You are about to be destroyed, O Israel—
o yes, by me, your only helper.
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- When we turn away from our “only helper” we seal our destruction.
- It’s like that old story told of a man who is drowning in the ocean, and so he prays for God to save him.
- A little while later, a boat comes past and says “Do you need any help?”
- The man says, “That’s ok, God’s going to save me!”
- Then, a while later still, another boat goes by and offers help.
- But once again, the man says “No thank you, I’m trusting in God to save me.”
- Then, the man drowns.
- And he finds himself in heaven with God, and he says “God, why didn’t you help me?”
- And God says “I sent you two boats!”
- Turning from our only helper seals our destruction.
- Because there’s no one else who has conquered death and promises to take death out of the equation for us as well.
- He is the only answer, because He’s all we’ve got.
- There’s no plan B.
- No back up option.
- No secondary saviour.
- No other way.
- He’s it.
- He’s not blocking the other possibilities out of His insecurity, He is the only One who can save us – and He will, if we let Him.
- And Hosea, throughout his decades of ministry, as he watched the downfall of his nation (from prosperity, into decay, into exile and scattering), Hosea calls for people to turn to God.
- Hosea calls for the unfaithful to return to the arms of the Faithful One.
- And Hosea also looks ahead to a future day, a better day. A future restoration.
- At one point Hosea says that the people of Israel are “incapable of innocence” (8:5), we talked about this in our first week.
- But compare that idea, of this continual, repeated, unrepentant cycle, a nation completely incapable of innocence,
- Compare that with the picture near the end of the compilation of Hosea’s teaching.
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- Hosea 14:4
o The Lord says,
o “Then I will heal you of your faithlessness;
o my love will know no bounds,
o for my anger will be gone forever.
- A people “incapable of innocence”, one day, will be completely healed of their faithlessness
- One day, we will be completed healed of our faithlessness.
- Love will know no bounds.
- Anger will be gone forever.
- One commentator said this about the future hope Hosea points to:
- “When our will is weak, when our thinking is confused, and when our conscience in burdened with a load of guilt, we must remember that God cares for us continually. His love knows no bounds.”
- And so it’s at this point where I invite us to pause and take communion together.
- This is open for anyone who is a follower of Jesus, whether you’re new or watching online.
- For anyone trying their imperfect best to walk in His boundless love, looking forward to the day when we Gomer’s will once and for all be healed of our faithlessness, then with this bread and this juice we unite together saying that Jesus is at the centre of everything for us.
- Everything we say, everything we do, everything we think, everything we are.
- His death, and His resurrection, mean absolutely everything.
- And they change, absolutely everything.
- ***Take communion
- And so this morning, let us simply remember that we are not the heroes of the story.
- There is a hero of the story, and He is far better than we ever could be.
- He is the one who pursues us when we run away.
- He is the one who loves us when we do unlovable things.
- He is the one who remains faithful even when we are unfaithful.
- He is the hero of the story.
- And He is relentless.
- Again, to make a point we made earlier in this series, considering that most people know the “book of Hosea” in the Old Testament simply as a story of Hosea and Gomer, it can be quite jarring to read and see that at the end of the third chapter, Gomer disappears from the story.
- We don’t get to know how she responds to Hosea’s love, faithfulness, and forgiveness.
- It’s not included in the teaching.
- Because it’s not the point of the writing.
- Hosea taught to the northern kingdom of Israel, and these teachings were later compiled and brought together as a warning for the southern kingdom of Judah, and at no point did anyone think to add a little “from Gomer’s perspective” part to the story.
- Because Gomer isn’t the main character.
- We aren’t the main character.
- Hosea is.
- God is.
- The faithful one.
- The loving one.
- The forgiving one.
- The merciful one.
- That is the point.
- He is the point.
- “Gomer’s shameful story turns out to be a thinly veiled version of our story. We know Gomer better than we might think at first, for she was what we are – sinners offered overwhelming grace!”
- And so, in closing, I want to read the very last words of what we know as the “book of Hosea”.
- Because, as we already talked about back in the first week, the various teachings of Hosea (as written down by Hosea and his followers) weren’t originally bound all-together.
- It likely wasn’t until later that someone compiled them together, arranged them in this way, and put them together in one volume.
- After the northern kingdom of Israel had fallen to Assyria, and as Judah was staring down their own incoming enemies, someone looked to Hosea for wisdom, advice, and guidance.
- They saw it as a warning to not repeat the same mistakes.
- And the interesting thing, is that the last verse in Hosea was likely written by whoever compiled Hosea’s teaching into this one complete document.
- This is like the little footnote or asterisk at the bottom of the page, where they are giving their thoughts on everything that has been written, taught, and compiled.
- And here’s what they write:
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- Hosea 14:9
o Let those who are wise understand these things.
o Let those with discernment listen carefully.
o The paths of the Lord are true and right,
o and righteous people live by walking in them.
o But in those paths sinners stumble and fall.
- This little extra addition by an unknown source is saying something that we need to understand.
- Hosea’s words are not merely something in the past.
- They are not just ancient Jewish history.
- They are for us.
- They contain deep truths for us today.
- Hosea’s ministry, teaching, and his very life and family relationships reveal truths about God’s character and about human nature.
- We are all walking down paths that are leading us somewhere.
- And the paths that we walk in, or the paths that we stumble and fall over, all revolve around the pursuing, relentless love of God.
- Don’t stumble and fall over the relentless love of God, but let it be the path that you walk towards who you were always meant to be.
- And Hosea wanted his people to know, and these words were compiled so that we could know, that no matter how things look today, no matter how dark or bleak or desperate a situation might seem,
- God’s ultimate purpose is always to heal and to save.
- It’s always to pursue, to reconcile, to restore, and to love.
- And He will never stop.
- Because He is relentless.
- Close in prayer
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- “Now What” Website
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- God loves you/ME. God is on your/MY side. He is coming after you/ME. He is relentless.
Now What Website:
Scriptures:
- Hosea 2:14-23, compare with Jeremiah 31:31-34
- Hosea 6:1-7, compare with Romans 7:1-8:4
- Hosea 1:1-2:1
- Hosea 14:1-9
Prayer:
- Spend some time acknowledging your sins and failures to God. Repent and apologize for the ways that you have acted as a “Gomer” in your relationship with Jesus. While doing this, thank God for His love and forgiveness, which He has already offered you.
- Pray that God would give you the opportunity to share messages of love and forgiveness with fellow “Gomer’s” who need to return to God in a loving relationship.
Discussion/Reflection:
- When you read about Hosea and Gomer (or other good/bad characters in the Bible), do you find yourself relating more to the hero of the story or the villain? How do you react to the thought that we are all more like Gomer than Hosea?
- “Listen to people who think you are wrong.” What do you think of that advice? Are most of your friends people who think like you and agree with you, or do you have relationships with people who are different from you?
- What do you think about the “exclusive” claims of Christianity (“Jesus is the way, the truth, the life” “No other God except for Him” “He is the one and only Saviour”, etc)? Do you find them easy to believe, or are they a struggle? Do you tend to see these claims as being aggressive against other religions, or compassionate to a people with no other real hope?
- After the third chapter of Hosea, Gomer isn’t mentioned again. This is because God/Hosea is the main character of the story. When you think about your day-to-day life, is God the main character of your story? What could you do this week to give God His rightful place as the main character of your life?
Now What Next Step:
- This series has been focused on the relentless love of God – and His relentless love for you.
- This week, let’s spend some time celebrating this amazing God!
- Set aside some time this week (however long you want, 5 minutes, 30 minutes, etc), to express your thanks to God.
- Spend some time in prayer, but try to only pray things that start with “God, thank you for…”
- During this time, avoid asking for anything, and simply say “thank you” to the God who loves you so relentlessly.
