When a young man, who was a college baseball star, got in his car he had no idea what was about to happen. His blood alcohol content was way over the legal limit. The car sped to ninety miles per hour. The next thing he knew when he finally came out of a coma he was hooked up to machines. He was through with baseball. It was considered a miracle he lived let alone that he would ever walk again.
Could that tragedy possibly be a result of God’s love? This was a young man headed away from God. That accident caused him to re-think a lifestyle that was an affront to God. Today that man is a seminary graduate and serving the Lord in ministry.
God loves the sinner. His heart is grieved by our waywardness. God seeks the wayward sinner and a drastic event is what it sometimes takes to bring us back. It took a tragedy to bring this promising young athlete back.
Read Hosea 2:2-23
Hosea has a message of warning about a judgment coming. The purpose of this judgment is to cause brokenness that leads God’s people to a turning back to God. The purpose is for Israel in their brokenness to turn and restore their relationship to God.
In Chapter 1 of Hosea we learn of Hosea’s unusual call. In Chapter 1:2 God told Hosea these shocking words “Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and have children of adultery.”
Hosea was going to be able to preach with real understanding. He would understand from his own experience what our sin does to God.
He will know fist hand when love is given and trust extended what it is like when that love and trust is trampled. Hosea marries the adulterous woman, Gomer. She even stooped to become a prostitute and a slave.
Gomer gave birth to three children. The first was Jezreel. The sin of Ahab and Jezebel were portrayed by this name and the consequences of their sin. The second child was Lo-Ruhama which means not loved. The third was Lo-Ammi meaning not my people or no kin of mine.
Hosea could feel what God felt, Pain. Like the father of the prodigal son Hosea felt pain. God is grieved when one of his dear loved children falls into a life of sin or his people drift away. At that point revival is the only hope.
Israel reached a low in degradation. They were involved in temple prostitution, worshiping fertility gods and rampant Baalism. The nation had sunk to spiritual harlotry.
God shows a persistent love for sinners. Hosea Chapter 2 is poetic. The Husband is God. The unfaithful wife is Israel who loves Baal gods. The children are a holy remnant that plead to God as a result of their mother’s wrongdoing.
When we stray from God He is not going to abandon us. He is going to call us back to himself even if it takes a tragedy for us to wake up and return.
There is a rebuke and call to return vs. 2-5
The consequence of sin is pronounced in these verses. Israel’s guilt is clearly established. There is a divorce courtroom scene in verse two using legal language. There is enough evidence to pronounce Israel guilty in a court of law.
God sought reconciliation which could only come if Israel put an end to spiritual adultery. God first longed to see Israel repent, but she would be put away, like writing a certificate of divorce.
The adulteress is stripped naked in Ezekiel 16:28-40 and the woman caught in adultery is stoned. When we look at the woman caught in adultery in John 8:4-5 there is mercy as opposed to the law.
In verses 3-4 there are warnings of judgment. If spiritual adultery continued Israel would be exposed to public shame. Israel would be made like a desert as a result of sin.
In Vs 5 we see Israel accepted the life of world. The world steals but Christ offers true meaning.
Sin will frustrate 6-8
Like the prodigal in the pigsty the sinner needs the realization they had a better life serving the true and living God than the false gods. Israel has been drawn to Baalism. If only Israel will make the corrective action needed. If you are in the pigsty in your life, it may be God using the circumstances to bring you back to Him.
Harsh lesson of tough love vs. 9-13
There is withholding of a blessing to teach truth. It is to bring you to a point of repentance. The shepherd sometimes breaks the legs of the sheep to keep it from wandering into danger. Vs 11 God establishes special times for celebration, rest and worship.
Winning back the sinner- restoration vs. 14-20
God is loving back the sinner. The Valley of Achor in Vs 15 is the valley of trouble. The sin of Achan is at this Valley (Joshua 7:24), it became the door of hope. Trouble swings open the door of hope. There is a consequence of sin. You put hour hand in the fire and you will feel pain. Your trouble can bring you to repentance.
In a famine the hungry proclaims, “I will go to my fathers”. The prodigal son reached bottom and returned to his father.
Israel’s Blessing is told in Vs 21-32. There is a blessing in response. Jesus made a relationship with God possible for everyone.
1 Peter 2:10 Once you were not God’s people, but now you are. Once you were not shown mercy, but now you have been shown mercy.
Romans 9:25 As God says in Hosea: “Those who are not my people I will call my people. Those who are not loved I will call my loved ones.
Hosea 2:23 I will plant my people in the land. Those who are not loved I will call my loved ones. Those who are not my people I will call my people. Then they will say, ‘You are our God!'”
God’s is on a quest for the lost. He may have brought a tragedy in your life out of love. He wants you to turn to Him. God is merciful and loving.
God does not want you to live in spiritual complacency. You may have an experience now that you do not like, but God is using to make you question where your lifestyle is leading you and to bring you back to a close relationship with Him.
Are you like that young athlete whose life has been turned upside down? Your story may be different but in some other way God in love has allowed a tragedy in your life to bring you back to Him. Even in your tragedy God’s purpose is for your good and His glory. Won’t you turn back to God today?
Then you will say, ‘You are my God! (Hosea 2:23)
