Can You Love an Unfaithful Thing?
Hosea 1:2-10 The Family of Hosea 2 When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, "Go, take for yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD." 3 So he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.4 And the LORD said to him, "Name him Jezreel; for in a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. 5 On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel." 6 She conceived again and bore a daughter. Then the LORD said to him, "Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have pity on the house of Israel or forgive them. 7 But I will have pity on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the LORD their God; I will not save them by bow, or by sword, or by war, or by horses, or by horsemen."8 When she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. 9 Then the LORD said, "Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not my people and I am not your God." The Restoration of Israel10 " Yet the number of the people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which can be neither measured nor numbered; and in the place where it was said to them, "You are not my people," it shall be said to them, "Children of the living God." 11 The people of Judah and the people of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head; and they shall take possession of the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
Introduction: if there was a sign out in front of the church, how would the attendance be. . .if they knew what my topic is. I intend this morning to use scripture to ask and answer the question. . .can you love an unfaithful thing?
HOSEA (hoh ssee’ uh) . . .one of the minor prophets. . .Personal name meaning, “salvation.” Title of the first book in the section of the Hebrew Bible called the Book of the Twelve, named after its prophetic hero.
According to Easton’s Bible dictionary he is the only prophet of Israel who has left any written prophecy. Unlike his contemporary Amos, Hosea laid much of the blame for Israel’s collapse on the adoption of an alien life-style borrowed from Canaanite neighbors.
By going after ‘Baal’, the prophet’s shorthand for the pagan deity and all that he stood for, Israel committed herself to a system which affected not only worship. Every part of life, from work in the fields, the use of leisure and the presuppositions of social duties and commitments to political decisions and relationships, was bound up with it.
The Baals were regarded as the source of fertility (2:5; 4:10) and of financial prosperity (2:8). To worship them demanded neither self-discipline nor high moral standards. The leaders of the nation, kings, priests and merchants, were the major offenders in promoting this way of life (5:1–7). It had become the norm, whereas the prophet’s passion for the right was regarded as slightly mad (9:7).
If the powerful in the land were to take rebuke and initiate reform, the prophet had an unenviable task ahead of him. Socially lawlessness and injustice reigned. Burglary and highway robbery, murder, drunkenness, intrigue (6:7–7:7) and all the consequent evils are noted by the prophet; but his concern is not merely to list sins and point an accusing finger. What grieves him and drives him to protest is the choice Israel has made, rejecting the Lord, to whom Israel was ‘betrothed’, for worthless gods which, far from bestowing prosperity, could bring only ruin to the land and its people.
Point 1: Whereas the prophet Amos had a message for Israel’s neighbours as well as for God’s people, Hosea concentrates on the relationship between the Lord and Israel, bound together as they were by a covenant of which the name Yahweh was a pledge and token (12:9).
The Prophet Hosea is identified in the title verse (1:1) as a genuine prophet to whom “the word of the Lord” came. That phrase designates the source of his authority and describes his credentials. The name Hosea means “salvation.” He preached in the Northern Kingdom (Israel, also called “Ephraim”) during a period of national decline. When Hosea started his ministry, Jeroboam II was king, and it was a time of great prosperity. But the nation was rotting away inwardly and getting involved with foreign alliances instead of trusting God to lead and protect them.
Not only are Hosea’s oracles (Hos. 4–14) the word of the Lord to Israel, but so also are the materials dealing with his domestic problems (Hos. 1–3). Based on information gleaned from his book, Hosea was from the Northern Kingdom of Israel. His familiarity with place names, religious practices, and political conditions in Israel suggests that he was a native. In contrast, Amos, who ministered as a prophet in Israel shortly before Hosea’s ministry there, was from Tekoa in Judah. Both prophets preached judgment, Amos with a lion’s roar and Hosea with a broken heart.
Every once in a while I read something in the scriptures that make me just question God, I read some things and I just got to ask God why?. . . .I know you read about Job somewhere minding his business being a faithful servant and God asked the devil . . . have you considered my servant Job. . . .well. . .what we are getting to know this morning is that same sort of thing. . . .scripture tells us that the word of the Lord came to Hosea and told him to marry a special kind of woman!
Hosea’s message is to the nation of Israel, exposing their sins and warning them of coming judgment. There is also a message of hope for the future, as we shall see. But the unique thing about his message is that he had to live it himself before he could preach it to the people. The prophet had to experience deep agony in his own marriage because of the sins of his wife, but all of this was a divinely sent object lesson to him and his people.
Point 2: At the outset of Hosea’s ministry the Lord instructed him to marry an adulterous woman. This relationship, characterized by infidelity on the wife’s part, was to portray Israel’s unfaithfulness to its covenant with the Lord (cf. 2:2-23). In response to the divine command Hosea. . . . married Gomer, a daughter of Diblaim.
How to interpret the prophet’s marriage is not a settled issue. A few take the marriage to be an allegory. Some accept it as a literal marriage to a woman who became promiscuous after marriage. Most handle it as an actual marriage to a cult prostitute. Every interpreter must keep in mind the obvious intent of the material to serve as prophetic symbolism of God’s relationship to Israel.
If we were to take this narrative at face value, we would assume God was commanding something he had forbidden. Exodus 20:14 had clearly prohibited adultery. Moreover, God had forbidden priests to marry harlots in Leviticus 21:7. If that was God’s will for priests, his will for prophets could hardly be less demanding. So we are shocked to hear the Almighty commanding Hosea to “go, take to yourself an adulterous wife.”
Point 3: Hosea was obedient. . .the wedding took place and as in most cases the natural order of things took place and they had some children. You can trace the history of Israel in the names of the three children:
(1) Jezreel (1:4) means “scattered,” referring to the time when God would scatter Israel among the nations;
(2) Lo-ruhamah (1:6) means “unpitied,” meaning that God would lift His mercy from the nation and permit her to suffer for her sins;
(3) Lo-ammi (1:9) means “not my people,” indicating this present time in God’s program when Israel is out of fellowship with God and its people are not His people as once they were. In the names of the fruit of this union we have a summary of Israel’s spiritual condition.
Point 4: Hosea married Gomer, who proved to be unfaithful, and left him for another man. He later found her for sale as a slave. In deep love he bought her and eventually took her back as his wife. God chose this wife for Hosea and allowed him to go through such a trying experience.
If you study these biblical events with your natural senses it seems to make no sense, did our God in his infinite wisdom say. . .“Go, take to yourself a[n adulterous] wife and (beget) children [of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord.]” It is difficult to imagine Hosea's feelings when God told him to marry a woman who would be unfaithful to him. He may not have wanted to do it, but he obeyed.
God often required extraordinary obedience from his prophets who were facing extraordinary times. God may ask you to do something difficult and extraordinary, too. If he does, how will you respond? Will you obey him, trusting that he who knows everything has a special purpose for his request?
Will you be able to accept the fact that the pain involved in obedience may benefit those you serve, and not you personally?
Point 5: The God commanded experiences of Hosea was and still is Grounds for divorce! Few Christians question that adultery, to say nothing of prostitution, constitutes valid grounds for divorce. But the experience of Hosea reminds us of a greater truth. Adultery, or any sin, because of the grace & mercy of our God is first of all grounds for forgiveness!
To Hosea’s mind it was no accident that his own personal experience had prepared him to understand the profound truth of the Lord’s undying love for Israel, despite the fact that Israel had rejected him. The way Hosea expresses this (1:2) raises problems for the modern reader. Whatever explanation a biographer might have revealed, looking back Hosea could see that his experience was no accident. The Lord was in it, preparing his servant for a ministry which he could not have exercised without that particular form of suffering.
Conclusion: We cannot leave these chapters without pointing out that spiritual adultery can be a sin of NT Christians as well as the OT Jew (1 John 2:15–17; Rev. 2:1–7; James 4:1–10). Christians who love the world and live for sin are false to their Savior and break His heart.
The Theology At the heart of Hosea’s theology was the relationship between God and Israel. Yahweh alone was Israel’s God. Israel was Yahweh’s elect people. Hosea presented Yahweh as a faithful husband and Israel as an unfaithful wife. Hosea’s stress is not upon righteousness and justice, as was the case with Amos, but the knowledge of God and loyal love.
God’s love for Israel would not permit Him to give up on them in spite of their lack of knowledge and infidelity. Hope for Israel’s future lay in their repentance and God’s forgiveness and love that made Him willing to restore their relationship. Although Israel was unfaithful, God's commitment remained unchanged. This promise of a future reuniting reiterated the covenant made with Moses (Deuteronomy 30:1-10) and foreshadowed the prophecies of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 29:11-14; 31:31-40) and Ezekiel (Ezekiel 11:16-21). It was a prediction of the day when all the people of God will be united under Christ. Today in spite of our modern day spiritual adultery all believers everywhere are God's chosen people, a royal priesthood (see 1Peter 2:9).
Because of God’s love, grace and mercy what is grounds for divorce has birthed his forgiveness!
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cf. confer, compare