Prophet Margins — Hosea's Risky Love (1)

(S1) — Wedding Ceremony

Joyous celebration…Vow/promise of love...Holy mystery…Sacred union...ordained by God…God’s desired relationship with people — A Covenant of love

(S2) — Broken love caused by unfaithfulness

Story of two marriages — Both take risky love

Hosea who risk the consequences of being wed to an unfaithful wife — Broken home

God who risked pouring out his love to an unfaithful people — Broken covenant

Hosea’s is a love story tragic and true. God’s love story (Bible), is filled with Joy/tragedy — Faithfulness/unfaithfulness. In the adultery of a people who turned away from God.

Hosea 1:2 (NIV)

...this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.”

Through Hosea’ s life God’s words takes on flesh, becoming the message the people need to hear. God’s warning; of the consequences of turning away from the greatest love ever given.

This summer we are going to take a Journey. Our Traveling companions — Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea

Prophets, who spoke for God to the people —

“Although they are intended for a particular audience…their words offer us insight into God’s will and divine justice.”

Tension — God’s Love and the people’s unfaithfulness — God’s will and their disobedience — God’s Grace and their ungratefulness

(S3) — Sisseton South Dakota (Joe Robbie Miami Dolphins)

(S4) — Youth

(S5) — Darell Decoteau

The tension of a beautiful culture and a tragic history — Felt in the town

(S6 Title) — Series Prophet Margins

Their words, will take us to the edge. We might be troubled, but we might also be lifted up. We might be challenged, but we might find reasons for hope, or we might find a renewed vision that inspires us on our own journeys.

The prophets speak to God’s best for us and always point to his great love found in Jesus, the way of salvation. Do we allow our circumstances to drive us away from God, or to grow deeper in faith and in love with God? To be witnesses to the one who is faithful?

Where will this journey take us? Will we take the risk to listen, learn and draw even nearer...?

PRAY

(S7) — CONTEXT

Hosea 1:1 (NIV)

1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel:

Divided kingdoms — Jeroboam II — Time of peace and prosperity — They had forgotten God.

2 Kings 8:27 “He followed the ways of the house of Ahab and did evil in the eyes of the Lord.

“Their cup of iniquity had been fast filling. The kings and priests were murderers; idolatrous priests had lured the people away from the worship of Jehovah; the people in many cases were imitating the moral vileness of the Canaanites; God and His Word were forgotten.”

Hosea 4:1 “Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites, because the Lord has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: “There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land.”

(S8) — It’s easy to forget God when things are good — Summer — Loose focus

‘Temporal prosperity is no proof either of stability or, of the favor of God. The Minor Prophets, Volume 1 (Chapter 1)

For the this nation, these people, a time of reckoning was coming (Assyria from the north). Their would be consequences for their unfaithfulness and Hose’s life would be the message.

We all have a story...How has your life become a message of faithfulness? Have you endured much? What lessons have you learned along the way?

(S9) — Hose’s life can teach us?

Hosea 1:2 (NIV)

2 When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her...

How God spoke to other prophets

— Amos/Jeremiah: The lord speaks — Elijah — Mountain: wind. earthquake, fire — Isaiah — Vision

Hosea (Salvation) life becomes his message. Through the fire of his own personal experience of a broken love. Hosea is given a two-part assignment

First, marry a woman with unfaithful tendencies

Harlots, were those who engaged in acts that are reserved for love in marriage. These acts looked like intimacy but were shallow, cold, and meaningless.

Sexual promiscuity — Hollywood…children…adults...

This was much like the religion of the people of Israel as they turned to other Gods...

“Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our ancestors by being unfaithful to one another?” Malachi 2:10

Hosea obeys God and marries a woman from Diblaim (two cakes). Her name was Gomar. We aren’t given the details of Hose’a troubled life…yet his obedience becomes a picture of faith...

Mom — Bob’s faith became an illustration of God’s faithfulness

Known trouble in your life? Been deeply hurt? Experienced tragic loss. Do they cause you to turn away or draw nearer to God’s faithful love?

Funeral — let death not turn us away...

Hosea doesn’t resist this woman or the idea of her. In fact, he marries her, and they begin to have children together...

The second assignment — Raise children in a broken home

Great debate among scholars — Allegory or real story? — Would God ask this of anyone? Nevertheless Hosea’ obedience is to be commended

(S10) — God is not done speaking to Israel — 3 children whose names are symbolic of what would happen if they did not listen

Hosea 1:3–5 (NIV)

3 So he married Gomer, 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.”

Child 1 — Jezreel (to scatter)

“The name itself is a pleasant — “God plants.” It refers to a beautiful city and valley between the mountains of Samaria and Galilee, but the beauty of that place had been marred by the events of extreme violence which had happened there.

At Jezreel, Jehu had killed the kings of Israel and Judah. Jezebel had died a cruel death. It was at Jezreel that Jehu displayed the heads of the seven sons of Ahab; he had also engineered the mass extermination of Baal worshipers there (2 Kings 9–10).” (1)

Mass execution of the Dakota Indians

(S11) — The name Jezreel reflects a history of disobedience — One of three consequence of their adultery

1. The end of the kingdom of Isreal — Separate from Judah they were taken over by deception, greed, their own desires, unspeakable behavior.

Breaking of the bow — Their military stronghold would be defeated...

Ezekiel 21:26 “this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Take off the turban, remove the crown. It will not be as it was: The lowly will be exalted and the exalted will be brought low.”

The principle involved here — When you reject God you get into trouble.

Hosea’s story is one of God’s chastisement/correction and sometimes that meant pain. But it also was the assurance of his love — Wanting his people only to return to him.

Prodigal Son —

The prophets words were meant to bring salvation to people. It meant the end of Israel — defeating the powerful, the consequences of their disobedience

Acts 5:32 “We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.””

The end of the kingdom of Israel — Their independence — Their prosperous life

(S12) — Child 2 — Lo-Ruhamah (not loved)

Hosea 1:6 (NIV)

6 Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means “not loved”), for I will no longer show love to Israel, that I should at all forgive them.

Consider those who have never felt love? Those who have, but it was taken away?

“From the late 1800s until well into the 20th century, the federal government compelled Native parents nationwide to send their children to boarding schools designed to assimilate them. Many of the institutions were run by the Catholic Church, which the government paid to "kill the Indian, save the man," in the parlance of the day.

Dakota children were sold ($10)

Seperated from family — Not loved

(S13) — The second of the consequence of their adultery

2. To no longer be shown the love of God

God knew what it meant to be forsaken or forgotten — Jesus’ experience on the cross — To save people from their sins

The consequence of their adultery...

(S14) — Child 3 — Lo-Ammi (not my people)

Hosea 1:8–9 (NIV)

8 After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. 9 Then the Lord said, “Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.

Opposite of what god has said — when he identified the Israelites as his people and he there God

Leviticus 26:12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.”

(S15) — Not only be cut off from the love of God, the third of consequence of their adultery

3. To be removed from the family tree

They would no longer recipients of the inheritance of the family of God.

1 Corinthians 15:50 “50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.”

Imagine your heritage being erased? Gone! no longer who you are?

Lady in nursing home — They took that away from us

The consequence of their adultery — You are not my people

Did the people of Israel walk away from God? yes! Are we sometimes unfaithful? Yes

Mission trip — Did everything I could to talk myself out of it — First night “I don’t want to be here!”

Was Hose’s life difficult? Yes! Was it fair for God to ask of him such suffering? Are our circumstances sometimes hard? Do we have moments of discretion? Yes especially when times are good! Are there consequences to our unfaithfulness?

The good new! Hosea words revealed a God who is merciful and desires that all would return to him.

(S16) — They discover the mercy and grace of God

Hosea 1:10 (NIV)

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 ‘children of the living God.’

No matter how unfaithful they were, God’s covenant of love would not be broken— Only by Yahweh could they be rescued , saved and redeemed

1 Timothy 2:4 “This is good and pleases God our savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

Hosea (Yaweh has rescued) — His love was risky, yet his life experience brings a message of God’s unconditional love and hope for salvation.

“The second greatest story ever told. the first? Jesus (messiah), the one who saves —

Are there consequences for our actions that turn us away from God? Yes! Does God suffers exceedingly because of our unfaithfulness?

I have great admiration for couples who endure through infidelity — Step sister

While we have breath, there is always room for redemption, God’s mercy, to be shown his great love and to be children of God...

We were not sent to change Sisseton, but to bring the lite of hope...

“In many ways Hosea’s lot in life was tragic…but so was Jesus’ who risked it all so we could be saved...

(S17) — The rest of Hosea’s story, we learn that God’s loves unconditionally — God forgives completely

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Joyous celebration…Vow/promise of love...Holy mystery…Sacred union...ordained by God…God’s desired relationship with people — A Covenant of love

Maybe this has been your experience — If so, then Praise God!

Maybe you have known the tragedy of broken love — Know this, that in Christ you are a child of the living God who redeems us from the worst of circumstances.

Do we allow our circumstances to drive us away from God, or to grow deeper in love with God? To be witnesses to God who is faithful and proves it by sending his first love.

What if your story were to become your message of the faithfulness of God?

It’s risky to love — God knew the risk and sent his first love so we would know his faithfulness and have the opportunity to become children of the living God —Jesus the one who redeems even the unfaithful.