‘Honey, I’m home!’ You walk into the house, but she’s not
downstairs. You walk up the stairs and
into the bedroom. There she is in bed
with a man you never met before. He
grabs his trousers and scuffles past you out of the room. How do you feel as you look at her, angry or
heart-broken? Do you want to shout or
cry?
After much counselling
and many tears, you manage to put the marriage back together. Then she tells you that she is pregnant. That’s great.
But she doesn’t seem to be happy.
She seems uncomfortable, and she won’t look you in the eye. Finally she confronts you with the awful
truth: the child isn’t yours! Can you
take any more?
Most men would walk
away. They would have every right to do
so. But God tells you not to give up on
this woman. ‘Oh, and by the way, this
won’t be the last time she cheats on you!’
Can he be serious?
You are an adulterer (1:1)
The Old Testament is the
history of God loving people who are constantly unfaithful. He gave Adam and Eve a beautiful home, but
they were not content with his love.
They betrayed him, but he did not give up on them. He chose Abraham and said that his
descendants would be as numerous as the sand of the seashore, they were to be a
blessing to all the nations of the world, but they behaved just like the rest
of the nations of the world. He gave
these people a new home, a promised land, but they complained against God and
ran after idols. He divided their nation
in two, but they refused to return to him.
Now it is the eighth century before Christ comes to Bethlehem. Hosea in ministering in the northern kingdom,
called Israel (or Ephraim), but his message was written down for the southern
kingdom, Judah. This was written down
for us too.
You see, we all have been
guilty of an adulterous heart. If you
are a Christian, knowing Jesus as your Saviour and Lord, then think of those
days when you resisted his love. You
thought it would be embarrassing to be one of those ‘born again’ types. You didn’t want anyone, not even God, telling
you how you should live. You knew he
loved you, but you didn’t want his love.
You rejected him. You grieved
him. Tragically, even though we now know
that his love is the source of our greatest joy, we still act like a cheating
wife at times.
If you are not a
Christian, that is not simply your own business. Who do you think gave you life and breath and
so many good pleasures? He loves you and
calls you to embrace the joy of his love.
It is wicked to think he does not deserve your thanks. It is wretched to simply disregard his good
rule. It is evil to say that he is not
worth your passion. God offers you love,
and you seek your pleasure everywhere else but with him!
We act like Gomer
(1:2-9)
In the Hebrew original
the same word is used three times in verse two, which might better be
translated ‘whoredom’. God says to
Hosea, ‘Go, take yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for
the land commits great whoredom by forsaking me’ (2, ESV). Hosea is to marry a woman who will act like a
prostitute. His marriage is a living
illustration of the relationship between God and the unbelieving people of
Israel.
Gomer bears Hosea a
son. God tells Hosea to call this child
Jezreel. In Israel’s history Jezreel was
associated with bloodshed. ‘Go call your
son Auschwitz’. ‘Name him Bloody
Sunday’. At Jezreel a king called Jehu
had slaughtered the prophets of the false god, Baal. God is now saying, ‘I am going to do the same
to you because you are acting with such evil.’
Gomer conceived again and
bore a daughter. We are not told that
this was Hosea’s daughter. Someone else
had fathered a child with his wife. Hosea
is to name this daughter Lo-Ruhamah, which means ‘unloved’ or ‘no mercy’. God hates spiritual adultery so much that he
promises that he will have no mercy on these cheating people.
After Gomer has weaned
Lo-Ruhamah she has a third child. Again,
Hosea is not the father. ‘Call his name
Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not
your God’ (9). God had said to Israel,
‘You will be my people and I will be your God.’
Now it seems like God is divorcing them.
These people of Israel
had many spiritual advantages. God had
spoken to their nation. But they did not
know him personally. He did not have
their hearts. If they don’t come back to
him, they will be in serious danger.
They will be punished for all their evil, experience a day of judgement
when God no longer shows them mercy, and hear him say ‘you don’t belong to me.’
We are all spiritually
privileged people. We sit hear listening
to God’s Word. Maybe you grew up going
to church. You may have been baptised
and take communion. But these things
can’t put you right with God. If you
haven’t let your life be transformed by God’s love, he is speaking to you. He is warning you, because he loves you. You do not want to hear those dreadful words
of Jesus, ‘I never knew you!’
If you are sitting her as
someone who has experienced God’s life transforming love, then you know that
you can never be happy when you are being unfaithful to him. Don’t be too quick to judge the adulterer,
because we have often cheated on our heavenly lover. We have known intimacy with him, but we have
betrayed that intimacy by fantasising over a naked woman on a screen. We claim that he is our joy, but we have
sought our joy through retail therapy.
He has shown his love through the cross of Christ, and we have claimed
that he does not care for us. If you
love him this breaks our hearts as well as his.
This godly sorrow leads us to repentance. As we seek his strength and rejoice in his
forgiveness we can be freed from regret.
God keeps his wedding
ring on for you (1:10-2:1)
Peter and Jean were
long-standing members of their church.
They seemed to have the perfect marriage. Then Jean had an affair with a work colleague
and worked out. Peter was left to raise
the kids. Everyone admired Peter for the
brave way he held things together. But
he was broken. He could be seen at times
crying in church. Peter did something
unusual: he kept wearing his ring. He
didn’t give up on Jean. He never lost
hope that she would return. He was
always ready to welcome her home. Sadly,
she never did come back.
God warns the people of
Israel of dreadful judgement if they refuse to come home to him. But he is not ready to give up on them. The book of Hosea thrills us by showing God’s
passionate love for this adulterous nation. Despite all Gomer’s cheating, Hosea kept his
ring on for her.
Israel had forsaken him,
but God will not give up on his promise to Abraham. ‘The number of children of Israel shall be
like the sand of the sea’. ‘In the place
where you are called, “Not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of
the living God.’ He will show mercy to
those who deserve ‘no mercy’ (10).
There will be people who
heed his warnings and turn to the ‘one new head’ (11). Ultimately that new head is Jesus. Hosea speaks of another day of Jezreel, a day
of bloodshed. There was a day when Jesus
spilled his blood to cleanse us from our wickedness, cheating and
betrayal. His blood makes us into a pure
and spotless bride. His blood goes on
cleansing us from all our sin. He heals
our wandering heart.
This offer isn’t just for
the nation of Israel that Hosea was addressing.
This offer is open to all. To
people from all sorts of backgrounds who turn to the one new head, God says, ‘once you were not a people, but now
you are the people of God, once you had not received mercy, but now you have
received mercy’ (1 Peter 1:10).
Conclusion
Sometimes people come to
me and tell me that they fear that they have fear that they have let God down
too many times for God to accept them back.
Others tells me that they fear that they have done something so awful
that God would never forgive someone like them (this is something that I have
feared too). I hope that, as we study
Hosea, you will see that God is more gracious than you have realised. He wants to forgive you. He delights to restore you. He tells you to take him at the word of
Jesus, who promised that I will never drive away anyone who comes to me (John
6:37).
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