Hosea 1.1-2.1
Spiritual Adultery.
Gentlemen if someone was to come and ask you to write down a list of the attributes of a good wife I wonder what you would write? I guarantee none of you would write ‘Unfaithfulness’ in the list. ‘Unfaithfulness’ is not an attribute we would uphold or seek for a relationship with. Yet that is exactly the main attribute of Gomer, whom Hosea is instructed by God to marry, verse 2.
However, before we enter into the passage let us look at the context of the book of Hosea. Look at verse 1. We are given very little biographical details about Hosea. We know his name means ‘God saves’ and that his father is called Beeri. He lived in the northern kingdom (Israel) and he was called of God to not only speak the Word of God to God’s people but to be a living sign of that Word before the people also. The historical setting of the prophecy of Hosea is given in the list of kings of Israel and Judah. All of this took place in the 8th century BC. The prophecy is recorded in 14 short chapters. Chapters 1-3 form an introduction and summary of the whole story. They deal primarily with the Hosea’s marriage and family life. Chapters 4-14 contain the prophetic utterances of Hosea over a period of 38 years or so. From the chapters we find two dominant themes – the Judgment of God in response to the sin of the people and the unconditional love of God towards His people.
In his prophetic utterances Hosea recalls the covenant faithfulness of God and the repeated unfaithfulness of the people to that covenant. He points out to the people of God their hypocrisy and evil before God. Yet Hosea also proclaims the future prospect of God’s love and the reconciliation, redemption and restoration of God’s people by God.
Verse 2 - What an astonishing thing for God to call Hosea to do. He calls him to marry a prostitute, a woman of unfaithfulness. There was to be no fairytale romance and beautiful wedding. Hosea enters into this marriage knowing there will be problems ahead. Look at what the verse says exactly. ‘An adulterous wife and the children of unfaithfulness.’ Hardly the building blocks to a happy home life. Yet Hosea is not alone amongst the prophets when it comes to being asked to do strange things by God. Elijah was told to pout water on his sacrifice at Mt Carmel. Ahijah tore his cloak in 12 pieces before giving 10 to Jeroboam.
At the end of verse 2 God gives Hosea a clear reason for this instruction. His marriage was to be a sign, a symbol, a representation of the spiritual life of the people of God. Listen to the Word of God here – read end of verse 2. These words are very direct and hard hitting. God is direct in His confrontation and condemnation of the people’s spiritual state before Him.
If you want to know how the people had fallen so far from God you only have to look at the kings listed in verse 2. Uzziah had been struck with leprosy by God because he was a proud and arrogant man. Jotham was a good king in many ways but he failed to deal with the pagan altars in the midst of the people of God. Isn’t it amazing, even those whose hearts are inclined to God, can be so reluctant to deal with the stumbling blocks in their lives and the lives of others. Jotham had no moral courage to deal with the pagan altars. Ahaz was an outright unbeliever who sacrificed his own son to a pagan deity. Hezekiah was the exception to the rule, he did love God and followed his ways. Demonstrating to all, that God always has His faithful remnant. Jeroboam, the only northern king in the list, we are told did evil in the eyes of the Lord God. From the list we can see that the people were claiming to be the people of God whilst worshipping other gods, living immoral lives and doing evil before God. Let me ask you a question: Any thing changed since the 8th century BC? I don’t think so. In fact I think Hosea is a timely message for us today.
You know Hosea is quoted 8 times in the NT and Peter speaks of him on the day of Pentecost. Paul quotes him extensively – showing the eternal nature of his prophecy and the Word of God.
Verse 3 we lose something in the translation from the Hebrew into the English. In the Hebrew it says that God told Hosea “Go take…and he went and took.” There is an immediacy in his obedience to the command of God. The verse ends with the simple statement that Gomer conceived and bore Hosea a son. That little statement seems innocent but the fact that it is missing from the announcement of the birth of his daughter and second son leads many scholars to conclude that the subsequent children may not have been Hosea’s but were in fact the result of Gomer’s unfaithfulness.
Verses 4-5 As you know names in the Bible are important. They reflect the character of the person and speak about them. Hosea is instructed by God to give names to his children which will be ‘signs’ or ‘warnings’ to the people of God. His first son is to be given a dreadful name – Jezreel. It would be like a Jew today being told to call his son ‘Auschwitz’ or ‘Belsen’ Jezreel was the site of a great massacare but here is the astonishing thing – God had told Jehu to carry out the slaughter at Jezreel. Ahab, whose wife was called Jezebel, the lady who threatened the life of Elijah, along with his household was slain by Jehu. So why was God angry at Jehu? After all he was being obedient. The reason is that Jehu took delight in the slaughter. He revelled in the shedding of blood. Let me read you a verse from Ezekiel 33.11 – READ. Did you catch that? God takes no delight in the death of the wicked but rather that they should repent and return to Him. There was another thing about Jehu. Jehu followed the evil ways of Jeroboam.
Verse 5 tells us why God wanted Hosea to name his son ‘Jezreel.’ He was to be a sign to Israel that a day would come when God would leave them and though they might think they had mighty military strength they would discover that without God all was lost. Their ‘bows’, the most powerful weapon of the day, would be splintered before their eyes and they would realise that God had handed them over to their enemies. Jezreel was to be a warning that unless they changed their ways God’s judgment would fall upon them and it would be a dreadful day. The people of God had departed from God and spiritually slept with other gods – when you do that you cannot expect victories in your battles.
Verses 6-7 – then Gomer bears forth a daughter and once again the name which God tells Hosea to give her is pregnant with meaning. We are not told this time that Hosea is the father. Is the daughter the result of unfaithfulness? Who knows? Her name, ‘Lo-Ruhamah’ means ‘not loved’ or ‘not pitied.’ Again it is a shocking name to give to a child, especially a little girl. Listen to these words from Exodus 34.6-7 - speaking of God’s faithful love and mercy. Had God forgotten this? No, but Israel has forgotten and Lo-Ruhamah is to serve as a warning to the people of God of the perilous situation they are now standing in. Despite this second warning the people show no sign of repentance. You see mercy without a response from the people is self-defeating and forgiveness without a healed relationship is empty. God says to them, and to us, how often would I … and you would not …? Though there is a dire warning in the name of the child yet the warning is accompanied with hope – verse 7. God will show love to Judah and it would be 100years before Judah would be overrun by a foreign power. God’s judgment is accompanied with love and mercy.
Verses 8-9 a third child is born, a son and Hosea is instructed to give him the name ‘Lo-Ammi’ which means ‘not my people’ because God ‘is not their God.’ Just as Hosea could say of him ‘you are not my son because I am not your father.’ Let me read to you Exodus 6.6-7 – this shows the seriousness of the warning here. These people were in name only the people of God but they bowed down before other gods, lived immoral lives and violated the covenant with God. The sin of these people was so deeply ingrained and has risen to such a level that they are in danger of being cast off by God and from God. These people have remained stubbornly in their sin despite the words of warning and the living symbols of warning before them.
1.10-2.1 – Yet the passage ends not on a warning of dire judgment and condemnation but of hope. Read these two verses. Each of the warnings will be reversed. God offers hope to a disobedient, wayward and immoral people. Jezreel means ‘God scatters’ but another translation is ‘God sows’ and God, through Hosea, reveals that He has not forgotten His covenant, nor the promise to Abraham and that where He scatters He also sows and His people will be great in number as He promised. There is also a play on the name of the other two children by the removal of ‘Lo.’ Therefore the people will once again be ‘love/pitied’ and be ‘my people’ where the warning at present is that if they continue as they are then they will be ‘unloved’ and ‘not my people.’ God speaks a Word of hope to these people in the midst of judgment. All is not lost but I want you to note something in these two verses – it is all the work of God in bringing these people back to Himself. It is God who reaches out and reaches down. It is God who brings redemption to the lost. It God who brings reconciliation to a broken relationship and it is God who restores them to the status of once again being His people.
Let me read two verses for you from Romans 9.25-26. This is Paul speaking – read verses. Here is the fulfilment of that Word of God through Hosea. 8 centuries later God brought that promise to fulfilment in Christ Jesus. Hence, Paul could say “all the OT promises find their ‘yes’ in Christ.”
Application
I hope as we have gone through this passage you have been applying it to your own spiritual state before God this morning. The application is very simple, is it not? These warnings are timeless because every generation falls into the sins of these people – claiming to be the people of God but worshipping other gods, leading immoral hypocritical lives and facing the imminent judgment of God
This morning be honest before God because He knows all things, sees all things and you cannot bluff before Him. He knows your unfaithfulness this morning. He knows the promise you made to follow His ways and how you have strayed far from it. He knows the times you sang with all your heart that you gave up all to follow Christ and surrendered everything to His will and how now other gods have your eyes, your mind and your heart. This morning He calls you to listen to Hosea and heed the warning of these verses. He warns you of His coming judgment on your life when He will cast you off.
Finally for all of us we need to grasp that Word of hope at the end of the passage. We need to come before God and to confess our sins and to receive by faith through grace His wonderful love and become afresh this morning ‘the people of God.’
Amen.
