Unbroken Love In A Broken Heart (Hosea) Series

American philosopher and educator, Dr. Mortimer Adler, once suddenly left a discussion group quite disgusted. He slammed the door behind him. One person, trying to relieve the tension, remarked, “Well, he's gone.”

The hostess replied, “No, he isn't. That's a closet!” (Myron S. Augsburger, “When Reason Fails,” Christianity Today, Vol. 30, no. 9; www.PreachingToday.com).

That’s what happens when people try to run away from God. They find themselves trapped in a dark closet. Perhaps, that’s where you find yourself these days. You got mad at God and tried to leave Him out of your life, but you find yourself in a dark place without much hope for the future.

So, how do you get out of the closet and return to the Lord? After you’ve made a mess of your life, how do you come back to God? how do you restore your relationship with Him?

Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to the Old Testament book of Hosea, where Hosea the prophet addresses a nation that had long since run away from God, the nation of Israel. As a result, the brutal Assyrians are about to invade, ravish, and destroy the nation. So God sends Hosea with a message urging them to return to the Lord.

Now, Hosea’s ministry had followed a golden age in Israel, with a peace and prosperity not seen since the days of Solomon. Unfortunately, with this prosperity came moral decay, and Israel forsook God to worship idols. So God gives them one more chance to come back to Him before it is too late. You’re in Hosea. Look at chapter 1. Hosea 1,

Hosea 1:1-5 The word of the LORD that came to 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. When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.” So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. 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. And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel” (ESV).

God tells Hosea to marry a prostitute, who bears him a son, which he names Jezreel.

Now, Jezreel was the name of a city where two eunuchs hurled the wicked queen Jezebel from the window of her palace and dogs ate her body (2 Kings 9:30-37). The name brought terrible memories to mind in Hosea’s day, much like the name Dachau would bring to Jews today. Dachau was one of the horror camps Hitler used to murder Jews during World War II (Haddon Robinson). So, if a Jew today would name his son Dachau, he would offend his fellow Jews. In the same way, Hosea naming his son Jezreel offended the Jews in his day.

But God was making Gomer (Hosea’s wife) and her children an object lesson for the nation of Israel. Like Gomer, the prostitute, Israel was unfaithful to God, going after other “lovers,” and bearing offspring that disgusted Him.

Hosea 1:6-9 She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the LORD said to him, “Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. 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.” When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. And the LORD said, “Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God” (ESV).

Hosea doesn’t know whether these two children are his, especially the last one, which he called “not my people.” However, that’s not the end of the story. God will redeem His people and restore them to greatness. He will turn their disgrace (their Jezreel) into distinction.

Hosea 1:10-11 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.” And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head. And they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel (ESV).