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Hosea: The Faithfulness of God

[Listen to an audio version here]

The prophets were sometimes seers because they could see. They could see beyond the ordinary things of life and see the God who was above them. When other people could not see Him, the prophets saw Him. Once they had that clear vision, they could not help but speak about Him. Once they heard the voice of God, they could not hold it in. As the prophet Amos put it, “The lion has roared—who will not fear? The Sovereign Lord has spoken—who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3:8).

In our day, we get so focused on the sights in front of us. We get busy working and doing and playing and enjoying the many blessings God has given us. In the midst of it, we forget God. It’s not that we are necessarily actively opposing Him. We just forget Him. We don’t see Him. The result is that we live lives that miss a huge portion of reality. This leads us to experience lives that often seem devoid of meaning and purpose. We get focused on ourselves and miss the wider world. We get fearful of the problems of the world as if there was not a God ruling over the world. We look for love in humans that they can never give. In our busy-ness, we bypass the bigger and most important issues of life.

So, we need the vision of the prophets. We need to see God. That’s what we are going to try and do this summer. We are going to try and see the vision of the prophets. We want to see the God that they saw so that we can live more in the light of His presence.

This is not always easy. Some of the things they say can seem strange to us. They seemed strange to the people of their time. So, we are going to take a look at what are called the twelve Minor Prophets in order to understand the message of each book. They are called minor because their books are smaller than those of the major prophets, not because they are less important. In some ways, it is an arbitrary division. Nevertheless, we are going to use this ancient division over the summer and look, by the grace of God, at these twelve prophets and their messages.

Today, we turn to the book of the prophet Hosea. You will remember that the kingdom of Israel had split in two after the reign of King Solomon son of David around 931 B.C. The southern kings, the descendants of David, sometimes did what was right. The northern kings have no king that is commended for doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord throughout his lifetime. The northern kingdom is called Israel and the southern kingdom is called Judah. Hosea prophesied from about 170 years after the split until about 210 years after the split, from 760 B.C. until about 720 B.C. His book is most likely a summary of the many messages he preached during this time.

The message of Hosea is very interesting and somewhat shocking. God tells Hosea to take as his wife a prostitute named Gomer. In this message, I want us to consider this marriage and then summarize what lessons we can learn from it. As we consider the marriage, we will see what God tells Hosea to do, what Gomer did, and how Hosea responded. After that, I will draw out some lessons that can help us see more clearly who God is.

What God tells Hosea to do
Here is how the book of Hosea begins. “When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “‘Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.’ So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son” (Hosea 1:2–3). This is a very strange command from God. Think of marriage. You want to find a person who will be faithful to you and whom you can love all of your life. You don’t go looking for the most promiscuous woman you can find who has already shown that they will be unfaithful. This is the sort of person that everybody despises and that everybody talks about. When people are cheating on each other, people are filled with indignation. Yet this is exactly the sort of person that God says to marry.

So, why would He do it? Because this marriage was more than just a marriage. It was designed to be a picture of God’s relationship to Israel. We will talk about this more in a moment, but we can see that this is the case from the three children that Gomer bears to Hosea. Here is what God says about the first, “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” (Hos. 1:4). Wow! What a way to name a child.

The next child’s name is even worse. This was a daughter, and the daughter’s name was “No Mercy.” “Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means ‘not loved’ [or not receiving mercy]), for I will no longer show love to Israel, that I should at all forgive them” (Hos. 1:6). This child is to teach Israel that their unfaithfulness will no longer be tolerated.

The third child is a son. His name was “Not My People.” “After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. Then the Lord said, ‘Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God'” (Hos. 1:8–9). Again, a very sad name for a child.

So, why would God do all this? Because the prophet is given a vision of God that he must teach the people of Israel. This is his privilege but also sometimes a hard duty. He has a great and difficult message to bring. In this case, the message is that Gomer represents Israel. Hosea represents God. In taking Israel as His people, He has taken an unfaithful wife to be His bride.

Does that mean that Israel is the worst of humanity? No. It means that they are human. Hosea 6:7 has a verse that some have found hard to translate. Here is how the King James says it, “But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.” The word “like men” there is literally “like Adam.” Adam can be a word for man, so the KJV is not wrong. That’s why the ESV translates it simply, “But like Adam they transgressed the covenant . . .” The point is that this is what human beings are like. They are changeable and unfaithful. The human race was created to live in fellowship with God, but they have continually tried to put others in His place: pleasures, people, princes. In that way, the human race is like a prostitute. It is not a flattering image, but, if we consider our own behavior honestly, we will see that there is real insight there. We are, as John Calvin put it, a factory of idols.

In light of all this, it’s not too surprising what happens next.

What Gomer Did
After Hosea had taken Gomer as his wife and then had three children with her, she abandoned him. She went back to her prostitution. She was unfaithful to her husband. She proved to be what she was before, an unfaithful and a promiscuous woman, a wife of “whoredoms” as the old KJV has it.

In this also, Gomer represents Israel. Israel was taken by God to be His own special people. He did mighty and miraculous things to bring her out of Egypt. Then, she went after other gods. Right from the beginning, she set up the golden calf in the wilderness. She continued to go after other gods thereafter.

And that’s a big part of the message of the book of Hosea. He talks about Israel’s unfaithfulness. “She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold—which they used for Baal” (2:7). They received so many blessings from God, but they failed to acknowledge the God who gave them. They were ungrateful and forgetful of God.

Instead, they set their hearts on other things. “The more priests there were, the more they sinned against me; they exchanged their glorious God for something disgraceful” (Hos. 4:7). They set up idols and said that these were God. They wanted something that was easier for them to take hold of. Notice that even the priests were part of it. They gave the people what they wanted rather than what they needed. No doubt, the people loved it. That’s why the prophets were needed, to call them back to the true God.

Again, understand here that Israel is not the worst nation. They are just like the nations. They are like humans. We are blessed each day with innumerable blessings, but we refuse to acknowledge God. We forget that we are made for Him. Our heart goes after other things. We may not erect an idol, but we make other things the center of our lives: our work, our family, our pleasures, our homes, etc. We let almost anything be the center of our lives rather than God. This is not what we are made for, and it is destructive to us and all involved in it.

So, what does God do to all these unfaithful people? He calls Hosea to do something that will teach them about himself.

How Hosea Responds
Let’s consider how Hosea might have responded. He would have been fully within his rights to say, “This marriage is done.” What is interesting is that God says some things like that in this book. He tells Hosea to name his daughter “No mercy” because forgiveness is done. Here’s what God says in Hosea 13, “When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me. So I will be like a lion to them, like a leopard I will lurk by the path” (Hos. 13:6–7). God is a just God who opposes all that opposes His glory and all that would thwart the purpose for which He created human beings. It would seem that there would be no hope for Israel.

This is one of the key questions that arises in the prophets. As theologian Reinhold Niebuhr put it, the problem in the prophets is how history can be anything other than judgment.

But there is something else in the heart of God, a desire to show mercy. Here’s what He says in Hosea 11, “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboyim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I devastate Ephraim again. For I am God, and not a man—the Holy One among you. I will not come against their cities” (Hos. 11:8–9). God is not a God who takes delight in the death of the wicked but that they should turn and live!

So, instead of telling Hosea to abandon Gomer, He says, “Go after her!” “The Lord said to me, ‘Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes'” (Hos. 3:1–2). God commanded Hosea to go get his wife, and that’s what he does. Hosea responds to the Lord, “So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley” (Hos. 3:3). He actually had to purchase her to get her back, but he did it anyway.

God is going to pursue Israel, even in the midst of her unfaithfulness. But there’s more. He is going to bring about a full restoration. “I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily (Hos. 14:4-5). “Your fruitfulness is from me” (v.8).

Lessons We Can Learn
This powerful story that God teaches us through His prophet has many important lessons for us, but I will just focus on three. The first is to see the faithfulness of God. God just keeps doing good to everyone in spite of our sin. He keeps pursuing us.

God is also willing to pursue us, even though it is costly. Notice that Hosea had to pay a price to restore the relationship. God pays the price on the cross. The Son of God came to bring restoration and to pay the price to redeem us from our sin. The cross brings together the judgment of God and the mercy of God. The judgment of God falls on the Son so that all who believe in Him will have mercy forever.

So, let us not think of ourselves as lost causes. We may have failed a thousand times, but God is faithful and keeps pursuing. We may feel shame like Gomer must have, but we should not let that keep us from God. He is ready to receive us. He is ready to do us good, even when we do not do good. He is faithful, even if we are unfaithful.

The second lesson that we should learn is how we should return. Just because we have been unfaithful does not mean that we should remain in that condition. We should do all that we can to become the faithful people that God has called us to be. That does not mean that we have to do this on our own. God will heal us! Listen to the words with which Hosea calls people back to God:

Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence. Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth (Hos. 6:1–3).

He heals our unfaithfulness. We should seek that healing with all that we have.

The third lesson is that we should be like God. Just as He is ready to be reconciled to us, we should be ready to be reconciled to others. An interesting point is that in spite of all their sins, the kings of Israel learned that lesson. When the people of Aram or Syria were in a precarious position in relationship to Israel, the officials told the king, “Look, we have heard that the kings of Israel are merciful. Let us go to the king of Israel with sackcloth around our waists and ropes around our heads. Perhaps he will spare your life” (1 Kings 20:31). Even imperfectly, they had learned this lesson. If God is ready to be reconciled to us, in spite of all our sin, how ready should we be to be reconciled to our brothers and show mercy? We should be open to people, even those who have done us wrong.

And that’s how the vision of Hosea can help us. We will see the faithful God who is ready to receive us, even when we have been unfaithful. Let us seek with all our hearts to get this vision of God and remember the faithful God who pursued an unfaithful Israel and pursues us even when we are unfaithful. Let this shape all our thoughts about God so that we are always ready to return to Him. Let this vision of God shape us so that we become the people of peace that are called the sons and daughters of God. Amen.

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