Hosea 1:1-3; 3:1-3; 4:1-2

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1 July 5, 2015 HOSEA: A LOVE THAT NEVER QUITS Hosea 1:1-3; 3:1-3; 4:1-2 Pastor Robert Simmons Hosea 1:1-3 1 The word of the LORD that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and 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. 3 So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. Hosea 3:1-3 3 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 [a] of silver and about a homer and a lethek [b] 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. Hosea 4:1-2 Hear the word of the LORD, you Israelites, because the LORD has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. 2 There is only cursing, [a] lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. We know exactly the time-frame of Hosea s service as as God s prophet by the list of kings given in verse 1 of chapter 1. He served in the 8 th century which places him about 700 years before the birth of Christ. He was a contemporary of Isaiah, Amos, and Micah. Amos was finishing up his ministry about the time Hosea was beginning his. THE DIVIDED KINGDOM By the time we get to the Minor Prophets we are dealing with the divided kingdom of Israel into the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. The Northern Kingdom was the larger of the two with ten tribes and the Southern Kingdom had only two tribes: Judah and Benjamin. The Northern Kingdom is generally referred to as the Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom is called the Kingdom of Judah. That can be a little confusing. So keep in mind when these Minor Prophets speak about Israel, it is HOSEA: A LOVE THAT NEVER QUITS (#1 in the Series: Major Themes From the Minor Prophets ) Page 1

2 the Northern Kingdom, and when they reference Judah, they are talking about the Southern Kingdom. The major events that take place in these 12 Minor Prophets are: the fall of the Northern Kingdom by Assyria; the fall of the Southern Kingdom by Babylon; the exile of God s people in exile in Babylon; and the eventual return of the people from exile and the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Three of these minor prophets ministered to the Northern Kingdom of Israel: Amos, Hosea, and Micah. Two of the minor prophets spoke to the Assyrians: Jonah and Nahum. Obadiah is spoken to the Edomites. The remaining six minor prophets spoke to the Southern Kingdom. The basic reason for the majority residing in the Southern Kingdom is that the Southern Kingdom survived longer than the Northern one. The Northern Kingdom was destroyed in 722 BC by Assyria, while the Southern Kingdom continued until 586 BC, and they were carried away into exile by Babylon. It was only when the Persians overthrew the Babylonians and came into power that the Jewish remnants were allowed to go back to their homeland and rebuild. The Southern Kingdom was in exile for 70 years. The books are not placed in chronological order in our Bibles. We follow the order that the Jews gave to these books. Here is the chronological order of these 12 books: Joel Hosea Micah Nahum Zephaniah Habakkuk Obadiah Haggai Zechariah Malachi WHAT WAS A PROPHET? At the most basic level a prophet was called by God to do three important things: They were to stand between God and the people and intercede for the people; foretell the future as God makes it known; but primarily and essentially a prophet was God s mouth-piece to communicate God s Word and Will to the people without regard to the impact to their own lives. Prophets not only spoke God s Word but sometimes they embodied or put that word on display through their very life. Jeremiah, for example, was commanded by God to buy a useless piece of land as a sign of hope for the people for the future. Isaiah was called by God to walk around naked for a while as he proclaimed God s Word now I confess I don t know if that meant he was in his birthday suit or down to his underwear, but no matter, that would be an embarrassing assignment. We are going to learn today what Hosea experienced as God s prophet. Let me give you a small clue: Hosea is often called the prophet of the broken heart. Jonah Amos HOSEA S SORDID STORY HOSEA: A LOVE THAT NEVER QUITS (#1 in the Series: Major Themes From the Minor Prophets ) Page 2

3 You cannot possibly understand the message of this prophecy unless you know the story of Hosea. And it is not a pretty picture for this dear man of God. This is his story. Hosea has his eye on a lady that he would like to marry but there is a problem. The lady lives quite a promiscuous lifestyle. But God gives his approval and Hosea and Gomer are married and she enters the cloistered life of the manse. Hosea is certain that with his Godly influence and his love for Gomer, she will be a changed woman. Within that first year Gomer is pregnant and gives birth to a son. Notice that Hosea 1:3 states clearly that Gomer conceived and bore him a son. However, not long after the birth of their son problems developed in their marriage. Hosea noticed that Gomer appeared distant and cold and she seemed to be distracted and not at all responsive to him. She started going out for long periods of time and Hosea began to fear the worse. But then Gomer announces that she is pregnant again and Hosea really has his doubts that this baby is his. This time a baby girl is born and Hosea names her Lo-Ruhamah. The prefix in Hebrew means no or not. And so this little girl s name is not loved or not pitied. It is not because Hosea does not love the little girl but rather this baby was not conceived because of the love between Hosea and Gomer but appears to have been conceived during one of Gomer s affairs. And since the baby is not the product of a loving couple she bears the name not loved. Things only get worse in the manse between Hosea and Gomer. Gomer goes out all hours of the night and doesn t return until early morning. About a year after the birth of Gomer s little girl, she announces that she is pregnant with a third child and Hosea is absolutely positive it is not his child. The third child is a boy and he is given the name of Lo- Ammi, which means not my people, or perhaps more precisely, not my child. At this point Hosea confronts Gomer and pleads with her to change her ways so they can somehow make their marriage work. But shortly after the third child is weaned, Hosea comes home one afternoon to discover that Gomer has packed her things and left him with the three children. His friends tell him that Gomer s leaving is the best thing that has happened to him and he should forget her to get on with raising the children. Despite the heartache and the pain of rejection and humiliation, Hosea s love for Gomer never diminishes. Hosea loses all contact with Gomer and he worries about her day and night. He can t stop thinking of her and he prays for her regularly. Eventually word reaches him of her whereabouts but each piece of the information only rips open his heart wider. It appears that Gomer is a prostitute most probably a temple prostitute that was associated with Baal worship that was quite prevalent in the land at that time. Several years pass, the children are grown and the prophet s wife turned prostitute has lived fast and loose with HOSEA: A LOVE THAT NEVER QUITS (#1 in the Series: Major Themes From the Minor Prophets ) Page 3

4 her life. Her wild life has not been good to her and her beauty has faded and she is now a reject of humanity that no one wants. All her former lovers have lost interest in her and she moves in with a man who is at the bottom of the social and financial scale he can t even provide for her basic necessities. When Hosea learns of the deplorable condition of his wife (whom he has not divorced; they are still legally married), he begins a search to find where she is living. He then makes arrangements to see the man who is living with her (the man does not know who Hosea is at all), Hosea gives the man food for them and new clothing for her. He then secretly follows the man back to the shack where the two of them were staying and watches as the man takes full credit for the gifts and receives the praise and gratitude that rightfully belonged to Hosea who was the source of the gifts. A few more years pass and Hosea is still very much in love with Gomer but his heart is broken. One day, while walking along the center square of town past where the new arrival of slaves would be sold, a certain tired and broken down person standing on the slave block with a chain around her neck caught his attention. He moves in for a closer examination and becomes aware that this broken used up piece of rejected humanity standing on the auction block is none other than Gomer. And in that moment God speaks to Hosea and says to him, buy her back from the slave block, take her home, and love her as if she were your virgin wife. He does purchases her for far more than she was actually worth, takes her home and they enter into a renewed marriage covenant in which Hosea deeply loves Gomer and Gomer is forever grateful and falls in love with Hosea. And they do indeed live out the remainder of their lives in happy marital bliss. That is Hosea s sordid story! THE MESSAGE OF HOSEA There are so many lessons we can take away from this prophet but I will limit myself to five important ones: We learn that heartbreak and suffering sometimes comes to those who love and serve God faithfully. Bad things do sometimes happen to good people. We might be tempted to blame Hosea for his heartache and pain, after all he is the one who selected a woman who had a pretty loose and shady lifestyle when he met and married her. But then we must remember that even Hosea s marriage to Gomer was under the sovereign control and supervision of God. When a person surrenders to God s call on their life like a prophet they surrender their entire life to God and are willing to experience and endure whatever the will of God for them requires. Being God s person does not mean you will always sail in smooth waters. Second lesson: We get a very powerful picture of the destructive HOSEA: A LOVE THAT NEVER QUITS (#1 in the Series: Major Themes From the Minor Prophets ) Page 4

5 power of sin. Gomer s life was nearly totally destroyed by her rebellious decisions and lifestyle. Sin destroys. Paul reminded us in Romans that the wages of sin is death. Take a long hard look at Gomer. The once beautiful, attractive, appealing, lady that everyone wanted ends up broken, stripped of her beauty, unattractive, someone no one any longer wanted, sold on the slave block. That is the picture of sin. Third, We get a clear picture of the true meaning of sin. If I were to ask you to tell me the meaning of sin, how would you define it? Doing bad things? Living a life that leaves God out? Hosea reminds us that sin is walking away from and spurning pure love. It is turning our back on love that is so amazing, so divine, and giving our love to lesser and more inferior things. Sin is rejecting love. A fourth lesson: We encounter the relentless love of God. Okay, it s time to get real with this prophecy. Hosea is a picture of God. And Gomer is a picture of unfaithful Israel. Israel has done to God what Gomer did to Hosea. Israel has been giving its love and devotion to other gods and claiming those gods provide for Israel s every need. When their crops grew and their barns were full, they praise Baal, the fertility god. Israel has played the prostitute and it isn t working and they are going to end up somebody s slave. But God still loves them with a pure and genuine love. But this prophecy has a more personal message for you and me. You and I are Gomer. We have been unfaithful and have given our best love and devotion to other things or persons rather than to God. Listen to how Donald Grey Barnhouse put it: When we see this love at work through the heart of Hosea we may wonder if God is really like that. But everything in the Word (of God) and in experience shows us that He is. He will give man the trees of the forest and the iron in the ground. Then He will give to man the brains to make an axe from the iron to cut down the tree and fashion it into a cross. He will give man the ability to make a hammer and nails, and when man has the cross and the hammer and nails, the Lord will allow man to take hold of Him and bring Him to that cross; He will stretch out His hands upon it and allow man to nail Him to that cross, and in so doing will take the sins of man upon Himself and make it possible for those who have despised and rejected Him to come unto Him and know the joy of sins removed and forgiven, to know the assurance of pardon and eternal life, and to enter into the prospect of the hope of glory with Him forever. This is even our God, and there is none like unto Him. The last lesson is we learn that God is a seeking/searching God. He is the Good Shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep safe in the pen and goes out into the wilderness looking for that one that is lost. He sweeps the house clean until he finds that lost coin. He pursues us relentlessly and refuses to give up. He comes to us in our brokenness and HOSEA: A LOVE THAT NEVER QUITS (#1 in the Series: Major Themes From the Minor Prophets ) Page 5

6 ugliness and buys us back from the slavery of our own doing. God is searching for you today. He went all the way to the cross for you. No matter how sinful and broken you are today, God loves you and wants you for his own. HOSEA: A LOVE THAT NEVER QUITS (#1 in the Series: Major Themes From the Minor Prophets ) Page 6