Are you a Gomer?
Intro Questions:
How do you discipline your children when they do something wrong:
Nothing? Gently talk to them? Timeout? Ground them? Take their phone? Spank them? Cain them? Kill them? Nuke them? Thanos Snap the entire Galaxy?
When God catches you doing something wrong, what does He do?
Proverbs 3:11,12
11 My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, 12 because the LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.
Do saved people lose their salvation when they do something wrong?
No – you can’t lose your salvation.
If if a person loses their salvation when they sin, how is it God chastises those He loves? (hint: you can’t lose your salvation)
Hosea and Gomer is sort of known as the second best story in the Bible (Jesus’ salvation story being the first). Hosea and Gomer is a metaphor for God and Us. So we are all Gomers!
Hosea 1:2
2 When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the LORD.”
So Hosea married a promiscuous woman.
Right away, God likens this relationship as between the Lord and marrying us even though His people are being unfaithful.
But wait that’s not us, that’s Israel, right. Nope it’s both – there’s no distinction. (Galatians 3:23-29, Romans 3:22, Romans 10:12, Colossians 3:11)
Galatians 3:23-29
23 Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. 26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Romans 3:22-24
22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Romans 10:11-13
11 As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Hosea 1:3-6
3 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.” 6 Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the LORD said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means “not loved”), for I will no longer show love to Israel, that I should at all forgive them.
Jezreel – I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel and I will put an end to the kingtom of Israel.
Lo-Ruhamah - Not Loved, for I will no longer show love to Israel
Lo-Ammi - Not my people, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.
Hosea 1:7-9
7 Yet I will show love to Judah; and I will save them—not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but I, the LORD their God, will save them.” 8 After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. 9 Then the LORD said, “Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.
Hosea 1:10
10 “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 ‘children of the living God.’
Just because you are Jewish does not make you saved. Gentiles (not Jewish) are getting saved so being Jew has nothing to do with salvation.
Romans 9:25-33
25 As he says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,” 26 and, “In the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’ ” 27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved. 28 For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality.” 29 It is just as Isaiah said previously: “Unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.”
Israel’s Unbelief
30 What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. 32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. 33 As it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”
Hosea 2:4-8
4 I will not show my love to her children, because they are the children of adultery. 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 olive oil and my drink.’ 6 Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way. 7 She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.’ 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.
The children Gomer had were not Hosea’s.
When she goes after other lovers (after other gods) she won’t get anywhere and they won’t help her.
She doesn’t remember that God is the one who has been providing for her all along.
Hosea 2: 14-20
14 “Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. 15 There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will respond as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt. 16 “In that day,” declares the LORD, “you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master. ’ 17 I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked. 18 In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety. 19 I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. 20 I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD.
Even though she left her husband (left the Lord), he will come back and woo her back (Lord will woo us saved but unfaithful people back).
Peter was given a second chance even though he denied Christ 3 times! Even swared up and down!
David was given a second chance even though he sinned with another man’s wife and had him killed!
Paul in Romans 7 admits he can’t stop sinning and can only turn to Christ to save him (even though he’s saved).
Hosea 3
1 The LORD said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.” 2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. 3 Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you.” 4 For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or household gods. 5 Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the LORD and to his blessings in the last days.
As an example the Lord tells Hosea to buy his wife back and for them to be married even though she has been very unfaithful to him.
The Lord shows how Israel (yes even us) likewise needs to turn to Him and remember where their help comes from!
https://youtu.be/r1DxoJqdopY
Matthew 23:37
37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.
Hebrews 10:1-18
1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; 6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. 7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, my God.’ ” 8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. 9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. 14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. 15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: 16 “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” 17 Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” 18 And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.
Galatians 3:16-22
16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ. 17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. 18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. 19 Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. 20 A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one. 21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 22 But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.
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?Question: How was Abraham saved? By works or by faith? (Rom 4, Gal 3:6) So, if we know that sacrifices that the Jews did never saved anyone (Heb 10, Rom 3:20), then we know that all of those laws were nailed to the cross when Jesus died when you put faith in Him (Col 2:14). So, yes, the law is profitable for doctrine, reproof and correction, (2 Tim 3:16) but not for salvation (Gal 3:10-14). So, we see that people before Christ were saved by faith in the coming messiah (Abraham believed God and it was accounted for righteousness) and not by works (Heb 10:5). So, if you can handle hearing this so-called heresy, tall of the Law(s) given to Moses saved no one. So yes, the Pharisees believed in salvation by following the law, doing works, circumcision, handwashings, by their lineage, sacrifices, and by their tithe, etc. (there’s no end to works), but it says that prostitutes were getting into to heaven before them (implying probably that they were not gettin in at all). See, they were putting their faith in anything except for Jesus. When you do that you err. If you can get into heaven without needing faith in Jesus then it means Jesus' death was unnecessary, which of course it wasn't. (Gal 2:21 - I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.) So the law is only a teacher that we are sinners (Gal 3:24), but it does not save. Only Christ can save and we are saved when we trust/believe in him, not of works (Eph 2:8,9). So if you are putting your faith in the Law, it is misplaced. Put your faith in Jesus to save - He's the only one who can. (acts 4:12)
Some believe in works for salvation not faith in Jesus. They think you can keep the law and that you fool yourself into believing you are good enough to keep the law and don't need Christ to save you? Or perhaps they believe you were saved by Christ but then you have to keep the law which is also impossible? (Gal 3:3). You can never be good enough, did you know that? It just takes one sin to be doomed and only faith in Jesus can reverse that.
Col 2:13-16: When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.
Some other verses you might not like if you believe in works: Titus 3:5-7, Galatians 2:16, Romans 3:20, Romans 3:10, Isaiah 64:6, Eph 2:8,9, 1 Tim 4:4. But, I'm guessing you'll double down rather than trust in Jesus for salvation. Give your heart to Jesus and don't be shell fish by standing on works such as what you eat or drink which save no one! ;-)
Jew / Gentile – is there a difference in how they are saved?
Galatians 3:6-14
6 So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 7 Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. 8 Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” 9 So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. 10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” 11 Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.” 12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
Jesus charged the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2:4, “You have forsaken your first love.” Whenever we turn from God, we put something in His place that makes us spiritual adulterers. This story of Hosea and Gomer shows us that God loves us--not because of our faithfulness--but because of His. Gomer's unloveliness shows the depth of the love expressed by God and Hosea. No one has ever deserved God's love; it is always a free gift to the unworthy. Jesus saves and continues to love His bride, even when we're drawn to other lovers. Our heavenly bridegroom doesn't give up; He stands and fights for us. God is faithful to us, even though we often dishonor His Name.
