INTRODUCTION
How many men were in the delivery room with your wife when your children were born? God used the occurrence of child birth to teach us about salvation. Salvation is like getting a whole new life. You are forgiven and start fresh with God. It is like being born again.
On the other end of life is death. The permanency of death and the reality that it cuts us off for the rest of our life from fellowship and relationship with our loved one was a life experience that the Bible writers used to teach us about the awful consequences of sin. Without Jesus Christ as our Savior, we are permanently cut off from having any relationship with God. We are dead in our trespasses and sins.
A friend of mine adopted a little boy. He said it helped him understand the eternal security of a Christian’s salvation. When he and his wife went before the judge, the judge asked him if they understood the nature of adoption. The judge explained that they could never disown this boy. They could disinherit him but he would always have the right to their name. They had a daughter that was natural born to them. The judge said they could disown that daughter, but they could never disown that adopted son. Scriptures teach we are the adopted children of God (Joe & Kathryn Kendall).
The Bible is filled with pictures like that about the love of God. The fireman who rescues a child from a burning house is that child’s deliverer or savior. A benefactor that pays another’s bill so they can be set free from debt is that person’s redeemer. A counselor that helps a married couple resolve their differences serves as a reconciler. On and on the Bible calls upon a list of life experiences to teach us how God loves us.
Our friend called my wife Carol and said that she found on her husband’s cell phone a recording of him calling a house of prostitution. He called a certain woman’s name and asked for the earliest opening available. Wives, can you imagine that? It made her sick to her stomach.
A preacher at the Evangelism Conference told of a couple sitting in his office, when the husband revealed that he was involved in an adulterous affair. It was the first time the wife learned of it. She ran out of the office and was outside on her hands and knees throwing up. His secretary went out and cared for her (Jayme Ragle).
Believe it or not, God uses an occurrence of broken marriage vows to teach the people of God about his love for them. That’s the story behind the message of Hosea. It could be argued this is the most unusual book in the Old Testament. Hosea was a prophet of God. We don’t know what he did for a living, but God used him to preach a message of God’s love and judgment to the last generation of the nation of Israel.
The people of God split into two nations after the death of Solomon. The northern kingdom was called Israel. That’s where Hosea lived. The southern kingdom was called Judah. That’s where Isaiah and Micah lived, contemporaries of Hosea. The northern kingdom never had one godly king, and it lasted about 200 years. God sent prophets like Elijah, Elisha, and Amos to confront them with their sin and encouraged them to repent. Not one king listened and obeyed. The southern kingdom had a handful of godly kings; it lasted about 350 years.
It would take more than a birth,…death,…buying a person out of slavery and setting them free to get this nation to wake up to their sin and the love that God has for them. It would take the story of a godly man whose wife becomes a whore and he keeps on loving her until she returns to him.
Hosea is preaching to the last generation of his nation. The last prophecy of Hosea that can be dated with accuracy was 738 B.C. The nation is crushed and scattered by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. We don’t know if Hosea saw the death of his nation, but he was alive near the end and was still calling out for God’s people to repent.
This is a story about a man of God whose wife becomes the town prostitute, but he stays true to her. In the end, he buys her from her pimp and returns her to his home. We don’t know if Gomer ever repents and stops her whoredom. We don’t know if they ever come to love one another and have a blessed marriage. What we do know is Hosea’s great suffering represents God’s suffering when we sin. Even though God suffers when we sin, He always finds a way for us to come back to him.
This chapter can be divided into two parts. First, He warns the unfaithful.
I. HE WARNS THE UNFAITHFUL (HOSEA 1:1-9)
Hosea lists the kings of Judah, the southern kingdom, not the kings of Israel, the nation where he lived. He acknowledged that the true kings of God’s people were the men who were descendants of King David from whom the Messiah would come.
Jeroboam was the king of the northern kingdom, Israel. He was the third generation from King Jehu. God told Jehu to kill wicked King Ahab and his queen Jezebel. But Jehu went too far in his blood thirsty revenge. God kept his promise to Jehu that he would have three generations of his family sit on the throne of Israel before the nation was destroyed. His family occupied the throne for almost a century. Jehu destroyed the worship of Baal but he went back to the worship of golden calves.
The translation of the Bible called the Jerusalem Bible catches the shocking nature of God’s message better than the NIV. It says, “Go, marry a whore, and get children with a whore, for the country itself has become nothing but a whore by abandoning God.”
I wonder if the reason we don’t see the ugliness of our sin is because we have these perfumed words to hide the odiousness of sin. A blockbuster movie is about a prostitute and the movie is titled “Pretty Woman.” People no longer lie, they give disinformation. We’ve gotten so far away from naming sin what it is that when we use accurate language it appears insensitive and harsh to use a biblical word. Obviously, as we seek to reach the lost we need to be winsome in our approach and language. Why erect unnecessary barriers to communicate the Good News of Jesus Christ? But at some point we have to call a spade, a spade.
Many years ago, Carol was telling me of a meeting where someone said the group had been like a family. Another person spoke up and said, “To be more accurate “a family, significant other or friend.” I asked, “Was she making a joke?” No, the clarifier was being serious. Hosea drives home the nature of sin. To choose sin over God is to be an adulterer. Such honesty was a powerful way to warn the unfaithful.
Did this godly man marry a sinful woman like this? On the face of it, yes. Some believe this foreshadowed what God saw this woman would become. Some have suggested she was a temple prostitute. But the Hebrew language has a word to describe such a woman. That word is not used to describe Gomer. If Hosea was a priest, I can’t see God telling him to marry a temple prostitute because Leviticus 21:7 commands priests not to marry a prostitute.
Read 1:3-5: So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, 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."
Jezreel was a valley in the northern part of the northern kingdom. Several of Israel’s military battles had been fought at Jezreel. Deborah and Gideon’s victories were won at Jezreel. The name means “to sow” or “to scatter.” Several times in Israel’s history God scattered their enemy in defeat. But this is also where Jehu savagely killed King Ahab’s household and his wife Jezebel. What had been known as a place of great victory for God’s people is now known as a place of uncivilized cruelty. For Hosea to name his son Jezreel would be like a German naming his child after the horrendous death camp of WWII, Auschwitz. It’d be like a South African black naming his child after the huge impoverished squatter’s settlement Soweto. Wouldn’t you be puzzled and curious if you met a child named 9-11 or Twin Towers? People are going to want to know why you named your child that name. What did you intend to say?
A place that was known for Israel’s victory over its enemies is now going to be known as the place where God breaks Israel’s bow. The bow was a picture of military might. Israel will have no defender. They will be vulnerable to judgment.
Read v. 6-7: Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to Hosea, "Call her Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer show love to the house of Israel, that I should at all forgive them. 7 Yet I will show love to the house of Judah; and I will save them — not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but by the Lord their God."
The word “ruhamah” means loved or pitied. The word “Lo” means not. God tells Hosea to name this baby girl “not loved” or “not pitied.” Can you imagine what must have been going on in that household? The way that it is written hints that this child is not Hosea’s. The point is God’s forgiveness has been rejected by the people of this nation. God’s offer of forgiveness has its limits. For 200 years God has withheld his full judgment on his people but they refused to return to Him. Now He would no longer extend them mercy and forgiveness. Now they would know His judgment.
Verse seven reveals that pity or mercy is not primarily a state of mind with God as much as it is a course of action. God had not changed the way he felt about these people. He loved them. He longed for them. His love chases the sinner all the way to the gates of hell. What changed was the way God would now relate to them.
God did miraculously spare the nation of Judah. The same Assyrian army that destroyed Israel swept into Judah and besieged Jerusalem. Judah was no match for them. In fact, Israel was a more powerful militarily than Judah. But the Assyrians retreated and never destroyed Judah. Why? Judah’s good and godly King Hezekiah went before God and led the nation to repent. In response to the king’s prayer and repentance, God sent an angel to kill 185,000 Assyrian troops in one night. They retreated. Historical records reveal that Hezekiah was the only ruler to keep his throne in the Assyrian campaign by Sennacherib.
Judgment is coming. God will no longer extend his mercy and patience. There is a right response. Repent of your unfaithfulness.
Read v. 8-9: After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. 9 Then the Lord said, "Call him Lo-Ammi, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.
What might have been suspected about the second child is obvious with the third child. This is not Hosea’s son. I remember hearing stories after the first Gulf War of soldiers returning home and finding their wives pregnant. It obviously wasn’t their baby. There was a spike in divorces in the military after the soldiers returned home, and some of it had to do with adulterous wives.
Ammi means “my people.” When you add Lo to the front the baby boy’s name is “not my people.” Just like Hosea could no longer treat Gomer like his wife, God cannot go on treating Israel like his people. Imagine the force of God saying to Israel, the people of God, “You are no longer my people and I am not your God!”
Don’t miss the growing intensity in God’s warning to unfaithful Israel. First, God warns them about their sin. If they don’t repent, God will scatter them. If they refuse to turn from their sinful lifestyle, God will bring judgment on them. But He holds out the prospect of them experiencing mercy like Judah. Finally, because of their stubbornness they experience the greatest judgment of all. They lose their fellowship with God and bear the destructive consequences of their sin.
One of the controversial subjects of our day is profiling. Profiling is looking at behaviors in incidences to find common traits. A school may have metal detectors, security cameras, and security guards to keep our students safe, but they get into trouble when they profile students.
A year before Dylan Klebold, 17, and Eric Harris, 18, murdered 12 fellow students and one teacher they were caught breaking into a van. The court ordered them to go through a program for adolescent offenders. They exited the program with flying colors and less than three months before their murderous rampage. Were there warning signs?
Yes. Dylan had a fascination with black clothes and the rebellious ways of the “Goth” culture. On Tuesday, amid the TV reports of gunmen in trench coats killing students at Columbine High School, Dylan’s father contacted authorities, suspecting his son was involved and offering his help as a mediator. He was too late.
Criminologist William Reisman said, “Metal detectors, video cameras—all the equipment creates a false sense of security. The problem is the heart and mind of the kid.” I’ve seen lists that range from as few as 16 signs to up to as many as 50. The thinking is if we could only recognize and heed the warning signs, then these tragedies would not happen.
If you were to say you felt as if an elephant was sitting on your chest, we’d suspect you were having a heart attack. Or if you had a sudden weakness on one side of your face, arm and leg, we’d suspect from the sign that you were having a stroke.
English writer F.W. Boreham tells a story about an old gravedigger who had a terrible cough. A visitor to the cemetery expressed sympathy to the old man and his cough. The gravedigger motioned to the graves around him and said, “There’s plenty here who would be glad of my cough.” His point being that even a bad cough is a sign of life. He’s right about that, but it is also a sign that unless a cure is found it could land him in a grave of his own. Then Boreham applies the story this way: "The torments of an aroused conscience are symptoms of spiritual vitality for which a wise man will give thanks on bended knees; but they are useless and worse than useless unless they drive him, in his desperation, to the fountain open for all sin and for all uncleanness."
What kind of signs have you been having when it comes to your heart? Have you had any heart pain? Maybe you’ve seen signs of a cold heart toward God? The love you once knew is missing. Any dullness or numbness of conscience? You do things or say things or think things now that at one time really made you sad. Not now. It’s like you are numb to those things.
Those physical signs are to make you aware that you need a cure. They are useless if you don’t heed them. In fact, they are harmful if you ignore them. Spiritual signs are for the same purpose. They are to lead you to Christ, your only cure for sin. Romans 15:4 say these O.T. stories are examples for us to learn how to follow God. God warned unfaithful Israel. When they didn’t listen, they experienced the destructive consequences of their sin. It may not look bad now. Look farther down the road.
Sin has the same impact on your relationship with God as prostitution would have on your relationship with your spouse.
In the second half of the chapter He welcomes with unfailing love.
II. HE WELCOMES WITH UNFAILING LOVE (HOSEA 1:10-2:1)
Read 1:10-2:1: "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 'sons of the living God.' 11 The people of Judah and the people of Israel will be reunited, and they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel. 2:1 "Say of your brothers, 'My people,' and of your sisters, 'My loved one.'
The way the chapter ends is so surprising and abrupt that some translators have trouble accepting the way it ends. In v. 9 there is total despair, “you are not my people, I am not your God.” But suddenly the disaster that’s promised is reversed. He goes from total despair to total acceptance and hope for the future.
Look at it! The nation will be destroyed, yet God will keep his promise to Abraham and they will be as numerous as sand on the shore or stars in the sky. This present destruction will not keep God from fulfilling his original plan for Abraham’s descendants. The very place, the land of Israel, where it was said they are not the people of God they will be recognized as the sons of the living God. Only a living God could perform such a dramatic, powerful reversal.
Thrown in for good measure is the reunification of Judah and Israel. No longer will they have hatred for one another. They will be led by one leader. I told you that “Jezreel” means “to sow or to scatter.” They are facing the day of scattering as Assyria conquers Israel, but one day they will know a day of sowing or gathering. Yes, that points to the Jews returning to the Promised Land from Babylon, but ultimately Paul in Romans 9 and Peter in 1 Peter 2 use these verses to speak about us. We Christians once were not the people of God but now we are the people of God. We were scattered across the nations but now He has gathered us into one people.
Hosea will use this literary structure of putting opposites side by side to highlight the contrasts. Why? Everyone knows someone can’t go from a broken home where the wife is a prostitute to being an exemplary home of godliness by the end of the day. Of course, you can’t do that humanly speaking, but the miraculous power and grace of God can do that to a vile and rejected people. This powerful intervention by the living God speaks of how much He loves these people. Hosea must have hoped that it would encourage them to recommit to following God in the future.
A man told how he painfully learned the cost of forgiveness. He had betrayed his wife and family and lived through the anguish of asking for forgiveness and rebuilding their trust. Over a period of time he assumed that even for them, the hurt was mended and the past no longer remembered. One day he returned home from work early and heard his wife, she was on her knees crying and unaware that he was home. His wife was talking to God and through her tears she was asking Christ to help her to forget all the pain that her husband’s act of adultery had brought into her life. It was a rude awakening to the husband of the cost to his wife to forgive him. Multiply that wrong by a limitless number and you get a glimpse of what Christ bore on the cross for us (rzim.org, 3/21/00). Yet the instant that a sinner will turn to Him in repentance and trust, He will not fail to welcome and forgive. This is the heart of the story of redemption. This is the message of the Old Testament and the New.
CONCLUSION
The Bible begins with paradise lost. We know that it ends with paradise restored. No priest, no judge, no king or prophet succeeds. Even the best of them prove to be sinners. Our only hope is that even though God suffers when we sin, He finds a way for us to come back to Him. The last prophet of Israel before it is destroyed is named Hosea, “to save.” Anyone who heeds the warning will find Jesus ready to welcome them home.
