I Will Buy Thee Back Series

MINOR PROPHETS MAJOR MESSAGE:

“I WILL BUY THEE BACK”

HOSEA 3:1-5

INTRODUCTION… Background of Prophets

In the Bible, when God wanted to get His people’s attention He would often do something demonstrative like speak from a burning bush or lead by a pillar of cloud or shake the ground or do a miracle in nature. God did all of those things. God also spoke through people we call prophets. Prophets had many roles and many jobs:

Preaching what God shared with them to others

Rebuke those in power who were misusing political or religious power

Ordain those who would be kings

Predict the future and what God would do among His people revealing His plan

Heal diseases

Evangelize other nations and bring God’s Word to them

Teach about God and God’s Law

We know some of the names of these folks whom God called to be His prophets: Moses, Miriam, Deborah, Nathan, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Huldah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Anna, John the Baptist, and many more. God calls the people through His prophets and gives them directions in their relationship with Him. God calls the people through His prophets and encourages their faithfulness and warns them that faithlessness would have dire consequences.

This morning as we begin our new sermon series in the last twelve books of the Old Testament called “Minor Prophets Major Message.” I want to focus on one of these specific prophets and the message that he had to bring to the people of God because those messages are important for us.

Today, we will be in the Book of Hosea. Hosea was a prophet who spoke during the reigns of Uzziah, Ahaz, and Hezekiah in the Kingdom of Judah and Jeroboam II in Israel, but his message was mostly directed to the Northern kingdom. Hosea brings an important message to the people of God through his preaching, but more than his preaching he ministers to the people through his life. We will look at both his life and his message because God put Hosea in a difficult position where he was living out his message. This was extremely difficult, but also showed how important this message was for His people.

TRANSITION

Let’s read from the first chapter in Hosea.

HOSEA’S MARRIAGE AND FAMILY

READ Hosea 1:2-9 (ESV)* modified with some NIV because it is Family Sunday and I think I’ll skip saying whore every other verse with a lot with kids in the sanctuary, judgment call

“When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the LORD.” 3 So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. 4 And the Lord said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. 5 And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.” 6 She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, “Call her name Lo-Ruhamah (No Mercy), for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. 7 But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.” 8 When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. 9 And the Lord said, “Call his name Lo-Ammi (Not My People), for you are not My people, and I am not your God.”

The opening of the Book of Hosea reveals to us that Hosea’s marriage to Gomer begins as his prophetic ministry begins. The most natural reading of this passage seems to indicate that God commands Hosea to marry a woman of ill repute, a prostitute, and marry her even though he knows her character flaws. Verse 3 shares with us that Hosea obeys God and marries Gomer, a woman of adulterous character and loose sexual morals. There is no mention if his feelings or doubts or prayers of complaint. There is no mention of a courtship or betrothal period. Hosea simply obeys the Lord His God and enters into a marriage with a woman who he knows will not be faithful to him in marriage. I do not know what their life was like. I do not know if they had premarital counseling where she committed to leaving her life of prostitution. It doesn’t say any of that.

It does say in verse 3 after their marriage that Gomer bore Hosea a son. The son was to be given a symbolic name. Hosea was not the first prophet to give their child a symbolic name. This also happened in the life of the prophet Isaiah.