The Marred Marriage Metaphor (Pt.1)
Notes
Transcript
Scripture Reading
Scripture Reading
2 When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord.” 3 So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
4 Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. 5 In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.”
6 Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer show love to the house of Israel, that I should at all forgive them. 7 Yet I will show love to the house of Judah; and I will save them—not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but by the Lord their God.”
8 After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. 9 Then the Lord said, “Call him Lo-Ammi, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.
10 “Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ 11 The people of Judah and the people of Israel will be reunited, and they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.
Introduction
Introduction
This evening we will be starting in more detail the prophecy of Hosea to Israel. We’ve had a brief introduction to the book and it’s author, as well as a quick introduction to what God coveys through this prophet Hosea. This evening we will be turning our attention to what it is that God calls Hosea to do, and then what God seeks to convey to His people through Hosea.
Initially intended whole chapter - won’t be possible...
As we turn our attention to this prophecy, I’ve titled my sermon “The Marred Marriage Metaphor.” What we are going to find in this passage is that God calls the prophet Hosea to marry a adulterous wife, and to have a family with this adulterous wife. But the reason this is done is in order to portray a shocking picture to His people Israel. They had forsaken God, and this marriage will serve as a metaphor for them forsaking Him. This is account is a genuine event. In other words, it is not a fictional account. It was not merely a story or parable that was spoken. Rather, it was something that actually happened, and served as a picture...
With that in mind, let us consider what God says to Israel through Hosea.
1. Gomer: A Wife of Unfaithfulness (vv.2-3a)
1. Gomer: A Wife of Unfaithfulness (vv.2-3a)
The first thing we find in this text is that God calls Hosea to take a wife.
In verse 2, we read these words...
2 When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord.”
We see firstly from this that it is God who gives a command to Hosea to go and take an adulterous wife. As mentioned earlier, I believe that the clear Scriptural evidence here is that Hosea was indeed commanded to take a wife of harlotry, and this is what he in fact proceeded to do.
The reason that this shocks us, and why it very often leads people to doubt this actually taking place, is that we can scarcely imagine God commanding a marriage where infidelity is anticipated.
We rightly understand the sanctity of marriage, and the purity required by God within the marriage relationship. Marriage is a special covenant relationship that rightly understood and respected, is one in which the husband and wife are to be entirely devoted to and committed to one another, and which ought to be marked by purity.
The promise that each of them makes to the other at the marriage ceremony, before God and witnesses, is that they will remain faithful to one another, through thick or thin, for better or worse. Faithfulness forms the very bedrock of this marriage relationship.
It is thus that we are shocked by such a command by God, that from the outset, the bride that Hosea is to take for himself will be unfaithful, and will engage in adulterous relationships.
But this is precisely the shocking reality that God deems it essential to convey to His covenant people Israel. God commands Hosea to marry a woman that is unfaithful and will commit adultery, because this is precisely what Israel was doing with God.
God says to Hosea: “because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the LORD.”
Now let us remember that as marriage is a covenant relationship, so God had entered into a covenant relationship with Israel. Listen to the words of God to Israel after He had delivered them from Egypt:
10 Then the Lord said: “I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you. 11 Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 12 Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. 13 Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles. 14 Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
Covenant relationship had been established, and they were obligated to maintain the covenant relationship with God. But instead, they forsook their God.
This was no subtle drifting away from the Almighty. God uses here a most graphic picture to show the people that He has entered into covenant relationship with that they themselves are guilty, not only of unfaithfulness, but of the most vile unfaithfulness. They served the Almighty God that had delivered them by His great mercy out of the hands of the Egyptians, where they were in bondage and slavery.
As they were led out of Egypt in a miraculous fashion, being led through the Red Sea as it parted for them, being given water to drink in a barren place, being fed with manna and quail when there was no food for them in that Wilderness, God entered into Covenant with them. He called them His very own people, and set His divine love upon them in a unique way.
Notwithstanding this great love for them, and His wonderful promises to them, they no sooner had been delivered, than they were making a golden calf, and bowing down and worshiping the calf. They rejected God right from the outset. And things only got worse from there.
Despite their unfaithfulness, they were mercifully brought into the Promised Land, but no sooner had they arrived, than they started serving and worshiping the gods of the surrounding nations.
This only got worse as time progressed. Israel, the special people of God, loved to worship idols, and they loved to indulge in all of the sensualities of pagan worship. They kept on running away from God Almighty, and He remained ever so faithful and patient with them.
Here was the picture that Hosea would present to Israel. Every time the Israelites saw Hosea with his wife, or saw his wife with other men, indulging in the worship of Baal through adulterous relationships within the temple, the picture would be conveyed to them of the adulteries of Israel with God.
Having been given the command, Hosea proceeded to marry “Gomer, daughter of Diblaim.”
So this was the first picture that came across through this marred marriage.
But the family was about to grow. Children would be added to this marriage, and they too would serve as further pictures to Israel, and particularly of the consequences that would come to Israel as a result of her adulteries.
The marred Covenant Relationship of Israel with God would give birth to significant consequences. The giving of birth to children within an adulterous relationship would present the picture of the consequences of Israel’s own adulterous practices.
This leads us to our second point:
2. Jezreel: A Son of Unfaithfulness (vv.3b-5)
2. Jezreel: A Son of Unfaithfulness (vv.3b-5)
The first child that would be born to Hosea and Gomer was a son. At the end of verse 3 we read, “and she conceived and bore him a son.”
But as this happens, God speaks again to Hosea, telling him what to name this son. And we read in verse 4...
4 Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel.
The name Jezreel is an interesting one for Hosea’s first child, as it is somewhat ambiguous. In terms of the meaning of the name itself, it means “God sows / has sown.” But there was also a place with the name Jezreel, and this is actually more pertinent in terms of why Hosea’s son was named Jezreel.
As we consider this name that is given to the first son of Hosea, we need to know something of the place Jezreel, and particularly as it relates to Jehu, and the massacre that occurred there.
Before Jehu rose to power, the descendants of Omri had ruled over Israel (Northern Kingdom). One of the prominent kings through that dynasty was Ahab who was the king of Israel. Ahab had married a foreign wife named Jezebel who then became queen, and seemed to wield quite some power over her husband.
As she united with Ahab in marriage, she brought with her the god she served, named Baal. Essentially, Ahab and Jezebel turned the Israelites worship away from Jehovah, the true and living God, and they started worshiping Baal.
Furthermore, this queen Jezebel put to death the prophets of God, and established the prophets of Baal. You will recall that familiar encounter of Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel).
Following Ahab, his son Joram replaced him as king. We read in 2 Kings 3:2-3...
2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but not as his father and mother had done. He got rid of the sacred stone of Baal that his father had made. 3 Nevertheless he clung to the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit; he did not turn away from them.
The fact is that God’s patience eventually reached its end with that line of Omri and Ahab. God then spoke to Elisha, and said to Elisha that Jehu was to put Ahab and his family to death, and Jehu was to be anointed as King over Israel.
And this is then what happened. Jehu became king over Israel in a time when Israel had turned away from the living God. Jehu duly proceeded with the instruction given to him of putting Ahab and his family to death. This putting to death of the house of Ahab included him going and putting to death Ahaziah, king of Judah, who was the Grandson of Ahab.
Once that destruction had taken place, we read the words by God concerning this destruction and massacre caused by Jehu in 2 Kings 10:30....
30 The Lord said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in accomplishing what is right in my eyes and have done to the house of Ahab all I had in mind to do, your descendants will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.”
Now, this is intereating! Jehu had carried out the command of God. So the question that begs answering here is: why was God calling for the punishment of the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel?!
In seeking to answer that, there are some important things to consider. Firstly, we must recognise that Jehu was himself not fully devoted to God. While he had indeed obeyed the instruction of God, he had done so himself for selfish reasons and ambitions. He certainly didn’t have an undivided zeal and loyalty for God as he claimed. We read in 2 Kings 10:28-29...
28 So Jehu destroyed Baal worship in Israel. 29 However, he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit—the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan.
And further down in verse 31 of that same chapter...
31 Yet Jehu was not careful to keep the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to commit.
And so although there was some measure of obedience, and God recognized this, it was not done out of a motive of devotion and commitment to Jehovah. Rather, he was acting out of personal interest and for personal gain. Jehu continued to allow and condone idolatry in Israel.
In fact, although the Omri dynasty had been destroyed, the new dynasty of Jehu and his descendants would continue to walk away from God, and they themselves would be corrput.
It is thus that God says through Hosea that the house of Jehu would be punished for the bloodshed that was caused by him. They too were deserving of the judgment of God.
But the judgment in this case would not end there. The judgment that would take place at Jezreel would not only be against the house of Jehu, but would also be against Israel as a nation. At the end of verse 4, Hosea writes, “I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel.”
It goes on in verse 5 to say...
5 In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.”
The “bow” here represents power and military strength. Israel’s strength would be broken because of their adulteries and their worship of false gods. And notice, dear friends, that it was not merely the king or leaders that received condemnation. Rather, it was the entire nation that would suffer. There was a national responsibility among the Israelites, and they shared the guilt among them for their failure to turn from idolatry.
As this son of Hosea walked the streets of that land, and as the people spoke his name upon their lips, they would be continually reminded that God had promised a certain judgment. And in the words of verse 4, this would happen soon.
Indeed the royal line would soon come to and end. Four generations of Jehu would sit on the throne until King Zechariah, and then judgment would come upon them. Exactly as God had foretold, it took place. Furthermore, Israel would come under the judgment of God and would be overpowered by the surrounding nations, particularly the Assyrians.
But what I’d like us to just recognise briefly before we start to conclude, is that all of these things that took place in terms of Israel’s punishment and destruction was in line with the covenant that God had established with them.
Listen to some of the conditions of the covenant that God made with Israel if they broke covenant with Him:
17 I will set my face against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you.
25 The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth.
36 The Lord will drive you and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your fathers. There you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone.
38 You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will devour you.
What ultimately would take place to Israel was not something that they were not warned about. They knew the commands of God. They were in covenant relationship with God, and they were called to keep covenant. When they broke covenant - after many years of warning, and many calls for them to return to God - eventually their due punishment came upon them.
Application / Conclusion
Application / Conclusion
What can we learn from this for ourselves in this day?
Just a couple of very brief points:
1. God keeps His promises. He always has, and He always will. We are called to honour and fear Him as almighty God. He is a gracious God, but He calls us to live in obedience to Him.
2. Apart from the grace and mercy of God, we cannot live in obedience to God. The nation Israel abandoned God time and again. Their hearts were corrupt, and they kept on running after false gods and idols. It was for this reason that God enacted a New Covenant. In the words of Jeremiah...
31 “The time is coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their forefathers
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to them,”
declares the Lord.
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
We are those of the New Covenant, where God has placed on Christ our sin, and he has taken our hearts of stone out of us, and he has put within His people hearts of flesh. But for the grace of God, where would we be?
Dear brothers and sisters, let us rejoice in our covenant-keeping God, and the fact that the covenant in Christ is far superior to the Old Covenant through Moses. In light of God’s glorious grace, let us follow Him in humble obedience. We have sufficient examples in Scripture of the foolishness of turning away and wandering away from the living God. Our delight is in Him. Our hope is in Christ, the perfect Mediator! Our acceptance by God is because of His marvelous grace towards us.
By His grace, let us grow closer to Him as we march onward to our heavenly home, to be perfectly united with our Saviour, worshiping together at the throne of grace.
Amen.