I read through Hosea in one sitting and this is the picture I got:
• … a grieving Lover, urging for the return of His beloved, who has left Him for other loves. Despite the infidelity, the Lover was unrelenting.
• He was determined to pay any price that would bring His beloved back to His side.
Hosea is a story of a broken vow, a broken home, a broken heart and a broken life.
• God has chosen to reveal this sad story through a broken-hearted prophet, so that he and his people will understand God’s faithfulness and unrelenting love.
• God never gives up on His people. God never gives up on you. Others may give up on you, or you may even give up on yourself, but not God.
The setting for the story of Hosea takes place in the city of Samaria, the capital city of the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
• Hosea, a young preacher, is led by God to meet and woo and win a young woman by the name of Gomer.
• Her past wasn’t very good, but since God has brought us together, our future will be filled with happiness and delight. But he was wrong.
She left him. She prostituted herself. She went for other lovers.
• Hosea was left with 3 children, who were given names that points to this tragedy. Jezreel, judgement; Lo-Ruhamah, not loved; Lo-Ammi, not my people.
• Even though Gomer was at home for a while, her heart wasn’t there. She betrayed her husband’s devotion.
You can imagine the gossip going around – “How could you, a religious man, a holy prophet, have gotten a loose wife like this?”
• Hosea now understands. He understands the heart of God for His people.
• “How could You, a holy and righteous God, tolerate a people like us, unfaithful and sinful?”
Now that she is gone, it may be better off for Hosea.
• But Hosea did not give up. Even though she has left the home, she has not left his heart. He was determined to have her back, no matter what she had done.
• 3:1 the Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites…”
• Even though she has other lovers, go and get her back! Hosea went and BUYS her back. She had likely fallen into slavery and he needs to buy her back.
But, you say, it just doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense that a man pays to keep a woman who has betrayed him.
• That’s right. It really does not make sense that God would pay such a high price to buy us back, but He did. That’s unconditional love. That’s grace!
• We were like Gomer, described by Hosea in 2:5 “Their mother has been unfaithful and has conceived them in disgrace. She said, `I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink.’
• 2:8 “She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold - which they used for Baal.”
But if you’re tempted to sit in judgment on Gomer, I remind you that that’s the way you and I have acted all of our lives.
• It’s from the hand of God that we receive life’s rich blessing — food for our table, clothes for our body, and a warm place to live. And yet how easily we can thank ourselves or everyone else except the God who provided them.
• We thank our government, our company, our family, our friends, and ourselves – our good skills, wisdom and strength – everyone and everything, except the God from whom all blessings flow.
Despite all these, God still loves us. He pays to save us.
• 3:3 Hosea tells Gomer, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you.”
• “I have bought you, and now I want you to be with me. I want you to be faithful to me, and I promise you that whether you’re faithful to me or not I will be faithful to you.”
• Hosea is playing the part with Gomer that God has played with us all of your life.
(1) God’s Love Never Changes
God does not love you because of what you do. God always loves you in spite of what you do.
• God does not love you because of what you are. He always loves you in spite of what you are.
• But when you understand how much He loves you, respond to him with love and devotion. Mark this down, God always loves you.
This is not an easy lesson for some of us. We bring over from the old life the bookkeeping mentality - "I will do certain things and then God will do certain things for me. And so in a way he will reward me." But that’s not the Gospel.
• God would not love you more than He loves you right now. It is the love that you would felt if you stand beneath the cross and see Jesus died for you.
• The favour God bestows upon you is without merit. There is nothing you can do for it.
God does not love you because of what you are. God does not love you because of what you do. He loves you in spite of what you are, in spite of what you do.
• But when that dawns on you, when you realize that unconditional love of God, no strings attached, and then you will respond with love and worship, praise and service.
• You will come to church every Sunday and worship Him, because your life is His.
I met a wonderful Chinese brother, Ba Yong Li from Dongbei, China who came to Singapore March 2012 to work for a restaurant, 9 months now. It was his 1st time to Singapore, and no friends here. By nature of his work, he is not able to come regularly on Sundays; off days are on weekdays.
He stays at an apartment near Kovan MRT and so he looked for a church nearby. He came down to St Paul’s and then Bethesda church, but did not meet anyone. On his way back, decided to come into our church again. He met Rev Lo and requested for permission to spend some time in the sanctuary. We let him.
Later I noticed that he was kneeing on the stage area. I believe he did that because sitting at the pew would feel too distant, especially being alone in a big hall. He has taken his shoes off, when up the stage nearer to the cross, took one of the speaker’s chair to put his songbook and his bible (which he took from home), and he was singing aloud and clapping his hands - loud enough for me to hear standing at the corridor.
Isn’t that beautiful? It was his day off, but he has chosen to come to church and spend some time with the Lord, just to pray and sing. And he has been doing that ever since, every week or fortnight, on his day off. I see a born-again Christian in love with Jesus!
Do you know how much He loves you? Are you in love with Him?
(2) God’s Love Never Gives Up
He just doesn’t give up. He does not give up on you.
• Man like to ask, “Where are you, God? Show me that you’re there”, as if God is lost and nowhere to be found.
• The answer from the book of Hosea is that God isn’t lost; we are. He pursues us because we are always running away – to our own pursuits, to other loves.
Deut 32:10 “In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; He guarded him as the apple of his eye…”
• I like the way Ravi Zacharias illustrates this. The Lord loves you so much He wants you to draw close to Him. Come closer, He says. Come closer. And you come close, so close until you saw your reflection around the pupil of His eye. God wants to shield you and care for you.
• Where are you, Lord? Right here, He would say. Right here where you are.
My dad makes it a point to visit Rev Lau once every week. On his off day on Thursday, he took a bus down just to visit her.
• What makes him do that? Love. Love never gives up.
• I am not there yet. I find it difficult talking to someone who doesn’t respond well. There is nothing productive about such visits.
• What is lacking is love. There is too much “self” in it – self-love, self-interest, selfish goals.
God’s love is unconditional. Hosea understood it first hand. Have we?
• Are we still pre-occupied by self-love and self-adoration?
If you have not accepted God’s love, do that today. Receive Jesus as your Saviour.
• Tell Him you’ve gone astray and you’re returning back to Him now.
• God will forgive you, and restore you back to life and heath in Jesus Christ.
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COMMUNION:
As we are having Holy Communion this morning, I thought it good to sing this song in response to God… [Song: I STAND AMAZED].
DISTRIBUTION – Holy Communion is meant only for baptised Christians
1 Cor 11:23-26 “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
We’re called to REMEMBER Him – that’s what we’re going to do. We remember the LOVE that would not let us go.
• He is the reason we are set free. He is the reason we are forgiven.
• He is the reason we are children of God, shielded and cared for.
• He is the reason our names are written in the Book of life. He is the reason there is now a mansion for me in heaven. He is the reason we are here today.
PRAYER:
Lord, with grateful hearts and minds we thank you for the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Bless these – the bread and the cup – consecrate them so that they become the channels of blessings for all who partake them in faith today.
JESUS: "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." (1 Cor 11:24)
JESUS: "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." (1 Cor 11:25)
