Hosea 1:1-2 KJV The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. [2] The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.
Hosea 3:1-3 KJV Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine. [2] So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley: [3] And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee.
l. THE WAYS THAT GOD WORKS
-God’s ways are far beyond the ways of men. God has many ways that he uses to reach the wayward hearts of men.
-Often, the servants of God find that they must be acquainted with bitter trials and sometimes personal loss in order for patience to have her perfect work (James 1:3). God may often use sorrow as a stern teacher to bring men back to the right place with God.
-Hosea spoke of the methods of God in this manner:
Hosea 2:14 KJV Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.
-In order for God to speak to us, He brings us among the barren rocks and dry sand of the wilderness to speak to our hearts. In the wilderness, God often brings to light wisdom and strength that is only found through the disciplines of sacrifice and pain.
-Some of God’s greatest men found their solace in the wilderness.
• Moses -- Sent to the deserts of Midian where he becomes accustomed to the endurance of difficulty and opposition. It was in a place where he was shut out from the fellowship of friends but only to find the closest fellowship with God.
• Paul -- Some of the highest ideals of theology is found in the epistles that Paul wrote while he was in the prison house of Nero. They are his loftiest and most profound contributions that make their way from the prison.
-Hosea was also placed in a similar situation, yet his circumstances seems to supercede any of the Old Testament prophets.
-God’s ways are far above the ways of men, therefore faith must give it’s total attention to the purposes of God. It was in the schoolhouse of sorrow that Hosea was shaped and God fashioned a prophet into a man of God.
ll. THE STORY OF HOSEA
-Hosea was a prophet called by God to minister to the Northern Kingdom of Israel. This portion of the Kingdom always had a tendency to be even more wicked than the Southern Kingdom (Judah and Benjamin).
-Hosea witnessed firsthand the violence, the immorality, and the forgetfulness of the people concerning their God. His voice sounded with the shrill pitch of a trumpet but despite what God gave him to say, he loved the people with all of his heart and yearned for them to return back to their God.
-Hosea came to the land at a time of political instability. When God called him, Jeroboam ll, was the king. After this king died, things continued their downward spiral. One king after another began to try to rule. Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, and Pekahiah found that they could only sit in the royal courts for just a few months before being cast aside.
-While the government seemed to settle itself in great instability, the ways of the people seemed to mirror those actions. They seemed to lose all of their sense of shame, they cast every restraining influence in their lives to the wind, there was no moral energy in their hearts, and no self-control in their lives.
A. His Marriage to Gomer
-God, using a picture that few men would even submit to, commanded Hosea to go out into the streets and find himself a harlot and marry her.
-Hosea already being a prophet, probably extremely skeptical and probably argumentative with God, took to the streets. Led of God but with hesitation in his step found Gomer the daughter of Diblaim.
-Gomer, the harlot. Gomer, early in her waywardness, probably had that youthful attractiveness to her that won the heart of Hosea. Gomer probably thinking that Hosea was just another suitor began to attempt to entertain him. But Hosea, bound by the laws of God refused to allow himself to drop into the role of the sinner.
-Over the course of time, Gomer found herself interested in the prophet and soon a marriage followed. In the early months, Hosea probably began to delude himself into thinking that perhaps Gomer would not return to the pit of sin that she had been retrieved from. But it was not to be.
B. The Love of Hosea
-Gomer soon began to frequent the streets and entertain men.
-Hosea now had not only Gomer to try to take care of but also three children to look after. Not even sure that the last two were really his, Hosea’s devotion to them reminds us of the love that God often uses when He works with us through the mistakes and hurts of life.
-Imagine the pleading voice of Hosea to Gomer:
• Please Gomer, why don’t you stay with us tonight?
• Please Gomer, why can’t we live as a family?
• Gomer, I took you from the streets and you know that there is no future there.
• Please Gomer, look at these kids, you can’t just leave them.
-But Hosea’s pleadings and even his tears could not sway Gomer. Imagine his feelings:
• Anger at being rejected by Gomer.
• Disappointment that she would go back to the streets.
• Discouragement with his lot in life.
• Embarrassment at what the “talkers” would say.
• The sinking feeling of rejection.
-But Hosea’s troubled mind was tormented more by the voices of his small children:
• Daddy, where is mommy going?
• Daddy, when is mommy going to be back?
• Daddy, why does mommy leave us every night?
• Daddy, I love you and mommy.
-The innocent eyes of his children seemed to tear Hosea’s heart in two. With a lump in his throat, Hosea would tell his children that mommy would be back later. Then he would go on with getting them ready for bed. The baths, the snacks, and the perhaps futile prayers and the tucking them in for the night.
-Then Hosea would be left alone in the house. Alone with his torment, alone with his feelings of rejection, alone with his fears for the welfare of Gomer, simply alone. But Hosea still loved Gomer.
-The Song of Solomon gives a picture of love when he said that love was as strong as death and as obstinate as the grave.
• I wonder if Hosea ever had to go out into the streets and get her.
• I wonder if there ever came a knock at midnight informing him that his wife had been violently abused by some drunken suitor.
• I wonder if Hosea had someone to stay with the children when he went out into the cold night to bring Gomer back home.
• I wonder did he ever have to wash the blood from a laceration on her head.
• I wonder if he ever had to give her myrrh to help her with the pain of a fractured arm.
• I wonder if he ever cried when the full light of the oil lantern illuminated her face.
• I wonder if he ever gave up.
• I wonder. . . . . .
C. The Auction Block
-But this was not the low point that Gomer would reach. There came a time when she finally had reached the pit of despair.
-Hosea, not having seen Gomer for months, heard that an auction of slaves would take place. Deep in his heart there was that sense of intuition that if he would go to the auction he would find her there.
-He finds someone to leave his children with and he goes to the auction. It is there that he focuses all of his attention on the auction block. One, two, three, four, and so on down the line but no Gomer. Not many left for the auctioneer. As Hosea begins to look to the remaining slaves, but he finds no Gomer. He cannot recognize her.
-But she is there. Life has been hard to her. The ways of the transgressor is always hard. She is but a shell of what Hosea first found so long ago. . . . . just a short while ago.
The Touch of the Master’s Hand
‘Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer
Through it was scarcely worth his while
To waste much time on the old violin,
But held it up with a smile:
“What am I bidden, good folks,” he cried,
“Who’ll start the bidding for me?”
“A dollar, a dollar”; Then, “Two!” “Only two?
Two dollars, and who’ll make it three?
Three dollars, once; three dollars, twice;
Going for three—“But no,
From the back of the room, far back, a gray-haired man
Came forward and picked up the bow;
Then, wiping the dust from the old violin,
And tightening the loose strings,
He played a melody pure and sweet
As a caroling angel sings.
The music ceased, and the auctioneer,
With a voice that was quiet and low,
Said: “What am I bid for the old violin?”
And he held it up with the bow.
“A thousand dollars, and who’ll make it two?
Two thousand! And who’ll make it three?
Three thousand, once, three thousand, twice,
And going, and gone,” said he.
The people cheered, but some of them cried,
“We do not quite understand
What changed it’s worth.” Swift came the reply:
“The touch of a master’s hand.”
And many a man with life out of tune,
And battered and scarred with sin,
Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd
Much like the old violin.
A “mess of pottage,” “a glass of wine,”
A game--and he travels on.
He’s “going” once, and “going” twice,
He’s “going” and almost gone.
But the Master comes, and the foolish crowd
Never quite can understand
The worth of a soul and the change that’s wrought
By the touch of the Master’s Hand.
(Myra Brooks Welch)
lll. CONCLUSION -- THE GRACE OF GOD
-Despite how farfetched you may think this story of Gomer really is, it happened around 785 B.C. Yet it is a story that is played day in and day out in ages prior to this one and will be played in the ages to come.
-It is a story about men and women who have lost their first love.
Revelation 2:1-4 KJV Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; [2] I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: [3] And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. [4] Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Revelation 3:14-17 KJV And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; [15] I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. [16] So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. [17] Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
• I wonder if God ever has to go out into the streets and get us.
• I wonder if there ever came a knock at midnight informing Him that his wife had been violently abused by some drunken suitor.
• I wonder if God ever has to wash the blood from a laceration on the soul of men.
• I wonder if God ever has to give her myrrh to help men with the pain of a fractured soul.
• I wonder if God ever cry’s when the full light of the oil lantern illuminates the face of our failure.
• I wonder if God will ever give up.
• I wonder. . . . . .
Philip Harrelson
barnabas14@yahoo.com
