Relentless Love (Hosea) - Week 2
Relentless Love • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 4 viewsNotes
Transcript
(*)
- So let’s begin our time together by asking a question.
(*)
- What comes to mind when you hear the word “love?”
- What does it mean to be “in love”?
- What does it mean to “love somebody”?
- Now, obviously, we could probably come up with more different answers than there are people in this room (and people watching online).
- We could talk about how it’s a feeling, it’s an emotion.
- We could talk about how it’s an agreement, it’s a commitment.
- We could talk about the significance of love.
- We could talk about the dangers of overemphasizing love.
- We could talk about how it means absolutely everything to us.
- We could talk about how it doesn’t really mean that much to us.
- It’s difficult to put our finger precisely on what the word love “means”.
- We could go on and on and on, only to maybe come to the following conclusion:
(*)
- “You know it when you see it.”
- And apparently, God feels the exact same way.
- Because the Jewish and Christian Scriptures have a lot to say about love – specifically God’s love for us.
- It’s one of the (maybe the) primary theme throughout both the Old and New Testaments.
- But, even with all of those verses and passages, even with all of that teaching, it still can be a little tough to specifically define.
- And, at several points, it seems like God realizes that words are falling short, and He says “Fine! Do you want to know how I feel about you? Do you want to know what my love for you actually looks like? Then I’ll show you.”
- And, in one specific instance, God says “You want to know what it means for me to say that I love you? Then look at Hosea and his wife Gomer.”
- And so last week we started our series called “Relentless Love”, where we are looking at the life and ministry of a Jewish prophet named Hosea.
- And if you missed last week, then I would really strongly encourage you to go back and watch it, because we covered a lot of the introductory things there, and so we’re going to dive right in this morning.
- But, the prophet Hosea, who lived in the eighth century BC, right around the time when the northern kingdom of Israel was crumbling (and that’s putting it mildly), spoke for God and brought a message that all revolved around one thing.
- God’s love.
- In the midst of the typical prophetic warnings and accusations, Hosea also brought messages of hope, forgiveness, restoration, and reconciliation.
- But, even more famous than his message, was his life.
- Because Hosea was called by God to marry a woman named Gomer, an unfaithful, unrepentant, adulterous woman.
(*)
- Hosea 1:2
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.”
- And this is the key in understanding Hosea’s life and his writing:
(*)
- “Do this because the people of the land are like that kind of wife.”
- Do we want to know what God’s love looks like?
- Do we want to know what it means to say that God loves us?
- Then look at this faithful, righteous man, and look at his unfaithful, unrighteous wife.
- God says that this is what His love for us looks like.
- And so today, in what we’re going to look at from Hosea’s life and ministry, we’re going to focus in on this quote:
(*)
- “…don’t just serve Him as your Lord.” (John Piper)
- Now, we’re looking at half of the quote here, and we’ll get to the other half, but we are going to start here.
- Because this quote, even when you hear the full thing, can sound a little dangerous, a little non-Christian.
- Especially from a source like John Piper, and where he falls on the theological spectrum, the very idea of not simply submitting and serving God as our Lord (our Ruler, our Master, our King), it’s shocking.
- But it makes sense when you really get to the heart of what Hosea has to say.
- This is, one of the main themes of Hosea’s decades of teaching.
- Now, without a doubt, if someone knows anything about Hosea they know about Hosea’s marriage to Gomer. But, if someone knows two things about Hosea, then perhaps they know this famous verse:
(*)
- Hosea 6:6
o I want mercy and not sacrifice.
o I want you to recognize me as God
o instead of bringing me burnt offerings.
- Other translations word it this way:
- “For I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” (CSB)
- “I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.” (NLT)
- “I’m after love that lasts, not more religion. I want you to know God, not go to more prayer meetings.” (The Message)
- Whatever wording you prefer, these words are among the most famous in all of Hosea.
- Because, even if you didn’t know that they were found in Hosea, you maybe know that these are words that Jesus quoted, on at least a couple of occasions.
(*)
- Matthew 9:9-13
o As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew. He was sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him. Matthew got up and followed him.
o Later Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house. Many tax collectors and sinners came. They ate with Jesus and his disciples. The Pharisees saw this.
(*)
o So they asked the disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
o Jesus heard this. So he said, “Those who are healthy don’t need a doctor. Sick people do. Go and learn what this means, ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice.’ (Hosea 6:6) I have not come to get those who think they are right with God to follow me. I have come to get sinners to follow me.”
(*)
- So this idea of “…don’t just serve Him as your Lord” is a major theme that we are going to address today.
- Because, from Hosea to Jesus (from the Jewish Scriptures to the Christian Scriptures), this message has been true.
(*)
- “Love God warmly as a husband, don’t just serve Him as your Lord.” (John Piper)
- Hosea is all about the powerful love and powerful justice of God, and how they go together.
- In the midst of a crumbling kingdom, in the midst of every possible kind of trouble and struggle, God was allowing Israel to suffer the consequences of their own actions (He was letting them face justice), yet at the same time how does that justice intersect with His boundless, pursuing, relentless love?
- This is the message of Hosea, and nowhere is the justice and love of God more clearly seen than in the person of Jesus.
- Because Jesus takes the consequences of sin (He takes the justice of God) onto Himself and goes to the cross, so that we might have access to Him through love.
- And then He rises again, defeating sin and death itself, so that we might live forever with Him (not as servants, but as beloved children, as His Church – His Bride).
- This is the truth that runs throughout the message of the Bible, even though so many people miss it because there are a lot of difficult things you need to wade through to see it.
- God is good, He is just, He is holy.
- And yet, He loves us so much that He pursues us in spite of our lack of goodness, our unjustness, and our unholiness.
- Just as Hosea not only married Gomer, knowing about her unfaithfulness and adulterous ways, but he actually pursed her and bought her back when she had willingly walked away from him and their family.
- God says “You see that? I love you like that.”
- And Hosea not only tells us about the justice and love of God, but it also tells us about how when we truly experience God’s justice and love, it should make a difference in how we live.
- It should move us, from being servants who offer sacrifices, to being in a real relationship defined by true love.
(*)
- Hosea 2:7-8
o She will still chase after her lovers.
o But she won’t catch them.
o She’ll look for them.
o But she won’t find them.
o Then she’ll say,
o ‘I’ll go back to my husband.
o That’s where I was at first.
o I was better off then than I am now.’
o She wouldn’t admit that I was the one
o who gave her everything she had.
(*)
o I provided her with grain, olive oil and fresh wine.
o I gave her plenty of silver and gold.
o But she used it to make statues of Baal.
- I get some serious “parable of the lost son” vibes here, where there’s this picture that God gives us everything (even when we don’t realize it), and we turn right around and waste it away.
- We recklessly (prodigally) spend every good thing we have in foolish ways.
- And then, when we find those things empty and unsatisfying, when we see how big of a mess we’ve made, we think “maybe it’s time for me to go home now.”
- But, here in the second chapter of Hosea (which is still the section where Hosea and Gomer’s relationship is being used as a metaphor for God’s relationship with Israel), as Hosea and God are both sharing their experience of having the unfaithful partner return after having wasted everything they’ve been given,
- What we aren’t reading about here is a return to a “husband”, but rather we are reading about a return to a “master”.
- This is made clear just a few verses later:
(*)
- Hosea 2:16-17
o “A new day is coming,” announces the Lord.
o “Israel will call me ‘my husband.’
o She will no longer call me ‘my master.’
o She will no longer speak about the gods
o that are named Baal.
o She will not pray to them for help anymore.
(*)
- God says here, through Hosea, that He wants Israel to call Him “my husband” rather than “my master”.
- Through the life of Hosea and his relationship with Gomer, as Hosea tragically lived out this desire for Gomer to not just treat him as a master but to love him as her husband.
(*)
- But God says that a day will come when Israel will no longer speak about “Baal” anymore.
- And Baal was an ancient deity in the ancient Canaanite culture.
- It also just became a term used for various gods and idols that Israel adopted and went after in place of a relationship with the one true God.
- So “Baal” was sometimes used to describe more than just one specific false god, but rather this general idea of any and all idols that took the place of God Himself.
(*)
- And here’s something interesting to note, we read here that Israel will no longer call God “my master”, but the Hebrew word actually says this.
(*)
- “She will no longer call me “my Baal”.”
- God is not one of many idols, one of many options, one of many masters, one of many Baal’s.
- God is the one true God.
- The one true Lord.
- The one true Husband.
- The one true Love.
- God says that there will be a day when His people will no longer speak the name of Baal.
- All of the false gods, all of the idols, all of the things we put ahead of Him in our lives (our comfort, our greed, our junk), it will all be wiped off of our lips once and for all.
(*)
- Hosea 2:19-20
o I will make Israel my own.
o She will belong to me forever.
o I will do to her what is right and fair.
o I will love her tenderly.
o I will be faithful to her.
o And she will recognize me as the Lord.
- When that new day comes, when we stop seeing God as a master to serve but rather as a husband to love, we will simultaneously experience His righteousness, justice, love, faithfulness, and compassion.
- And so today we’re considering this idea of God as husband (which may sound more strange to some of us than others).
- And I know that church culture, and many songs in particular, get a bad rap for sounding like “Jesus is my boyfriend” (have you ever played the game where you read some lyrics and have to guess if it’s from a worship song or a love song? It’s very hard! ***play 2 rounds)
- But there is this image, all throughout Scripture, where marriage is used as a metaphor.
- In the Jewish Scriptures marriage is used as a metaphor for God and His people (Israel).
- In the Christian Scriptures it’s used as a metaphor for Jesus and His Church.
- But Hosea has a unique spin on this metaphor.
- Consider this:
- Divorce was permissible, according to ancient Jewish law.
- According to Deuteronomy 24, a man could give his wife a letter of divorce.
- Maybe he found something shameful about her, maybe he just decided he didn’t want to be married anymore.
- But the point here is that according to Jewish law, divorce was allowed.
- Then, we jump ahead to Jesus, and people want to know what He thinks about divorce, and He calls back specifically to the law from Deuteronomy 24, and then He raises the bar.
(*)
- Matthew 19:3-9
o Some Pharisees came to test Jesus. They asked, “Does the Law allow a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?”
o Jesus replied, “Haven’t you read that in the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female’? (Genesis 1:27) He said, ‘That’s why a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife.
(*)
o The two will become one.’ (Genesis 2:24) They are no longer two, but one. So no one should separate what God has joined together.”
o They asked, “Then why did Moses command that a man can give his wife a letter of divorce and send her away?”
(*)
o Jesus replied, “Moses let you divorce your wives because you were stubborn. But it was not this way from the beginning. Here is what I tell you. Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery. A man may divorce his wife only if she has not been faithful to him.”
- And so let’s consider this.
(*)
- According to Jewish law, divorce was permissible.
- But Jesus says that was only because God was meeting them where they were at, and beginning the process of moving them towards where He actually wanted them to be.
- It was only because of their stubborn hard-heartedness that divorce was permitted in the ancient Jewish world, and Jesus says that now the bar has been raised.
- Now, “anyone who divorces his wife and married another woman commits adultery.”
- Anyone.
- With one exception.
(*)
- “A man may divorce his wife only if she has not been faithful to him.”
- Now listen, quick side-bar, this is not a sermon on marriage, this is not a sermon on divorce.
- And there is a tragic history in the church of people being told that it’s God’s will for them to stay in destructive, horrible, situations, based only on the cliché of “God hates divorce”.
- And so please understand that this is not the point I’m trying to make.
- The point I am trying to make is that Old Testament law said divorce was allowed – for a whole host of reasons.
- And even Jesus said that unfaithfulness was grounds for divorce.
(*)
- But, and here’s the point, Hosea (and God) won’t give up on their bride.
- Even an unfaithful, unrepentant bride who continually goes after other lovers (other masters, other Baal’s).
- In Jewish Law, for Jesus followers who live in a messy world, and for us today, divorce is a complicated issue.
- But it’s not complicated for Hosea, because God takes it off of the table entirely (even though, according to even the high ethical standards of Jesus, Hosea should be allowed to leave).
- But, through Hosea, God tells us “I will never give up on you.”
- “I will never divorce you.”
- “I will never turn my back and abandon you.”
(*)
- Hosea 5:3-4
o I know all about the people of Ephraim.
o What Israel is doing is not hidden from me.
o Now they have joined themselves to other gods.
o They have made themselves ‘unclean.’
o “They can’t return to me
o because they have done so many evil things.
o In their hearts they long to act like prostitutes.
o They do not recognize me as the Lord.
- So this is the picture we see.
- That according to the law – even according to Jesus – it’s ok to leave the unfaithful spouse.
- However, when it comes to God (and when it comes to Hosea), when it comes to what His perfect, boundless, reckless, pursuing, relentless love looks like, the only one who ever walks away is the unfaithful one.
(*)
- “Now they have joined themselves to other gods”
- “you have now turned to prostitution” (NIV)
- “You have left me as a prostitute leaves her husband”
- But, even from the Bible’s laws and best practices and standards, isn’t it the husband who should leave the prostitute?
- Not when it’s God!
- Even though He’s the one who has been wronged, He refuses to leave.
- He refuses to divorce.
- He refuses to give up.
(*)
- And, when we find ourselves in a place where we “can’t return” to God, it’s only because we have hardened our hearts so much against Him that we can’t even recognize Him anymore.
- “Love God warmly as a husband, don’t just serve Him as your Lord.”
- Hosea is written to a people who were going through some of the religious motions, but their hearts were not in it.
- They thought they were fulfilling their legalistic duty, but wanted to stay detached enough from a real relationship with God because of all of the other gods, idols, and Baal’s that they had on the side.
- Gomer took what Hosea had to offer, and then went off to chase after other men.
- And we need to consider what this means for us today.
- Especially for those of us who only serve God as our Lord, but don’t love Him as our Husband.
- One scholar writes: “Many find it easy and comfortable to maintain the appearance of being committed without deep and sincere loyalty.”
(*)
- Hosea 11:7
o My people have made up their minds
o to turn away from me.
o Even if they call me the Most High God,
o I will certainly not honor them.”
- Some people have made up their minds to turn away from the real kind of relationship that God wants.
- We want to be able to use the right words, to call Him the “Most High God” with our lips, but not honour Him with how we actually live.
- But God wants more.
(*)
- Hosea 11:8-9
o “People of Ephraim, how can I give you up?
o Israel, how can I hand you over to your enemies?
o Can I destroy you as I did the town of Admah?
o Can I treat you like Zeboyim?
o My heart is stirred inside me.
o It is filled with pity for you.
(*)
o I will not be so angry with you anymore.
o I will not completely destroy you again.
o After all, I am God.
o I am not a mere man.
o I am the Holy One among you.
- God doesn’t want to judge or punish.
- He wants to love.
- He wants to forgive.
- He wants to restore.
- Just like the Father in Jesus’ famous parable, that when the lost son returns the Father immediately starts giving him back the very things he had already wasted.
- In those situations, even though if the shoe were on the other foot, we would all tend to give into rage and revenge, God is not a mere man, and so He will redeem, restore, and reconcile.
(*)
- Hosea 14:8
o Ephraim will have nothing more to do with other gods.
o I will answer the prayers of my people.
o I will take good care of them.
o I will be like a healthy juniper tree to them.
o All the fruit they bear will come from me.
- God wants to answer our prayers and take good care of us.
- This is the beauty of the God who ultimately revealed Himself through Jesus.
- Because Jesus says “If you’ve seen me then you’ve seen the Father”, and this is a Father (a Husband) who not only wants us to know that He’s there.
- He not only wants us to know that He exists.
- He not only wants us to know that He’s real.
(*)
- He wants us to know that He cares.
- He wants us to know that He loves.
- He wants us to know that He pursues.
- If you’ve never heard this before, or if you’ve never shared this with someone else before, then let this be the week that this message reaches your ears and the ears of the people around you.
- Christianity isn’t about the fact that God exists.
- Following Jesus isn’t primarily about the fact that we believe that God is real.
- It’s all about the fact that God cares.
- In spite of our unfaithfulness, in spite of the ways we mess up the relationship, He is the one trying to make things right so that He can love us – and so that we will one day faithfully love Him back.
- Hosea lived at a time when people still acknowledged God, and even made sacrifices to Him (they performed required religious duties), believing that was what God wanted from them.
- But they missed the point.
- Because God didn’t want their blind, heartless obedience.
- He wanted their hearts.
- Some of us are probably familiar with things like the 5 Love Languages (I think there’s actually more than 5 now).
- Or Love and Respect.
- Or His Needs Her Needs.
- Or the Enneagram.
- Or different things that teach us about the difference ways we interact with others, and specifically the different ways we naturally like to receive (and give) love.
- But here’s the thing that all of these resources teach us.
- That if I am going to love my wife, if I am going to love Chantelle well, then I need to love her on her terms.
- I need to figure out how she wants to be loved, and then I will make the conscious effort to love her that way.
- I don’t get to tell her “I just mowed the lawn, and I’ve decided that is going to be the most loving thing in the world to you. I expect you to be head over heels over the freshly cut grass!”
- I don’t get to dictate the terms of what love must look like to her.
- She has her own personality, she has ways that she receives love the best, and I need to learn what those are and then do them if I want to do my best at showing my love for her.
- And the same is true for anyone who wants a relationship with God.
- God wants us to love Him, and He determines what it looks like for us to love Him.
- God doesn’t want our sacrifices without our love.
- He doesn’t want our obedience without our hearts.
- He doesn’t want our religious traditions without a real relationship.
(*)
- Hosea 8:13a
o They offer sacrifices as gifts to me.
o They eat the meat of the animals they bring.
o But the Lord is not pleased with any of this.
- This is where Israel went wrong, and this is what Hosea was calling them back to.
- Near the end of the collection of Hosea’s teachings that we have compiled together, there is a call for Israel to repent.
- But even then, there’s this understanding that even if they do, it won’t last.
- Because it never does.
- Their repentance is always short-lived, they always fall back into the wrong things (can anyone else relate to that, or is it just me?)
- So, as the collection we call the “book of Hosea” draws to a close, it ends with a new promise, a better promise, to forever deal with Israel’s sin and unfaithfulness, in such a way that God (the perfect Husband) will be able to love them freely.
(*)
- Hosea 14:4
o Then the Lord will answer,
o “My people always wander away from me.
o But I will put an end to that.
o My anger has turned away from them.
o Now I will love them freely.
- It goes on to talk about this new and healed Israel growing into a huge tree that will provide fruit and shade for all around it.
- It’s this image of God blessing the entire world through the line of Abraham.
(*)
- But this new way of loving God, this new way to approach God freely, did not come freely to Him.
- He paid the highest price, so that we would be able to freely go from dutiful servants to His loving bride.
- As Jesus’ friend Peter words it:
(*)
- 1 Peter 1:18-21
o You were set free from an empty way of life. This way of life was handed down to you by your own people of long ago. You know that you were not bought with things that can pass away, like silver or gold. Instead, you were bought with the priceless blood of Christ. He is a perfect lamb. He doesn’t have any flaws at all.
- And so, before we wrap up our time together, I think that this would be a fitting time for us to take communion together.
- Because everything we’ve been talking about, everything Hosea has to say to us, finds its ultimate fulfilment in Jesus.
- God promised, through Hosea, that one day He would love us freely.
- But we are able to have “free” access to His love, because He paid the price for us.
- The priceless blood of Jesus, the perfect Lamb, without any flaw or fault or blemish.
- That is what was paid for us, so that we could freely love God – and freely be loved by Him.
- And so, if you are a follower of Jesus please feel welcome to participate in this, as we remember that His body was broken, and His blood was shed, that high cost was paid, so that we could be free, and approach Him freely.
- ***Take communion
- As we bring our morning together to a close, let’s come back to this idea:
(*)
- “Love God warmly as a husband, don’t just serve Him as your Lord.”
- Hosea loved his wife as best he could, only to be met with unfaithfulness.
- God loved His people perfectly, only to be met with rejection.
- But rather than giving up, rather than divorcing us, He moved us along to His ultimate goal.
- So that now, we have the choice we can make freely.
- His anger has been dealt with (because Jesus took it from us).
- We don’t have to wander anymore.
- We can return to Him.
- We can come home to Him.
- We can love Him.
- And we can allow ourselves to be loved by Him.
- Don’t let sacrifices and offerings, don’t let religious rituals and traditions, take the place of a real loving relationship.
- Because, no matter what we’ve done, no matter how far we’ve wandered.
- He hasn’t given up on us.
- His love is relentless.
(*)
- “Now What” Website
- Close in prayer
- Benediction: “God loves you. God is on your side. He is coming after you. He is relentless.”
Scripture:
- Hosea 6:1-10
o Compare with Hosea 8:11-14
o Compare with Matthew 9:9-13
o Compare with Matthew 12:1-8
- Deuteronomy 24:1-4
o Compare with Matthew 19:3-9
o Compare with Hosea 14:4-8
- Hosea 14:4
o Compare with 1 Peter 1:18-21
o Compare with Colossians 1:12-14
o Compare with Titus 2:11-15
Pray:
- Pray that God would turn your heart towards Him. Pray that you would fall more in love with Him every day, and experience His pursuing love for you in fresh ways each day.
- Pray that God would fill you with grace and truth to help others who are living lives as religious servants. Pray that God would use you to help people to experience a real, loving relationship with Jesus.
Discussion:
- How would you define/describe what “love” means? How would you explain “God’s love” to someone who’s never heard about it before?
- What are some of the “Baal’s” of our culture today? What “masters” are people serving?
- In what ways do you struggle to put a real relationship with God first and foremost in your life? Do you ever find yourself falling into “serving God as a Lord/Master” without “loving Him as a Husband”?
- God wants to love us “freely”. In your own words, talk about the “free” love of God that “cost” so much.
Next Step:
- This week, be particularly aware and mindful of your routines as you go about your day-to-day life.
- Is your relationship with Jesus alive, active, and loving? Or is it more of a routine with sets times, places, traditions, etc?
- Look for ways to change up your routine to breathe fresh life into your relationship with Jesus.
- Some ideas:
o If you always pray before you eat, pray after you eat.
o If you always pray in a specific room, go for a prayer walk (outside or even just around your home).
o If you listen to worship music when you drive to work/school, put it on during breakfast instead.
o Big or small, creative or simple, just think of ways to change up your “religious routines” and try to draw closer to God as your loving Husband.
