Infidelity, Jealousy, and Grace

In our text this morning, the Lord turns from his message of hope to once again address the people of Israel with their sin. And at first reading this passage just seems like we’re restating what we’ve already seen in the first chapter, and in some ways we are. God has already decalred through the life of Hosea, that the people of Israel have broken God’s covenant and He was going to deal with them through judgement but that he also would mercifully restore them. But while our passage deals with that same theme, this isn’t the case of beating a dead horse. Rather God is now stating His case against His covenant breaking people: their abandonment of God for idols is spiritual infidelity. But what we should see this morning is that The Covenant keeping God is jealous for His people, and so promises to overcome their unfaithfulness with both discipline and grace.

Hosea begins with a dual indictment, both of his unfaithful wife and God’s unfaithful people. He goes to the children and says, plead with your mother to stop what she’s doing. The relationship is broken down publicly. The word for plead has legal connotations and can also be contend or quarrel. What we see here the intimacy God see’s the relationship and the seriousness that He takes Israel’s sin. It is not just as if they have been good friends for a long time. Instead God is using this picture of marriage to both define his affections for His people and the cruelty of their sin.

He charges the nation in very explicit ways of spiritual infidelity and prostitution. He lays out their sin and shows them that they bear the total weight of the covenant being broken. We can see in specific Israel’s sin spelled out in vs. 5, 8, 13, and 13. There seems to be this three strand knot of infidelity tied up into Israel’s sin. First, the people have turned from the proper worship of YWHA to the worship of idols. They have rejected the God who brought their ancestors from slavery and made them a nation and instead have begun to worship the pagan gods of their neighbors.

But second tied into that they have done so because they are looking to these gods for their material blessing. in v. 5 we see the motivation for their adultery, Hosea 2:5 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.’” Primarily the people have turned to Baal, the Canaanite god of harvest and fertility saying, “we can trust in Baal to bring the rain and the crops. They will give us what we need.

At the same time they are seeing the nations around them with their large armies and economic strength and making deals with them. The kings would of Israel at this time were well known to pay tributes and seek out alliance’s hoping that picking the right one would keep them safe from invasion. We see then that at the heart of idolatry is finding their hope, security, and identity in anything other than their the Lord. It is looking to something else, be it foriegn gods, economic stability, or political allies to be their safety, their strength, and their source of joy.

And the scary thing is that we hear this and we know the temptations we feel. We know how sin operates, how it whispers and teases us to find our happiness outside of God. Sin convinces us that we need better lovers. It tell us that while yes God is fine, our hope and security is some where else. It tells us that at the end of the day, God cannot be trusted and so if we’re going to survive we need to also place our faith in other lovers and use their methods and walk in their ways. It tells us that our identity should really be found in what they say we need and who they say we are. That if we just bow to them we can have our oil, our bread, our wine, our gas, our health, our nation, our security, our hope. That if we just vote these people, if we just invest in this fund, if we just spend a little more time doing this then maybe, just maybe we can be satisfied. That maybe then I can sleep better. Maybe then I won’t be so scared. If I can just grab this cloud, maybe then everything’s going to be OK.

But this is a lie. In v.8 we see that the very thing that Israel longed for and sought after through these idols were the very things that God gave them. God says that it was He that gave them the grain, the wine and oil. It was He who gave them the silver and gold that they then turned and made into these idols. These lovers who do not love us back take the good things we’ve been given and distort them to sin. They take a Biblical view of providence and stewardship and provision and turn it into greed, materialism, and selfishness. They take a honorable view of marriage and sexuality, and give us lust and immorality.

And we listen to them. We want to be Hosea in this story. We want to be Hosea in this passage, or at the very least the Children bringing the charge, looking at the world out there and say, “You’re running after idols! Turn around! Go back! Put your hope in God!” But we’re guilty of it ourselves. We’re the adulterous ones too.

And isn’t it funny ourselves worse than we started? That when we exchange God for idols we find ourselves worse off then when we started. This is what I mean when I say our lovers don’t love us back. That when we, like the people, trade providence for materialism we’re more unsatisfied than when we started. When we,like the people, trade honorable intimacy for lust we we find shame and brokenness. When we, like Israel, trade a kingdom to be recieved for a nation to build and faulty allies, we find more division, more unhappiness, more fear, more anxiety. We chase but don’t catch, we seek and don’t find. The indictment of infidelity and adultery that God lays out here is true and it leaves us, like the people in Hosea’s day guilty in a state of sin and misery and shame.

This indictment comes with a warning. It comes with a promise that if the people continue putting their hope and security in other gods and broken the Lord’s covenant He will give them the covenant curses. This is what we see back in v.2.and throughout the passage. “Plead with your mother that she put away her adultery. Otherwise I will make her like a parched land. I will not have mercy. I will take away what I have given, and death and destruction will come.” The promise of judgement here does two things. First, it shows us that sin has it’s consequences, and they are always destructive. Sin always brings death and destruction. And while some would say that this is unloving, we see that at the same time He also offers out the opportunity for repentance. It is the warning that a good father yells at the child who is running toward a busy road. The Lord is warning His people, begging them “Turn around. Come back to me. Put away the idols and worship me. Stop putting your hope in these gods and trust in Me and my Word. Come back to the one who has blessed you and loves you. If you don’t you will bring on the death and destruction that your sin warrants.”

His desire is for the people to come to Him. Like a good husband, God is jealous for His bride. He will not let His covenant people continue to chase after other gods. This promise of destruction and removal of blessings is His gracious discipline seeking their repentance. It is to bring them to a place where all that they have put their hope and security in has failed and they are left with nothing else but God. it is designed to bring the younger brother to the slop of the pig pen, so that he can see how much better it is being a son than a slave. This judgement is a mercy and a grace. This discipline is meant to bring them to a place of repentance.

But God does not end this declaration without extending to them hope. At the end of this strong indictment and the pronouncing of judgement God declares that He will restore His people. Hosea 2:14-15 ““Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.” God here is promising that the covenant that the people broke, He will restore. God Himself will speak tenderly to His people and speak graciously to them. He promises that His people will come back to Him and He will bless them. He promises that the Valley of Achor, the Valley of trouble will become a door of hope. Out of this broken mess, God will bring redemption.

But the temptation for us this morning is to be that younger brother and come to God through the Law and promising our begrudging slavery. It is to see our failures as something that we can just band-aid over with our piety and our efforts. But Hosea doesn’t want a slave, He wants a bride. The father doesn’t want another hired hand for the field, he wants a wasteful son at his table. And God doesn’t want pious legalistic slaves who hear His words as harsh demanding Law. He wants sons and daughters who know their sin, who know their brokenness and who fling themselves on His grace.

Rather, the good news of the Gospel is that God has in His grace and in His mercy opened the door of hope through the work of Christ. Christ, the best husband, has been treated like a promiscuous, adulterous covenant breaker in your place so that instead of the curses you get blessings. Instead of destruction you get mercy. Instead of thorns you get roses. Instead of standing in the shame and nakedness of your sin, you get clothed not in your merit but in His. So that when God sees you He doesn’t see infidelity He sees love and faithfulness.

This means that you’re free, today. You’re free to come to him, not as pious slaves, but as forgiven sons and daughters. By faith you are declared forgiven and clean. And as we heard in our assurance of pardon, there is nobody, nobody, not those unloving lovers who vie for your affections, not even that Pharisee in your heart, who can speak a condemning word against you. You are free to walk in peace and joy identified not as sinners, but as blood bought Spirit empowered saints. You are forgiven. You are loved.