An Unfaithful People Receive Love
TGP A Nation Divided • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 92 viewsGod faithfully loves His people even when His people are unfaithful and fail to love Him
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Movie: “Loved” 5 min
Tension
Typically this is when I come up and say, “I like this video because…such and such” but I can’t say that about this one. I don’t like this video at all. I don’t how it makes me hurt inside.
I hurt for the sincerely broken hearted husband.
I hurt for the blind, lost and desperate wife
I hurt over the lies, deception and unfaithfulness
I hurt for that cup of coffee…what could possibly happen there in that coffee shop that can bring a train wreck like this back on track?
And maybe most of all, I hurt, because as I look at my own marriage I don’t even want to think about how I would or would not respond if I suddenly found myself in a situation like this.
All of this just makes my heart hurt, and if you are feeling any of these things, then we are both beginning to get a taste of what God wants to teach His people through the story of Hosea.
In our Gospel Project we are deep into the age of the divided Kingdom of Israel when God chose to deliver his Word through prophets like Elijah, Elisha and Jonah, but this week we are looking at a new variance in the delivery of these messages from the LORD. With these earlier prophets, the Word of the LORD came to them and they verbalized it to the people, but with Hosea and many prophets after Him, God tells them to go beyond just speaking the Word of the LORD. He gives them specific instructions on how to illustrate the things that God is wanting them to know. Sometimes going to some extreme measures to make sure that the people grasp the significance and severity of what the LORD was trying to say.
Yup, this is where we find a lot of weird stuff of the Old Testament. Things that confuse and even offend our modern sensitivities.
A
All those feelings that you are feeling right now…they are what God was going for in the story of Hosea.
Let me give you a couple of quick sampling of what I mean:
We will see over the next many weeks that God often did some radical things in the lives of His prophets to get the attention of His people. While God used prophets like Elijah and Elisha to communicate his messages to the people, in later times it took extreme measures to get their attention.
At one point God told the prophet Isaiah to run around barefoot and naked for three years, in order to demonstrate how certain people would be stripped of everything if they kept on the path they were going.
Another time, the prophet Jeremiah was told to hide his underwear in a rock, and then go get it and show everyone how spoiled it was to indicate the depth of the ruin that would come to them.
The prophet Ezekiel has probably the craziest list of exploits, including when God made him unable to speak the Word of the LORD with his words so he had to carve it out of clay and set up a battle field on the ground like a boy with toy armies. Then he had to lay next to the miniature battle field for 390 days on his left side only to finally get relief by turning over on his right side for another 390 days. (And this is how chiropractic care was born) () He was also told to cook his food over a fire made by his own feces, which he understandably objected to, and so God allowed him to use cow manuer instead. Much better.
When God made him unable to speak the Word of the LORD with his words so he had to carve it out of clay and set up a battle field on the ground like a boy with toy armies. Then he had to lay next to the miniature battle field for 390 days on his left side only to finally get relief by turning over on his right side for another 390 days. (And this is how chiropractic care was born) (-4)
The time “The Word of the LORD” came to him and he was made mute, so had to draw his prophecies on clay tablets and then sleep next to them ()
laying on his left side for 390 days only to find relief by finally getting to turn over to his right side and repeat it all over again. () (and chiropractory was born)
(and that is how the science of chiropractic care began)
He was also told to cook his food over a fire made by his own feces, which he understandably objected to, and so God allowed him to use cow manuer instead. Much better.
He was also told to cook his food over a fire made by his own fecies, which he objected to, and so God allowed him to use cow fecies instead. Much better.
Another time he got to shave off his beard in three different parts with a sword
And we could go on and on, but the point is that these were not just strange things that these men chose to do, but they were strange things that God told His prophets to do in order to communicate “The Word of the LORD”. They were to not just to speak the Word of the LORD, but live it out in front of the people. Living parables, that would get people’s attention in such a way that they might better receive the Word of the LORD.
And this is the framework for the prophet Hosea’s story. In order to better communicate the hurt behind the unfaithfulness of God’s people, God led Hosea into a marriage that displayed a similar unfaithfulness. It is unclear how or when Hosea knew that his wife would be unfaithful to him, but just that this part of his story would work to prophetically communicate the Word of the LORD to God’s people.
knew this simply because God showed it to him, or if there were already things in Gomer’s life that pointed to her being prone to unfaithfulness. when they got married Included in this list of disruptive messages was the message that God sent through his command to Hosea to take a wife, with full knowledge that she will on day be unfaithful to him.
There is power in a picture like this. Even this morning, I could have just told you that it hurt God that the people of Israel were unfaithful to Him, but when I gave you a picture of unfaithfulness in Jimmy and Lisa’s story and it helps us to understand it in a deeper way. This is what Hosea’s experience did for his audience in his day.
in effect what it does for us today.
I am sure that when“Jimmy” married “Lisa” he never thought that one day he would be begging for a cup of coffee like this, but Hosea was prophetically told that this woman that he would love and take as his wife would one day be unfaithful to him. And yet he was to marry her anyway.
only a weak reflection of everything that was only a Because Hosea’s story is given to us as a picture of how God love for His people works. God’s love is not like our love.
God’s love for His people incredible God’s love for us is. That even when His people are unfaithful to him, He still loves us. we are being unfaithful to Him. His love for us is not dependent on
This seems like a cruel joke to play on a guy, but the key to understanding this is to know that God is really giving Hosea a gift. The gift of understanding better than anyone else in this time how God is feeling toward his people. And while there are some horrible times in the midst of Hosea’s story, their is also a great deal of hope. Hope is something that is stronger than lies, betrayal or deceit.
The video we saw helped us to be in the right frame of mind, but one thing that was very diffferent about Hosea’s relationship with his wife and our vide is that Hosea married his wife, knowing that she would be unfaithful to him. It was told him by the LORD, and yet he still fell in love with her and married her just like any other sweetheart in his day.
And a lot of other weird stuff…all of these things were brought on by the Word Of The LORD coming to these prophets and they obeying.
And this might not seem like the very best text to handle on Valentines Day weekend, but believe it or not, Hosea’s story truly is one of the greatest love stories in all of Scripture. When understood correctly, this story will point us to a love that is higher, stronger and purer than anything we have ever been able to capture in greeting cards or valentines.
What does God have to do to get our attention!
I didn’t even think about this until Rachel mentioned this to me this week, but believe it or not, this truly is one of the greatest love stories in all of Scripture. When understood correctly, the book of Hosea can help us see love in the way that God intended. A love that is higher, stronger and purer than red hearts and valentines. I hope you did take some time this week to celebrate your loved ones, but I guarantee you that whatever we were calling “love” this past week was but a small taste of the kind of love that God intends for us to experience.
So open your Bibles with me to the book of Hosea, p 751 in the Bibles in the chairs. It will be a bit of a crash course on the book as we only have today to look at it, but my hope is that by the end of our time we will begin to see how God’s love for us is greater than we ever imagined.
Charles Stanley
at best a small representation of all that God has designed love to be. As memorable as your Valentines Day may have been, we are so limited in our expressions of love that the story of Hosea has a lot to teach us about how expansive God’s love for us really is.
We seldom give anyone our complete attention
4 ways God communicates to us: Word - Spirit - Someone Else - circumstances in our life
So open your Bibles with me to the book of Hosea, p 751 in the Bibles in the chairs. It will be a bit of a crash course on the book as we only have today to look at it, but my hope is that by the end of our time we will begin to see how God’s love for us is greater than we ever imagined.
Spirit
Goal of Prophecy
Comprehend the truth
Someone Else
Conformed to the Truth
Communicate that Truth to others
Let’s pray and we will dive into the Word together.
Prophets did a lot of weird stuff. Elisha and Elijah did some incredible miracles but their acts seemed to be supernatural means to a clear material need. Other prophets were asked to do material things to prophetically declare the word of the LORD
It will be a quick look for us this morning, but lets open our Bibles up to the book of Hosea, p. 751 in the Bibles in the chairs...
But the weirdest of the lot may be Ezekiel. After witnessing a vision of God flanked by four chimerical creatures, the prophet ate a scroll that had been given to him ( and 3). Ezekiel was called to be a prophet, but his ministry initially did not involve any prophetic words, as God had rendered him mute (). Instead he took to drawing, depicting an image of Jerusalem under siege on a clay tablet. Then he lay down on his side, with an iron pan separating him from his clay art. After 390 days had passed, Ezekiel rolled over and repeated ().
After his clay tablet stunt was over, Ezekiel went new diet of barley cakes baked over cow manure (). Next Ezekiel used a sword—yes, you read that right, an actual sword—to shave off his beard, dividing his hairs into thirds. He set one third on fire. He scattered another third around the city and stabbed it with his sword. He threw the remaining third into the wind. But the hair histrionics were far from over: Ezekiel had saved a few hairs from such abuse, which he sewed into his clothing. Then he burned some of those hairs too ().
The weird stuff didn’t stop when Ezekiel finally started speaking. In , he prophesies against the mountains. Six chapters later, he goes into lurid detail—at least by biblical standards—about the sexual depravity of two sister prostitutes. Later, he prophesies over dry bones in a valley. As Ezekiel stands speaking to his captive audience, he has a vision of the bones coming to life ().
Isaiah, who stripped off all his clothes and wandered around naked ().
Consider Isaiah, who stripped off all his clothes and wandered around naked (). Or Jeremiah, who not only hid his underwear in a rock but then went back to retrieve it after a “long time” (). Jeremiah apparently didn’t mind parting with under garments, but he couldn’t be separated from the cattle yoke he had fastened to his shoulders until another prophet broke it off ( and 28). Yet another eyebrow-raiser was Hosea, who married a prostitute and named their daughter Lo-ruhama, which means ‘unloved’ ().
Jeremiah, who hid his underwear in a rock, then went back to retrieve it after a “long time” (). Jeremiah couldn’t be separated from the cattle yoke he had fastened to his shoulders until another prophet broke it off ( and 28).
Ezekiel was by far the wierdest. He was called to be a prophet, but his ministry initially did not involve any prophetic words, as God had rendered him mute (). Instead he took to drawing, depicting an image of Jerusalem under siege on a clay tablet. Then he lay down on his side, with an iron pan separating him from his clay art. After 390 days had passed, Ezekiel rolled over and repeated ().
After his clay tablet stunt was over, Ezekiel went new diet of barley cakes baked over cow manure (). Next Ezekiel used a sword—yes, you read that right, an actual sword—to shave off his beard, dividing his hairs into thirds. He set one third on fire. He scattered another third around the city and stabbed it with his sword. He threw the remaining third into the wind. But the hair histrionics were far from over: Ezekiel had saved a few hairs from such abuse, which he sewed into his clothing. Then he burned some of those hairs too ().
The weird stuff didn’t stop when Ezekiel finally started speaking. In , he prophesies against the mountains. Six chapters later, he goes into lurid detail—at least by biblical standards—about the sexual depravity of two sister prostitutes. Later, he prophesies over dry bones in a valley. As Ezekiel stands speaking to his captive audience, he has a vision of the bones coming to life ().
Yet another eyebrow-raiser was Hosea, who married a prostitute and named their daughter Lo-ruhama, which means ‘unloved’ ().
(stephen beale catholic exchange)
Tension
Do I mention the children’s names??? They are then reversed in chapter 2 and beyond so won’t I need them to reverse them?
Truth
1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
Hosea 1:
In typical fashion, the prophetic book of Hosea opens with a time stamp that shows us that he recieved the Word of the LORD during the reign of these particular kings during the era of the divided kingdom.
2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” 3 So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
Hosea 1:
Of course the language here is somewhat offensive to us, but that is exactly the point. These are not things to take lightly. The offensive of the wording here matches the offensiveness of the actions. Israel has committed a terrible offense against the LORD in being repeatedly unfaithful to the covenant promises that they made to Him. In the same way, Gomer will commit a terrible offense by being unfaithful to the covenant promises that she made to Hosea on their wedding day.
They end up having three children together, and the LORD instructed Hosea to give their children prophetic names that reflect the events that are soon to come on the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
“...and she conceived and bore him a son.”
Then they had a daughter named “Lo-Ruhaman” which means “No Mercy” because the LORD will no longer show mercy on Isreal’s unfaithfulness.
Then they had another son and named him “Lo - Ammi” which means “not my people” for Israel is not the was named after a place whereSo the oldest son’s name was “Jezreel”
4 And the Lord said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for in just 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 And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.” 6 She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, “Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. 7 But I will have mercy 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 No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. 9 And the Lord said, “Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”
Hosea 1:
Are you feeling the love yet? No... well this is only the beginning of the story, where the setting is set so that we can better understand the rest of the book.
to its important to keep this part in mind in order to see the great lengths that the love of the LORD may come.
God’s people have been horribly unfaithful and this is never something that God takes lightly. The righteousness and justice of God’s character demand that every rebellion against his Lordship be punished, and God’s people were violating the most basic of God’s commands. They were worshipping other gods. In fact, a whole system of foreign gods and idols called the Ba’als. The message that God is sending through Hosea is that He has endured these violations for as long as He will, and now judgement is on it’s way.
this is a big part of the message that Hosea is commissioned by God to deliver to His people. But it is not the communicate to God’s people, but it is not the only message Hosea was sent to prophecy of the judgement of God on His own people, but that is not all he
And if you take the time to read through the rest of the book of Hosea you will see a long list of poetic and prophetic declarations of judgement on the northern kingdom of Israel. Most of it is not really pleasant, but thankfully this is not all that is there. In the midst of all of the dark declarations of judgement is a sustained message of hope. A message that communicates that...
And if you take the time to read through the rest of the book of Hosea you will see a long list of poetic and prophetic declarations of judgement on the northern kingdom of Israel. Most of it is not really pleasant, but thankfully this is not all that is there. In the midst of all of the declarations of judgement is a sustaining message of hope. God’s people have been horribly unfaithful to Him, and because of this He is going to remove his protection from them and allow them to be conquered and dragged away to many different nations across the known world. But…Hosea is also to give God’s people the hopeful message that there will come a day when all of this judgement will be reversed for the people of Israel, showing them that ...
God’s people have been horribly unfaithful to Him, and because of this He is going to remove his protection from them and allow them to be conquered and dragged away to many different nations across the known world. But…Hosea is also to give God’s people the hopeful message that there will come a day when all of this judgement will be reversed for the people of Israel, showing them that ...
1. God’s love remains steadfast toward His unfaithful people ()
1. God’s love remains steadfast toward His unfaithful people ()
16 “And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18 And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. 19 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord. 21 “And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth, 22 and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel, 23 and I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’ ”
The day of judgment is now, but there will come a day when the effects of this judgement will all be reversed. There will be a new covenant, a new “betrothal” where the demands of God’s righteousness and justice will be fulfilled through his love, mercy and faithfulness.
Against the backdrop of dark news of judgement, this news of future hope shines so brightly. God has not given up on His people. His love remains steadfast. But he cannot allow their sin to go unpunished. We know from Scripture that this judgement will come in the form of the Assyrian Empire, and it’s capital city Nineveh, who will come in and wipe out the Northern Kingdom of Israel and carry off the people to different areas of the world. But even capture, dispersion and slavery will not keep God from showing His love to His people. Moving forward to chapter 3 we see that…
dispersion and of the news of dark days ahead the the darkness of the discipline and justice this declaration of renewal shines so brightly. It is a declaration of love, true love. Love that is not rooted in the faithfulness of God’s people, but rooted in the greatness of God’s character. That is the only reason that it brings so much hope where there was previously no hope. God had not given up on His people. He has not abandoned them for someone else. But he cannot treat their sin lightly. So there will be a time when they are sold into slavery again, but God will one day come for them.
What is God telling Hosea about? The coming Messiah. The one who will fulfill the legal requirements of God’s law and take all the judgment on himself so that the unfaithful people of God will be covered according to the covenant. How will this happen? Someone will have to pay the cost of this.
This is where we encounter our second theme for the week:
2. God’s love pursues His unfaithful people and purchases them out of slavery ()
2. God’s love pursues His unfaithful people and purchases them out of slavery ()
God’s love pursues His unfaithful people and purchases them out of slavery ()
God’s love pursues His unfaithful people and purchases them out of slavery ()
At this point in Hosea and Gomer’s story, she has left him and their children and living in marital unfaithfulness. So God tells him to go and
1 And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” 2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. 3 And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.” 4 For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. 5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.
If we were to enter the Hosea story here in Chapter 3 it might be a little confusing as to who the “woman” is but when you start from the beginning of the book it seems obvious to me that the “woman” is Gomer. Especially since it is so clear that the LORD intends for Hosea’s relationship with his wife to be a reflection of God’s relationship with His people. God didn’t give up on his unfaithful people and go find another adulteress people to show His love to, and so it would make no sense that he would ask Hosea to do the same.
So the best understanding of why the word “woman” is used here is to show us how distant the relationship between Hosea and Gomer had become. She was once his wife, but as she is now living in marital unfaithfulness with some other man, she is now just the “woman”. God declared the same kind of distance between himself and His people, as they would be called, “Not my people” and He would be “not their God’.
But again here in chapter 3, God has told Hosea to do this thing so that we can understand how God will one day be doing a similar thing.
In the “latter days” the LORD will buy back his people for a price, but until then they will live in the consequences of their unfaithfulness, disbanded as a people without the rule of their kings or the guidance of their priests.
And then it will happen...Did you catch that in verse 5? I know we are moving pretty fast here so lets look at verse 5 again
5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.
In these “latter days” someone from the line of David will usher in a new Kingdom, a new covenant where God’s people will again seek and fear the LORD. Do you hear the Messianic promise here? Do you hear the connection with the Gospel Message. We have been in this Gospel Project for a while now, I hope you are beginning to develop ears to hear these things.
Admists the message of judgement for their rebellion, the LORD does not leave them without hope. Things will be bad very soon, but there will come someone from the line of David who will usher in a new Kingdom where they will seek the LORD their God again.
Hosea is talking about Jesus. The one from the line of David who will usher in a new kingdom and a new covenant. Hosea was not to give up on his marriage to Gomer as a future reflection of how God will never give up on His people. The text is clear that Gomer had violated her wedding vows. She was no longer worthy to be called Hosea’s wife…and that is what makes his act of buying her back so incredibly loving. In the same way Jesus died for us when we were so far from Him.
In His great love for His people he has provided a way for them to be with Him in the way that He always intended.
And it costs Him much more than Hosea paid for Gomer. It costs him the life of His son, Jesus Christ.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
God’s love pursues His unfaithful people and purchases their freedom!
j
1 When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. 2 The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols. 3 Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. 4 I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them. 5 They shall not return to the land of Egypt, but Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to return to me. 6 The sword shall rage against their cities, consume the bars of their gates, and devour them because of their own counsels. 7 My people are bent on turning away from me, and though they call out to the Most High, he shall not raise them up at all. 8 How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. 9 I will not execute my burning anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. 10 They shall go after the Lord; he will roar like a lion; when he roars, his children shall come trembling from the west; 11 they shall come trembling like birds from Egypt, and like doves from the land of Assyria, and I will return them to their homes, declares the Lord. 12 Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit, but Judah still walks with God and is faithful to the Holy One.
That is something that is coming. Something that God in his
13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.
And this is what God paid to buy us back to himself, the life of his Son Jesus
now... God calls Hosea to pursue the “woman” and even to pay a price to purchase back the woman that was still legally his. And yet, Hosea is instructed to go and love this woman in reflection of how God loves His people and how they will be forever together “in latter days”
Then Hosea speaks of
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
I ask you, what would be the proper response to a love like this?
A love for unfaithful people... like us. A love that transcends our behavioral choices and is given to us because the one doing the loving has chosen to set His love on us. He is the faithful husband who despite being repeatedly crushed by our unfaithfulness says through His tears: “It’s my love, and I can give it to who I will, because of who I am I choose to give it to you.”
“it’s my love, and I can give it to who I will and despite your unfaithfulness I choose to give it to you.” God loves us because of who He is, not because of who we are. It is an unconditional, unmerited, unbreakable love because it is rooted in who our God is. And he loves every one of you with this love.
This is the kind of love that our God love us with. He doesn’t love us according to who we are, but according to who He is. It is an unconditional, unmerited, unbreakable love because it is rooted and grounded in the unshakable character of our God. This is the love that he loves everyone of us with.
So, again I ask you, what is a fitting response to an extravagant love like this?
Hosea tells us in the very last chapter of he book bearing his name, where we find that...
Again I ask, what is the fitting response to an extravagant love like this?
3. God’s love invites His unfaithful people to repent ()
3. God’s love invites His unfaithful people to repent ()
To repent is to turn away from what you were doing and go in a new direction. A fitting response to a love that is given even when we are unfaithful, is to turn into that love with everything we have and live out of that love in earnest faithfulness to it.
this kind of live is to turn from our unfaithfulness into it with everything that we have. To be what God calls all of His people to turn from their ways that lead to destruction and begin again on the path that leads to life.
1 Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. 2 Take with you words and return to the Lord; say to him, “Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips. 3 Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses; and we will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy.” 4 I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them.
Hos 14:1-4
Gospel Application
And Hosea and Gomer lived happily ever after…well we don’t really know that and considering everything in their world is about to be torn upside down by the Assyrian Empire it seems unlikely. We might even be tempted to feel sorry for Hosea and the prophets like him. They had to endure a lot weird stuff in the name of being God’s prophet, but in truth God was giving his messengers a gift. Through this difficult experience, God revealed himself to Hosea in ways that few people have ever known Him.
I want to close with one my favorite old school commentators G. Campbell Morgan. He said:
“Out of his own heart agony, Hosea learned the nature of the sin of his people. They were playing the harlot, spending God’s gifts in lewd traffic with other lovers. Out of that agony he has learned how God suffers over the sin of His people, because of His undying love. Out of God’s love Hosea’s new care for Gomer was born, and in the method God ordained for him with her, he discovered God’s method with Israel. Out of all this process of pain, there came full confidence in the ultimate victory of love. Thus equipped he delivers his messages and all through them will sound those deep notes of Sin, Love, Hope.”
The people deserved to be judged and yet in His love God sent a redeemer instead! That is great love!!!
Ok,
Jimmy and Lisa????????????
??? There is an incarnational logic to their ministries: these prophets were not just speakers of the word—they lived it out in their lives, through their actions, their choice of clothing, and even their very bodies. They are thus witnesses to how totally transforming and disruptive the Word of God can be when we let it consume our whole lives.
But, with the coming of Christ, we can look back at these prophets and see them as foreshadowing Him—not just through the prophecies that told of His coming, but through their prophetic actions. Christ was, after all, the Word Made Flesh in the fullest and richest manner possible. And, like the prophets, Christ’s behavior was utterly bizarre, disruptive, and confusing according to conventional social standards of the day. This was, after all, someone who promised to rebuild the temple in three days, dined with prostitutes and tax collectors, drove demons into a herd of swine, healed a blind man by rubbing mud in his eyes, and once walked on water.
“Out of his own heart agony Hosea learned the nature of the sin of his people. They were playing the harlot, spending God’s gifts in lewd traffic with other lovers. Out of that agony he has learned how God suffers over the sin of His people, because of His undying love. Out of God’s love Hosea’s new care for Gomer was born, and in the method God ordained for him with her, he discovered God’s method with Israel. Out of all this process of pain, there came full confidence in the ultimate victory of love. Thus equipped he delivers his messages and all through them will sound those deep notes of Sin, Love, Hope.” - G. Campbell Morgan Minor Prophets
But, with the coming of Christ, we can look back at these prophets and see them as foreshadowing Him—not just through the prophecies that told of His coming, but through their prophetic actions. Christ was, after all, the Word Made Flesh in the fullest and richest manner possible. And, like the prophets, Christ’s behavior was utterly bizarre, disruptive, and confusing according to conventional social standards of the day. This was, after all, someone who promised to rebuild the temple in three days, dined with prostitutes and tax collectors, drove demons into a herd of swine, healed a blind man by rubbing mud in his eyes, and once walked on water.
Landing
That the is the message of the Gospel in three short words. Sin-Love-Hope. And it is the message of Hosea.
What will you do with the great love that God has lavished on you? How will you respond?
But, with the coming of Christ, we can look back at these prophets and see them as foreshadowing Him—not just through the prophecies that told of His coming, but through their prophetic actions. Christ was, after all, the Word Made Flesh in the fullest and richest manner possible. And, like the prophets, Christ’s behavior was utterly bizarre, disruptive, and confusing according to conventional social standards of the day. This was, after all, someone who promised to rebuild the temple in three days, dined with prostitutes and tax collectors, drove demons into a herd of swine, healed a blind man by rubbing mud in his eyes, and once walked on water.
His love remains steadfast toward you.
14 For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.
No matter how unfaithful you have been, His love remains steadfast toward you.
He is pursuing you to buy you out of the sinful life that is tearing you up whether you know it or not.
He is pursuing you to buy you out of the sinful life that is tearing you up whether you know it or not.
He invites you to repent and turn away from living a life that destined for destruction, and to live the live that his great love for you has provided.
He invites you to repent and turn away from living a life that destined to destruction, and to live the live that his great love for you has provided.
If you want to talk about what that looks like then let me encourage you to come see me after the service. I will hang out up front if anyone wants to talk or we could pray together that you would walk in the freedom purchased for you by the one who loves you with the greatest love there ever has been.
If you want to talk about what that looks like then let me encourage you to come see me after the service. I will hang out up front if anyone wants to talk or we could pray together that you would walk in the freedom purchased for you by the one who loves you with the greatest love there ever has been.
Valentines Day Connection? God demonstrates true love based not on the strength of the behavior of the other person but on the strength of the love for them - Jim and Gail’s 40th.