CPAC sermon 15 Febr 2009 Hosea 6:1-6
HOSEA - the story of Love
Continuing to look at the Minor Prophets of the Old Testament....
There’s the true story told of Nat Turner.
He was a slave who had visions from God that told him to lead a revolt against his masters and lead his people to freedom.
Unfortunately, Nat Turner’s revolt failed and he was hanged.
It gets you thinking - did Nat Turner really receive visions from God telling him to revolt?
If God gives a man a vision saying that he should revolt and win, and then he loses, could that vision truly be from God?
Well ultimately justice did prevail.
The plight of the slaves reached more and more people because of what Nat Turner had done, and though he didn’t get the freedom he longed for, he did pave the way for a future freedom for his people.
History records he was one of many who did.
You see, God didn’t promise Nat Turner victory right there and then.
What he promised him was a continued struggle for what is right.
This is the same thing that God promises each of us.
And God offers us something to help us in our struggles.
He offers us His love and he offers to be constantly with us as we fight for what is right.
He didn't say it (or anything in life) would be a "breeze" (when we become His followers) but He did promise to be on our side.
"If God is on our side, then who can be against us?", said the apostle Paul
It was Valentine’s Day yesterday..... I want to share a love story with you now.
It’s a love story about Hosea and Gomer.
Unfortunately, Hosea’s relationship with his wife, Gomer, was not the kind that you’d think of celebrating on Valentine’s Day!
The book of Hosea is a difficult one to read.
He isn’t asked to fight as Nat Turner did, rather Hosea is asked to love the unlovable.
Hosea also had to learn the lesson of not giving up but continuing to struggle for what is right.
And in doing so, Hosea was able to understand God’s desire and love for God’s people, in a very real and tangible way.
The first three chapters of Hosea tell us, in somewhat graphic detail, about his relationship with his wife, Gomer, and it’s not a pretty picture.
You see, Hosea’s wife cheated on him (sadly, such unfaithfulness still happens in relationships today....)
She cheated on him and she left him and that was it.
After they were married, Gomer had three children.
The first, Jezreel, was Hosea’s son.
But the following daughter and then a son were not even his children (again, still happens today...we have many blended marriages/relationships...)
And worst of all, it seems that Hosea was told to marry this woman by God.
Like Nat Turner, did Hosea hear God right?
Inspite of the pain and extreme hurt that his wife has caused to Hosea, God tells Hosea to love her even as she is unfaithful to him.
He must take back his wife.
He must love her again.
Is that not a picture of God and us, with the Cross of Christ bridging that chasm between us?
Hosea lived in the northern kingdom of Israel about 700 years before Christ. His ministry followed on the heels of that of Amos.
In Amos' day, King Jeroboam (II) ruled, and during his 44 year reign Israel enjoyed a time of prosperity, political stability, and security.
They were very content with their opulent lifestyle and as such were blind to their need for God.
The upper classes were oppressing the poor.
Then Jeroboam (II) died and soon the nation went downhill fast.
For the next thirty years near-anarchy reigned in Israel.
There were six kings in that time period, of whom four were assassinated by their successors.
Due to this political chaos, the structure of society began to come apart at the seams.
Violence in the streets became commonplace. And, to make matters worse, the threat of an invasion by Assyria increased.
It was during these years of anarchy, bloodshed, revolt, and the break-up of a nation that Hosea the prophet preached in Israel.
He was called by God to live through the chaos that the prophet Amos had seen coming.
In the first few years of his ministry he preached against the sinful ways the people were living and warned of the peril that was VERY close at hand unless the people repented and returned to the Lord.
Naturally, this was not something the Israelites wanted to hear so Hosea's audience dwindled to the point that continuing to preach seemed pointless to him. When this happened Hosea spoke to God and asked for His help in getting the people to listen.
So God told him to do a strange thing - to get married.
“In fact”, God said, “I have a girl all picked out for you.”
Hosea probably brightened up a bit at that, because he was a bachelor.
And then, when God mentioned her name, Hosea's heart must have fluttered, because the name of this girl was GOMER and GOMER was one of the most beautiful girls in all of Israel.
Now, don't get side-tracked by her name which sounds as though she looked like the back end of a truck!
Maybe in those days GOMER was a name that was associated with great beauty like, like Raquel or Sophia, or …... You get my point.
Anyway, when God told him to marry Gomer, Hosea was definitely interested.
But God warned him and said,
“Hosea, I want you to know the whole story about this girl.
I want you to marry her, but understand, she is going to be unfaithful to you. In fact she will eventually become nothing but a common street prostitute.
But I want you to marry her anyway.”
From our limited perspective sometimes it seems that God does strange things, things we don't understand until later when we can look back on them.
Popular author Philip Yancey has said that following God involves having a faith in Him such that you believe in advance what will only make sense in reverse.
Well, Hosea had enough faith that, in spite of these somewhat odd instructions, he obeyed and went courting with Gomer.
And, sure enough, GOMER was attracted to this shy young preacher and they were married.
At first it was heaven on earth.
Hosea genuinely, deeply loved this girl.
Then they had their first child. It was a boy!
Hosea's heart was filled to bursting and then God asked him to do ANOTHER strange thing.
He instructed him to name the boy, JEZREEL.
Now Jezreel means cast-away and at this time it was a name of shame in Israel.
It was linked to the tragic story of Queen Jezebel and King Ahab.
In 2 Kings 9 we read how Ahab cheated his neighbour out of his property and stole his neighbour's vineyard and Jezebel was the wicked queen who put him up to it as well as other crimes.
God's judgement eventually fell on this evil, demonic woman.
She was looking out her upper story window one day when General Jehu was down in the courtyard and he ordered the servants to CAST her AWAY,
to throw her out the window.
They did, and she fell to her death on the pavement below and the dogs ate her flesh.
The courtyard where she fell had been called JEZREEL-cast-away-ever since.
Anyway, Hosea obeyed God.
He gave his son the name God had picked for him.
He understood that his son was to be a living sermon illustration, a warning from God to the people of Israel, that they too would be cast away if they didn't recognize the folly of their sinful actions. Then later a daughter-was born to Hosea and Gomer. God instructed this one to be named Loruhamah which means, not pitied. Hosea realized that this was to communicate to the people that God would no longer have pity on His people if they continued to live as they were living.
God's patience was wearing thin, and a time was coming when He would hand them over to invading armies. When this little girl was weaned, Gomer conceived again and bore another son. God named this one, Lo-ammi which means “not My people”. God was saying, “You are not My people and I will not be your God.”
Now, if you think it is strange that Hosea would give his kids these odd names, understand that this was nothing new back then. You see in Hosea's culture it was customary to teach by using SYMBOLS. Hosea also knew that NAMES were very important.
Hosea understood that God was using him, a prophet, and his family, as a living object lesson for the people of Israel.
Perhaps Hosea was aware that something like this was happening with his fellow prophet, Isaiah, at about this time down in the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
Isaiah, had two children, both boys.
The younger boy's name was Shearjashub, which means, a remnant shall return.
This was to remind the people of God's promise that even though they would be taken into captivity, a remnant would one day come back and be restored.
Isaiah's older boy's name was Mahershalalhashbaz which means haste to the prey or haste to the spoil.
It was God's prophetic way of telling the nation that they were in deep trouble-that an enemy was coming against them to ravish their nation.
So, giving children names like this to communicate important spiritual truth was not that shocking back then.
After the 3rd child there were no more children to Hosea & Gomer.
But the little family began to have hard times because Gomer fell into unfaithful ways.
Things went from bad to worse and soon the children were left un-cared for while Gomer wasted all her time running around behind her husband's back.
One day Hosea came home and found a note from Gomer. She was leaving him with the children, to be with another man. Eventually she gave herself over to the life of a temple prostitute. Now understand, Hosea kept on loving her deeply, just as God kept on loving the people of Israel even after they had left Him to worship other gods.
And, about this time a new emphasis came into Hosea's preaching. He still warned people of the judgement that was to come and the fact that the Assyrians would attack them, but no longer did he preach this by angrily pounding the pulpit. Instead he spoke to them with tears in his eyes. In his sermons Hosea began to speak of a day when love at last would triumph.
He spoke of how Israel would understand the folly of ignoring God's law and they would return to the God who loved them. Through Hosea God was announcing His judgement, God was also showing His grace. Gomer broke Hosea’s heart but Hosea’s response to Gomer made it possible for Hosea to give the world a picture of the heart of God.
His fellow prophet in the south, Isaiah, began to talk like this as well.
It began to dawn on these two prophets that God may have turned His face from His people, but it was a face streaked with tears. Hosea realized that if HIS love for Gomer could exist in spite of her betrayal of their marriage vows, then God might still love His people no matter how sinful they had been.
Hosea saw something that he had missed before. And so he began to change the tune of his preaching. He started speaking about the love of God for sinners instead of the judgement of God upon sin. His sermons included loving words from God like this, “How can I give you up Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel?
My heart is changed within Me; all my compassion is aroused.
I will not carry out my fierce anger for I am God, and not man, the Holy One among you. (Hosea 11:8-9)
Then, one day word came to Hosea that Gomer was to be sold in the slave market.
She had become too unattractive for use as a temple prostitute.
I imagine that this brokenhearted prophet didn't know what to do at this point.
So, he went weeping to God and asked for His guidance and God must have said something like this,
“Hosea, do you love this woman in spite of all that she has done to you? If so, go and show your love for her in the same way that I love the nation of Israel.”
So Hosea went to the marketplace and watched Gomer being brought up and placed on the dock where she was stripped of all her clothing and stood naked before the crowd. Then bidding began.
Someone bid three pieces of silver and Hosea raised it to five.
Someone else upped it to eight and Hosea bid ten.
Another bidder went to eleven.
Hosea went to twelve.
Then Hosea offered fifteen pieces of silver and 5 bushels of barley and a measure of wine. (Hosea 3:2)
Together all this was equal to more than a year's wages, an unbelievably high price to pay for a slave.
Well, no one could beat that price so the auctioneer's gavel fell as he shouted, “SOLD!”
And Hosea officially had his wife back.
He went to her, put her clothes back on and took her to his home. And then I think what follows is one of the most beautiful verses in the Bible.
Hosea said to Gomer, “You must dwell as mine for many days; you shall not play the harlot, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.” Hosea 3:3 ESV
Did you catch the love in these words?
Hosea pledged himself to his wayward wife all over again.
He in essence renewed his marital vows to her, and that was more than this poor sinful woman could take.
The love of this man melted her cold heart, and from that time on tradition says that Gomer was faithful to Hosea.
She became an honest, industrious, selfless, faithful wife...a foreshadowing of the way Israel would one day return to God.
The final picture in Hosea's book is one of beauty and love, for it looks to the day when Israel would come back to God - her true Husband and would say in essence,
“What have I to do with idols? I have seen God and heard Him and He has won my heart.”
That’s a wonderful love story!
The life of Hosea shows us the need to have a mature understanding of God's love.
Hosea’s experience reveals several basic truths about God's love.
1. First of all, Hosea helps us to see that God's love is a PERSONAL love.
God may love the WHOLE world but that love begins with YOU, and you, and you….
God loves us individually with all His heart just as Hosea loved his unfaithful wife, Gomer with all his heart.
No matter what your life has been like, God loves you.
He doesn't love you as part of the crowd.
He loves you as an individual.
He knows YOUR name, and YOUR needs.
He understands YOUR hurts and fears.
He loves you as if you are the only person in the world.
God has a PERSONAL love for each of us.
This was the message Jesus was communicating when He told the parable of the shepherd who had one hundred sheep...he lost 1 and left the 99 to go after the one lost lamb until He found it.
2. And then secondly, Hosea's experience teaches us that God not only loves us individually....He also loves us UNCONDITIONALLY.
Hosea's experience with Gomer helped him to see that in spite of Israel's sin, God continued to love her.
We don't have to EARN or DESERVE God's love.
God loves us because as...I John 4:8 says, “GOD IS LOVE”.
LOVE is the essence of His being. Any parent knows that, even on their worst days, you don't stop loving your kids. No matter what they do, you love them. And even on OUR WORST DAYS, God keeps right on loving us with an UNCONDITIONAL love.
3. ...Thirdly we need to realize that God's love is also a HOLY love.
In order for us to experience God's personal, unconditional love we have to turn from our wrongdoing, just as Gomer did.
Sin will destroy our lives and break our relationship with God UNTIL...UNTIL we turn from sin and return to God.
God will ALWAYS love you and I, but to ultimately BENEFIT from His love we must turn from sin.
Remember the story Jesus told about the prodigal son?
The father didn’t track down his son while his son was squandering his inheritance on riotous living.
Yes, the father loved the son and never stopped doing so, but in order to experience that love the son had to turn from his wrong living (sin) and return home to his father.
God's love is a HOLY love, and to benefit from it we must turn from our sin, and return to God and pursue holiness.
4. And then, one other thing Hosea would tell us to note about God's love is this: It is a SACRIFICIAL love.
We see this illustrated in Hosea's action in chapter 3.
He went and paid an enormous amount to free his wife from the slave market...and this is what God has done that for you and me.
At Bethlehem God entered the slave market of this world, where all of us were enslaved to sin by our own choosing. And, in sending His Son into the world to die on Calvary's cross, God paid the ransom to set us free from our sins. As Jesus said in Matthew 20:28,
“The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a RANSOM for many.”
We can rely on God even in the most disastrous of circumstances. His ways are greater and more wonderful than ours. How can you begin to start relying on God and trusting His love for you? How can you begin to love someone who is unlovable?
That’s the challenge that is before you and I, right now.
Find someone(s) who is unlovable, and love them… Amen.
