Hosea (Hosea 1-3)

Sermon on Hosea

• What is the deepest wound one human being can inflict on another?

It isn’t disagreement.

Or distance.

Or even rejection.

It is betrayal.

• There is something uniquely painful about giving yourself completely to another person…making promises that bind your lives together…only to discover that your love has been pushed aside for someone else.

• Few things are more devastating than a broken marriage covenant.
• And that’s exactly where the book of Hosea begins.
  
• Now, marriage is a theme in the Bible
• The Bible begins with a marriage…and it ends with a marriage
• And the book of Hosea begins with a marriage
• But it’s not the kind of marriage anyone would ever want.

• God had a plan to make Hosea’s marriage a living illustration—an object lesson—for the entire nation to see.
• Because God wanted Israel to understand something they have refused to see for generations.
• Their sin is not merely the breaking of rules.
• It is the breaking of a relationship.

• Throughout Scripture, God repeatedly describes himself as the husband of his people. 
• He chose them. 
• He loved them. 
• He entered into covenant with them. 
• He faithfully cared for them.
• Yet they continually chased after other gods.
• They accepted God’s gifts while giving their hearts and minds…and giving their faith…to other things.

• And as we read Hosea, we discover that this isn’t merely Israel’s story.
• It’s ours.
• Because every one of us has a tendency to look to something other than God to give us security, meaning, hope, identity, or joy.
• That’s what idolatry really is.
• It isn’t merely bowing before a wooden or stone statue.
• It’s trusting something else to do for us what only God can do.

• But Hosea is not ultimately a story about human unfaithfulness.
• It’s a story about God’s perfect faithfulness.
• It’s the story of a God who refuses to abandon his people.
• A God who goes after them.
• A God who pays the price to redeem them.
• And a God who restores them into the relationship with him.

• So, the big idea we should get from the book of Hosea is this: 

Although we repeatedly prove unfaithful to God, he remains perfectly faithful. He pursues, redeems, and restores his unfaithful bride through his promised King, Jesus Christ

• So now, let’s look at Hosea, chapter 1, verses and 1 and 2

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 of Jeroboam son of Jehoash, king of Israel.

² When the Lord first spoke to Hosea, he said this to him:

Go and marry a woman of promiscuity,
and have children of promiscuity,
for the land is committing blatant acts of promiscuity
by abandoning the Lord.

• Before we get to the command itself, notice where Hosea places us historically.
• His ministry takes place during the 700s BC.
• By this point, Israel is no longer one kingdom.
• After Solomon’s reign, the nation divided into two kingdoms.
• The Northern Kingdom kept the name Israel.
• And the Southern Kingdom became Judah.

• Hosea ministers primarily to the Northern Kingdom.
• On the surface, life appears relatively stable.
• The economy is doing well.
• There is military strength.
• Religious activity is flourishing.
• But beneath the surface, the nation is spiritually rotten.

• The people have turned away from the Lord.
• And looming on the horizon is the Assyrian Empire.
• Within a few decades, Assyria will invade, destroy the Northern Kingdom, and carry its people into exile.

• God is warning them before this judgment comes.
• But He doesn’t simply send another sermon.
• He gives them a living picture of who he is, and who the people of Israel are.

• And the first lesson is this:

1. Israel is an adulterous nation.

• And to show this:

a. God commands Hosea to live out a model of Israel’s spiritual condition.

• God commanded Hosea to go and marry a woman of promiscuity
• Think about how shocking God’s command must have sounded.
• Many of us know of someone—maybe even ourselves—who believe God led them 
• “Go and marry a woman of promiscuity.”

• For both Christians and non-Christians, this raises an immediate question.
• Why would God command something like this?
• Why would he ask his prophet to knowingly enter into a marriage filled with adultery?
• A marriage of broken covenant…of betrayal…of sin….

• People often assume that God’s primary purpose is to give us happiness and comfort…to help us have better lives.
• And if that’s true, this command makes no sense.
• But Scripture repeatedly teaches something greater.
• God’s ultimate purpose is his own glory.

• And because God is perfectly good, our greatest joy is ultimately found in knowing him and glorifying him.

• Sometimes that means God calls his people to difficult assignments.

• Think about the Apostle Paul.
• When Jesus first called Paul, he didn’t promise him an easy life.
• In Acts 9:16, the Lord told Ananias:

“I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

• Think about that
• We often think of Paul’s calling as taking the good news to the Gentiles
• And that’s true
• But, it’s more than that
• God said he was calling Paul to suffer for God’s name
• That was part of the plan of God

• Paul would endure imprisonment.
• Beatings.
• Shipwrecks.
• Hunger.
• Loneliness.
• Eventually, martyrdom.

• Yet Paul could later say, in Romans 8:18

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.

• Paul understood that temporary suffering is not incompatible with God’s love.
• Sometimes suffering is part of God’s calling.

• The same is true for Hosea.
• God is not being cruel to his prophet.
• God is calling him into a ministry where his own marriage becomes a living picture of God’s covenant relationship with Israel.

• Every time Hosea experiences the pain of betrayal…
• Every time his wife runs after another man…
• Every time his covenant love is rejected…
• The people of Israel are supposed to recognize themselves.
• Because this is exactly what they have done to God.

• Look back at verse 2 of Hosea, chapter 1
• Notice the end of the verse says:

“… for the land is committing blatant acts of promiscuity by abandoning the Lord.”

• Notice what God does not say.

• He doesn’t merely say they have broken commandments.
• Although they have.

• He doesn’t merely say they’ve violated the covenant.
• Although they have.

• Instead, He describes their sin relationally.
• They have abandoned Him.

• This is why Hosea uses the language and symbolism of adultery throughout the book.
• Marriage is built on exclusive covenant love.
• When a husband or wife gives themselves to anyone other than their spouse, that isn’t merely breaking a rule.
• It’s not merely breaking a contract.

• It’s the betrayal of a relationship.

• Likewise, Israel has taken the God who rescued them from Egypt…
  • who fed them in the wilderness…
  • who gave them the Promised Land…
  • who protected them again and again…
  • and they have given their hearts to someone else.

• This is not merely religious failure.
• It is covenant betrayal.

• And if we’re honest, this is where the book begins to expose us as well.

• Most of us have never bowed before a statue of a pagan god.

• But all of us know what it is like to trust in something other than God.
• Sometimes it’s success.
• Or money.

• Sometimes it’s relationships.
• or comfort.

• Maybe it’s our own abilities.
• Or our reputation.

• We might trust in our intelligence
• Or our work ethic
• The economy, or our job security.

• There’s an endless list of things we can trust in, other than God.

• But, anything we depend on more than God becomes a rival to God.

• Our idols are often more sophisticated, or more modern, than Israel’s.
• But they are no less idols.

• And we need to think about this, and understand this, and identify this in ourselves, before we can really understand Hosea.
• So, think of the times you’ve sinned…
  • and you’ve done something you knew God didn’t want you to do…
  • or failed to do something you knew God did want you to do…
• What was it that drew you away from God?

• And think beyond the actual sin…to the idol you were chasing after.

• If a boss takes credit for an idea that wasn’t his, that’s a sin.
• But what was the idol?
  
• Maybe it was wanting his bosses to think more highly of him, so his idol is pride.
• Maybe it was wanting to protect his own job, so the idol was the security his job provides.
• But behind every sin is something we’re trusting in more than we trust in God.

• And before we can appreciate God’s redeeming love in the story of Hosea, and in our own lives… we must first see the seriousness of our wandering.

• So, let’s turn to chapter 2 of Hosea.

• As the story unfolds, God begins explaining exactly what Israel has done.

• Look down at verse 8:

She does not recognize
that it is I who gave her the grain,
the new wine, and the fresh oil.
I lavished silver and gold on her,
which they used for Baal.

• This is one of the intense verses in the entire book.
• Because notice what Israel’s greatest sin actually was.
• It wasn’t simply that they worshiped another god.
• It was that they took God’s own gifts and offered them to a false god
  
• Think about that
  

b. Israel used God’s gifts to worship false gods.

• To understand why this happened, we need to understand a little about Baal.
• Baal was the chief Canaanite god associated with rain, fertility, and agricultural prosperity.

• Now remember, Israel was largely an agricultural society.
• No rain meant no crops.

• No crops meant no food.
• No food meant starvation.

• So Baal worship wasn’t primarily about philosophy.
• It was about security.

• People wanted healthy crops.
• Healthy livestock.
• Healthy families.
• Economic stability.

• They wanted someone who could guarantee tomorrow.

• And so many Israelites tried to cover all their bases.

• They still acknowledged the Lord.
• They still participated in many of Israel’s religious practices.
• But they also worshiped Baal.
• Just in case.

• Their religion became spiritual diversification.
• They treated worship the way some people treat investments.
• Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

• They thought, sure, believe in God, and follow his rules, and offer his sacrifices…
• but also trust Baal.

• And that’s exactly what made their sin so offensive.

• Every good thing they possessed had come from him.
• Late in the Bible, James says exactly the same thing:

“Every good and perfect gift is from above.”

• Yet Israel looked at those very gifts…and thanked Baal instead.
• And they took what God had given them, and they offered those gifts to Baal to ensure Baal’s blessing of them

• Can you imagine the insult?

• Imagine a husband working overtime for months so he can surprise his wife with an expensive anniversary gift.

• She smiles.
• Accepts it.
• Thanks him.

• Then later that afternoon she takes the same gift…
• walks across town…
• and gives it to the man she’s having an affair with.

• And she tells him “I love you so much, I want you to have this.”

• That’s the picture God paints.
• Israel received everything from the Lord…
• then used those blessings to honor someone else.

• That’s why God says they are an adulterous nation.

• Now, it’s easy for us, in the 21^st century, to think Israel was being so dumb. 
• After all, we’re not tempted to worship some ancient god of rain. 

• And why would we?
• we have irrigation systems and phosphate to keep our crops growing.

• But we should ask ourselves a difficult question.
• What are our Baals?
• What are our idols?

• Very few of us are tempted to bow before wood or stone idols.
• But idolatry has always been much more subtle than that.

• An idol is anything we trust to give us what only God can ultimately provide.
• And so anything can become an idol.
• We can even make ourselves an idol.

• I mentioned that the book of James says every good gift comes from God. 
• Well, earlier in the Bible, in the book of Deuteronomy, God was telling the people about all the blessings they would receive after they entered the Promised Land
• But then he gave them a warning…that once they have all these things, not to say themselves “I worked for all this and built all this.”
  
• God reminds them that even when they work hard and do well, it was God who gave them the ability to work.
• He gave them their health, their strength, and their brains. 
• And he maintains them every day.

• That means, even hard work can be an idol when you take the health and abilities God gave you, and you celebrate yourself more than you celebrate God. 

• John Calvin wrote that the human heart is a factory of idols.
• We churn out idols like an assembly line.

• And here’s what makes our idolatry so tragic.
• The very things we offer to our idols…came from God.

• Work, recreation, family, health…those are all good things.
• But we can turn anything into an idol.

• We can even do this in ministry or with church
• It is entirely possible to become so busy serving in the church…that we slowly stop delighting in Jesus.
• Years ago, I was a professor and an executive-level administrator at a university
• I was very successful in that career.
• And so, when I started the ministry at Florida Polytechnic University, my one, recurring prayer, that I have kept for more than a decade now is this:
  • God, work in a way that I couldn’t possibly take credit for. 
• And I made this prayer, from the beginning, because I knew myself well enough to know that if the ministry was successful, I might think, “Of course, I’m great with college students.”

• And that’s the danger Hosea exposes.
• The issue isn’t as simple as saying Israel loved bad things.
• It’s that they loved good gifts…food, health, security, success…more than the Giver of those gifts.

• Over and over, in the Bible, the people of God drifted away and chased idols.

• But again and again, God called his people back.
• He’d restore them
• And then they’d drift again.

• Does that sound familiar for you?
• If we’re honest, that’s our own story.

• We resolve to trust God.
• Then life becomes comfortable.
• Or difficult.
• Or distracting.

• And before long we’re looking somewhere else for hope.
• We’re far more like Israel than we’d like to admit.

• Which raises an important question.

• If God’s people continue wandering…
• if they repeatedly betray him…
• if they continually run after other lovers…
• why doesn’t he simply leave them?
• Humanly speaking…
• that’s exactly what we would expect.

• In fact, that’s exactly what justice seems to demand.
• But this is where the story takes an unexpected turn.
• Because the next chapter doesn’t begin with divorce.
• It begins with redemption.

• God tells Hosea to do something incredible.
• God tells Hosea…to go get his wife.
• In Chapter 3:

2. God pursues, redeems, and restores his unfaithful people.

• By the time we arrive at chapter 3, the tragedy has unfolded exactly as God said it would.

• Hosea’s wife has abandoned him, thrown herself into promiscuity, and ended up enslaved.
• Sin always promises freedom, but it never delivers.
• And that’s exactly what has happened to Hosea’s wife, Gomer.

• By chapter 3 she has become enslaved.

• Humanly speaking, this is where the story should end.
• If Hosea had divorced her…everyone would have understood.

• If he had walked away…no one would have blamed him.

• If he had simply let her experience the consequences of her own choices…most people would have called that justice.

• And Hosea could have gone and found a better wife…because it would be hard to do worse than Gomer.

• But God has something vey different in mind.

• Look at chapter 3, verse 1

Then the Lord said to me, “Go again; show love to a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, just as the Lord loves the Israelites though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.”

• Those first two words are incredible.
• Go again.

• Not…
• “Forget her.”

• Not…
• “Replace her.”

• Not…
• “Move on.”

• Go again…. After everything she’s done…

• Go again…. After every broken promise…

• Go again… After every humiliation…

• Go again….

• Those two words summarize the entire story of redemption.

• Because they summarize the character—the faithfulness—of God.

• Again and again…his people wander.

• Again and again…he brings them back.

• Notice something else.

• God doesn’t merely tell Hosea to bring her home.
• God tells Hosea to love her

• That the harder command.
• Anyone can perform an action while their heart remains cold.

• God commands Hosea to pursue his wife with covenant love.
• The same steadfast love God has always shown toward his people.

• Then comes one of the most remarkable verses in the Old Testament.
• Look at verse2 of chapter 3:

² So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and nine bushels of barley. 

• Think about what just happened.
• Hosea is purchasing…his own wife.

• She already belongs to him by covenant.
• But she left him and went after that promiscuous life…and ended up enslaved.
• And yet he pays to redeem her.

• What does she even say in that moment?
• There are no excuses left.
• No defenses left.
• Only astonishment at him and his sacrificial faithfulness.

• As this story unfolded, that woman’s situation is exactly where God wanted Israel to see themselves.
• And it is exactly where he wants us to see ourselves.

• Because Gomer’s story is our story.

• The Bible says every one of us has sold ourselves into slavery to sin.
• We chased promises that could never satisfy.
• We believed lies.
• And eventually we discovered what sin always produces…slavery

• Scripture never describes sin as harmless.
• It enslaves, and it leads to death.

• Jesus Himself said, “Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.”

• Apart from Christ, we are not merely people who occasionally make bad decisions.
• We are people enslaved and who cannot rescue ourselves.

• Just like Gomer…until Hosea bought her back.

• But Hosea’s redemption of his wife was never the main point.
• It was always pointing beyond itself…pointing to God.

• Look at the next verses…verses 4 and 5.

⁴ For the Israelites must live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, and without ephod or household idols. ⁵ Afterward, the people of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come with awe to the Lord and to his goodness in the last days.

• God tells Israel that judgment is still coming.
• Assyria will invade.
• The nation will collapse.

• They will lose their king…their political stability…their religious institutions…

• Everything they have trusted besides God will be stripped away.

• That sounds severe.
• And it is.

• But notice something important.
• God’s discipline is never presented as abandonment.
• It is restoration.

• Sometimes the most loving thing God can do…is remove the idols we refuse to surrender.

• Sometimes he tears down the things we mistakenly believe are giving us life…so that we will finally return to the One who truly gives life.

• The book of Hebrews tells us, “The Lord disciplines the one he loves.”
• Not because he delights in our pain.
• But because he delights in our restoration…in our redemption…

• Then comes one of the great Messianic promises of the Old Testament.

• In verse 5 there, it says Israel will seek “David their king.”

• Now remember…
• David had been dead for centuries.

• Hosea isn’t expecting King David to return.
• He’s pointing forward to the greater Son of David.
• The Messiah.

• The King God had promised throughout the Old Testament.
• The King who would establish an everlasting kingdom.
• The King who would gather God’s scattered people.
• The King who would finally accomplish what no earthly king ever could.
• The entire story has been moving toward him.

• And that’s why Hosea’s purchase of Gomer is so powerful.

• Hosea redeemed one unfaithful wife.
• Jesus redeems a countless multitude from every tribe, language, people, and nation.

• Hosea brought Gomer back into his home.
• Jesus brings sinners into the family of God, and into an eternal home.

• Hosea paid with silver and barley.
• But Jesus paid with his own blood when he went to his death on the cross for us.

• The Apostle Peter wrote that, “you were redeemed from your sin, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ…”

• Notice that comparison?
• Hosea counted out coins.
• Jesus gave his own life.

• Hosea paid at a marketplace.
• Jesus paid at Calvary.

• Hosea purchased his bride, Gomer.
• Jesus purchased his bride, the Church.

• And that changes everything.

• Christians…
• your salvation is not ultimately grounded in the strength of your love for Christ.
• It is grounded in the strength of Christ’s love for you.

• If your salvation ultimately depended on how faithfully you held onto him…none of us would endure.

• Our hope is not in our faithfulness, but in his
• Our hope is that he never lets go of those whom he has bought and redeemed.
• Our hope is that the One who bought his bride keeps his bride.
  
• Even our repentance is not what earns our redemption…. it is the response to the redemption Christ has already accomplished.

• This is why Hosea isn’t ultimately a story about a faithful prophet.
• It’s a story about a faithful Savior.

• Long before Jesus was born in Bethlehem…God was already preaching the gospel…the plan laid out before the foundation of the world.

• He was telling the story of redemption…through the longsuffering and commitment and self-sacrifice of a prophet…whose marriage was meant to point to the greater Bridegroom who was still to come.

• Church…
• The story of Hosea is your story.

• Left to ourselves…we wander.

• We chase other loves.
• We trust other saviors.
• We take God’s gifts…and give our hearts to something else.

• We’re like Gomer…we sell ourselves into a slavery and we cannot escape.

• If this story depended on us…it would end in chapter 2.
• It would end with betrayal, judgment, and divorce.
• But it doesn’t.

• Instead, God says to Hosea,
• “Go again.”

• After every broken promise…
• go again.

• After every humiliation…
• go again.

• After every act of unfaithfulness…
• go again.

• Why?

• Because that’s who God is.

• He is faithful when we are faithless.
• He pursues those who run from him.
• He redeems those who cannot rescue themselves.
• He restores those who have ruined themselves.

• And ultimately…
• He did not merely send Hosea to go again.
• He came himself.

• Jesus Christ is the greater Hosea.
• He came looking for his unfaithful bride.
• He entered our slavery.
• He paid our ransom…carried our shame…bore our judgment.
• And then he made us his own.

• Not because we deserved another chance.
• Not because we had become worthy.
• But because that is who he is.

• So how should we respond to a perfectly faithful love like that?

…

• Maybe you’re a Christian, but you find yourself struggling with sin…with guilt…with self-doubt. 
• Maybe you feel like you have wandered too far…sinned too grievously…or broken your promises to God one too many times.

• You look at your own heart and think, “Why can’t I be better?”  or   “How could God take me back, again?”

• Look at the market in Hosea 3. 
• And then look at the cross of Jesus Christ. 

• Your relationship with God does not depend on your weak hold on him…it hangs securely on his unbreakable hold on you.

• He is a husband who heals backsliding. 
• Return to him this morning in honest repentance…lay down your heavy burden…and rest in his free grace…
  • knowing that you have been bought at a price…
  • he has paid the cost…
  • and is will not fail in his promises.

…

• And for others of you, maybe you’re suffering because of the he sin of others. 
• Someone has hurt you, in some way
• And you are struggling with anger, or sadness, or confusion
• You should read this story of Hosea and know that you belong to a Savior who knows your pain. 
• God himself knows what it means to be rejected by those he cherished. 

• Give your pain, and your suffering, over to him…knowing he is the husband who will never leave you…never forsake you…and never betray his covenant promises to you.

…

• Or, maybe you are here today, and you don’t have a relationship with Jesus
• You’ve never trusted in him for your redemption
• Maybe you’ve been trying to find the source of hope
• Or you’ve been hoping in things that keep failing.

• And maybe you are realizing how much you owe to God, and how much you have failed.
• Well, today, that can all change.

• The calling of God is not to go clean yourself up and make yourself worthy of him
• It’s not to use your willpower to be good enough to earn your way to him. 
• The calling of God is to first realize the slavery you’re in
• That you are trapped by sin
• And you cannot buy your freedom. 
• But there is hope.

• Jesus paid the price to buy you out of that slavery and to make you his. 
• And so, trust in him
• Trust that he paid the price, fully
• And then praise him, and thank him
• And trust confidently that he is faithful, no matter what. 

• In just a moment, whoever you are, and whatever your need is, you will have a chance to come up to the front and talk with someone who can help you know and trust Jesus. 

• But, first, let’s close in prayer, praising our perfectly faithful God.