Hosea

Major Messages From the Minor prophets  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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Using the love story of Gomer and Hosea to show our story with God

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Everyone one loves a good love story
For proof all you have to do is look at some of the greatest writings of all time like Romeo and Juliette or a midsummer’s Night Dream or Pride and prejudice to name just a few
Hollywood certainly knows this because they make billions of dollars every year producing romantic stories
In fact in 1995 when Hollywood wanted to make the most expensive movie ever (at the time anyway) about one of the greatest human tragedies of all time they knew that they had to make it a love story
And so 2 years later on December 9th 1997 at a cost of over $200 million, Titanic was released to the world
Initially this movie about the sinking of the Titanic grossed more than $1.84 Billion dollars and has since exceeded the $2 Billion dollar mark
That’s right the story of the death of 1503 is still the second highest grossing movie of all time because it was made into a love story
The Bible is also full of some incredible love stories
Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and Rachel, Ruth and Boaz, even Mary and Joseph is an incredible story
And there are others that we could list, including the story that we are going to look at today as we continue our series Major Messages From the Minor Prophets, it is the story of Hosea and Gomer
I will also give you a spoiler alert that not only is this one of the great love stories of the Bible, it is also one of the strangest, for reasons you will soon see
Unlike previous messages I am not even going to try and get through the entire book of Hosea
Instead I am going to focus only on the first 3 chapters because if you have a solid understanding of those chapters you have a solid understanding of the rest of the book
The reason for that is because God used Hosea and his experience with Gomer to illustrate for the people of the northern kingdom of Israel the ups and downs of their relationship
So this morning instead of talking about Israel in the mid 700’s B.C. I want to use this story to illustrate our relation with God through Christ
So let’s begin this morning with “The Choice”
Hosea 1:2 NIV
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.”
Hosea 1:
Yup you heard that right it’s somewhere around the year 785 B.C. give or take a couple of decades and Amos has passed away so God has raised up a new prophet to bring His message to the people of the northern kingdom
I can’t even begin to tell you how overwhelmingly humbling and exciting it is to be called by God to speak His words in this day and age so I can’t even begin to imagine what that call must have been like for Hosea
I picture the scene something like this; Hosea has just finished his Masters of Divinity degree and he’s standing in front of the help wanted board at the Bible college when God speaks to him and says, ‘ have had my eye on you for a while and I have the perfect job for you.I want you to be my spokesperson to Israel and bring them the Words that I shall give you. Now the job I am calling you to is a big job and in order to be the most effective you can be I want you to have a wife.’
Now this point Hosea is shaking with excitement.
He can’t believe that out of all of his classmates, God wants him for this job. I mean you don’t usually get an opportunity like this until you have paid your dues and put in your time and worked your way up the ladder.
And to top it off He wants me to get married.
‘Okay God you want me, you got me! I’ll take the job. And as for that last part, there are a couple of girls from my class that I have had my eye on and I think that any of them would make a great preachers wife.’
‘Actually already have someone picked out for you but she’s not from your class, in fact she’s not even from the Bible College. She’s from the big red building 2 blocks down.’
‘The big red building 2 blocks down? But God that’s a… well it’s where… God it’s not a nice place! Oh wait I get it. She must have a ministry to the women there. That makes sense. Okay God what’s her name.’
‘No Hosea, she doesn’t have a ministry there, she works there, she’s a prostitute named Gomer and you are going to marry her and she is going to be extremely unfaithful to you’
Now I don’t know about you but to both me and, I imagine, Hosea, this choice doesn’t make sense
Now we could deliberate about how God often makes choices that don’t make sense to us in order to accomplish His will but I believe that this is a little more specific than this
You see God chose you! and God chose me
Jesus said,
John 15:16 NIV
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.
Why is this such an amazing fact?
Because God chose you…even though He already knew you, even though He knew your past and the things that you had done, and even though He knew the future and the times that you would be unfaithful to Him
Psalm 139:13–16 NIV
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Psalm 139:13-16
In spite of this knowledge He still chose you to receive His mercy, He still chose you to receive His forgiveness, He still chose you to receive His love
How many times do we carry around the guilt and shame of our past or of the times that we have failed Him and allow such things to keep us from fully receiving His love?
He knows, He knew it then and He knows it now, In fact He knows the times that you are going to fail Him but haven’t yet and He loves you anyway, He chose you anyway
is a part of one of my favourite passages but let me just share that verse with you
Romans 5:5 NIV
And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
God’s love “has been poured out into our hearts” We need to accept that and receive it for you are His choice
Secondly let’s look at ‘The Cheating’
You see just because God warned Hosea in advance that Gomer would be unfaithful to him it didn’t make it right and it certainly didn’t make it any easier for him to take
When we take a look at this love story between Hosea and Gomer what should become clear to us is just how much our cheating, our unfaithfulness hurts the Father
Now this might catch some of you by surprise and you may have trouble believing me but God is equipped with emotions and He feels
Listen,
Ezekiel 5:13 NIV
“Then my anger will cease and my wrath against them will subside, and I will be avenged. And when I have spent my wrath on them, they will know that I the Lord have spoken in my zeal.
Psalm 106:40 NIV
Therefore the Lord was angry with his people and abhorred his inheritance.
Ezekiel 5:13
Psalm
Exodus 20:5 NIV
You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
Psalm 5:5 NIV
The arrogant cannot stand in your presence. You hate all who do wrong;
Genesis 6:6 NIV
The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.
Zephaniah 3:17 NIV
The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”
Zephania
Have you ever considered how your actions (or sometimes the lack thereof) effect God’s emotions?
Probably not but when you are in love with someone you always consider their emotions and how your actions are going to effect them, should it be any less the case for our love for God?
We are sorry for the consequences of our sin in as far as it relates to us but our we repentant for what our sin has done to God?
Don’t fall into the trap of ‘Oh He’s God, He’ll get over it. Or I’m just one of billions of people surely my unfaithfulness is low on the list of God’s priorities’
Those are lies of the enemy that are going to get a lot of people into trouble on judgement day
In chapter 1 we are told how Gomer has 3 children and while we are not told whether or not they are Hosea’s we can go based on what God told him to name them that there were things going on that were breaking his heart
How many sleepless nights? How many tear-drenched prayers? How many times asking “Why?”
As we move into our third point “The Cost” we are going to see just what unfaithfulness costs God but let’s never forget the toll it has on Him every day
In chapter 2 God has a talk with Hosea and tells him what is going to happen with Israel explaining that they are going to go far from Him but that He will bring them home
We have to assume that it is during this time that Gomer has had enough of life as a preachers wife and had left Hosea for the allure of her other life
Can we be honest with ourselves for just a moment, living life according to the flesh has an appeal to it or else it would never trap anyone
The enemy of your soul would love to convince you that you are missing out on something by living for Christ, that there are greater pleasures available through sin than through holiness
But here is something to remember, “Sin always promises more than it can deliver, takes you farther than you ever wanted to go, costs you more than you wanted to pay and keeps you longer than you wanted to stay”
I think that Gomer is the perfect example of this because all she wanted was a good time, but her good time ended up with her becoming a slave
Chapter 3 is only 5 verses long but we are only going to concern ourselves with verses 1 and 2
Hosea 3:1–2 NIV
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.” So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley.
John 8:34 NIV
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
Romans 6:6 NIV
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—
2 Peter
2 Peter 2:19 NIV
They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.”
But if the cheating gives us a picture of the effect that our sin has on God, the cost paid for our redemption ought to demonstrate the effect it should have on us
Gomer had become a literal slave, her choices had left her battered, bruised, with no self-esteem or respect
Her life was now determined by the highest bidder, and in her condition the bids weren’t too high
She must have felt worthless
That is until she heard that familiar voice of her husband calling out above the crowd, ‘I will give you everything that I have for her. For I love her.’
Imagine what that must have meant to her
How it must have made her feel.
John 3:16 NIV
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
1 Corinthians 6:20 NIV
you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
1 Peter 1:18–19 NIV
For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
When we realize that God was willing to give everything in order to redeem us, to purchase us out of the slavery that we ourselves have gotten into through our own actions, it should have an effect on us
Ephesians 1:7 NIV
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace
Ephesians 1:
It should determine our self worth as well as give us the resolve not to disappoint Him this time because, as Solomon once wrote , “I am my beloved’s and He is mine”
While the love story of Hosea and Gomer is one of the strangest in all of the scriptures it is also one of the most beautiful and the reason is that it is such a perfect illustration of the love that is ours in Christ Jesus
Revelation 19:7–9 NIV
Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.) Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”
Revelation 19:
Let’s pray
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