Hosea: God's Faithful Love

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I'm glad you guys are here today. I am going to be preaching, Lord willing, the whole book of Hosea today, so, open up, there, if you would. If you need a Bible, there are Bibles under the chair nearby. You're welcome to use that as well.

Hosea is about God's faithful love, God's faithful love. You know, things are precious, often because of their relationship. The most precious thing a mother has is her baby. We all love those who are near to us by the ties of family. Precious, therefore, in the sight of the Lord, are his saints because they are born in his household by regeneration, made to be sons and daughters of the Most High God.

I’ll remind you of a little story out of Luke 15, the prodigal son. You remember him, the one who asked his dad for the inheritance before his dad died, and then went and spent it all on loose living. And then when he ran out of money, the only job he could find was feeding pigs. And so, he longed to have the food that he had to give to the pigs. And he realized the state that he was in; he realized the condition he was in. And he longed to have the food that he was giving to those pigs. So, what happened? He came back to his father, and what do you think his father did? His father embraced him and kissed him and ran to greet him. And all the while this young man was confessing his sin, he was repentant of the things that he had done. And the father threw a big banquet for him and gave him new clothes and a fine robe and a ring. And the father said this, “For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”

Think not that our God has less affection for his children than we have for our sons and daughters. A mother's heart never yearned over her child, or a father never rejoiced over his offspring more than our Lord rejoices over his children, even those who err and come back. God rejoices when one returns. Hosea is about God, trying to woo his children back to him. He has great love and compassion for them, though they were great sinners and are great sinners. Even in the midst of his decrees of judgment to them, he calls them back to himself. And I think it's a beautiful picture. And you're going to see that Hosea, who is a prophet, did some unusual things and was called by God to do some unusual things to symbolize Israel's rejection of the one who loved them most.

So today, we're going to start at the end of Hosea. Turn to chapter 14, verse nine, if you would. This is out of the ESV. Hosea 14:9, “Whoever is wise, let them understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the ways of Yahweh are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.” That little phrase, “for the ways of Yahweh are right”, ‘right’, there, means smooth. It means easy. So, the ways of Yahweh that are right are made. They're designed for you and I to walk in them. They're crafted specifically for his children to follow in his ways, and the righteous do walk in them. The Israelites were in danger, though. See, no one knew more about God than the Israelites. But they did not know God. They were always learning but never applying. Our dear Lord, in chapter 14, urges them to listen and to walk in his ways.

The other outcome is that they will stumble by them. See, he doesn't change the path so that we can walk on the path of our own choosing. The path is set, and we walk in it or we stumble going our own way. Those who do not believe, those who choose to ignore, those who may be apathetic towards the word, think it is a good shot in the arm. Those who do this are not wise and discerning. They are the ones who will indeed stumble. But over and over and over again in Scripture, God pleads for us out of His love for us to choose him. Psalm 107, verse 43, says the same thing, “Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things; let them consider the steadfast love of God.” The wisdom of God brings his love. The wisdom of God also revives the soul. Psalm 19:7 says, “The law of Yahweh is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of Yahweh is sure, making wise the simple.” It actually makes those with a simple mind wise. Considering our relative intelligence to God, that would be all of us.

The first thing though, that we must admit, dear friends, is that we do indeed need the wisdom of God. See, most people who reject the wisdom of God think that, either outrightly or deep down, that their ways are better than God's. The Israelites could not have been more blessed than they were. They could not have had more specific revelation from God than they had. God even wrote it down for them on stones, so that they could have it. Twice the Ten commandments, the two stones were likely duplicate stones of 10 and 10. Sorry, if that ruins some of the pictures we think about it. But things that were concrete were normally given in pairs. And we need to know that if we admit that we need the wisdom of God, that there is a blessing in that. Psalm 19, verse 11, says, “in keeping them there is great reward.” Great reward. Is that what we think of when we think of following God and following his path, that there is great reward? And we say, “Yeah, well, we know we're going to be rewarded in heaven.” But the context of Hosea is rewarded here and now.

Hosea is one of the last prophets to warn Israel before Assyria took over. So, the Bible goes back and forth a little bit. It's not quite chronological. So, when we went over Daniel, that was 120 years in the future from Hosea. Israel, at this time, has had Saul and David and Solomon as their kings. And then throughout their history, they've had many kings, although they are now divided. So, the southern portion is Judah and Benjamin; the northern portion is called Israel, and there were 10 tribes scattered to the north. So, they are in that time-period where they're still scattered, but they're still controlling everything. No foreign armies have been able to attack them and overcome them. In fact, they've repelled other foreign armies. Their pride is at an all-time high.

Hosea is called one of the Minor Prophets. “Minor” meaning that it is a small book, having only 14 chapters, compared to Jeremiah or Isaiah, which are “Major”, and they're longer. But make no mistake, the message is paramount. And the message of Hosea is the last message the people get to listen to before Assyria, and he warns them specifically that Assyria is coming, and he warns them by name, as you'll see. The first thing that we need to consider is that we must listen and learn from this book. We must listen and learn and heed the warning given in chapter 14. The second thing that we need to do is learn from Israel. There were two main charges against Israel.

Turn to chapter four, if you would, Hosea chapter four, starting in verse one. It says, “Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, no knowledge of God in the land; there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.” That's quite the indictment.

And I want to break this down into just two categories for you this morning. The first charge is that they rejected God and lived for themselves. They were guilty of swearing; it says there in verse two. Social media is full of this. It's mostly a sewage wasteland, but there are good uses for social media to be had as well. But you know this, when somebody one day is cutting someone down, tearing someone down because of their different views, and just you know, painting everyone who disagrees in a bad light. And the next day, “Oh, pray for me, pray for blessing. So and so's going into the hospital, and we need them healed.” This is not how we're supposed to be. But society at large, who calls themselves Christians, who are okay with things like swearing, and where does the Bible place that? Alongside other sins like murder.

You see, I think we've digressed from the, how would you put it, just the enormity of sin, the gravity of sin. And we have this whole category of acceptable sins that we put up with. But as you see, God is calling them to account on even a careless word here. Lying is also mentioned. But I think we know a little bit about lying, and we are guilty. And we feel bad when we lie, hopefully. And we know that's bad. But I think there is a more subtle form of lying that we sometimes, as a society, are okay with. We deceive ourselves into thinking that we're something that we're not at times. And I for instance, we might say, “Well, I'm not prideful. I'm just more learned than others. I'm not prideful. I'm just used by God to influence more people who aren't as godly as I am. I'm not really that prideful. I just don't need all this instruction like most people do.” This is, indeed, lying to ourselves.

Notice in chapter 14 and chapter four, “Hear the word of the LORD” wasn't qualified. He basically said, we're all simple and need the wisdom of God. So, I think it behooves us to consider where we're at with these two particular things, murder and stealing. We know those are both self-evident evils. And then he focuses on this adultery and that they were prostituting themselves to others. Not just to other people, but to other gods. Though married, they acted immorally. And in fact, this is the main symbolic message of Hosea, that they were unfaithful, and that God remained faithful.

Follow me now, as we look a little bit into chapters one, two and three. They may stretch your sensibilities a little bit. They may use direct language in these chapters that you're not quite comfortable with, but we don't shy away from God's Word because it makes us uneasy. You see, God wanted Hosea to marry someone who would later symbolize the unfaithfulness of Israel. This is not, single people, the pattern for you to follow. Let me just put that up front. Hosea chapter one, verse two, “When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, ‘Go, take for yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD’”. Now, it’s using the term harlotry. You can insert fornication; it's the same type of word.

Basically, God is calling a prophet to marry someone who would indeed act like Israel is already acting. And their relationship was going to symbolize the love and faithfulness of God, but their relationship was not going to be perfect. She would cheat on him. Hosea’s wife's name is Gomer. I don't know any of you ladies named Gomer. But her name was Gomer. And she had three children with Hosea. The first was a boy named Jezreel, in chapter one, verse four, means “God sows”. A second was a girl named Lo-ruhama, which means “no mercy” or “not pity”, that's in chapter one, verse six. And then they had another boy Lo-ammi, which means ‘not my people’ in chapter one, verse nine. Parents naming your child, God Sows, in other words, you haven't sowed well, or No Mercy? Can you just imagine what that would be like? “Come here, No Mercy. Come here, Not My People.” That is literally the name of these children.

Some of you may have thought your parents were unkind with whatever they called you. This excels that area. It is literally for their entire lives, a symbolic picture of how the Israelites were acting. And whenever they would think about calling his children something or saying “Oh, go look at your wife, there was the prophet ready to lay down exactly how they themselves were acting. Hosea would prophesy against them, that is Israel. He did so from Judah, most likely. His wife would be unfaithful. She would even, as she pursued others, be sold into what we think is the wording for a slave market, trafficked and then bought back by her husband and loved unconditionally by her husband.

You say, “That's all well and good, Pastor Dave. But how do you know their marriage is an allegorical picture? You've been teaching us that we can't just throw this allegory thing around. And even though, yeah, the kids have weird names, maybe that's all the further it was supposed to go”. Well, look in chapter three with me. We're gonna read the whole thing, all five verses. This is Hosea’s symbolic marriage, explicitly explained. “And the LORD said to me, [that is the Lord said to Hosea] ‘Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulterous, even as the LORD [notice the comparison] loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.’ [Verse two in chapter three] So I bought her for 15 shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley.

“And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.’ For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the LORD and to His goodness in the latter days.” Hosea had to buy his wife back from the slave market. And what did he profess to her? “So will I also be to you,” that is, “I will belong to you, and my heart will be for you.”

That is amazing. That is the heart of a spouse, fully tethered to the Lord God, no matter what their partner is doing, no matter what their companion is doing. They have such a strong relationship with God, that they can overcome even these great evils, even these great trials. Is your marriage that strong? I pray we never have to know what that is like. But that's the first indictment is that they were all living unfaithfully, and the very prophet who spoke to them, his whole life was a witness against them.

The second charge brought against Israel, in general, is that they had “no knowledge of God in the land”. That's Hosea chapter four, the end of verse one, “no knowledge of God in the land.” Now, they had scrolls. They had prophets. They had words, but they themselves did not know God. Hosea is full of pictures of their spiritual condition. I'll list them off for you. Chapter six, verse four, they are compared to a morning cloud that's here one minute and gone the next. Chapter seven, verse eight, a half-baked cake, like God had not gotten deep into their lives. Chapter seven, verse 11, they were silly like a dove going from one ally to the next. They kept trying to go to Assyria for help. And then they kept trying to go to Egypt for help, and they couldn't make up their mind, like this simple bird.

Chapter seven, verse 16, they were like an unstable bow; they couldn't be depended on. And over and over again, you would see what is recorded in chapter four, verse six, “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.” And do not think that is simply that they didn't have information. They had information. They had an incredible amount of information. That what they didn't have, was a true understanding, deep in their hearts, of the God of the universe.

Chapter four, verse six continues and says, “And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also I will forget your children.” Remember the parent-child relationship? God is called our father. He’s hitting right at the very core of who they are and what they idolize. Chapter four, verse eight, “They feed on the sin of my people; they are greedy for their iniquity,” greedy for iniquity. This is God's chosen people. Why would he say “I forget you and your children”? Because, he promised in Deuteronomy chapter 28, that if they disobeyed, they would be severely punished. And that is what he is doing. Removing them as his people would be a great judgment, like removing your children from you would be a great judgment to you.

He calls their “knowledge” and their understanding in chapter four, verse 12. He says, “My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the whore.” And that's a very crass word in our society. It means they have given themselves to others even spiritually, here. The context here is that they have gone after other gods; they have gone after other sins, like it's about as wise as someone asking their walking stick for directions. They have traded relationship with the Almighty God for a walking stick.

Sometimes it's not so obvious, but that's what we can be doing. Whenever we say, “I'm doing things my way,” or “that's just how I am.” In other words, “I am so hardened by sin, I can't ever be changed. That's just the way I am.” That's what that phrase means. We reject God just like the Israelites. Or we say, “My life is better than most.” Listen. Jesus Christ is our standard, not your neighbor, not your boss, certainly not the news. Jesus is your standard. Jesus, who allowed the flesh to be ripped off his back out of love for you, that Jesus. The one whom God sent to die on the cross for your sins, so that you could be closer to him, that Jesus. The one who paid for every single sin you have, past, present, future, that Jesus. That Jesus is our standard, the perfect, righteous, holy God.

But yet, many have traded that Jesus for a comfortable lifestyle. As long as my bills are paid, and relationships are doing pretty good, well, life is good. Many Christians live in a spiritual retirement home, I'm afraid. Listen, Satan doesn't care. if you listen to 1000 sermons a month, so long as you're not changed by them. He doesn't care if you know more than the average person, so long as you have no godly influence on others. The American church today has traded a deep and abiding relationship with God for passivity and ambivalence. Shouldn't someone at least ask, “Is God pleased?” Is he pleased with us? Do I know him now better than last week. Is he sweeter to me? Am I still asking him to prune me and to carve off the areas I haven't fully given over to him? Or have we been okay with having hard hearts?

God's punishment on them in chapter four, verse 14, for their lack of knowledge says this, “a people without understanding shall come to ruin.” [Chapter] 8:14 says, “I will send fire upon his cities, and it shall devour her strongholds.” And remember I told you that he specifically, before Assyria came, he specifically said Assyria is coming. Chapter 11, verse five, written before their domination of the northern 10 tribes, “Assyria shall be their king,” speaking of those who have rejected God, in this case, the entire nation. You see, their problem wasn't that they didn't know God's word. They had prophets communicating it. Their problem was that they thought God was bluffing.

I think we think God is bluffing, as a church today. In our church, in other churches, we kind of, every time we sin, we're thinking, “Oh, I'm saved. It’s free grace; it's all covered. I'm just gonna do it anyway. God's gonna take care of all of my sin. And when I stand before him, I'm gonna be seen with the righteousness of Jesus Christ and nothing on earth can happen to me now.” How does that stack with Hosea or Genesis or Exodus or Leviticus or Numbers or Deuteronomy or Joshua, Judges, you get the idea, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, all of those. How does it stack with those? You see, we can't think that God is bluffing, and that he's not going to allow us to reap what we have sown. You may have your sins forgiven, but God never promises here on Earth, that you will not reap what you have sown.

Now he may shower you with his grace, and withhold his hand and stay what we deserve, and that would be a wonderful blessing. But Israel thought, “The last few generations got by doing whatever they wanted. And we are too.” They thought, “If I could just hold out a little longer. I'm just not ready to let go of my entire life. I'm the chosen elect of God.” Israel was decimated, year after year after year. Assyria came in 722. Babylon came, Persia came, Greece came, Rome came, Jesus came. Hundreds and hundreds of years of rejection. Fast forward to Israel in 1960. Remember, when they left Egypt, they had about 2-5 million people, conservative estimates. 1960, Israel as a nation had about 2 million people. Only 12 years after becoming a nation again, they started growing prolifically. Today it's estimated about 9 million people live within their borders. That's pretty good. That's pretty good growth.

How many Muslims do you think live in Israel, who outright reject Jesus Christ, who outright reject the God that Jewish religious people serve? How many Muslims do you think live within their borders? About 20%, 17 to 20% are the estimates. What percentage do you think are Christian in Israel? Not just Jewish, but actually accepted the Messiah who came, who was predicted by Isaiah their profit? About 2% out of 9,000,000, 2%. Think about Loudoun County. Look up the statistics. In 1980, about 20% of Loudoun County was considered conservative evangelical. Do you know how much of Loudoun County is considered conservative evangelical now? Less than 5%.

Now, if you lump in all the liberal denominations, you know, where homosexuality is okay, and women pastors are okay, throwing out some of this book and that book are okay. You can get all the way up, including the Catholics, you can get all the way up to about 20%. But if you look at orthodox, conservative Christianity, you're at around 5% at best. Israel is still impacted 2,700 years later. Was it worth it, those moments of sin? Was it really worth it to decimate their nation? They are still rejected as the people of God. You could not say today that they are the chosen people of God. They are set aside for the time of the Gentiles. That's what the New Testament teaches. And they will continue to be set aside until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in and the New Testament predicts that one day all Israel will be saved. Was it worth it?

Maybe that's you today, wandering from God, sinning like a pro. There is a better way, friends. And all throughout Hosea, God pled with them with this better way. And this is the true point, the compassion of the true God. This the third point, the compassion of the true God. Chapter one, verse 10, right after telling them “You are not my people,” he says, “Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ it shall be said to them, ‘Children of the living God,’” children of the living God. Chapter two, right after God says they have forgotten me in verse 14, “’Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. [Verse 20, in chapter two] I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD. [Verse 23] And I will sow her for myself in the land. [not just some spiritual understanding, but in the land] And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”

All throughout Hosea, amidst all of the judgments, God's loyal love continues to shine through. Chapter 10, verse 12, after eight chapters of recounting their sin, eight chapters worth, in chapter 10, verse 12, he says, “Sow for yourselves righteousness; [Remember that, “reap what you sow”.] reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that He may come and rain righteousness upon you.” His love is never ending, and he wants you to come back to him. He wants you to enjoy a righteous life. He wants you to not be hard and look upon God's word with, you know, crooked head and to think through, “Wow, is this talking about me?” Yes, this is talking about you.

The principles here, hold true through the New Testament, that when you reject God, he will come after you. Was that not the purpose of the cross? Did Jesus not come to seek and to save sinners? Did he not come to save those who knew they were unrighteous? Chapter 11 verse four, “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. [Verse eight] My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender.” Have you ever heard a verse like that about God and his heart, about God's heart for his people? “My heart recoils within me and my compassion grows warm and tender.” This is a God you can be close to.

God in chapter 11, verses 10 and 11 says this, he tells them of a future day when he will gather them, though they are obstinate and reject all of his calls for mercy. One day he will gather them. Chapter 11, verse 10, “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.” “Though they turned to Egypt, I will call, and you will come out of Egypt and come to me, though you asked Assyria for help and not me, I will call you out of Assyria, and you will be my people, and I will be your God.”

Is this not a better way? Is there anything better than a relationship with Christ that we could think of? You see, God is holy, and he's tender. God is righteous and just and will deal out full justice. But he is willing, with compassionate hands, with a compassionate heart, to embrace and forgive you. But you must walk in his path. He tells them and reminds them in chapter 12, verse five, of his memorial name. Verse five, “Yahweh, the God of hosts, Yahweh is his memorial name; ‘So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and the justice, and wait continually for your God.’” He is personal with them. That capital L-O-R-D there, that’s Yahweh in the Hebrew; that is his name. Yahweh is his memorial name. “I want you to know me.” Do you want to know God, friends, because you can't have one foot on your path and one on his. You have to be all-in to what God is calling us to do, and it is tender. The paths are good, and they are right, and they are wooing you to himself. He is merciful and kind and forgiving. And he put up with the Israelites for hundreds and hundreds of years. But he wasn't bluffing.

To wrap this up this morning, look at chapter 14, verse four, “I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them.” There's nothing better than being close to God. Like a father to his wayward son, the prodigal son, if you turn from your sin, and run to the Lord Jesus Christ, he will love you freely. Give in to God's pursuit of your life. And there you will enjoy his love forever.

Let's pray. Father God, we want to know you more, to truly know you. Lord, I pray that you would continue to help us to follow after you, to follow in the paths that you have set, and to know you in a deep and abiding relationship. Lord God, help us here as a church to love one another, to be compassionate to each other. Help the elders, Lord, to shepherd well, out of a deep and abiding relationship with you and an ever-growing knowledge of you. Lord, I pray that if there's somebody here that doesn't know you, that they would be broken of their sins today, that they would fully give themselves over to you, that they might know your love and rejoice in your kindness. Why don't we just take a moment now in silence and talk to God and ask God to bring you closer to himself. Lord God, truly you are loving and righteous. And we pray that all our ways would bring you glory. In your precious name, amen.