Relentless Love (Hosea) - Week 1

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- So, you might be aware that there was a little bit of Christian controversy a number of years ago when a certain worship song started getting sung a lot of places.

- Back in 2017, Cory Asbury wrote a song that you either loved or you hated, called Reckless Love.

- Now, I’m not here to say who’s right and who’s wrong, but I do think that some people got so bent out of shape over just one word of the entire song.

- It all came down to what you thought of the word “Reckless”.

- Is God “reckless”?

- Is His love “reckless”?

- Now, just like many words, there are different ways you can take this.

- You might hear “reckless” and think about a certain sense of carelessness.

- And I think anyone would be hard pressed to describe God’s love as “lacking care” (or to describe anyone’s love that way – we would describe their lack of love that way, but certainly not their love).

- But there’s another way to think of the word reckless, in the sense of “without caution”.

- A sort of “reckless extravagance”.

- And that is a whole other picture.

- Because, whether you read through the Jewish Scriptures or the Christian Scriptures, you can see God acting in a way that would seem to be “without caution” (at least without the restraint that many of us would think would be the wisest).

- The parable of the prodigal son is a great example of this.

- Because the word “prodigal” doesn’t actually mean “lost”, it means wastefully, recklessly extravagant.

- And the younger son goes and “wastes everything he has” (he acts as a prodigal in that sense). But it’s when he returns that we see the true “prodigal” character in the story.

- Because when the father returns to him all of the inheritance that he had just wasted, that certainly is prodigal.

- That, certainly, is a little bit – dare I say – reckless.

- But there is another example of this that I think is one of the most significant, moving, tragic, beautiful pictures of this.

- And it’s found in the Jewish Scriptures – in the Old Testament.

- It’s found in the writings (or collection of teachings) of one of Israel’s ancient prophets.

- It’s found in what we call the book of Hosea.

- And so, starting today and continuing for 5 weeks, we are going to be diving into this book, and exploring what this ancient Jewish prophet had to say, and what it means for us today.

- And we’re calling this series “Relentless Love”.

- First of all we’re calling it because if I titled it “Reckless Love” then some people who hate the song would already hate the series.

- And secondly, we’re calling it that because then I get to give one of my favourite benedictions at the closing of each of the next 5 weeks.

- But anyways, what we’re going to do, is to look at sections of this ancient Jewish document, and see what it reveals to us about the character of God.

- Particularly, some of us may just be surprised, that in the Old Testament (typically known for being a little more difficult to understand and explain, because parts of it seem so far removed from who Jesus is and what He taught), but we may just be surprised at how often this ancient Jewish prophet shared God’s words for the nation of Israel, and how much it points ahead to Jesus.

- Now, throughout this series we aren’t going to go verse-by-verse, chapter-by-chapter.

- Rather, each week, we are going to look at some of the major ideas and themes, and we’ll jump around quite a bit each week.

- But, to start off today, and to help the rest of this series make sense, I am going to try to provide as much information and background context as I can, so that the other weeks we can dive right in.

- So some of this week might seem a little bit more like teaching and a little less like preaching, and that may make some of you a little unhappy, but I know with absolute certainty that others of you are thinking to yourself “finally! Something deeper than just a bunch of his ridiculous dad jokes”

- “That reminds me, just this past week, I hired a handyman and gave him a to-do list. But when I got home, only jobs 1, 3, and 5 were done. Turns out he only does odd jobs.”

- Ok, now on to the teaching.

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- And so Hosea was a prophet for God, speaking to the people of the northern kingdom of Israel.

- Now, there’s a lot in that sentence that we could spend time unpacking, but to keep things moving, typically the idea of being a “prophet”, particularly Jewish prophets (Old Testament prophets), what that means is that these were people who spoke for God (or claimed to speak for God at least).

- God would give a message to a prophet, and that prophet would then give that message to the people.

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- And so Hosea was a prophet for God around the time of 753-715 BC.

- This is after the nation of Israel was split into two kingdoms (Judah and Israel), and Hosea was a prophet for the northern kingdom of Israel.

- In fact, he was the last prophet of Israel before the Assyrian exile.

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- And if you’re unfamiliar with all of that, it’s going to be a repeated theme throughout what we’re going to be looking at over the next number of weeks, but for today what we need to understand is that in around the year 722 BC the northern kingdom was conquered by Assyria, and Hosea was the final prophet (the final messenger for God) leading up to that disastrous event.

- And so Hosea started his ministry during the reign of king Jeroboam, and lasted through the final 7 kings of Israel.

- Now, it’s significant to note that during the start of Hosea’s ministry, during the reign of king Jeroboam, the northern kingdom of Israel was in a prosperous place.

- They were doing well in terms of physical wealth and resources.

- In a material sense, things were “blessed” for Israel.

- But, in a spiritual sense, things were already decaying.

- Greed was rampant, as well as idolatry.

- Israel, right from their split with Judah after King Solomon, had repeatedly fallen into the religions of surrounding cultures.

- They had separated themselves from the Law that God had given to them through Moses generations before, and had instead adopted the moral behaviour of the people around them (who they were supposed to draw closer to God, not become more like them).

- And so Hosea begins his ministry at a time when, on one hand, things were looking pretty good materially, but on the other hand, these material blessings only made it harder for Israel to see the error of their ways.

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- Hosea 10:1

o Israel was like a spreading vine.

o     They produced fruit for themselves.

o As they grew more fruit,

o     they built more altars.

o As their land became richer,

o     they made more beautiful the sacred stones they worshiped.

- Here Hosea acknowledges that times are good.

- They are like a spreading vine, producing more fruit.

- That fruit leads to more altars (and altars are a good thing, aren’t they? They allow the people to fulfill their religious duties to God)

- The land becomes richer, and they make more beautiful sacred stones they worshiped.

- And there’s the twist.

- The richer, the more prosperous, the more “blessed” Israel became, the more they used that blessing to grow closer to other gods.

- All of the good times actually put a distance between Israel and God, as they forgot about their need for Him entirely.

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- Hosea 8:11

o “Ephraim built many altars where they sacrificed

o     sin offerings to other gods.

o So their altars have become

o     places where they commit sin.

- The “altar” is meant to represent the place where God’s people were made right with God, but instead it became a place used to just grow further apart from Him.

- And so, under Jeroboam, Israel thrived materially, but decayed spiritually.

- And, throughout the next six kings of Israel, that spiritual decay would continue, except that it would also be joined with material decay.

- The last 6 kings of Israel were especially wicked.

- Heavy taxes, oppression of the poor, worshipping idols, and completely disregarding God.

- And, before their complete conquest and exile by Assyria, they were invaded and made subject to Assyria, forced to pay tribute (which would eventually deplete their remaining resources).

- And so Hosea sees the downfall of his nation, of his people.

- All the while he is warning them. He is calling for them.

- “Turn back to God.”

- “Let Him help you.”

- “Let Him love you.”

- “Let Him take care of you.”

- But Israel refuses to listen.

- This continues all the way down, until the last king of Israel, Hoshea (not Hosea, confusing, I know).

- And king Hoshea stops paying tribute to Assyria, instead looking to Egypt for an ally, but all it does it seal Israel’s fate.

- Assyria responds with total conquest, and the people are scattered into exile.

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- At one point, Hosea says to his people “How long will you be incapable of innocence?” (8:5), and that line jumped out at me.

- Because from one earthly king to the next, for decades, Hosea called people to turn from these negative cycles and destructive habits that were only leading to their further downfall, only to be met with deaf ears.

- Hosea pleaded with his people, only to find himself face to face with people who, by all accounts, appeared absolutely and totally incapable of innocence.

- Let’s look at just a little bit of Hosea’s pleading (or, since Hosea was a prophet, you could say God’s pleading), as recorded in what we call Hosea chapter 7 (and we’ll talk a little bit more about how we came to have this book in its form in a little bit).

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- Hosea 7:1-3

o I would like to heal Israel.

o     But when I try to, Ephraim’s sins

o     are brought out into the open.

o The crimes of Samaria

o     are made known to everyone.

o The people tell lies.

o     They break into houses and steal.

o     They rob others in the streets.

o But they do not realize

o     that I remember all the evil things they do.

o Their sins pile up and cover them.

o     I am always aware of their sins.

o “Their evil conduct even makes the king glad.

o     Their lies make the princes happy.

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- Hosea 7:7

o All of them are as hot as an oven.

o     They destroy their rulers.

o All their kings fall from power.

o     But none of them calls on the Lord for help.

- Hosea is recounting this habitual cycle of disobedience, this repeated pattern of falling into the same sins over and over again, and you can hear the exasperation as he says “But none of them calls on the Lord for help.”

- We make the mess.

- We try to fix the mess ourselves.

- We make it worse.

- We try to fix it again.

- We make it worse still.

- Repeat and repeat again.

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- Hosea 7:10

o The pride of Israel proves that they are guilty.

o     But in spite of everything,

o they don’t return to the Lord their God.

o     They don’t go to him for help.

- Again, it’s repeated “they don’t return to the Lord their God. They don’t go to him for help.”

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- Because of their pride, their guilt only intensifies.

- It’s been famously misquoted that the Bible says that money is the root of all evil.

- That’s not true.

- Money is at the root of all kinds of evil, but it’s actually pride that’s at the root of all evil and all sin.

- Pride is what is present in the creation story, where Adam and Eve decide they want to be their own gods.

- And pride is what is present all throughout human history.

- Because I can repent (I can turn from my ways when I’m going in the wrong direction) when I’m guilty.

- I can repent when I’m ashamed.

- I can repent when I’m afraid.

- But I can’t repent when I’m proud.

- I can’t turn from my sin when I’m proud of my sin.

- And so pride keeps us from returning to God, and pride keeps us from going to Him for help.

- And so there is this connection, between all of Israel’s problems and their pride.

- Their unwillingness to turn to God.

- Their unwillingness to receive His help.

- To use an illustration that I once heard David Platt use, what comes to your mind if I asked you to think of the most offensive thing in the Bible?

- You don’t need to start shouting them out right now, but chances are all sorts of different things come to our minds.

- Maybe it’s something to do with how the Bible appears to condone (even command) genocide.

- Maybe it’s something to do with how the Bible refers to marriage or sexuality.

- Maybe it’s something in the Bible that someone has weaponized against you.

- But, as David Platt says, the most offensive thing in the entire Bible are actually the very first words.

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- “In the beginning, God…”

- This is the first, and most, offensive thing written in the Bible.

- Because it assumes a God who has always existed, even before the very beginning of all of creation.

- And it assumes that He is in charge.

- He gets to call the shots.

- And there is nothing more offensive than that.

- Because our pride doesn’t like being told what to do.

- Our pride convinces us to go the other way.

- And so later on, when Jesus says He is “the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through Him”, we scoff and say “you can’t be serious. Only one way?”

- “How narrow minded, exclusive, and judgmental do you have to be to be the one and only way?”

- But the truth of the matter is that if Jesus said “I am 1 of 10 ways. I am 1 of 100 ways. I am 1 of 1,000 ways…” we would still say “Common Jesus, can’t you make 1,001 ways?”

- Because we want our own way to be the right way.

- We want to be able to live how we want to live, do what we want to do, speak how we want to speak, spend our money how we deserve to spend our money, and we expect God to be just fine with that.

- To word it the way that Hosea did:

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- Hosea 7:16a

o I am the Most High God. But they do not turn to me.

- And so this is the basic theme of Hosea.

- Like many of the other Jewish prophets, he gave a message from God that called people to repent, called people to turn away from their pride and their sin, and to turn towards God.

- But now, let’s get a little bit more specific into what makes Hosea unique.

- Because, chances are, if you know anything about Hosea, you know something that I haven’t mentioned yet.

- And Hosea is 14 chapters in length, but if you know anything about it, you probably know about the story that unfolds in the first 3 chapters.

- In fact, most of what people know about Hosea can be summarized in the first few verses of the first chapter.

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- Hosea 1:2-3a

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.

- If you read through the ancient Jewish prophets, you will find some very weird stuff in there.

- All sorts of weird imagery and weird actions taken by prophets to give a demonstration of what God wanted the people to know.

- But this one jumps out.

- Given the context of Hosea’s world, the northern kingdom of Israel.

- Doing well materially (although about to be on a very steep decline), and doing poorly spiritually.

- All of the standard prophetic messages of “Repent! Turn to God!” in place.

- But then there’s this.

- Hosea, at God’s request (command), marries a woman named Gomer (Hosea and Gomer were likely married during Israel’s prosperous times).

- An unfaithful woman.

- A woman who will turn away from him, turn towards others, and break his heart.

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- Hosea is to marry Gomer, not because Hosea is being punished, but because it is a picture of the people of Israel being unfaithful to God.

- This is given as a practical example, a real life picture, of the heartbreak that God is feeling as the northern kingdom of Israel refuse to turn to Him, refuse to ask Him for help, refuse to follow Him, refuse to love Him (refuse to let Him love them).

- And we’ll dive more into Hosea and Gomer’s story throughout this series, but let’s jump ahead a bit here.

- Hosea and Gomer are married, they have several children (not all of whom are likely Hosea’s biological children, more on that in a few weeks), and then Gomer turns away from Hosea and goes to be with another man.

- And the exact nature of what transpires isn’t completely spelled out, but apparently there is some sort of indebtedness now in Gomer’s life.

- She possibly leaves Hosea, pursues this other man, and then eventually finds herself in such hard times that she sells herself into slavery just to survive.

- And then, we’re told this.

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- Hosea 3:1-2

o The Lord said to me, “Go. Show your love to your wife again. She is loved by another man. And she has committed adultery. But I want you to love her just as I love the people of Israel. They turn to other gods. And they love to offer raisin cakes to Baal and eat them. In spite of that, I love my people.”

o So I bought Gomer for six ounces of silver and 430 pounds of barley.

- So think about this picture here.

- Hosea is a faithful husband, Hosea is a faithful father (even to children who aren’t his).

- And yet, in spite of Hosea’s faithfulness, Gomer gives into unfaithfulness.

- And now she’s absolutely at rock bottom.

- Not in some new, exciting, loving relationship.

- But in some poor way where she is now seen as a piece of property rather than a wife, mother, daughter of God.

- But Hosea’s innocent of all of this.

- Hosea’s hands are clean.

- After all, as Paul would later write in the Christian Scriptures, if you have an unbelieving spouse and they choose to leave you, then there’s nothing you can do (1 Corinthians 7:15).

- But that’s not good enough for Hosea, because apparently that’s not good enough for God (makes you really think twice about that whole idea of human marriages being meant to point people to God, we’ll dive more into that later in this series as well).

- And so Hosea goes, and he spends his money to buy back his wife, so that he could bring her home.

- Hosea goes and buys back his adulterous, unrepentant wife.

- And why does he do that?

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- Because God says this is how He loves His people.

- In spite of our sin, in spite of our pride, in spite of everything we do to show we don’t deserve it, He still loves us.

- That kind of love, to me anyways, just seems a little… reckless.

- Without caution.

- Prodigal.

- Extravagant.

- This is the pursuing, relentless love of God.

- Back in the first chapter of Hosea, we read this (this is what God is saying to Israel):

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- Hosea 1:6b

o I will no longer show love to the people of Israel. I will not forgive them anymore.

- And yet now, just a couple of chapters later, God says “I love my people”.

- All throughout Hosea, it almost comes across like God just can’t help Himself.

- He can’t stop loving.

- It’s who He is.

- Right at the very core of His character and essence, it’s who God is.

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- 1 John 4:16

o So we know that God loves us. We depend on it.

o God is love. Anyone who leads a life of love is joined to God. And God is joined to them.

- This is the theme of Hosea, and it’s all played out in the relationship between Hosea and Gomer.

- But the surprising part, is that Hosea and Gomer’s story, is only present for the first three chapters of the document we know as Hosea.

- The next 11 chapters (4-14) are just collections of Hosea’s prophecies (which is largely poetic in nature).

- But this theme runs throughout it all.

- At the heart of Hosea is this ridiculous idea, that a good, righteous, and faithful husband, would relentlessly pursue his adulterous and unrepentant wife. And that is the perfect picture of the God who pursues His people.

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- And there are three major sections in the book of Hosea.

- You have Hosea 1-3, which are primarily about Hosea’s marriage to Gomer (and the parallels that has for God’s relationship with Israel).

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- Then you have Hosea 4-11, which contain accusations against Israel and warnings for Israel (this is the standard stuff you expect to find in the writings of Jewish prophets – “repent, turn from your sin, turn back to God before disaster comes!” That sort of stuff).

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- Then you have Hosea 12-14, which contain more accusations against Israel and warnings for Israel.

- And, you see those three sections, and you might wonder “isn’t that really just two?”

- “Why are 4-11 and 12-14 treated as two different sections?”

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- It’s because of chapters 11 and 14, the end of each section.

- Because, in both sections, as Hosea is speaking for God and giving warning after warning, accusation after accusation,

- Repeatedly calling people to “repent! Turn from your sin!”

- Over and over and over again.

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- But then, in chapter 11 and chapter 14, you have a break from the accusations and warnings, and you have a picture of hope.

- Hope for the future.

- Hope for a renewed relationship.

- Hope for a restored marriage between God and His people.

- And that’s why, when it comes right down to it, the book of Hosea, is a book that is all about the relentless love of God.

- Because even if you’ve heard about it before, even if you’re familiar with Hosea and Gomer’s story, it can be jarring that at the end of a very short third chapter, all of the sudden Gomer disappears from the story.

- We don’t hear about her again.

- We don’t hear from her side of the story.

- We don’t hear about her response to Hosea pursing her and loving her and buying her back and bringing her home.

- Gomer’s response to Hosea’s love and forgiveness is completely left out of the book.

- Why?

- Because that’s not the point of the story.

- The point is all about the one who loves and forgives and remains faithful, even when that faithfulness is met with nothing but rejection and unfaithfulness.

- The point is the relentless (reckless) love of a God who would pursue His people, not only to save them from their exile, but He’ll actually pursue them in the midst of their exile and throughout their exile.

- But, before we wrap up this first week of the series, if I can teach you just a couple of more things that will help set the stage for the weeks to come.

- First of all, the way we came to possess the book of Hosea is interesting (at least it is to me).

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- Because the “book” of Hosea, as we know it now, was likely compiled later and directed as a warning to Judah to not repeat Israel’s mistakes.

- After Israel was conquered by Assyria (but before Judah was conquered by Babylon), someone looked to Hosea’s teaching and believed that his message to Israel would be applicable for the people of Judah to know.

- And so, what possibly happened, was that there had been several collections of Hosea’s writings (again, there’s a lot of poetic nature to his prophecies), written down maybe by Hosea and/or his followers.

- But then, at a later date, these collections were gathered together and arranged into this single volume.

- As a warning for Judah (and others who followed, perhaps up to and including us) not to repeat Israel’s mistakes.

- Right from the beginning, it was believed that these words were meant for more than just the northern kingdom of Israel to hear.

- This final thing I want to address before we wrap up is how this all ends for Israel.

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- And so Hosea begins his ministry during Jeroboam’s reign, and continues on through the kings of Zachariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, and Hoshea (I say all of those names just to impress you, even though all you have to do is look up the Wikipedia article on who all the kings of Israel were and there’s your list right there!)

- But eventually, king Hoshea stops paying tribute to Assyria, and Israel is conquered.

- Their capital city (Samaria) falls.

- And they are sent into exile.

- Now, what that means, is that a chunk of Israel’s population were scattered across the Assyrian empire.

- And not only that, but other conquered kingdoms and people were scattered and resettled into what was formerly the northern kingdom of Israel.

- And so what you have is a very effective military tactic, because this resettlement policy of Assyria was used to prevent revolt.

- By scattering the captive Israelites across the empire prevented them from banding together and uniting.

- And then repopulating Israel with foreign captives from other nations also prevented the remaining Israelites from uniting as well.

- And so, this is what the end of Hosea’s ministry looks like.

- Israel is scattered into exile, and they become hopelessly intermingled with their conquerors.

- As generations pass, a new people group is created, resulting from the mixing of Israel with all of these other Assyrian captives.

- And these people would come to be named after the capital city of the former northern kingdom of Israel.

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- The Samaritans.

- They would be a despised and rejected people group by those who considered themselves to be “true Jewish people”.

- And this view would grow and continue all the way to the point where Jesus sits down with a Samaritan woman at a well (as John writes about in the fourth chapter of his Gospel), where she just can’t believe that Jesus (a Jewish man – a Jewish rabbi) would even speak to her.

- And so, this is the context and setting of Hosea.

- We have the benefit of knowing what came before, and we also have the benefit of knowing what comes after.

- And so I am excited for us to be starting this series, and I’m excited for the next 5 weeks.

- Because as I read (and re-read) the book of Hosea in preparation for this series, I found the words of Scripture jumping off the page to me.

- I put down my Bible app that I love and use every day, but I opened up several study Bibles and just read through it again and again.

- And it came alive for me.

- And I hope, throughout this series, that the message of Hosea and Gomer, and what their incredibly imperfect relationship teaches us, will also come alive for you as well.

- Because ultimately this strange, difficult, disturbing story, all points us to Jesus.

- Because the sin and fallen-ness of Hosea’s day grows and continues, through prosperity, decay, exile, and scattering.

- But, in spite of that, all of this points to the relentless love of God, which continues through Israel’s prosperity, decay, exile, and scattering.

- Because God never gives up on His people, and He pursues them, all throughout history, to the point where hundreds of years after Hosea, Jesus will sit down in Samaria with a woman (who has her own tragic marital past), and He will offer her living water so that she might never thirst again.

- The kind of love that Jesus shows to the despised Samaritans was certainly seen as reckless by his followers and others watching.

- But it really wasn’t anything new, just a continuation of what God had always been showing His people, and calling them to.

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- Invite people to check out “Now What?” website

- Close in prayer

- Benediction: “God loves you. God is on your side. He is coming after you. He is relentless.”

Scriptures:

- Hosea 1:1-2:1

- Hosea 7

- 2 Kings 17

- John 4:3-30

Prayer:

- Pray that God would give you a greater sense of His relentless love for you personally. Wherever you find yourself today, in prosperity, decay, exile, or somewhere in between, pray that God would reveal His incredible love for you in a powerful way.

- Pray that God’s love would flow through you and into the lives of others. Pray that those who are hurting, lost, and in need would be drawn to you so that you could show them the relentless love of God.

Discussion:

- What do you understand about the Old Testament and New Testament? Do you see them as completely in sync and connected, or do you struggle to understand how the Old Testament points to Jesus? Is there anything specific that you have a hard time understanding and/or applying to your life?

- What do you think of words like “relentless”, “reckless”, and “prodigal” to describe God?

- “Pride is the root of all sin.” What do you think of that statement? How has pride impacted your own life, your walk with God, and your relationships with others?

- When you sin, do you find it easy or difficult to turn to God for help? Why?

Next Step:

- Write down a brief story of two specific times in your life:

- 1) When was a time when you felt the most loved (by anyone)?

- 2) When was a time when you felt the most loved by God?

- Gather together with others (with your family around the dinner table, with a friend over coffee) and share these stories with one another.