God Wants Our Love Have you ever launched out confidently into a project maybe something you decided to make only to find about halfway through, things were definitely not going according to plan? Silly question, really! I ve lost track of the number of times I ve had to modify my plans, go back and start again, or abandon a project all together! I m sure we ve all started something with high hopes and grand expectations, only to hit some kind of roadblock. Sometimes a whole day can go pear-shaped! I remember one day when we were farming actually I remember lots of pear-shaped days when we were farming but one stands out particularly. I headed out at first light to start digging potatoes and broke something on the digger in the first five minutes. With pickers in the paddock waiting, I headed back to the shed and the welder, and things just went from bad to worse. It was around 3 in the afternoon when I finally had breakfast; and I m less than my best when I m hungry! You don t have to grow potatoes to have days like that! Tomorrow s another day! You can always start another project. But what about when it s a relationship that s gone wrong? What if life itself seems to be falling apart around you? And I m sorry if my introduction is stirring up difficult memories for some of you. Or if I ve just described life as it is for you at the moment. Last week we began a new series based on the minor prophets, and we started to look at Hosea s story, and God s message to his people through Hosea s experiences, especially his marriage to Gomer. We saw their marriage turn sour. And they didn t just drift apart, or come to a mutual decision to separate. Gomer left him for another man, or a series of other men. I can only try to imagine what that must have felt like. And you ll understand when I say, any attempts to put myself in Hosea s shoes were pretty half-hearted! It seems like God set Hosea up! He wanted Hosea to experience the pain of rejection, the humiliation of love spurned, the distress of adultery; because this is how God feels when his people take his love, and then give theirs to someone or something else. We saw this last week. Where to from here? Let s return to their story: I. Hosea & Gomer the Next Chapter; or maybe we should call it the next act in their drama. Following God s instructions, we note A. Hosea Took the Initiative. And we recall from last week, this whole story is scripted; it s an acted out parable, with Hosea playing the lead role of God, and Gomer the part of disobedient and rebellious Israel.
Gomer has clearly done the wrong thing. Do you remember our definition of adultery from last week? She has taken something precious that belongs to the family, and given it away to someone else outside the family. Surely she should make the first move towards reconciliation. God tells Hosea, It s not going to happen! You go to her! Does that offend our sense of justice? It does mine! What a... tramp! (We can probably think of other expressions!) She was the cause of it all! Look at the misery she caused Hosea! Let her make the first move! Let her grovel, and see what that feels like! Hang on a minute! Where do I fit in this story? Where do you? We were the ones lost in our sins dead in our trespasses Paul describes it, when God took the initiative, and sought us out. Maybe I need to calm my indignation on Hosea s behalf! We also note from our story: B. Real Love is Costly. So Gomer has strayed. She s sold her love to the highest bidder. And God sends Hosea to love her, and woo her, and bring her back. This will not be cheap, and Hosea tells us about it. So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley, 1 (I have no idea what a homer or a lethek is; all up, it was the going price of a slave at the time). Real love is costly. It cost Hosea so much more than just silver and barley. Can you imagine the emotional cost in going to someone who had treated him so badly, initiating the move towards reconciliation? What did it do to his pride? His standing in his community? Think of the risk in bringing Gomer back into his home? What if she did it again? And before we get offended all over again, the parallel with what it cost God to redeem his sinful people hits us between the eyes. Again, Paul spells it out for us, if we need reminding: Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 2 If we think our love for others costs us sometimes; pause and reflect on how much God s love for us cost him. So Hosea goes to Gomer, and pays the price. What happens next? Did Gomer settle down, respond to Hosea s love and commitment? Is there a happily ever after ending to their drama? We re not told! Other than the way we see Israel respond to God s initiative, his love 1 Hosea 3:2 2 Romans 5:7, 8
and commitment to them. Hosea and Gomer have done their bit. The rest of Hosea s writing consists of his call to Israel to repent. What do we think? Is there II. Life After Adultery? As we speculate on what it might have been like for Hosea & Gomer to rebuild their marriage and their family, my first thought is, A. What a Challenge! What must it have been like for Hosea to have welcomed Gomer back as his wife, after all she d done? How hard was it for him to treat her as he knew God loved and treated his wayward, sinful people? Suppose Gomer told him off for bringing mud onto her nice, clean, kitchen floor. How will Hosea respond? You re criticising my behaviour? After all you ve done to me? How easy for Hosea to come over all self-righteous, whenever they had an argument! It can t have been easy for Gomer, either. She must have known how badly she d behaved. She would have known their friends and neighbours knew how badly she d behaved. Did she actually have any real friends now? Was she ever able to fully shake off the tag, adulteress? Did she fully accept Hosea s forgiveness? She must have known how God feels about adultery. Did she accept God s forgiveness? Did she ever fully forgive herself? I often find myself wanting to know more about many of the stories in our Bibles where only the barest details are recorded. An incident in the gospels, involving Jesus, helps us here. We can safely say he was an unwilling participant in this drama, instigated by the Pharisees; and B. Jesus Puts It in Perspective. Here is a woman caught in adultery. The law prescribed the death penalty for such a crime: death by stoning. What did Jesus say? Knowing how God told Hosea to treat Gomer, we re not surprised by his response. Wouldn t you love to know what Jesus wrote in the dust that day? I would! Was he just doodling, to fill in time while those self-righteous men reflected on their own indiscretions; or did he help them out, by writing before them the specifics he knew applied to each of the woman s accusers? Did his list include things like, lust, envy, greed, self-righteousness, gossip, pride?
Let anyone who is without sin throw the first stone! Jesus taught this consistently, in other places and on other occasions. First take the plank out of your own eye; then you ll be able to see to remove the speck from someone else s. Don t judge, and you won t be judged. Don t condemn and you won t be condemned. No-one took up Jesus invitation to throw the first stone. They knew, as he knew, as we know today, no-one is qualified on that basis. One by one they slunk away, their metaphorical tails between their legs. When Jesus turns his searching gaze on any of us, who will volunteer to throw a stone? Did Jesus condone the woman s sin? Did God condone Gomer s, or Israel s? Not for a moment! As those self-righteous hypocrites slipped away that day, Jesus asked the woman, Where are they? Has no-one condemned you? No-one, sir, she said. Then neither do I condemn you, Jesus declared. Go now and leave your life of sin. No condoning here. C. No Condemnation, either. And we re glad; glad for this woman, and for Gomer, and for lost Israel too. Because we stand in their shoes this morning. We may not be guilty of adultery, literally; but we all stand before our God and judge, and we re glad Jesus has not written before us, the sins we ve committed, and those times we ve fallen far short of God s requirements. Once more Paul delivers God s verdict on his sinful people as we stand humbly before him. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has set us free from the law of sin and death. 3 This was Jesus message to that poor woman that day; it was God s message to Gomer, and the people of Israel. It s his message to us today, and we praise him for it: No condemnation! The remainder of the book of Hosea alternates between God s warning of judgement if his people fail to repent, and his promise of hope and peace and restoration if they do. And his consistent message: III. Return to the Lord. At the start of chapter 4, Hosea outlines God s criticism of his people and their unfaithfulness; and it s extensive. There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgement of God in the land. 4 He also reminds us there are consequences to our actions. Because of this 3 Romans 8:1, 2 4 Hosea 4:1b
the land dries up, and all who live in it waste away. 5 Let s note here, the message from Hosea, and the lesson from his experiences with Gomer, are, A. A Message for God s People. The Canaanites who lived alongside God s people were far from him, and their lifestyles and their worship practices especially were an abomination. This is not a message for the Canaanites. Nowhere does Hosea criticise the heathen lifestyle of those outside God s kingdom. His message was for God s people who should have known better; who did know better. In the same way, as we seek to apply God s message through Hosea to our times today; it s not a criticism of the way others around us choose to live. It s a warning to us, God s people today: don t allow their lifestyles, their values and priorities to infiltrate your families, your homes, your church. Don t begin to worship the foreign gods, the false gods, the subtle gods others are worshipping around us. The book of Hosea is B. A Call to Repentance. The people of Israel in Hosea s time were a long way down the track. God told Hosea that Gomer s marital infidelity was a physical representation of the nation s spiritual adultery. Nothing subtle about Hosea s message. There s nothing we can modify about adultery, physical or spiritual. Sin is life-threatening; it s eternal-life threatening, and something this serious demands a radical treatment. Return, Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall! 6 One of the challenges of speaking from the Old Testament is the challenge of applying principles given before Jesus, to his people now, living this side of the cross and Pentecost. This one seems pretty straightforward! Have we, God s people in our times, strayed from his plan and purpose? Have we started to tolerate, started to admire the practices and methods of those who don t know our God? Have we started to blend in with our worship of the one, true God, worship of the humanist gods of pleasure, success and material gain? If we have, to the extent we have, Hosea s call to repentance is a call to us. Return to the Lord your God. Your sins will be your downfall. 5 Hosea 4:3a 6 Hosea 14:1
The little book of Hosea is above all, a message of God s C. Unfailing Love. We ll acknowledge, but not focus on, Gomer s infidelity. Go, show your love to your wife again, was God s instruction to Hosea, as he told him to model God s attitude to his unfaithful people. It defies all human logic. Cut her loose. Start again. Rebuild your shattered life. She s not worth it. We can easily imagine Hosea s friends giving him this kind of advice. Go to her. Give her your love again. Bring her back home. This is not abstract advice from a distant God to one of his prophets. This is God s heart of love for his people; a love that rises from his very nature, quite independent of our behaviour. Such a contrast, between God s unfailing love and the response he found from his people. He loved them, in spite of their unfaithfulness. What did they love? The sacred raisin cakes used by their neighbours worshipping their heathen gods! God s love is unfailing, a Father s love for his children, that held back nothing, even though it meant Jesus had to die on a cross. God has every right to plead with us to return to him. We re touched to know he wants our love in return. I d still like to know how things worked out for Hosea & Gomer, and their family. Did they settle down to a stable married life? Did they have more children? What did they call them? Perhaps it s best we don t know! We do know rocky times followed for Israel. Sadly, they failed to heed Hosea s warning, and in 722 BC, not long after Hosea s time of prophecy, Israel fell to Syria. In some ways, we get to write the final chapter of Hosea and Gomer s story, as we choose how we will respond to God s gracious invitation. God s unfailing love is a constant. We are the variables in the story. Is God speaking to us this morning, through Hosea? Is he speaking to you? If you know you ve been wandering, take up his invitation this morning. Let go, whatever it is that has distracted your focus from him. Return to the Lord your God, and be assured of his unfailing love.