THE SECOND GREATEST LOVE STORY IN THE BIBLE DR. ROGER BARRIER HOSEA S-1792 BACKGROUND SLIDE #: Turn to the book of Hosea. Make a right turn at Psalms A little boy opened the big family bible. He was fascinated as he fingered through the old pages. Suddenly, an old leaf that had been pressed in between the pages fell out of the Bible. He picked up the pressed leaf and called, "Mama, look what I found". What have you got there, dear?" With astonishment in the young boy's voice, he answered, "I think it's Adam's underpants." I was driving with my three young children one summer evening when a woman in the convertible ahead of us stood up and waved. She was stark naked! As I was reeling from the shock, I heard my 5-year-old shout from the back seat, "Mom! That lady isn't wearing a seat belt! Ah, sin and sex in the eyes of a child. In our passage this morning, we see love and sex from a more adult perspective. SLIDE #: Hosea s love for Gomer is one of the greatest grown up love stories in the Bible. Hosea was in the market place when he rounded the corner and heard two women discussing his wife. One of them said that my wife, Gomer, was having an affair. He hurried home and Gomer was not there. Kids are crying, hungry, lonely. Finds a note on the table. Don t even have to write your own break up note anymore: go on internet. Dear, (insert name here) Roses are red, violets are blue, you are the jerk my mother warned me about and I m breaking up with you. SLIDE #: Gomer s note: "Don t bother to look for me. I am not coming home. I have gone away with a man who makes me feel happy and fulfilled. I'm tired of you. I am tired of the kids. I m through. During those bitter months while Gomer was gone, God gave a message to Hosea that He had never given to any other Hebrew prophet. Hosea looked deeply into the infinite love of God. SLIDE #: Hosea 1:1: The word of the LORD that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel: Hosea was a part-time farmer who was minding his own business in the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 750 BC when God placed a call upon his life. SLIDE #Hosea 1:2: When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him, "Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the LORD." Take an adulterous wife: Extreme thing for God to ask a man of God to do. Why? Extreme times call for extreme measures.
The new king of Israel, Jeroboam, made sweeping reforms. Since religion was a foundational part of our heritage, he decided to give us a new religion along with our new nation.??slide #: He took prayer out of our schools and forbade any mention of the name of Jehovah in any public place or public assembly.??slide #: He set up Asherah Poles. Asherah was the goddess of sex. Many girls worked there who were religious priestesses who prostituted themselves to help the men symbolically unite with the sex goddess Asherah. Sex became a political weapon in the government.??slide #: Astrology was rampant. People were so dependent upon their horoscopes to chart their lives that one city newspaper editor told me that the most calls of complaint he ever got was the day they accidentally left the horoscope out of the newspaper.??slide #: They said they were pro-choice. It was their bodies. If they wanted to sacrifice their children in fire to the god Molech and they could make laws to ensure that right.??slide #: They practiced sorcery. God said that they were trafficking with demons.??slide #: Government officials were selling their integrity for campaign contributions from special interest groups. Reelection for them was a higher priority than what was best for thye country.??slide #: We were living in the post-jehovah generation. SLIDE # Hosea 1:2a: When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him, "Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness Go marry a prostitute. How do you pick out which prostitute to marry? Test them out. No. Line them up: Meny, meny, minie ho... SLIDE # What kind of a woman was Gomer? Perhaps, she was a cultic prostitute devoted to fertility rites of Baal. Maybe, a notoriously wicked woman whom God chose for Hosea as a drastic and dramatic means of putting His message across. Some say she was pure when they married and turned to harlotry later. Probably sexually abused, raped as a child and tossed out of the house as unclean. Wonder how they met. SLIDE #: (pix of beautiful girl) Young prophet preaching. One day sees beautiful girl on edge of crowd. I couldn't keep my eyes off of her during the sermon. She is perfect - raven eyes, chestnut hair-colored hair reached almost to her waist. Her complexion was impeccable. "Got to meet her!" At the close of the service I shook hands with people and gradually inched my way to where she was standing.
"What's your name?" "Gomer." "Gomer! Gomer means 'perfection.' Sizes her up. "" Her parents named her right. After service learns her name. "Gomer" = "Perfection". God, you named her right." It was in love at first sight! Later that evening we went for a walk by the light of the full moon. And that was the night I found out she was a cultic prostitute at the Baal temple here in Bethel. We talked long and hard about her past. "Why did you do it?" I was raped by my brother when I was thirteen. Thrown out of the house as soiled and unclean. They were ashamed of me. I had nowhere else to go. And she wept. Lord. I choose her. SLIDE #: Hosea 1:3a: So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, One day a great event occurred in the pastor s home. SLIDE #: Hosea 1:3b-4: and she conceived and bore him a son. Then the LORD said to Hosea, "Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel." Jezreel means "God avenges." Judgment on the house of Jehu, king of Israel. SLIDE #: Hosea 1:6: Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the LORD said to Hosea, "Call her Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer show love to the house of Israel "Daughter" - "Girl-child." "Loruhamah" = unpitied or unwanted girl, or not obtained mercy." child because she is not his daughter. Think about Hosea going around the house with those kids: Hey, God avenges come over here. Stop behaving like that Not Loved. Then God says, I want you to have another child. SLIDE #: Hosea 1:8-9: After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. Then the LORD said, "Call him Lo-Ammi, for you are not my people, and I am not your God. A boy-child is born not a "son". "Lo ammi" means "Not my flesh and blood; not my child." Tragedy has come to the parsonage. SLIDE #: (Julie, you might do a collage of some of the substitutes mentioned below.) It all began when Israel placed substitutes in the God-shaped vacuum God has placed deep within our souls.
Hopefully, some where along our spiritual journeys we learn that the substitutes for God simply will not satisfy us or Him. You want some rice: Which would you rather have: Rice Krispies? Or Rice Cakes? Milk now comes in a bar. Sea-food fans? Here is what you ve been waiting for: Crab-tastic premium Imitation Crab. You don t have to have good old bacon and eggs anymore: Bacon Bits and artificial Egg Beaters. Brand new Freeze-Dried vanilla-flavored-ice-cream sandwich. Put a few in your backpack when hiking in 100 degree heat and pull out a refreshing freeze-dried-ice-cream sandwich. Frankly, I d rather have the real thing. Money is a wonderful tool but it is a horrible god to worship. Substitute addictions: eating sex, drugs March Madness well that one is OK. Substitute gods have such a short-shelf-life. Take music: some of you are old enough to remember Records: albums. We d spin these things. Even had changers which let records fall into place. I thought I d died and gone to Heaven. Then 8-tracks hit play so big fit right in your hand. Then cassette tapes Then came the 90s and we have CDs Then every body has to have an i-pod Now I-phone and have everything at the tip of your fingers. All temporary: Some day, no record players, 8-tracks, CD players. Some day your children will say, What in the world is an I-pod? Everything is temporary. God s word is not temporary. The Bible stands eternal. God s love is eternal. He begins to romance His people so once again they fall in love with Him. SLIDE #: Hosea 1:10: "In the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' they will be called 'sons of the living God.' SLIDE #: Hosea 2:14-16: "Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. "In that day," declares the LORD, "you will call me 'my husband'; you will no longer call me 'my master.' SLIDE #: Hosea 2:19-20: I will betroth you to me forever; in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD. SLIDE #: hosea 2:23: I will show my love to the one I called 'Not my loved one.' I will say to those called 'Not my people,' 'You are my people'; and they will say, 'You are my God.'" Let s get our facts straight. Some of you say, After all I ve done, God could never love me. I am not good enough. Too much has happened in my past I am not worthy of God s love. Some of you said this morning, if I go to church the roof will cave in. But, you came any way, and surprise, surprise, the roof is still intact.
Let s get our facts straight: God s is loving and wooing and romancing you. Associate Press reported (perhaps not urban legend) that Linda Burnet was sitting in her car in a grocery store parking lot when a man drove in and noticed that she was sitting in the driver s seat with her hands clasped behind her head. He thought that was odd. Went inside and returned with his groceries and she hadn t moved. He tapped on the window and asked, Is everything all right? She said, I have been shot in the head and I m holding my brains in. Call 911. Paramedics and police arrive and she won t roll down the window. They broke it. Apparently, she returned to her car and a can of biscuits in the back seat exploded due to the heat. When it exploded it sounded like a gunshot, hit her in the back of the head and threw her head forward into the steering wheel. When she reached back she touched the biscuit dough and was convinced that her brains were oozing out. We need to get our facts straight about God. Some or you have been Christians for quite some time but you are convinced that when you fall and sin that God has altered His feelings about you. You are carrying all sorts of guilt around. You have difficulty believing that God could love you just the way you are. Listen, some of you are carrying on spiritual affairs with substitute gods. Listen, when we fall, God doesn t want us to run away and hide. He wants us to return to Him. Beautiful fulfillment in Jesus Christ. SLIDE #: EPHESIANS 2:1-5: As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, disobedient gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. We were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions it is by grace you have been saved. Here is our resume: dead sins disobedient, deceived, object of wrath.saved. Do you know how to get God s love? Just receive it. You can t earn it. You can t buy it. Stop telling yourself you are worthless. You were bought with a price. The blood of Jesus Christ: You can even throw your shoulders back! Let s return for a moment to the tragedy in the parsonage. Reread note. SLIDE #: Gomer s note: "Don t bother to look for me. I am not coming home. I have gone away with a man who makes me feel happy and fulfilled. I'm tired of you. I am tired of the kids. I m through. Those were bitter months while she was away away. About a year later I was changing Lo-Ammi's diaper when the word from God came. "Hosea, true love keeps on loving even when you're changing diapers on someone else's baby." Then I heard the voice of God again: If you love her, go get her.
SLIDE #: HOSEA 3:1: The LORD said to me, "Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes." He goes to the First National Bank of Samaria, gets his life's savings - fifteen pieces of silver and one-and-one=half homers of barley. SLIDE #: He goes looking, follows rumors; probably makes the rounds of the slave markets of the Mediterranean world. His friends are disgusted. "She dragged you through the gutter. Why are you doing this?" "Because I love her." I located her in the slave market at Bethel. When I saw her I couldn't believe my eyes. She was broken. Her shoulders were bent over. Her figure was gone. Her hair was filthy and matted. Her complexion was a disaster. Shame was all over her face. "What am I bid for Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim?" Hosea was faced with one of life's greatest choices! The fear of rejected love. "Will she have me?" She left me once. Does she want me now? He just doesn't know. Just so - God faced the choice on Calvary. Mankind turned their backs on God. Yet God still loved. Should He send Jesus? Will men still reject His love? The auctioneer cried again: "What am I bid for Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim?" I shook free from my reverie. I pushed through the crowd and cried, "I bid fifteen pieces of silver and one and one half homers of barley." The auctioneer cried: "Sold! For fifteen pieces of silver an homer and a half of barley." People gasped. "He's a fool to pay such a price. Her beauty and worth are gone!" But I didn't care. She was worth all I had. I loved her. I wanted her home. SLIDE #: HOSEA 3:2-3: So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. 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 live with you." Wish we could have seen Gomer that day. For months and months she was used and abused. The only name on her lips was "Hosea." She hoped beyond hope that somehow he would find her and bring her back. Gradually she raises her eyes to face Hosea. Her chains fall of at his feet. She says, "Hosea, take me home." So he did. SLIDE #: When we resist the love of God, when we turn from Him in cool contempt, and ruin our lives, God doesn't utterly cast us off. He refuses to throw us away. He goes to the slave market and buys us back from the captivity of sin. But the purchase price is not fifteen pieces of silver and one and one half homers of barley. It's nothing less than the life of His Son, Jesus.
Some of you have been away from God for quite a long time. It is time to come home. He will take you back. It doesn't matter what you have done or how far you have run from Him. He loves you with all your heart. He is waiting for you to lift up your eyes to Him and say: "Father, please take me home." And He will. Brendon Manning tells the story of an Irish priest who is walking in the countryside. He comes upon a peasant who is sitting crouched next to al wall. At first he thins that the peasant is sleeping but as he gets closer he realizes this man is actually praying. He says to him, You must be very close to God. Yes, I am. In fact He s very fond of me. He is fond of us, too.