A Love Poem?

So today we are going to continue to look at the book of Hosea and God’s boundless love for His people. As we look at Hosea one of the things that I hope that we can begin to see is that God’s love is seen often times as He provides for all of our needs. Like I said last week if we were to ask how people might define what love is we would probably come with a bunch of different answers. And here’s the difficulty the idea of Love is really a vast concept in and of itself. This is why we can all come up with so many answers to the question of what love is. And one of those ways in which we all show love is by seeing to the needs of those that we care about most. And that can come in so many different ways. I think it is easiest to think of this through three primary areas of need that we all have. We all have physical needs, emotional needs, and spiritual needs. And when we care and love about others we will naturally seek to fulfill those needs. God does the same for each of us. Here is where it becomes difficult though. Do we when we have a need whether it be physical, emotional, or spiritual first go to God the Father to have those needs fulfilled? It is more often than not the seeking of those fulfillments that we are seeking to worship false idols and Gods. It is in these areas that we can so quickly lose our worship and focus on God. No differently than the Israelites did in our story. Israel sought Baal rather than God the Father to satisfy their needs for physical provision. And in so doing they worshipped Baal before God. We need to be careful of these same tendencies in ourselves. So, let’s look at this poem found in Hosea chapter two verses three through twenty-three. With the hope of finding the remedy of this problem that we all struggle with.

Hosea 2:2–23 ESV

“Plead with your mother, plead— for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband— that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts; lest I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst. Upon her children also I will have no mercy, because they are children of whoredom. For their mother has played the whore; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’ Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths. She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them, and she shall seek them but shall not find them. Then she shall say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now.’ And she did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal. Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season, and I will take away my wool and my flax, which were to cover her nakedness. Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her out of my hand. And I will put an end to all her mirth, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her appointed feasts. And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, ‘These are my wages, which my lovers have given me.’ I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour them. And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals when she burned offerings to them and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry, and went after her lovers and forgot me, declares the Lord. “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. “And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 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. 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. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord. “And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth, and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel, 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.’ ”

So, this passage is broken down into two very different sections. The first is found in verses two through thirteen and in these verse we will see God pronouncement judgment upon Israel for it’s prostitution that it committed with Baal. Just as Gomer committed against Hosea. Then in the second section in verses fourteen to the end we are going to see God woo his love Israel back to himself. But, before we get there we have to get through the other junk. Just like in our own lives. Before we can get to the climax of all of our life with Jesus when Jesus returns to claim us to be His bride we are stuck here now dealing daily with the junk that comes from a life lived in sin. A life in which the world is constantly attempting to woo us from our first love Jesus.

Plead for her very soul

So we read in verse two,

Hosea 2:2 ESV

“Plead with your mother, plead— for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband— that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts;

So, God asks the children to “rebuke” their mother, but the children we will find never speak, it is only God who speaks towards Israel. God makes this factual statement based on Israel’s immoral behavior. He says, “she is not my wife, and I am not her husband.” I do not believe that here we have a statement of divorce. But rather a matter of fact. Gomer is not acting like Hosea’s wife, and so how can Hosea act like her husband. This is the result of adultery in the midst of the covenant of marriage. And as such God says his relationship is no different with Israel.

Hosea’s love for Gomer causes him to hope for more, for a better life with his wife and so he writes,

Hosea’s love for Gomer causes him to hope for more, for a better life with his wife and so he writes, “Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.” I am going to shift between Hosea and Gomer’s relationship and God and Israel a lot and I will at times do so seamlessly. That is because this passage really speaks more to the relationship of God and Israel than it does Hosea and Gomer. God is saying that the basis for His anger is the adulterous affair and unfaithfulness of Israel and He is begging the nation here to remove these sins from their lives. In fact to make his point forcefully God uses what would have been considered somewhat vulgarity here in referencing “her breasts.” We don’t discuss breasts in proper company. But the nation has devolved into worship in the midst of a sexual fertility cult.

Sin Must be Punished

God continues in verse three and says,

Hosea 2:3 ESV

lest I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst.

Wow! That got real serious real quick didn’t it? This practice spoken of here was not one ordained nor practiced in Israel. However, it was practiced by most of the cultures surrounding Israel. And so God is saying look you want to be like them and worship their Gods. Then you can be like them and I will bring their judgment for adultery against you. God is going to bring their humiliation and he will curse the land and cause it to no longer be fertile. This last part being a pronouncement against Baal who was seen as the god of rain and fertility.

God continues and in verse four he says,

Hosea 2:4 ESV

Upon her children also I will have no mercy, because they are children of whoredom.

Sins of the parents are passed on to the children

So, the sins of the parent are passed on to the children who are children of sin. One of the things that we need to see is that our sin affects everyone. Our culture today likes to say you can do whatever you wish as long as it doesn’t hurt or negatively affect anyone else. Well, God is saying that that is nonsense. There is no such thing. We need to see that our sin, hidden or seen, has an effect on everyone. As a result, God and will withhold his love because these children like their parents are not his people, they are in the same way as their parents lovers of Baal.

God continues he pronouncement against Israel in verse five and he says,

Hosea 2:5 ESV

For their mother has played the whore; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’

God here is stating that the mother sins have impacted and created children of sin. Israel had turned away from God and to Baal as their fertility God to provide them with children, rain, and abundant crops. Israel has chased after Baal no differently than Gomer has chased after men to provide for her those things that Hosea alone should be providing for her. Those things that Hosea, I believe, desperately wants to provide for her but that she has rejected from him, and thus rejected Hosea and His love for her. And this is the picture of Israel’s relationship now for God.

Verse six begins to bring a shift in our poem. We are going to find three statements that begin with the word “therefore” and what we are going to see now is this poem begin to become a poem of love. A statement of the greatest love ever sin. A statement from a true lover for his love. Regardless of her sin and the pain she has caused he is going to begin to woo her back to himself.

We read in verse six,

Hosea 2:6 ESV

Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths.

In the previous verse we saw the prostitute seeking to find love and fulfillment from her clients rather than from her husband. And so the loving Husband now seeks to block every possible path to them. So that all she might find is him and him alone.

Then in verse seven we read,

Hosea 2:7 ESV

She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them, and she shall seek them but shall not find them. Then she shall say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now.’

God is our true love

God is going to essentially discredit Baal. In verse three we read about the coming judgment that God has for his lover. She will be humiliated and the land will be cursed. Thus proving that Baal is completely powerless and is nothing more than a false idol. This will then cause Israel to give up on Baal and return to it’s first love in God. God alone is the one who produces the abundant fertility that is found in the land of Israel.

We see this in verse eight,

Hosea 2:8 ESV

And she did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal.

Instead of acknowledging God’s great love for them they have taking those blessings and Israel has offered those blessings up to Baal. And so God will bring discipline upon His love, His nation, His Israel. He does so so that the people will see that it is not Baal that has blessed them so but it is the God of Israel alone.

We now find ourselves at the second “therefore” statement in verse nine and we read,

Hosea 2:9 ESV

Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season, and I will take away my wool and my flax, which were to cover her nakedness.

Baal is impotent before God

When God the Father withdraws his blessing upon the land he will prove Baal to be completely impotent. And then Israel will be shamed for their worship of Baal for it will expose the true nature of their idolatrous ways.

In verse ten we read of the result of God humiliating Israel before the nations, “

Hosea 2:10 ESV

Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.

God will strip his lover naked and expose her sin and adultery and idolatry before the world. And the world will be disgusted. But God still loves his lover. God is still chasing after his love, for, “no one will take her out of my hands” he says here. God will still guide and direct the destiny of his lover. God is sovereign even over his humiliated and humbled people. God will not break his covenant with his people regardless of the depths of their sin and adultery.

He continues and says,

Hosea 2:11 ESV

And I will put an end to all her mirth, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her appointed feasts.

God is going to completely remove every means for His people, His nation, to be able to worship Baal.

In verse twelve he says, “

Hosea 2:12 NIV

I will ruin her vines and her fig trees, which she said were her pay from her lovers; I will make them a thicket, and wild animals will devour them.

The payment from sin is always fleeting and in the end it is only fruitless and unfulfilling.

And in this way God will turn his back on his love, his Israel, his people. Just as we read in verse thirteen they abandoned the love of God,

Hosea 2:13 ESV

And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals when she burned offerings to them and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry, and went after her lovers and forgot me, declares the Lord.

Finally we get to our third “therefore” statement in verse fourteen and we begin to see a dramatic turn of events in the history and relationship between God and his people. And it’s important for us to see who it is that is always at work in repairing this broken relationship.

We read in verse fourteen,

Hosea 2:14 ESV

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.

God the perfect lover will chase after his unlovely bride

God the father is going to entice his bride to return to him. He is going to tenderly speak the love language that His people hear and understand. God the Father deeply cares for the wife who has so unlovingly rejected him. We have this picture here of our Husband lovingly calling to his wife to come and be alone with him and only him out away from all of the distractions of this world.

God continues in verse fifteen and says of his relationship with his lover,

Hosea 2:15 ESV

And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

The minute details of what are allude here are really not important. What is important is the complete dependence Israel has for God the Father her first love. And here when their love relationship is reformed there will be rejoicing just as there was in the beginning when this relationship first began. Let’s look at some of these details because they do help us to understand better the love that God is putting on display. The valley of Achor is literally translated as the valley of trouble. It is spoken of in Joshua chapter seven. Here we find a man named Achan who sins against God and brings judgment upon the entire nation as a result. But, he is saying here that we need to focus any longer on the valley of trouble but rather we should see a doorway of hope. For God’s grace and love will bring forgiveness where there was judgment. An as in the days of her youth there will be hope, joy, and songs of praise towards God. Just as the people celebrated the day the crossed through the Red Sea and saw all of the military might of Egypt brought to nothing by the very hand of God.

God continues in verse sixteen and says,

Hosea 2:16 ESV

“And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’

One day when Jesus returns we will call him our husband and no longer call on lo oth baal. That’s how the Hebrew of the last phrase in this verse reads. The word used for master here is the word baal.

לִ֥י ע֖וֹד בַּעְלִֽי

There will be no confusion between God and Baal any longer. In fact in verse seventeen God says,

Hosea 2:17 ESV

For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more.

That name will no longer even be named among the people of God. Their worship will be directed towards God and God alone. And notice who it is that is doing all of the work. God is the one who is said to remove the name of Baal from the peoples lips. It is the love of God and His miraculous transformational power that is going to bring about this dramatic change of heart in his lover.

In that day God will also bring additional blessing to his people and he says in verse eighteen,

Hosea 2:18 ESV

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.

In the final day of blessing upon the people of God. He and he alone will bring ultimate peace to His people. Our past he been only enmity not only between ourselves through war but also between ourselves and Gods creation. All of that will be brought to an end and we will only know peace.

God here is speaking of a complete reversal of the curse from Genesis three and a return to the original created order of things here on earth. This can only be brought about by a loving sovereign perfect God. God will reestablish his originally intended relationship with his people. There will be an unconditional, everlasting, and unending connection between himself and his people. All of the is predicated on God paying the “bride price” for his bride.

We read in verse nineteen,

Hosea 2:19 ESV

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.

Jesus is the bride-price

We will be betrothed to God forever. And this betrothal will be based on righteousness, justice, love, and compassion. All of which is found in the cross. The righteousness of Jesus Christ is put on full display for all to see. And in that moment the righteous Jesus takes upon himself the sin of the world and god the father meets out his justice for our sin upon his righteous son. And Jesus dies. And in his death Jesus show the greatest act of love ever extended. And in the greatest act of compassion he forgives us our sin that caused his death. And in this greatest act seen upon the cross Jesus pays the price that we needed to pay. Jesus redeems us from the Father and buys us by His blood shed upon the cross on calvary. The word betrothed here in verse nineteen, “I will betroth you to me forever” is the Hebrew word for bride price. Jesus pays the price for his bride through his righteousness, justice, and does so in love and compassion for his unlovely bride. And by doing cleanses His bride of all unrighteousness.

Then in verse twenty we read,

Hosea 2:20 ESV

I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.

Jesus perfect faithfulness to both God the Father and His bride will draw us to our God for and we will know him forever. This word here usually translated as acknowledge is the typical word used in the phrase when a husband knows his wife or a wife knows her husband. We will know our God.

And then in verses twenty-one through twenty-three God finishes up His love poem and he says,

Hosea 2:21–23 ESV

“And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth, and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel, 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.’ ”

Finally we have reached our final “in that day” and we read the effects of this new relationship that God has established with His people. God’s love for His people will overflow the relationship that He has between bride and groom and His greatest gift to His bride will be given. God will restore the natural bounty and beauty of the created universe. God, not Baal, in his infinite power will recreate the heavens and the earth. And at his command the skies will respond and the rains will come and the fertile earth will bloom. The name Jezreel is actually a concatenation of two Hebrew words yizreh and el. The end of the name Jezreel is El. This is the Hebrew word for God. The first part fo the name is yizreh which means to sow or to plant. And so this is saying that the plants of the earth will respond to the God who sows. But God will not only sow the plants of the earth. He will also plant his people in their promised land. In verse twenty-three we are essentially reading God’s covenant vows to His bride. “I will plant her for myself in the land” He will provide for her a place to live. “I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’” He will shows his love to her eternally. “I will say to those called ‘Not my people.’ ‘You are my people’. She will be called His bride. “And they will say, ‘You are my God.’” He will be called her husband.

God’s amazing plan for this world will be accomplished by his grace in spite of the rebellious unfaithful nature of his bride.

So What?

The Danger of Syncretism

One of the most difficult things today is for us to connect with Israel’s syncretistic ways. The struggle is to somehow connect our lives today with Israel’s connection to a perverse sexual religious cult. However, even today we have a tendency to misunderstand where life, prosperity, meaning, love, and hope for the future all come from. Can we really trust our God to provide for all of our needs? We might at first answer in the affirmative to this question I mean of course we all trust God for all of our needs. But, when we have physical, emotional, or spiritual needs that need to be met, do we first turn to God to have those needs met? If at any point we turn to anything other than God to meet any of those needs then we are no different than Israel when it turned to Baal.

We must trust God to meet our physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.

If we do not, just like Israel looked to Baal, we will look to another lover.

Where do we truly place our trust for today or the future? Is it in our job, the stock market, personal savings, or social security? Where does economic security and blessing ultimately come from? Deuteronomy chapter eight verses seventeen through eighteen reads, “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.” Or do we simply see prosperity as simply being the right person, at the right time, with the right idea. I have said this very thing. In Hosea we need to see that God is the only source who can meet our needs. Any deviance from this is seen as prostitution of our loyalty and love towards God.

God to this day will correct his wayward children. Hebrews chapter twelve verse six reads,

Hebrews 12:6 ESV

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

Throughout the Bible there are exhortations and command that reveal those things that God approves of and those that he does not. Do we take those seriously? We should see in this love poem that God will consistently attempt to frustrate and foil the attempts of the sinful son. We should see discipline from God as instructive and with a redemptive purpose for changing the way we think and act. We also need to see that whenever God disciplines his children as he does here in this poem he also provides a better way, his way. His way requires total devotion towards Him and a complete dependence upon His blessings.

Do you want to live your best life now? Become fully devoted and completely dependent upon our God.

How do we live life in this world fully devoted to God though?

Choices to Make

Stand Against the Culture

Put Christ Above the Culture

Make Christ the Transformer of Culture

Mix Christ with Culture

Key: Maintain Purity of the Faith

God’s Saving Grace

Look, Gomer is never going to clean herself up enough to deserve to return to her husband, and neither do we. Our stories. Our stories that speak of our relationships with Jesus. They are all stories of a dearly loving husband, our God, who woos His bride back to him. It is only by grace that we are saved from our sin soaked lives that yearn for other lovers, it is the free gift of Jesus that none of us deserves nor earns.

Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

We have certainty in the promises of God

Jesus Christ will come and take the church as His bride.

We can be sure that Jesus will be victorious over sin in the end.

Complete dependence on the sufficiency of God is what trust and faith are all about.

Any focus on self or dependence on anything else detracts from the marvelous sufficiency found in God Almighty and in Him alone.

In the end we all have tendencies no different than Israel. We must daily know God through His word. And seek after him daily in prayer. So that our relationship might one day be made complete. So that one day we might come before the Lord as the bride of Christ and one day enjoy the wedding feast of the Lord.

Communion

Today as we take communion together I want us to each take time to focus on just how great the father love for each one of us truly is. Particularly as that love is seen in the death, burial, and resurrection of His son Jesus.

1 Corinthians 11:23–24 ESV

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Take and eat

1 Corinthians 11:25 ESV

In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

Take and drink

1 Corinthians 11:26 ESV

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Amen

Prayer

Hebrews 13:20–21 ESV

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.