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.
READ ISAIAH 8:3-4 (ESV)
And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz; 4 for before the boy knows how to cry ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”
The name “Maher-shalal-hash-baz” means “hurry to spoil” or “quickly plundered” and was meant to show the people of God that their demise was coming very soon. Even in the New Testament, Matthew 1:21 records for us that an angel told Joseph to name the child born to Mary, Jesus, “because He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21) because the name “Jesus” or “Joshua” or “Yeshua” depending on how you want to say it means “God saves.”
The boy born to Hosea was to be named Jezreel. Hosea could share with those he preached to that God was not pleased with the people of Israel for what occurred in Jezreel which is recorded in 2 Kings 9-10. The second child born to Hosea is a daughter. Please notice these verses. Verse 3 says, “she conceived and bore him a son.” Verse 6 says, “She conceived again and bore a daughter.” It says absolutely nothing about Hosea being the father.
The second child born to Hosea seems to be the result of unfaithfulness on the part of Gomer. The girl is given the name Lo-Ruhamah which means “not loved” or “no mercy.” God says that He will not show mercy to Israel (verse 6). I wonder if the name of the child also reflected that Hosea did not feel loved by Gomer because of her betrayal or if the name reflected that Hosea did not love the child. In any case, there is a breaking of trust all around.
Some time passes and verse 8 tells us that Gomer had another son and again Hosea is not mentioned as being the father; only that Gomer had the child. The boy is given the name Lo-Ammi which means “not my people.” God again is telling the people of Israel that they have cut themselves off from Him and are not His people (verse 9). Again, we get the sense from the name of the child that he is not from Hosea and is “not mine.” This prophet has now endured years of being married to a wife who is not faithful to him. She has children by other men.
What is the point of all this? Why would God have his prophet marry an adulterous woman? God asked His prophets to do many strange things in the Old Testament. Isaiah was commanded to go barefoot and naked for three years in order for him to preach a particular message (Isaiah 20). Jeremiah was given the task of wearing an ox’s yoke every day as a way of preaching his message about the people and their sin (Jeremiah 27). Ezekiel had to physically eat a scroll (Ezekiel 3), lie on one side for 390 days (Ezekiel 4), and shave his head and beard (Ezekiel 5) all in an effort to get the attention of the people and give God’s message. The prophets of God had to do many things to get the attention of His people to share the message that had been given.
But again, what was the point of all this? Why would God have his prophet marry an adulterous woman? The message that Hosea had to give to the people of God had/has to do with faithfulness and unfaithfulness. The language in Hosea 1 is very crude and intense and I have muted much of the coarseness of the language (because we have tons of kids in here for Family Sunday). The issue at hand was God’s relationship with His people in which God felt deeply betrayed. The entire Book of Hosea is flavored with the language of adultery and unfaithfulness and shame and anger because God is telling the people that they have betrayed Him as one spouse betrays another. Every other paragraph has language that is hard to read and is intense.
ILLUSTRATION… “Theology of the Pain of God” by Kazoh Kitamori
There is a book I read a few years ago, “Theology of the Pain of God” by Kazoh Kitamori, which added to my view about how I see my relationship with God. It is a deep theological book which looks at our relationship with God from the perspective of pain. Not our pain, but God’s pain. The author says at the beginning: “We cannot believe the pain of God unless it is His revelation. Man’s thought can never produce such a truth” (page 25). The Japanese author explains in his book that when we sin, we not only break our relationship with God, but we also cause God pain. It pains God to extend His wrath to us, those He has created because we are sinful. Not only that, the only solution for our sin is that God send His only Son to suffer and die on a cross for you and me. That is pain. The author says: “When the love of God bears and overcomes His wrath, nothing but the pain of God takes place” (page 109). Through the pain of the Father our sin is forgiven by the Son and sealed on us by the Holy Spirit.
Our sin causes God pain. In the passages in Hosea we find a great sense of betrayal. God is Holy and therefore must bring the full weight of His wrath upon sin and those who sin. God created each one of us and He loves us boundlessly. Bringing wrath on His Creation pains Him. The price for our salvation pains Him.
Why bring up this theological book in relation to the Book of Hosea? We see in the Book of Hosea God choosing one prophet to live out the pain He felt because of the adulterous and faithless relationship He was experiencing with His people in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The Truth about God, the God who made the world (Genesis 1), the God who called Abraham to make a nation (Genesis 12), the God who saved Israel from Egypt (Book of Exodus), and the God who is described in the Old Testament and the New Testament is a God who desires to have an abiding exclusive personal relationship with His people. That is why he calls Hosea to prophetic service and frames everything He says with painful relationship and sexual terms.
TRANSITION
Hosea’s job as a prophet is to describe the relationship that Israel is having with God. The relationship is not going well in God’s view because of sin and because He does not have the devotion of the people. Let’s talk about God’s relationship with His people.
GOD’S RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS PEOPLE
The overall theme of Hosea’s messages is found in Hosea 4:1 where he lays out three disputes or controversies or quarrels He has with Israel:
READ HOSEA 4:1 (ESV)
“Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel, for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land”
The first dispute against the people of God is that there is no faithfulness to God in the land. Hosea shares with the people that there is no consistency between their words and their deeds. They are saying one thing with their mouths, but their actions betray their words.
Hosea tells them later in chapter 8:
READ HOSEA 8:2-5 (ESV)
To Me they cry, “My God, we—Israel—know You.” 3 Israel has spurned the good; the enemy shall pursue him. 4 They made kings, but not through Me. They set up princes, but I knew it not. With their silver and gold they made idols for their own destruction. 5 I have spurned your calf, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence?
The second quarrel against the people of God is that there is no steadfast love or loyalty for God. The people of God love other things more than God: They love other idols and festivals devoted to other gods (Hosea 3, 5). They love cursing, lying, murder, stealing, adultery; they break all bonds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed (Hosea 4). They love to do evil and then ask God for forgiveness and expect Him to grant it (Hosea 6). They love political corruption and to follow corrupt leaders (Hosea 7, 9). They love to depend on their own strength and their own armies (Hosea 10)
Perhaps it is Hosea 6 that shocks me the most when I read it.
READ HOSEA 6:1-4 (ESV)
Come, let us return to the Lord; for He has torn us, that He may heal us; He has struck us down, and He will bind us up. 2 After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live before Him. 3 Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; His going out is sure as the dawn; He will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.” 4 What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away.
There is such arrogance presented in those verses. The people thought that they could come to God in faith when life was poor and when they suffered and God would just make everything right… and they then could go about their business. God says their faith is like mist that vanishes and dew that disappears. God deserves more than that! He deserved more than that from them. He deserves more than that from me!
The third dispute against the people of God is that there is no acknowledgement of God in their land. This is more than intellectual understanding about God, who He is, and what He has done. “Knowledge of God in the land” means that faith is reflected in values and lifestyle choices. The people of God were not acting like the people of God in their personal lives. Hosea throughout his book describes the activities the people are involved in and prevalent attitudes they shared:
* Prostitution and idol worship were present (Hosea 4)
* Theft was widespread (Hosea 7)
* Drunkenness was common (Hosea 7)
* Intermarriage with foreign people brought false gods to the land (Hosea 7)
* Belief that fortified cities (Hosea 8) and armies would keep them safe (Hosea 10)
The end result of all three of these divine complaints was that the people of God did not look like the people of God, but looked like the nations around them.
I immediately think of us. What does acknowledgment of God look like for us? I think perhaps this is different for different people, but I have to tell you, many Christians today look like and sound like exactly like people who are not Christians. We believe the same things… we vote the same way… we watch the same movies… we laugh at the same dirty jokes… we attend the same festivals… we divorce at the same rate… and we wonder why people can’t tell what is a Christian and what isn’t. God wants consistent faithfulness from us.
ILLUSTRATION… adapted from a Wayne Field Illustration (sermoncentral.com)
I wonder what would happen if we applied the same standards of loyalty to our relationship with God and to our Christian walk that we expect from other areas of our lives?
If our car starts once every three tries, is it reliable?
If the post office skips delivery every Monday and Thursday, is it trustworthy?
If we don’t go to work once or twice a month, are we a reliable employee?
If our fridge stops working for a day or two every so often, do we say “It works most of the time?”
If the water heater provides an icy cold shower every now and then, is it dependable?
If you skipped a couple of electricity bill payments do you think REMC would mind?
If we just worship God two Sundays a month, would we expect to be called faithful?
If we only pray when we need something, would we expect to be called consistent?
If we attend church only when we have to volunteer would we expect to be called steadfast?
God wants from us faithful believing loyalty and persistent love and for knowledge about Him to make a difference in our daily lives. A big difference. A holy difference. He was not getting that from the people of Israel and was using Hosea and his messed-up family to make the point.
TRANSITION
The sermon this morning has just been a great uplifting message… hasn’t it?
Hosea has experienced adultery and pain and betrayal all so that the people he is preaching to can see that God frames His relationship with them in terms of adultery, pain, and betrayal. Hosea’s life is meant to share with us the pain and anguish and betrayal that God feels, but that is not the end of the story. The purpose we are meant to see is the grace-filled purchase which comes as a complete shock in Hosea chapter 3.
III. THE GRACE-FILLED PURCHASE
READ Hosea 3:1-5 (ESV)
“And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” 2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. 3 And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not be a prostitute, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.” 4 For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. 5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to His goodness in the latter days.”
So, how far was Hosea willing to go for Gomer?
Please note exactly what happens in the life of Hosea in chapter 3. This is important! What was Hosea commanded to do? Hosea is commanded to buy back his own wife from sexual slavery. He was already married to her and yet he had to purchase her out of her life of sin and love her again!
* He had to forgive the betrayal.
* He had to give grace to her sin.
* He had to buy back what was already his in the first place.
So, how far is God willing to go for you and for me?
Please note exactly what happens in the life of Hosea in chapter 3 because it shows us so much about God’s heart and His desire for our souls. This is the major message from this minor prophet!
READ JOHN 3:16-17 (ESV)
“For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”
Acts 20:28 (ESV) tell us that God “bought us with His own blood.”
1 Corinthians 6:20 and 7:23 tells us “You were bought at a price.”
Our Heavenly Father has done EXACTLY what Hosea did for Gomer! He has done the same for you and for me through His Son Jesus Christ.
* God forgives betrayal.
* God gives grace to out sin.
* God bought back what was already His in the first place.
God bought us from sin and brokenness and guilt and condemnation and the price was the blood of Jesus Christ His Son. God bought us with a grace-filled purchase.
The message for us this morning is that if you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, He wants you! He paid for you! God wants you to be rid of brokenness and hopelessness and condemnation.
The message for those of us who are already believers is that we have such a responsibility in our relationships with God. We are called to be faithful. We are called to have loyalty. We are called to acknowledge God in all aspects of our lives.
PRAYER
INVITATION
