Sermon Transcript April 9, 2017 Hosea: God s Persistent Love The Loving Father Hosea 11:1-11 This message from the Bible was addressed originally to the people of Wethersfield Evangelical Free Church on April 9, 2017 at 511 Maple Street, Wethersfield, CT, 06109 by Dr. Scott W. Solberg. This is a transcription that bears the strength and weaknesses of oral delivery. It is not meant to be a polished essay. An audio copy of the sermon on CD is available by request at (860) 563-8286. An audio version of this sermon may also be found on the church website at www.wethefc.com. 1
Sermon Text Hosea 11:1-11 1 When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. 2 The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols. 3 Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. 4 I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them. 5 They shall not return to the land of Egypt, but Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to return to me. 6 The sword shall rage against their cities, consume the bars of their gates, and devour them because of their own counsels. 7 My people are bent on turning away from me, and though they call out to the Most High, he shall not raise them up at all. 8 How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. 9 I will not execute my burning anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. 10 They shall go after the LORD; he will roar like a lion; when he roars, his children shall come trembling from the west; 11 they shall come trembling like birds from Egypt, and like doves from the land of Assyria, and I will return them to their homes, declares the LORD. 2
Introduction Philip Yancey, in his book What s So Amazing About Grace, tells a modern day version of the well loved parable Jesus told of the Prodigal Son. Yancey s version of the story revolves around a runaway teenage girl from Traverse City, Michigan. She and her parents had been at odds with each other over everything; music, dress, appearance, her friends. She would rebel. They would exert their authority by grounding her. They would argue. While retreating to her room, she would often yell at them, I hate you! She finally acted on a plan she had been rehearsing often. She ran away from home. She runs away to Detroit. She is not there more than two nights and she meets a man who drives one of the nicest cars she has ever seen. He buys her a meal. Gives her a place to stay. He gives her some pills that make her feel better. You know where this is going. She ends up working for him, servicing men who pay a premium price because she is underage. She lives in a penthouse. She orders room service. Life is exciting. A year later, she starts to show signs of getting sick. Not wanting to take chances, her boss turns on her and he throws her out into the street. She is now addicted to drugs and the few tricks she turns is just enough to support her habit. Now that she is homeless, there is no such thing as a safe place to get a good night sleep. One night, while lying there, cold and hungry and filled with fright, she begins to think of home. She says to herself, Why did I leave? My dog back home eats better than I do now. She began to sob and she wanted nothing more than to go back home. She worked up the nerve to actually call home. The first two times she called it went to the answering machine so she just hung up. The third time she called, she mustered up the courage to leave a message. Dad, Mom, it s me. I was wondering about coming home. I m catching a bus up your way, and it ll get there about midnight tomorrow. If you re not there, well, I guess I ll just stay on the bus until it hits Canada. It was a long seven hour ride back to Traverse City, Michigan. All the while, she was rehearsing what she would say to her dad if he was there to greet her. Dad, I m sorry. I know I was wrong. It s not your fault; it s all mine. Dad, can you forgive me? Over and over again she worked on perfecting her script, not even knowing for sure whether or not her parents would be there to greet her. As the bus pulled into the bus station, the bus driver announced that they would be pulling out in fifteen minutes. That is not a very long time to decide on the future state of one s life. She stepped off the bus and scanned the terminal and her eyes locked onto 3
a group of about forty brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, cousins and grandparents, even a great-grandmother was in that crowd. They are wearing goofy party hats and blowing noise-makers and behind them was a big sign that read, Welcome Home! Out from that crowd, stepped her dad. With tears running down her cheeks, she begins to recite the lines she had rehearsed over and over again on that bus. But before she could get past the first four words, her dad stops her and says, Hush, child. We ve got no time for that. No time for apologies. You ll be late for the party. A banquet is waiting for you at home. 1 When Jesus tells the story of the Prodigal Son, it is the third of three stories told in a row. He starts with the lost sheep, then tells of the lost coin, and finally he tells the story of the lost son. But the focus of each of these stories is not on what is lost. Rather, the focus is on the person who seeks what is lost and the joy each of them has when they find what is lost. The focus is on the shepherd who tracks down the one lost sheep. The focus is on the woman who searches high and low for the lost coin. And, don t forget what Jesus says of the father in the story of the Prodigal Son as he sees his son returning home off into the distance. Before his son even has a chance to say or do anything, Jesus said of this father, But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. In fact, the reason Jesus tells these three stories is because of the accusation that came against him by the religious leaders. They accused him of hanging out with tax collectors and sinners. To which Jesus fessed up through these three stories, it is for people just like this sinners that I came! Reflecting on these three stories told by Jesus, Yancey suggests that this is what Jesus is telling us about God. He says, Do you want to know what it feels like to be God? When one of those two-legged humans pays attention to me, it feels like I just reclaimed my most valuable possession, which I had give up for lost. 2 But here is the thing that is amazing to me. The only reason one of these two-legged humans even pays attention to God is because God in his love has sought us out. Karl Barth was a German theologian who wrote volumes on theology and church doctrine. And yet at the end of the day, he had one simple definition for God: the One who loves. 3 We love God because God first loved us. In our passage this morning we get to peek into the window of God s heart. It is a father s heart. Our passage this morning starts out like so many other passages in Hosea. It starts by rehearsing how good God was to Israel and then how Israel, like that rebellious teenage girl, runs away from God. And then we hear God s word of judgment and discipline of Israel. And so once again we hear of how they will be carted off into captivity in Assyria. But this time, right in the middle of this pronouncement of 4
judgment, we see the Father s heart of compassion for his children. In Hosea 11:8 we hear God confess, My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. But this is more than just a feeling. This is the very thing that moves God to action. This compassion is what causes the Heavenly Father to speak of a future for Israel. This heart of the Father is what leads us to Friday where we find Jesus pinned to a cross. This love of the Father is why God allows you to have a restless heart that can t seem to find real satisfaction until you find your rest in God. He is the hound of heaven who has come to seek and save the lost. Do we not love that verse that says, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son? This morning I want us to contemplate the love of God, the one who has invited us to pray by starting with Our Father. We will start by looking at God s relationship with Israel. Then we will consider the Father s love for God the Son, Jesus. And finally, I want to consider the Father s love for sons and daughters like you and me. Israel My Son We start with Israel this morning. But before we narrow our focus down to Israel, we are really starting with God this morning. Remember, the focus is on the One who seeks. Or, as we see in Hosea 11, the One who loves. Gary Smith says of Hosea 11 that the core perspective of this chapter is that God has loved and will love sinful people. 4 That is good news for you and me. In fact, Smith says, Although this chapter specifically relates to the divine plan for Israel, that plan is motivated by love and implemented through compassion that impacts every nation and every person. 5 In other words, we can learn about God s persistent love for sinful people like you and me by looking at how God s love is demonstrated to his rebellious and prodigal son, Israel. We are introduced to God s love for Israel in the very first verse of Hosea 11. Here we read, When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. Last week from Hosea 9-10 we saw three illustrations that painted a picture of God s love for Israel. First we saw Israel compared to the delightful surprise of finding grapes out in the middle of the wilderness. This illustrated God s delight in Israel. Then we saw Israel described as a luxuriant grapevine. This reminded us of the great care with which God established Israel. Then we saw Israel compared to a well trained heifer who was able to pull the plow without any goading or prodding, indicating that Israel was chosen to do God s work by demonstrating the character of God to this world. But this morning we find a fourth illustration, perhaps the most powerful one of all. Here, Israel is likened to being God s son. Out of Egypt I called my son. This speaks to the unique relationship Israel had with God. Israel was called. Israel was chosen. Israel was loved by God. 5
If you know the story of Israel, then surely you know who the prime mover is in their story. It is God. It is God who comes to their father Abraham in Genesis 12 and calls him out from Ur of the Chaldeans and promises to make him into a great nation and through his descendants to bring the blessing of God to this broken world. It is God who meets a rather reluctant deliverer by the name of Moses who is called to go down to Egypt to bring out the descendants of Abraham to the land that was promised them. In fact, it is through Moses that we see the only other time when Israel is referred to in the Old Testament with that title my son. In Exodus 4:22, Moses is instructed to say to Pharaoh, Thus says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, Let my son go that he might serve me. God says of Israel, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The book of Hosea begins by using the marriage relationship to describe God s love for his people. Hosea s adulterous wife, Gomer, was used to illustrate wayward Israel. But even though she was unfaithful to her marriage vows, God tells the prophet in Hosea 3:1, Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and who is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods. And now, through another family relationship, we learn about the love of God for Israel. Israel is like a son to God. See, I can now begin to comprehend how God feels about me. I know what it is like to be a father. I can recall the first time I laid eyes on each of my children. I can remember the sheer joy I took in them the moment they were born. I find that I rejoice in their successes more than I do my own. I don t regret one sacrifice I have ever made for them. And yet, my love for them is an imperfect love. I can only imagine, with this word picture of Israel being a son, the intensity of the Heavenly Father s love for his own. Doesn t verse 3 just capture what dads do. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. You can just see Israel in her infancy, coming out of Egypt and crossing the Red Sea in these words. They were just learning how to walk with God. When he says I healed them, Dearman suggests that this phrase is connected to Israel heeding God s instruction with the promise that none of the diseases of Egypt would come upon them. 5 Isn t that the way of a loving father? We put up fences for our children and out of love we discipline and guide them so that it may go well with them. And he adds in verse 4, I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them. Here the metaphor changes to that of a heifer, who didn t need the reigns to be pulled tightly and how God reached down graciously to feed them. This may even refer to the mana God provided for them in the wilderness. The point is rather simple here. God loved his people and like a father he joyfully took care of them. Why? Deuteronomy 7:6-8 says it well. It wasn t because 6
of anything they had done. Rather, he says, The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you... But it is because the LORD loves you. As a father, I get that. We have told our kids, that no matter what they do, we will always love them. Our love for them is not earned. It just is. And so it is with God for his people. That is what makes this book of Hosea so hard to read. Israel took that love and they played the prodigal. This rebellious story of God s son, Israel, has been rehearsed time and time again through this sermon series. We have told their story week after week, recounting their idolatry. It is not my intent this morning to once again rehearse the sins of wayward Israel. Hosea 11:2 offers us a simple summary of the sins of this prodigal son, The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols. And so once again, we see God discipline his wayward son. According to the commentaries, verse 6 better reads this way, Will they not return to Egypt and will not Assyria rule over them because they refuse to repent. The passage begins by telling us how God brought his son out of Egypt, and now we find them going back into bondage because they walked away from God. Like the runaway teenage girl who thought she was shaking free from her parent s control and finding the good life; instead found herself in bondage. Again, this is a retold story in the book of Hosea. Again, there is nothing new in what we just read of Israel s rebellion against God. This has been our weekly conversation. But this time there is something different in the story. In Hosea 11 we discover two things about God and his love for Israel that are key to understanding the persistent love of God in the book of Hosea. First of all we discover how God feels about his people. We actually get a window into God s heart. And then we see that God is able to do something about it. God s love cannot let them go. It is a beautiful picture. First of all we see the heart of a father s love in verse 8. In this verse you can hear the anguish of a father s heart for his wayward son. Here we read, How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. It is clear that this is a broken heart. Gary Smith says that the Hebrew word used here for love is that irrational power that is unexplainable and paradoxical, since it is undeserved. It is a free giving of one s self to another to care for, forgive, and protect that person without strings or conditions. 7 This is how God feels for his people. When God says, How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? - he is basically saying that he can t treat his son just like anyone. Admah and 7
Jesus My Son Zeboiim were small cities within the vicinity of Sodom and Gomorrah. They were destroyed when God brought his judgment against them. Even though Israel turned away from God time and time again, God is saying that he can t ultimately let them go. In other words, as they make their way into captivity, he speaks of a future for them. But do you know what I really have come to love about this chapter? God doesn t just have a heart for his people. I think one of the most helpless feelings a parent can have is when their child goes off and plays the prodigal. Your heart breaks because in many ways you are powerless to stop it. What I love about this passage is that God doesn t just have a broken heart for his wayward son, but he is able to do something about it. He says in verse 9, I will not execute my burning anger I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. In other words, God is able to maintain his justice and at the same time exercise his grace. God is able to restore his people because God is God. This is a great reminder of what is happening on the cross. In fact, keep this in mind when you come to Good Friday. The cross is a place where the wrath and the mercy of God collide. Both realities are there. God s justice and God s holiness and God s grace and mercy all remain intact at the cross. On one hand, the cross of Jesus is the place where God s wrath and justice is being poured out upon Jesus for our sins. And so we hear Jesus cry from the cross, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? At the same time, the cross is a picture of the mercy and grace of God, because on the cross, the Son of God has taken our punishment. And so we hear Jesus cry, It is finished! What is finished? Atonement for sin has been made. God has made a way to restore our broken relationship caused by our sin. Through Jesus we can be reconciled to God. Therefore we read in verses 10-11, They shall go after the LORD; he will roar like a lion; when he roars, his children shall come trembling from the west; they shall come trembling like birds from Egypt, and like doves from the land of Assyria, and I will return them to their homes, declares the LORD. I like this picture of God roaring like a lion. It is a picture of strength. And when he roars, his people will return to him. In other words, God doesn t just have a bleeding heart for his wayward people. He is able to restore them to himself. Hosea 11 becomes a picture of a God who will not let his people go. Out of compassion and love for Israel, God s persistent love will one day cause his prodigal son to return. God is able to do it. God will do it. But how? It is fascinating to me that Hosea 11:1 is quoted in Matthew 2:15 in reference to Jesus. If 8
you recall the story in Matthew 2, King Herod learned of the birth of Jesus from the Magi who came to pay homage to this newborn child they called king of the Jews. Threatened by this news, King Herod ordered the execution of all the baby boys in Bethlehem two years old and under. Joseph and Mary were warned in a dream to flee and it says in Matthew 2 that fled to Egypt for safety. Then Matthew says, This was to fulfill what the Lord has spoken by the prophet, Out of Egypt I called my son. Matthew is quoting from our text this morning, Hosea 11:1. This can be somewhat of a head scratcher because when we read in Matthew that this was to fulfill some prophecy we are a bit surprised, because when we were in Hosea this morning, there was no hint that Hosea 11:1 was meant to be taken prophetically. When it was written in Hosea, it was clearly a statement about the people of Israel. In fact when Hosea wrote this verse, When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son, I don t think Hosea had any thought that this would be used as a verse to point to the coming future Messianic king. At the same time, the Old Testament prophets spoke about a coming son of David and that he would bring with him the coming kingdom of God. Isaiah gave us that famous Christmas verse we refer to all the time, For to us a child is born and to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And so Israel did pin their future hope on a coming son of David. It is quite clear from the prophets that it is through this Son of David that God will establish an eternal kingdom that will restore the house of Israel and be a light to the nations. See, you can begin to see how God is going to accomplish this work of restoration that he speaks about in Hosea 11. The Gospel of Matthew is written to a Jewish audience and Matthew wants his Jewish readers to discover that Jesus is the one the Old Testament points to. He is the hope of Israel. He is the hope of the world. Early on in the book of Matthew, the story of Jesus mirrors the story of Israel. In our passage we see Jesus come out of Egypt like Israel did. He goes into the waters of baptism like Israel passed through the Red Sea. He goes out into the wilderness for forty days and forty nights, like Israel was in the wilderness for forty years. Unlike Israel, though, Jesus never sins. He never plays the prodigal son. On the Sermon on the Mount he demonstrates himself to be the lawgiver like Moses at Mount Sinai. Do you see the point? The point of quoting Hosea 11:1 in Matthew 2 is that through Jesus a new exodus has been provided. 8 Jesus is able to do what the people of Israel could never do. He is able to deliver us from our sin because he was the perfect Son of God. And so we hear the Heavenly Father say of Jesus at his baptism, This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. 9
And so here we are on Palm Sunday and Jesus is resolute. He is beginning his march to the cross to atone for our sins. If ever there was a picture of God s persistent love for us, it is Jesus. Jesus, the son of God, has come to seek and to save that which is lost. And he does so by taking the punishment for our sin. He goes to that cross as the perfect sacrifice for sin where the wrath and mercy of God meet. God s Sons and Daughters This brings us to you and me this morning. Recently, we have made much of being sons and daughters of God through faith in Jesus. I love that verse in 1 John 3:1, Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God. And that is what we are. I love the promise of John 1:12, But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. This is what Hosea was talking about when he pictured a future restoration for his people. God has made a way for sinful people like you and me to be made right with God. Remember, this is the core perspective of Hosea 11, God has loved and will love sinful people. That love is given to us through his Son, Jesus. Do you sense him calling you this morning? You may not even understand everything I shared with you this morning, but you can t deny that there is something that God is speaking into your heart this morning. You possibly even feel that I am speaking directly to you this morning as if there is no one else in this room. Can I tell you what that is? That is God calling you to himself. You know what it is like to play the prodigal. You know that there is no rest in your heart and you have tried everything. God is calling you to repent of your sin and to turn in faith to Jesus. He wants to make you a son or a daughter and to pour his eternal love into your heart. Perhaps you are here this morning and you are somewhat backslidden. There was a time when you were tracking with God and you were following Jesus, but you have strayed. You have played the prodigal. And this morning finds you wanting to get back on that bus to return home to God. Charles Spurgeon, in 1898, was preaching out of Hosea 2 and was speaking to that person who has strayed from the love of God. And he reminds them that God woos us back with the omnipotent power of his love. Quoting from Hosea he says of God, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak to her heart; and I sought then to set forth the strange ways in which God, with wondrous love, allures his people to himself how he draws them away from all their former confidences and hopes, and brings them into a wilderness alone with him, where he must feed them, or they must die where he must guide them, or they must hopelessly stray where he must be everything to them, or they must be destroyed with 10
Conclusion a great destruction. 9 Do you know what he is saying here to the backslidden one? When you come to the end of yourself and get on that bus to return home to God, you can be sure that when you step off that bus, God will be there to once again feed and guide and be all that you need of him. Come home this morning! That really is the wonderful message of Hosea 11. God s love is greater than our sin. And it is God who comes to us. One day C. S. Lewis was at a conference on comparative religions and the questioned was being discussed: What is unique about the Christian faith that separates it from all other religions? Everyone was debating this question, coming up with various opinions and thoughts. C. S. Lewis walked into the room and asked what the fuss was about and they told him the question that they were pondering. And he said to them, Oh, that is easy. It s grace! The Buddhist has the eight-fold path, the Hindu seeks karma, the Jew has the covenant obligation and the Muslim a code of law. Only Christianity dares to make God s love unconditional. 10 Or as Dearman concludes in his commentary on Hosea 11, the impetus for restoration comes to us from God who cannot let us go! 11 Use this week to reflect on this wonderful hope we have in Jesus. See yourself in Hosea 11:1, When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. And when you journey to the cross on Friday and peek into the empty tomb on Sunday, see afresh the deep, deep love of God for you! 1 Philip Yancey What s So Amazing About Grace (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997) 49-51 2 Ibid., 52 3 Ibid., 55 4 Gary Smith Hosea, Amos, Micah : The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001) 164 5 Ibid., 164 6 J Andrew Dearman The Book of Hosea (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010) 282 7 Smith, 166-167 8 Craig Blomberg Matthew in Commentary of the New Testament Use of the Old Testament ed. G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007) 8 9 Charles Haddon Spurgeon The Backslider s Door of Hope May 8. 1898 10 Dearman, 294 11 Yancey, 45 by Dr. Scott Solberg - All rights reserved 11
Sermon Title: The Loving Father Sermon Text: Hosea 11:1-11 Sermon Date: April 9, 2017 Getting To Know Me Questions 1. At the beginning of the sermon this week we considered a modern day version of the Prodigal Son. What is your favorite story in the Bible and why? 2. Share one thing you want to do this Holy Week to keep your focus on Jesus. 3. What is one thought from the sermon this week that stood out to you? Diving Into The Word 4. Read Hosea 11:1-4. What insight do you gain from this passage on God s relationship to Israel as a father relates to a son? How does this help you understand God s fatherly love for you? 5. Read Hosea 11:8. What insight do you get from this verse on God s love for us? See also Jeremiah 31:20 and Isaiah 49:15. What comfort do you find in these verses? 6. Read Hosea 11:9-11. What does God say he will do for Israel? How can you connect these verses to the three parables Jesus tells in Luke 15? (Parable of the lost sheep, lost coin and lost son.) 7. Read Matthew 2:13-15. In what way does Jesus fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Hosea? How does Jesus speak to a greater Exodus from bondage? How do you see the cross of Jesus in this passage? Taking It Home 8. What did you observe about God from this study? 9. How can you be an agent of hope this week to someone in need? 12