Minor Prophets: Hosea

“When wealthy Harvard University law student Oliver Barrett IV (Ryan O'Neal) meets Jenny Cavilleri (Ali MacGraw), a middle-class girl who is studying music at Radcliffe College, it's love at first sight. Despite the protests of Oliver's father (Ray Milland), the young couple marry. Oliver finds a job at a legal firm in New York City, but their happy life comes crashing down when it's discovered that Jenny has a terminal illness. Together, they try to cope with the situation as best they can.”

Another movie to consider when you think of love and loss is

(Insert a walk to remember picture here)

“Love and loss throughout two very young lives. Landon Carter and Jamie Sullivan - two people who find themselves unexpectedly thrown together after a practical joke between Landon and his friends which leaves a boy in hospital. As punishment Landon is forced to partake in some after school activities including the spring play. The truth of the matter is Landon can't act, so he acquires the help of the beautiful but some what invisible Jamie. You see Jamie doesn't need to be noticed, she is quiet and keeps her self to her self most of the time, Landon and his friends always make fun of Jamie as if it is a day to day task, but one day Landon brings up the courage to ask for her help with his lines. Through trials and tribulations leading up to this play Land some how falls in love with the beautiful minister's daughter. Abandoning his friends to be with her Landon shares a true love with the girl, but a heart breaking secret lies between the couple. Can they save their relationship and make all their dreams come true?”

(Insert Hosea a love story picture here)

The book of Hosea is a great picture of a love story and uses love and loss to draw a picture of Israel.

Today I want to share with you a narrative view of chapters 1-3 with introduction (brief) that was shared when I was in school. I found it touching and though I may not share the views perfectly with the student who presented it, I have made a few minor changes to it along the way. I think it paints the picture that God intended from chapters 1-3 a love story, an amazing love story.

Sorry, there is no handout for tonight, there will be next week when we are back to normal so today venture as we take a look at Hosea an amazing love story

Background: The books first three chapters focuses on the relationship between Hosea (a prophet) and his wife Gomer (who would be an adulterous woman).

Hosea was an 8th century prophet who lived among the covenant breaking people of Israel. The people lives in wealth and opulence. They had their summer houses, winter houses, ivory houses, pleasure houses too (Amos is contemporary who was from Judah sent to Isreal who records many of these things in book of Amos (Amo3:15; 6:4-6; They were immoral people too, having taken on the idolatrous ways of the surrounding people. They (Israel, northern kingdom) were participating in temple prostitution that accompanied the worship of these idols. Inf fact a man and his own son committed fornication with the same cult prostitute at the entrance of the idol’s temple, on clothes given as a pledge (Amo2:7-8). Even the women were so perverse they were called “Cows of Bashan” (Amo4:1), i.e., fat cows, made so by their opulent, degenerative lifestyle . They pressed their husbands on in this quest for wealth, prosperity and immorality.

(Transition) Many of these things we can see in the world today, and now we can see why our loving God, sees and addresses the issue where Amos was no mercy, no compassion, Hosea is about love in the first three chapters. So now a narrative view of chapter one

(Insert Chapter One picture here)

With the kind of environment this prophet of God had probably decided not to marry. God had already told Jeremiah not to marry, in fact forbid him to marry (Jer16:2ff) He may have known the phrase “many a man has been made or broken by his wife.” He was sold out for God in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation (Php2:15), he did not bend his knee or give any offering to Baal. He may have been like Paul generations later who felt and urged Christians not to marry because of the coming distress (see 1Cor7).

Having said that, God, however commands this prophet to go ahead and marry this woman, Gomer. He tells him that she will be unfaithful, caught up in adultery, ultimately become a prostitute. In God’s it says.

Hosea 1:2 NASB95

2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry; for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord.”

She is going to have children of unfaithfulness. God was commanding Hosea to do something that made no sense at all, and more than likely did not want to do it. But, being the prophet of God that he is, and trusting God wholeheartedly he did. Now, I cannot imagine that God would tell him to defile himself, so Gomer more than likey was not an immoral woman before marriage. That would also destroy the parallel between God and Israel and this relationship. Hosea marries her, knowing she will become immoral and she will bear him children of that whoredom (Hos2:4).

God loved living illustrations and you can see them throughout the O.T. God wanted one before His people’s eyes that displayed His hurt and set a living message on the hear of His spokesman of that hurt.

Like most relationships it more than likely was a lovely courtship. Hosea loved her with the fervency of any new love. The love I’m confident was mutual and she loved him too. Yes, young maid as she was, perhaps swept off her feet by this spiritual giant of a man, this prophet of God that had the heart of a saint, zeal of a patriot, and the honesty and integrity of a man of God. He was not just like “the other guys out there.” He brought to the marriage altar something few men of that day could offer. That of a pure and sincere life.

The honeymoon period must have been wonderful. And I feel sure that for a while love ruled the home. Hosea’s love would have been irresistible, but you see Gomer was a child of her time, so it couldn’t last forever. She love the wealth and ease and the loose living of her people. Hosea, however, had only one passion besides his wife, that being his being a prophet, a mouthpiece for God.

Knowing how Israel was doomed, he must preach, and that message went against his wife’s desires and her friends too. As is the case with some preachers’ wives. Gomer might have complained at first about being neglected. She undoubtedly threw up that on him time and time again. ‘You love your work; you don’t love me.” He would assuredly try to comfort her and reassure her that his love for her she could not even fathom (remember he knows what is coming and yet he loves her). He was driven by a deeper passion, however, to be faithful to his God and His work for Him. It was an urgent task since he had heard the lion roar in Zion (Amo1:2, 3:4-8).

For a while her love would have made his work easier, but now since she no longer is concerned with he or his message, he preaches with a heavy heart (I know many a preacher like this). He knew that his own wife is a part of the enemy of God, to us today an enemy of the cross. It is a truism that man finds his heaven or his hell in the woman he marries. How would you like to be married to someone who epitomized what no ruins a nation? Hosea has found his hell in Gomer.

(Insert Jezreel picture here)

Years passed by. Then something happens that renews Hosea’s hope. A son is given to them. We do not know scriptually that the boy is Hosea’s but because of the name, I would tend to believe the boy is his (Hos1:3-4) His name is Jezreel, it means “Jehovah sows, Jehovah scatters.” A double significance. To any Israelite the name Jezreel will bring to memory “victory” for many a battles were fought and won in the valley of Jezreel. An example is Deborah and Barak (Judges 4-5 over Jabin and Sisera). Hosea must have thought, ‘this boy will bring us together, close the gap between us.” Do you know any people with that mentality?It rarely does work that way. Unfortunately that is the way it worked in Hosea’s case too. Again one the meanings of the name is “Jehovah scatters.” The son was a living prophesy of the destruction of the corrupt house of king Jehu of Israel. Jeroboam II is now ruling. The valley that had been defeat over enemies now become a valley of defeat for Israel. The boy drives Hosea and Gomer farther apart. Truly the prophet must be disappointed, but he must go on preaching.

Subsequent years are tempestuous ones. He continues to preach, but comes home each night to a home that’s no longer a home, a wife that’s no longer a wife. Love no longer rules there. (if you have ever been there, I understand, relate an the brokenness and frustration that comes with it). Rumors come to his ears concerning his wife’s fidelity. Though the evidence was probably conclusive, I’m sure he refused to believe it at first, to turn a blind eye to it. He was not willing to accept that she had committed her love and her faith to others.

(insert Lo-Ruhamah picture here)

Two more children were born during those turbulent years (Again, God is using the wife as a picture of Israel). So the daughter born is to be name Lo-Ruhamah which means “one upon no mercy will be bestowed, unloved.” Hosea feels unloved even in his own house. “not loved,” God will show no love to Israel because she is a child of whoredom.

(Insert Lo-Ammi picture here)

Then a son is born, the name is Lo-Ammi, which means ‘Not my people.” From doubting, not wanting to believe there is now without a doubt clarity. The child born beneath his own roof is not of his own loins, but clearly is one of Gomers through whoredom.

Yet he did not divorce his wife. Amazing to all! His enemies must have called him a “fool” and laughed at him. He goes on preaching. Inspite of all the discouragement at home, knowledge that your wife does not love you, he goes on about the task and remains faithful to her. She goes from man to man, while he goes from audience to audience.

One day he comes home. No smells, no dinner being cooked. He hears no wifely rustling going on. He finds the children and they are alone. There is a note on the table. No wife leaves without leaving a note. It reads, “ Hosea, I don’t love you anymore. I don’t love the children or this house. I love these men I have been seeing all these years. I’m going to live with them. Don’t come looking for me. Don’t speak to me if you see me in public. Sincerely, but no longer yours. Gomer.” That night he alone puts the children to bed, for the first time but it won’t be the last. He sits up waiting for her return, like a father of the Prodigal Son must have done that first night too. And the wait continues, day after day, night after night he waits. Reality finally sinks in, she is not coming home, she is gone.

In reflecting over the events Hosea saw deeper into the heart of God more than any man that lived before Calvary. And as he did he learned three lessons.

The true nature of sin, it is a tragedy and is not a trifle.

He learned that sin is characterized in scripture as whoredom, and the sinner is the whore or adulterer.

God said ‘Your experience Hosea is like mine has been with Isreal. Like that baby in the desert, Israel was a dirty baby whose cord had not even been cut. It took her and washed her and reared her. Then I decked her in ornaments and clothes to wed to myself. She went out, however and joined herself to all the heathen nations. you know, I really don’t think we understand sin until we picture it that way. (personally speaking now) the feeling of brokenness from a heartbreak personally was devastating, think how it would be for God and His chosen people. That is what we who were once separated from God because of our sin (unfaithful, adulterous people). It was a tragedy.

God is a suffering God

I can see Calvary and say, “This is the agony God has been suffering for my sins, and the sins of the world since before the foundation of the world.” Hosey couldn’t see Calvary, but he certainly recognized the suffering of God by his own experiences. You know, we do have a unique God. No other god or idol suffers for man. It’s always vice-versa with idols, demanding of men everything, even suffering, e.g. prophets of Baal thinking they had cut themselves, human sacrifices to Molech. It is weakness if a god suffers, the world says. I hears a preacher talk about a conversation with a Hindu in Madras, India. He asked him how many gods he had. It was close to a million. He asked him how many of them suffered. His answer was, ‘None suffer.” We have no weak gods like your Jesus!”

How did Hosea learn this lesson? That isn’t hard to see. Surely he would be preaching a crowd and over their heads he would see Gomer going off down the street with some man in high position. And then some time later the same scene would be repeated, only this time the companion of his wife was not so distinguished. She goes downhill until he sees her going off with the down drunk. The hell of it is, he still loves her. Could you imagine his thoughts at night, wondering where she is, who she is with right then? That is the suffering he still was going through because he still loved her.

Chapter two of Hosea is much like what Hosea must have said and through thought it is specifically applied to God and Israel.

Children rebuke your mother (2:2) Surely he tried to talk to someone as he paced the floor in anger and hurt. The children look on in misunderstanding and gloom. He talks to them, rebuke your mother”

His frustration and anger come through as he says, “I’ll never take her back,” knowing that he would if he could (vv.3-4) and “I’ll quit loving her children..” As if this might bring her back, if she knows that her children would be neglected. “Why do I have to love you so, Gomer? It would be better if I could just quit loving you, throw off all reminders of you, and leave.”

He then changes to trying to wish her ill (vv.6-7).

He will try to make her paths hard and frustrating, hoping that too will bring her back to love, rather than her chase after other things (v.7)

He was going to show her up (vv.8-13) “but Me she forgot.” Discipline, Quit sending support. From anger to sorrow and breakdown down.

I know, I’ll try the opposite. I’ll try to court her again and lure her back home when her troubles overtake her (vv.14-16) We will be husband and wife again, (vv.16, 19-23) He will make her forget her lovers.

I once read that sensitivity to pain is a mark of higher intelligence, e.g. one crab enjoying eating a second crab as a third crab is eating the second crab; a mother whose son was a wretch, rebellious, and immoral yet she loved him.

3. God is anxious and willing to forgive

No heathen god is this way, only grudgingly. If so, why all the penance and sacrifices, etc.? Hosea teaches this. He preaches and sees his wife going off with someone, and he says, ‘Pardon me.” He goes off to find his wife and says to her, ‘Honey come home. The kids miss you and need you. They cry themselves to sleep every night, always asking me, ‘Daddy, when’s mommy coming home?’ I can’t sleep myself. I have little happiness. My life is not joyful anymore. Come home, please.” “Never,” she retorts, “Didn’t you read my note? I don’t love you. I guess I never did. I wouldn’t come back to you . . . if you were the last man on earth!” And we see him calling after her as she heads off to another rendezvous of illicit sex, “Just want you to remember that I love you, and any time you want to come home, the door is always oepn. Just come home.” “Never,” she says, but as she goes off down the street the last thing she hears Hosea says is “Any time, any time you want to come home, you can.”

Who gave Hosea the power to love her like that? GOD DID! Hosea must have asked himself that question, “Who gave me this ability to love her this way?” He concluded, GOD DID. It will give us the power to love our brethren and all the ugly, sinful people in the world. We can be sure that unless we comprehend God’s love for us in terms of Hosea-Gomer type of love, we will not love our brethren, much less the lost.

Our story is not over. One day as perhaps Hosea is preaching, a messenger interrupts the sermon and says, “Gomer is selling herself on the slave market.”

Hosea 3:1 NASB95

1 Then the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.”

Go, show your love to your wife again. Go love again or go on loving. Gomer is on the slave market. No one will buy her as a mistress any more. Hardly will buy her as a slave! Doesn’t she hate Hosea? All she has to do is come home, but she’d rather sell herself into slavery than come home to Hosea. How like the sinner she is!

“Well, she deserves it. Good riddance. I’ve done what I could. Love have reached it’s last step.” That might have been what I would have said. But not Hosea. He runs as fast as he can to get to the auction.

Listen to the auctioneer, “What bids for this woman. Oh she’s not much, I admit. She’s not beautiful any more. Her body has been used. Her mind is gone. She’s not good for anybody’s concubine, but she can till your garden, mop your floors, watch your children while you play the socialite games and the gay life. What er my bids for this woman as a menial slave? Not a penny was offered! “ Will no one offer anything? Going once, going twice . . . “ and almost gone. Hosea rushes in, trying to catch his breath “I’ll bid a homer and a half of barley and 15 shekels of silver (two weeks wages for the normal man). Thirty pieces of silver was the price for a wounder slave. I’m sure it was all he had. “I’ll give you all I have got for that woman that no one loves but me and no one has any use for but me.”

He carries her home, but he does not restore her immediately to the status of wifehood. He loves her too much for that. She must repent first. ‘You will sit over here for a time and think about what I’ve done for you. I will not be a husband to you, nor you a wife to me until you repent. When you do, I will indeed be your husband again.”

The curtain falls. That’s the end of the story. what happened? We would like to believe that she repented and threw her arms around Hosea and said, “Oh, darling, I’m so sorry. I’ve hurt you so bad. At last your love has conquered. I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to make up to you all the hurt I’ve given you.”

All he said was, “You’ve done it already!”

Conclude very briefly

(Prayer) (Close)

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