Well, please turn with me in your Bibles to the prophet Hosea. He's the first of the minor prophets, so after Daniel, you'll find Hosea. We're continuing our summer series on looking at the grace of God in the Old Testament. The Lord willing, in a couple of weeks, we'll return to our exposition of Matthew's Gospel.
Certainly, as we consider the grace of God in the Old Testament, it is good for us to concern ourselves with the first three chapters of the book of Hosea. I'll read all three chapters in their entirety. Together, it's not much longer than some of the other chapters that we read at times. So please give heed to the word of God as I begin reading in chapter one of the prophet Hosea, beginning in verse one.
The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Beri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel. When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, go, take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry, for the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord. So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Dibling, and she conceived and bore him a son. Then the Lord said to him, Call his name Jezreel, for in a little while I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, and bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.
It shall come to pass in that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. And she conceived again and bore a daughter. Then God said to him, Call her name Lo-Ruhamah, For I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away. Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah, will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword or battle, by horses or horsemen.
And when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. Then God said, Call his name Lo-Ammi. For you are not my people, and I will not be your God. Yet, the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered.
And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, you are not my people, there it shall be said to them, you are sons of the living God. Then the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together and appoint for themselves one head. And they shall come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel. Say to your brethren, my people, and to your sisters, mercy is shown.
Bring charges against your mother. Bring charges. For she is not my wife, nor am I her husband. Let her put away her harlotries from her sight and her adulteries from between her breasts, lest I strip her naked and expose her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.
I will not have mercy on her children, for they are the children of harlotry. For their mother has played the harlot. She who conceived them has behaved shamefully. For she said, I will go after my lovers who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink.
Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns and wall her in so that she cannot find her paths. She will chase her lovers, but not overtake them. Yes, she will seek them, but not find them. Then she will say, I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better for me than now.
For she did not know that I gave her grain, new wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for bail. Therefore, I will return and take away my grain in its time, and my new wine in its season. and will take back my wool and my linen, given to cover her nakedness. Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall deliver her from my hand. I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, her sabbaths, all her appointed feasts.
And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, of which she has said, these are my wages that my lovers have given me. So I will make them a forest and the beasts of the field shall eat them. I will punish her for the days of the bales to which she burned incense. She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry and went after her lovers.
But me she forgot, says the Lord. Therefore, behold, I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness and speak comfort to her. I will give her her vineyards from there, and the Valley of Acre is a door of hope. She shall sing there as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.
And it shall be in that day, says the Lord, that you will call me my husband and no longer call me my master. For I will take from her mouth the names of the bales, and they shall be remembered by their name no more. In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, with the birds of the air, and with the creeping things of the ground. Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth to make them lie down safely.
I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness and justice, in loving kindness and mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord. It shall come to pass in that day that I will answer, says the Lord.
I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth. The earth shall answer with grain, with new wine, and with oil. They shall answer Jezreel. Then I will sow her for myself in the earth, and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy.
Then I will say to those who are not my people, you are my people, and they shall say, you are my God. Then the Lord said to me, go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who looked to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans. So I bought her for myself for 15 shekels of silver and one and one half homers of barley. And I said to her, you shall stay with me many days.
You shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man. So too will I be toward you. For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim. Afterward, the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king.
They shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days. Amen. Well, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank You for this, Your Word, and we pray now for the ministry of Your Spirit.
At the outset, Lord God, we confess our sins and our iniquities. We know that it darkens our minds, it darkens our understanding, and we just pray that You would help us to understand this section of Scripture. Help us to see the glory, the grace of Almighty God displayed We ask as well, Father, for those who do not know you, that they would see hope and welcome and invitation in passages like these, and they would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and know the joy of being found in him. And we thank you, God, for your written word, and we pray now that the Spirit would guide us in our studies, and we pray in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.
Introduction and Overview
Well, the prophecy of Hosea can be broken down into three broad categories or sections. The first is here, chapters 1 to 3, where obviously the parallel between Hosea and Gomer parallels God the Father and Israel. And then in chapters 4 through 12, we see God indicting the people for their breach of his covenant. and then chapters 13 and 14 end the book with covenant renewal. In other words, chapters 4 to 14 basically develop and amplify and explain all that is contained here in chapters 1 to 3 of the book of Hosea.
Just at the outset, I want to read a quote from a man, a commentator named Thomas McComiskey. He says that the prophecy of Hosea is a tapestry of grace. The prophecy of Hosea is a tapestry of grace. He says, as the prophet loves a woman whose crudeness and brazenness must have hurt him deeply, so God's grace comes to his people in their unloveliness.
Our spiritual condition is never so low that God cannot woo and receive us back to himself as Hosea received Gomer. Well, as we take up these first three chapters, we will do so under three considerations. The first is the prophet's marriage to Gomer in chapter 1, verse 1, to chapter 2, verse 1. Secondly, we'll look at the Lord's marriage to Israel, chapter 2, verses 2 to 23.
And then, thirdly, the unfaithful wives return. in chapter 3 verses 1 to 5. So that's a bit of a road map as to where we will go this morning.
The Prophet's Marriage to Gomer
Let's look first at the prophet's marriage to Gomer.
Historical Context of Hosea's Ministry
Notice the date. We are told in chapter 1, verse 1, when we are to understand that this took place. He lists the kings of Judah who reigned at his time, and then he lists Jeroboam. This would be Jeroboam II, the king of Israel.
Now, Hosea's primary ministry was to the northern tribes. He does refer to Judah. He says in chapter 1 that Judah will be spared. But his primary target audience is on the unfaithfulness of the northern kingdom of Israel.
And so he lived and he ministered, roughly speaking, about 750 BC to about 715 BC. So in the 8th century BC, this man worked specifically in the Northern Kingdom to tell Israel of their sin and to call them to repentance. Now the nation under Jeroboam II enjoyed economic prosperity. There were good things happening, to be sure, within the covenant community, but they were not faithful to the living and true God.
And what was promised in Deuteronomy is coming upon them. In the book of Deuteronomy, God says when you go into the land, and you've eaten the good things, and you're not thankful, and you're not grateful, and you don't return praise to the Lord, the Lord God will bring judgment to bear upon you. And we see that manifested in a twofold way. They forget God, they bow to Baal.
Now, never forget this reality. When you're bowing to Baal, you are rejecting God. When you are bowing to money, you are rejecting Christ. When you are bowing to sex, you are rejecting the Savior.
When you are bowing to something else in religious worship and homage, you have forgotten the living and true God. And that is precisely the case here in Israel in the 8th century B.C. They were seeking after Baal, they were giving Baal credit for the bounty of the land, and in all of this they were rejecting Yahweh of Israel. Now notice, secondly, with reference to the prophet's marriage to Gomer, the marriage itself.
Three Views on the Marriage
There's three ways to approach this particular marriage. Three ways to try and explain what is going on here in Hosea chapters 1 to 3. The first explanation or the first interpretation of this marriage is what's called the symbolic view. That Hosea really didn't marry Gomer, but rather it was a vision, it was a teaching tool, it was designed simply to point to Israel concerning their sin.
Now, a lot of the older commentators hold this particular position. This is the position of the Geneva Bible. John Calvin, John Gill, E.J. Young in the 20th century, they all adopt that symbolic view that the prophet really didn't marry a harlot.
Now I understand what drives that particular view. The thought of Hosea marrying a harlot is offensive. It is scandalous, it is a bit shocking to be sure. They all suggest things like, who could listen to the prophet's ministry knowing that he was associated with a woman of such loose morals?
A woman like her, how in the world could anybody ever give ear to this prophet and his message? So that's the symbolic view, it really didn't happen, but rather it was either visionary or just a symbol designed to teach the truth concerning the Lord's marriage to Israel. The second interpretation is what's called the proleptic. The proleptic.
And that simply means that at the time Hosea married Gomer, she was chaste. At the time that Homer, I want to say Homer and Gosea, and that's going to keep haunting me. So if I do that, forgive me. Hosea and Gomer.
Couldn't be Jack and Jill. Has to be Hosea and Gomer. But the proleptic view teaches that Hosea married Gomer when Gomer was chaste. And it was after they contracted the marriage that then Gomer became unfaithful. or engaged in infidelity.
So that's the proleptic view. God knew, of course, that she would go astray. So this really kind of just masks the problem. God, knowing that she's going to go astray, nevertheless tells Hosea to marry her.
I don't really think that gets God off the hook. Then there is what's called the literal view. That's the third position. This is the position that I take.
Now, to be quite candid, the people that disagree on this subject will still sit with Jesus and Abraham and Isaac at the marriage supper of the Lamb. This is not soul damning if you take a different interpretation here. But I do believe that this actually happened according to chapter 1.
Arguments for the Literal View
And I have four reasons why I take this literal position. The first is that the narrative reads as straightforward history. Now, this is true in other parts and other places in the Bible where visions are given and it's recorded as straightforward history. But you have to note the particular text.
He's given this command, and then he goes and he takes Gomer from Diblin, and he marries her. And then she conceives and bears him a son. And then it says, after that child is weaned, she bears him a daughter. And then after that child, she conceives again and has another one.
So the narrative reads as straightforward history. A second consideration is that the children of Harlotry, I suggest, were the ones that she already had before she contracted marriage with Hosea. Notice in chapter 1, Verse 2, look at the command. When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, Go take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry.
Now, as we read, after he marries Gomer, there is nothing in the text to suggest that these are not his children. In fact, everything in the text suggests that they are his children. I submit that these were the children that she had during her time as a harlot. When he marries her, he adopts them, and then these three children that we read of in chapter 1, are the spawn, are the offspring of Hosea and Gomer.
Look specifically at verse 3. So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim and she conceived and bore him a son. It would be hard to figure out how these would be children of harlotry when they have married legally, when they have contracted and covenanted together. Now some postulate that while she's married to him, she goes out and commits adultery, and then they have these children.
Nothing in the text suggests that. Nothing whatsoever. He says, take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry. Those children who were born to her in her time as a harlot.
And then notice in chapter 1, or in chapter 2 verse 1, it's as if now Hosea is speaking to the children. Each of the three children born between Hosea and Gomer represent something. They're given names as messages to Israel. But notice in chapter 2 verse 1, say to your brethren, my people.
This would be legit if they only had the two sons and the one daughter together. But then notice, and to your sisters, plural. So when Hosea and Gomer have a daughter, she has sisters, probably the children of Harlotry that Hosea himself adopts. Thirdly, the woman he marries is a wife of Harlotry, according to chapter 1, verse 2, and she's guilty of adultery in chapter 3, verse 1.
You can turn there for a moment. You think, why is he drawing this out? Why is he taking the time? This is a tapestry of grace.
This magnifies God. This is about the Lord of Israel and his faithfulness to his people when they are wayward. It takes some time to develop the backdrop because the blackness and the darkness and the wretchedness of Hosea's marriage to Gomer magnifies the graciousness of His mercy to Gomer. And thus we are to appreciate the blackness and the darkness and the wretchedness of the Lord's relationship to Israel.
When they return and He receives them, it magnifies His grace. It magnifies His mercy. Gomer is a woman of harlotry in 1.2. In 3.1, she's committing adultery.
Some say he was commanded to marry two separate women. I don't believe the text supports that. I believe that Hosea married Gomer. They had three children together.
And at some time subsequent, she became unfaithful again. She engaged in adultery. And it is to this that God responds in chapter 3 when he tells him to recover, to go after her, to find her, to buy her back, and to secure her for himself. This is what God does.
This is how He operates. This is the way He functions with us. He sees us as committers of harlotry, and He brings us into blessed covenant with Him, and then we're still wayward, and we're still adulterous, and He nevertheless recovers us. And then the fourth reason why I take the literal interpretation is because the priests alone were prohibited, according to Leviticus 21, 7 and 14 and 15, from marrying harlots.
The prophets never were. The law of God does not specify that the prophet of God cannot marry a harlot. Now sin, according to the Westminster Shorter Catechism, is any lack of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God. John defines sin in 1 John 3, 4 as lawlessness.
So where the law does not restrict, where the law does not prohibit, where the law does not call a man to cease, it is not unlawful for him to do it. So that is why, for reasons, I take the literal view with reference to this situation.
The Marriage as Acted Parable
Notice, he is told to marry this woman. Verse 2, when the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, go take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry. Tells us something about Hosea the prophet, doesn't it? Tells us something of his devotion to the God of Israel, doesn't it?
Lord, do you know what they're going to say? Do you know what the people will say? Do you know what they're going to think? Do you know how they're going to look at me?
Do you know how they're going to murmur, and how they're going to gossip, and how they're going to question, and how they're going to talk behind my back, and how they're going to slander? Not one whit of that from Hosea. Not one breath of that from Hosea. Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry.
Now note the reason why. This activity wherein Hosea marries Gomer is an acted parable that describes God's relationship to Israel. Now notice, do this, Hosea, for, the end of verse 2, the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord. You see, Hosea, I want you to act like me.
You see, Hosea, I want you to take Gomer. It's like Israel. And I want you to communicate through the vehicle of your marriage, and through these three children that you have, a message to Israel, to the Northern Kingdom. McCombsky again says, the clause, because the land has committed great fornication, which has led them away from the Lord, states the reason for Hosea's marriage.
You see, God isn't just willy-nilly calling him to marry this woman. He is doing it for a very specific purpose and a very specific reason. If you ask me the question, Pastor Butler, should I go marry a harlot? I am going to tell you, don't marry a harlot.
I'm going to tell you, marry a woman that fears God, that believes the gospel. If she does that, repents from her harlotry and walks down the aisle and covenants before God, then may he be praised. But as a rule, Christians must marry people that are in the Lord. That is what the scripture specifies.
This is a unique instance in redemptive history where God the Lord chooses Hosea the prophet as a vehicle to communicate to the nation of Israel. And the reason is because the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord. This is spiritual fornication. This is idolatry.
This is defection. This is leaving the God that we love. This is worshiping Baal rather than Jehovah. This is bowing to our money rather than to Christ.
This is bowing to our lusts rather than to the Savior. That's what was going on in the Northern Kingdom at that time. So again, back to McConsky. He says, this states the reason for Hosea's marriage.
It was because the people were guilty of spiritual fornication. They might have pointed the finger at Gomer and gossiped about the prophet who married her, but they were no better than she. This is the point. The marriage of Hosea and Gomer was an eloquent depiction of Yahweh's marriage to his errant people.
This is what we're supposed to get.
The Three Children and Their Names
Now notice his children. Real quickly, these children, again, are given names determined by God to communicate specific truth to the northern kingdom. Jezreel. God says, I will end the northern kingdom.
Verse 4. I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu and bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. Now remember, the dating of the book. The reality was that the Northern Kingdom fell in 722 BC.
You see, the people of the North had continued to violate the covenant with God. They had continued to reject it. They continued to engage in idolatry. And as a result, God sends Assyria, the world empire at the time, to destroy the North.
So Jezreel signifies that. Notice the second child born. It's a daughter called Lo-Ruhamah, which means not pitied or no mercy. God says, when you break the covenant, when the curses fall upon you, it will be without mercy, it will be without pity.
It's not to terrify any here this morning that are not in Christ, that are not believers on the Lord Jesus, that reject the overtures of God's grace as it comes through the gospel, through preaching, through parents, through friends, through witnesses, through testimony, through the radio or through the internet. When God brings judgment to bear upon the Northern Kingdom, it is without pity. It is without mercy. No one will be spared.
You read the prophets and you read the historical books and the way that Assyria does this is that they come in and they decimate the Northern tribes. They kill, they plunder, they take everything. Then they take Assyrian peoples and they populate the Northern Kingdom with them. And then the people that do survive, the remaining people that are alive from the Northern Kingdom, they put fish hooks up through their noses and they put them together in a big line and they lead them back to Assyria to make slaves out of them.
You see, when you're walking to Assyria, and you've got a fishhook in your nose, and you're being treated like a slave, you understand the name Lo-Ruhamah. You understand what not pitied means. You understand what no mercy means. And so says the Scripture concerning that day when men who have not fled to Christ, who have not believed the Gospel, who have not come to the Savior as He's been preached, they will receive no pity.
There will be no mercy on that day. There will be judgment. There will be wrath. There will be fury.
Another historical event wherein this is recorded for us is in the book of Revelation. Again, a judgment that I think happened in history, that happened in time, that happened upon the nation of Israel, interestingly enough, the scripture there says in Revelation chapter 6 that the strong men, the noble men, the powerful men, the leaders of the world will call upon the rocks and call upon the mountains to fall on them and to cover them and to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. Why? Lo Ruhamah, there's no mercy, there's no pity.
You see, right now as I preach, there's mercy to be had in and through the Lord Jesus. Right now as I preach, there is pity to be garnered through the saving work of Christ the Lord. You come to the Savior, you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will know nothing but mercy. You will know nothing but grace.
You will see it overwhelm you and over flood you. as is the testimony of everyone here who is a believer. What did we learn when we came to the Savior? We learned of mercy. We learned of grace.
We just sang of it. It was grace that taught my heart to fear. It's all about God the Lord and His saving purposes. You flee now.
You believe the gospel now. You will meet a Savior full of mercy. But if you reject, You resist, you continue to despise, you continue to write it off as so many fairy tales, and you say, you know, that's just not important. My friends are important.
My fun is important. My flesh is important. My whatever is important. On that day, you will meet Him.
The Bible assures us. Every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess. Every single one. The believer will make that confession, the believer will state that statement, probably with tears flowing down his eyes.
Because there's the Savior who redeemed me with his precious blood. But for those who are not saved, you will make the confession, and then he will say away with you. Depart. It's terrible.
Loch Roamah is the reality of a future without Jesus. And then they have, well, there's a statement there concerning Judah in verse 7. Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah, will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bone nor by sword, or battle by horses or horsemen. Probably the idea is that when Assyria comes to decimate the northern tribes, the southern tribes will be spared.
Now before you begin to think that the southern tribes can continue in rebellion and in rejection and in unfaithfulness to the Lord God, all you need to do is look at the prophets Jeremiah, You need to look at Isaiah, you need to look at Ezekiel, because what happens in the 6th century BC is that God sends Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians to decimate the southern kingdom of Israel. But in this instance, 8th century BC, they're going to be spared. Now notice the birth of this third child. The third child is called Lo-emi.
This means, not my people. I'm sure that as these three little ones were pushed around in their strollers throughout the villages, people despised seeing them. People despised the children of the prophet because each of those children conveyed a message against Israel. When they were playing frisbee or throwing the ball at the park in person and saw them, saw Jezreel, they were reminded that the northern kingdom is going to fall.
When they saw Lo-Ruhamah, they realized they were not going to receive pity when that kingdom fell. And when they saw Lo-Ammi, not my people, that caught at the very heart of their covenantal relationship with God Most High. This is what it was about. This is what God said to Abraham, I will be your God and you shall be my people.
This is reiterated in the book of Exodus in chapter 6. The nation of Israel will be my people and I will be their God. So herein, Loamy comes along and tells these people, the reverse of blessing is coming upon you. The reverse of the covenant itself.
So we've seen his identification, we see his marriage, we see his children, but then notice his hope.
Hope Beyond Judgment
Notice his hope in verses 10 and 11. There's a yet that begins the statement there. You see, it's just at this point, people look at these three little children and say, wait a minute, the God of Israel promised to pity us. The God of Israel promised to be our God and we his people.
What is going to happen here? Well, the northern tribes will be cut off in their apostasy and in their defection and in their rebellion against the living God. But the promise to Abraham is not invalidated. The promise made concerning a great multitude, which no man can number, will be carried forth.
What Hosea is doing here in verses 10 and 11, and what he does in chapter 2, verses 14 to 23, is he preaches the gospel of Jesus to the people of his day. He is preaching new covenant realities. He is telling them there is going to be something in the future that is going to happen wherein both Israel and Judah will be reunified. This is the prophetic language for what God does in the church.
Notice verse 10, Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea which cannot be measured or numbered. He does what Paul does. Notice that great chapter in Romans chapter 9, when Paul is highlighting sovereign grace. He's highlighting predestination.
He's highlighting sovereign election. He has to counter this particular objection. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God?
I mean, Paul, if what you're saying is true, that might mean or it might impinge upon the righteous character of God. He says, certainly not. Not all Israel is Israel. This is what Hosea is doing.
There is coming an end to the northern kingdom, but there will come no end to the kingdom of Jesus Christ. There will come no end to the church of Jesus Christ, to God's redemptive plan in saving, notice as the text says, a great multitude. Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea." That's the Abrahamic promise, which cannot be measured or numbered. And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, you are not my people, there it shall be said to them, you are the sons of the living God.
You see these covenantal identifiers. You are not my people, you're now my people. You are not the sons of the living God, you are now the sons of the living God. Guess which two New Testament authors take these verses and apply them to the church?
Paul in Romans 9, 25 and 26. Peter in 1 Peter 2 and verse 10. Though the text isn't specifically referenced, I think the doctrine is in Ephesians 2, 11 to 22. See, these men interpreted the promise given by Hosea to Gentile inclusion into the covenant promises of God.
Calvin read it this way. Then Hosea speaks, not here of the kingdom of Israel, but of the church, which was to be restored by a return composed of both Jews and Gentiles. Mark Devers says, Paul understood that Hosea's prophecy would not be fulfilled in some Middle Eastern nation state to come, But in the church, you see what the prophets do, and everybody listen, okay? Pay attention.
I don't want you to get bogged down in a bunch of details. You need to get this, okay? Northern Kingdom is going to fall. God's promises don't.
The Northern Kingdom is going to end. God's will does not. God has purpose to save a great multitude, which no man can number, from every tribe, every tongue, every people, and every nation. And that is what Hosea is preaching to these people.
He brings the message of condemnation, but interspersed along the way, there's a message of hope. He deals with the broken relationship as it stands now, but he looks toward the restored relationship as it stands in the future. When we look at the parallel marriage, the Lord Himself into Israel, same thing. He outlines the broken relationship and points forward to the restored relationship.
We live in the days of that restored relationship. Notice what the text says. Then the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together and appoint for themselves one head. I think we are to consider that this is the same person spoken of in chapter 3, verse 5.
David the king! The scriptures tell us that's Jesus Christ, David's great son, yet David's lord. So you see, that's why his marriage to this particular woman. That's why these children born.
To explain that in history, in the coming future, they will suffer decimation by the Assyrians. But God's plan of salvation marches on. God's plan of salvation conquers. God's plan of salvation cannot be sidetracked.
It cannot be stopped. It cannot be thwarted. It cannot but succeed because the zeal of Yahweh of hosts shall perform this through His Son and for His glory. That's chapter one.
The Lord's Marriage to Israel
Notice chapter two, the Lord's marriage to Israel. It's just like Hosea and Gomer. Look at what he says. their broken relationship. Verses 1 to 13. We'll move somewhat quickly through here.
The Broken Relationship Indicted
The indictment is brought, verse 2, bring charges against your mother. Bring charges for she is not my wife nor am I her husband. Let her put away her harlotries from her sight and her adulteries from between her breasts. She has been loose.
She has been crude. She has been lascivious. She has engaged in license. She has gone a whoring from me.
That's what God says concerning the nation of Israel. Look over at chapter 4. You see this fleshed out. You see what it entailed, what it involved, how it looked in terms of the breach of God's holy commandment.
Verse 1 of chapter 4. Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel, for the Lord brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land. There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. And then we read verse 2, and we see all the sins that are rampant.
Notice, by swearing, and lying, killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break all restraint with bloodshed upon bloodshed. Don't miss the connection there. We looked at Romans 1 several weeks ago in our evening service. What does Paul say?
The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. What's Paul's point? What we think about God affects the way that we live concerning God. Before Paul gets into this catalog of vices in Romans chapter 1, he says the crucial issue, the defining issue, the big problem with man is that although he knows God, he does not honor God as God, nor is he thankful.
In other words, to reject the first and the second commandment leads to the breaking of all the rest. Look at what he says in verse 1. There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. When men throw God out of their minds and their hearts, murder, bloodshed, adultery, abortion, homosexuality, all of the evils and the vices that we witness firsthand in our nation follow.
But the big issue, the fount from which it flows, is they've rejected me, God says. You see the connection? Notice verse 6 of chapter 4. My people are destroyed for what?
For abortion? For sodomy? For homosexuality? My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge!
Why do you and Pastor Kim always scream about theology? Because theology, or a lack thereof, leads to this. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for me. Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
Notice in verse 13 of chapter 2, But me she forgot, says the Lord. Chapter 5 verse 4, They do not direct their deeds toward turning to their God. for the spirit of harlotry is in their midst, and they do not know the Lord. Chapter 6, verse 6, For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. Chapter 7, verse 10, And the pride of Israel testifies to his face, but they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this.
Chapter 8, verse 14, For Israel has forgotten his Maker." Chapter 13 and verse 6. We are seeing the pattern here. When they had pasture, they were filled. They were filled and their heart was exalted.
Therefore, they forgot me. Now, if you're here this morning and you're not a Christian, your problem isn't that you're on Facebook too much. Your problem isn't that you're smoking pot. Now, those are problems, but I'm going to bring it to a particular point.
Your problem isn't necessarily drunkenness in the first place. Again, these are all problems. Don't leave here saying, he said it's OK to smoke pot. No, I didn't say that.
Do not say that I said that, because I didn't say that. You are here this morning, and you are not a believer. Your problem isn't, first and foremost, fornication or sodomy. or cross-dressing, or whatever it is that is in vogue today. Your problem is that you don't know God.
That is the fundamental issue with the sinner. It isn't this, this, this, this. It's a rejection of Him. When you throw out the first and the second commandments, everything else follows.
You need Christ. You need Jesus. You need forgiveness. You need redemption through his blood.
You need the only one who ever obeyed the law of God and who died as a sacrifice, as an atonement on the cross to satisfy divine justice. So it's beautiful about that word atonement. The idea of satisfaction is there. God, the Holy One, must be satisfied.
His law is pure, it's perfect, it's good, it's holy. It needs to be conducted. That's what Jesus did in His life. Jesus needs to satisfy the wrath and the fury and the anger of God for His people.
And that's what He does at the cross. The fundamental problem with mankind is idolatry. It is a rejection of God. It is a bowing to Baal.
In bowing to Baal, you are rejecting the living and the true God. That's your problem here today. And the only means, the only hope, the only help for you is to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is how you learn of God.
This is how you learn of the Father. This is how you learn of the one who made this world and everything in it, who has made laws, who has made decrees, who has commanded you. to such and such activity. You've broken that law and you need a son to come and to redeem you. That's the indictment, spiritual harlotry.
Notice the judgment, verses 3 to 6, humiliation and ejection from the land. This idea of stripping her naked and exposing her. Punishment involved for the harlot. Punishment involved for the adulteress.
Humiliation for her crimes. The scarlet letter, she had to wear that A. Everybody knew, everybody identified what her particular crime was. God said, there will be no mercy, verse 4.
It says, I will have no mercy on her. I will have no mercy on her children, for they are the children of harlotry. Before you start to say, wait a minute, this is a sermon that is seeking to illustrate the tapestry of God's grace You're talking about God being a merciful and a gracious Lord, and yet, all the while, you're saying there's a low Ruhamah involved? You see, the mercy of God, the grace of God, the kindness of God, the goodness of God do not cancel out as justice.
They do not cancel out as righteousness. They do not cancel out as wrath. They do not cancel out as judgment against sin. Sinners.
All of God does all that God does. We do not dissect Him. We do not put Him under a microscope. We don't only appeal to those attributes that we like, but we resist those ones that we don't.
God comes to us on the pages of Scripture as infinite, eternal. He comes to us in the pages of Scripture as the one who is just, who is holy, who is good, who is gracious, who is loving, and who is kind. Do not think for a moment that these things are at odds with each other. He says they will continue to pursue their harlotries.
Notice in verse 5, their mother has played the harlot. She who conceived them has behaved shamefully, for she said, I will go after my lovers who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink.
Baal Worship and Utilitarian Religion
You see, these were people living in a land where Baal worship was going on. Now, Baal was the god who supposedly reigned on the fields. The way that you got Baal to reign on the fields appealed to fleshly, carnal people. You see, when you came to Baal worship, you didn't sit in pews.
You didn't try to restrain yourself from falling asleep. You didn't sing two hymns and a psalm, have a scripture reading, and then have an hour's sermon. I'll try to keep it there. You see, the way that the worshiper tried to get Baal to bless was through copulation, through fornication, through sexual sin.
You see, the idea is that if we engage in this activity, then Baal and his consorts will do the same. And then in his kindness and his goodness, he'll fertilize our fields. And you know, it probably started off innocuous at the beginning, not that any idolatry is that, but the people of Israel are living in the land and they see the Canaanite next to them put a little bale out and say a little prayer and ask for bale to send rain. So the next day, the Israelite watching sees that rain came.
He says, wait a minute, maybe I'll get myself a little bale. Maybe I'll put that little bale out front and I'll say a little prayer to bale, because after all, bale delivers the goods. You see, what happens? In bowing to Baal, they reject God.
In bowing to Baal, they forget God. In bowing to Baal, they begin to ascribe blessing to Baal. Well, money got me this happiness, so maybe I should worship money. Fame got me this happiness, so maybe I should worship fame.
It's utilitarian. Whatever works is where we'll go. Whatever delivers is what we'll do. And interestingly enough, that's how they supposedly return to God according to verses 7 to 9.
Look at what it says. Therefore behold, verse 6, I will hedge up your way with thorns and wall her in so that she cannot find her paths. It's an interesting statement. God says, I'm going to prevent you from going after these bales.
I always liken it to a man whose wife has been unfaithful. The man chooses to forgive, the man chooses to go on, and the man says, give me your cell phone, give me your credit card, give me your car. I am not going to give you the tools for you to go back out and to do those things against me. Well, maybe he didn't forgive.
He forgave, but he's hedging his bets. That's what God says. I'm going to wall you in. You're going to act like little babies.
I'm going to treat you like babies. I'm going to put you in a crib. I'm going to put big, big sides on that crib so that you cannot go a whoring from me. God means business about his people.
Notice in verse 7, she will chase her lovers. She will chase her lovers but not overtake them. Yes, she will seek them but not find them. Then she will say, I will go and return to my first husband.
That sounds noble, doesn't it? I'm going to go back to Yahweh. I'm going to go back to the God of Israel. I'm going to go back to the Lord.
But look what He says. I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better for me than now. It's not repentance. It's not a change of heart.
That's utilitarian. That's sham. That speaks to you here. Well, I think I'll go back to the Lord because He can provide these things for me.
That's not repentance. That's not return unto me, says the Lord. That's using the Lord for what you want. And God will have none of that.
When will we learn that God is not a domestic pet? God isn't the cat in our house. God isn't the lap dog that we stroke, and we subdue, and we put a leash on, and we make him do what we want. That's not the God of the Bible.
I don't know what your inklings are with reference to the God of the Bible, but you don't box Him. You don't tame Him. You don't restrain Him. You certainly don't domesticate Him and make Him your bellboy, or your butler, or your maid, or your servant to do your bidding.
I'll come to God because He'll give me riches. It's one of the wretchedness of the health, wealth, prosperity, no gospel. I'll come to God so he'll give me a better job. I'll come to God so he'll give me a better husband.
I'll come to God because he'll give me an attractive wife. That is to use the Lord God most high, and he won't have it. And he sees right through it. He sees what they're doing.
He understands the motive of their heart. And then
God's Provision Ascribed to Idols
notice what he says in verse 8. For she did not know that I gave her grain, I gave her new wine, I gave her oil, I multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. Is that the way of sin? God gives us all these things and what do we do?
We use them to engage in idolatry. God gives you breath this morning. God gives you life. God gives you food.
God gives you drink. God causes your heart to pump and the blood to flow. And what do you do? You leave this place and you chase your idols.
It's disgusting, isn't it? It's terrible. Absolutely horrible.
The Shock of God's Grace
That's why when God's grace breaks in, it's shocking. You see, maybe the literal view is right. Maybe we are supposed to be shocked about the fact that Hosea married a harlot. And maybe the shock of that ought to promote shock with reference to the fact that God marries Israel.
I mean, we've looked at several places in the Old Testament in the last few weeks We looked at God's grace come to a rebellious king, not of the Hivites, not of the Hittites, but of the Israelites. We see David fueled by lust. We see David fueled by subterfuge, by covering up, by hiding. And then we see God dispatch the prophet Nathan to deliver that message that would crush him.
And then God says, I have atoned for your sin." We stopped in Jericho. What do we note there? We saw another harlot, this time of Jericho. She was the shady lady of Jericho.
And what happens? God, the Lord, says, spare her. We see that gracious invitation in the prophet Isaiah 55, 1 to 13. What does the Lord God say?
Oh, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters and drink. You go on to the New Testament and you look at a man like the apostle Paul. Where do we find Paul in Acts chapter 7 and 8? Do we find him bowing before Jesus?
Do we find him confessing the good faith? Do we see him preaching the gospel of free and sovereign grace? No, we see him standing there, nodding in approval and consenting, while Stephen, God's martyr, is being stoned to death. And then when we look at our own hearts, and we look at our own lives, and we realize that I knew God existed, and I rejected Him every step of the way.
I knew God was there, but I ran as far from Him as I possibly could. I knew God was there, and I knew gospel was being preached, and I knew I should have fled to Jesus, and I rejected, I resisted until one day. God smashed my heart. God humbled me under his hand.
God showed me my sin. He showed me the Savior. Isn't that grace shocking? You see, our problem is not with Hosea and Gomer and the strange marriage that they were involved with.
The big problem is that God the sovereign Lord of the universe marries sinners like you and I. That ought to shock. That ought to astound. That ought to amaze.
That ought to move us to worship and to praise and to adoration and to glorifying his most holy name. I don't want to rush through the remainder of the sermon, and I don't want to keep you here for another half hour. So God willing, we'll take up the rest of the section this evening. If you've been intrigued, and you've been interested, and you want to see how the story ends, then I invite you to come back tonight at 5, or you can tune in.
Thanks to Jonathan, whose birthday is today, by the way. We are online at freegrace.ca. But when we leave at this particular point, let us stop. Let us admire, let us marvel at Hosea and Gomer.
You know, how many of us would have been those who said, did you hear what Hosea is doing? Did you hear who Hosea is marrying? Did you see who Hosea is walking down the street with? Doesn't he know what kind of woman she is?
Sounds just like the Pharisees in Luke 7, when Jesus is at the home of Simon, and that woman, which was a sinner, comes in and falls at his feet, and starts weeping over them, and takes her hair and wipes the feet. What's the report from those sitting around him? If this man were a prophet, he would know what manner of woman this is. And that's when Jesus tells the story.
There's two men who owed some money. One owed a great deal, the other not so much. If they were both forgiven of that debt, who would love more? Even a Pharisee could get that one right.
Well, the one who was forgiven much. Jesus said, I came into your house and you didn't wash my feet. I came in your house and you didn't afford me the common courtesies that are decent in this time frame. You didn't show any kindness, you didn't show any compassion, you didn't show any mercy whatsoever.
But this woman, She has not ceased, she has not stopped from weeping over and cleaning my feet. I tell you, she loves much because she's been forgiven much. So when we look at Hosea and Gomer, we ought to restrain the desire to say, did you hear about Hosea? Did you see who he's marrying?
Interesting, when we come to this prophet, we look at the players, and we say, well, certainly Hosea's like God, and we see that Gomer is like Israel, and then we try to piece ourselves into the stories. You know, I'm a noble fellow like Hosea, I'm merciful, and I'm kind. Do you realize that each and every one of us are Gomer? Every single one sitting in this room is a Gomer.
We are harlots, we are adulteresses, we are idolaters, we have rejected God in our words, our thoughts, our deeds. Before we start to condemn Hosea for marrying Gomer, we ought to see ourselves rightly as the Gomer who stands in need of Hosea. And Hosea typifies, points forward to, and even suggests in chapter 3, the way in which our Lord Jesus will do it. After she commits adultery, what does he do to get her back?
He buys her back! I don't think we can develop a full-born theology of Christ's atonement, but certainly there's a hint at it. He comes to redeem Gomer. He pays the price for Gomer.
He is her champion. He is her victor. He is the one that delivers her. So before we condemn Hosea, or before we scoff at Hosea for marrying Gomer, let us see ourselves rightly as the Gomer who stands in need of Hosea. which interestingly is a form of Joshua, which is Yahweh is salvation and the name born by our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, that in a sketch is the tapestry of God's grace in the 8th century BC. The Northern Kingdom, yes, they would suffer historical sanction, but God's promise would not stop. God's promise would conquer, God's promise would be applied in the church of the New Testament, the church that Paul writes of in Romans 9 and Peter speaks of in 1 Peter 2, verse 10. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you, by God's grace, will be saved by this better than Hosea, even the Lord of glory.
Closing Prayer
Well, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you so much for your word and we thank you so much for your grace. Certainly it is shocking when we consider it on the pages of a book like Hosea. Father, I pray that you would speak to our hearts.
I pray for those who are outside of Christ, that they would know conviction of sin, that they would know the forgiveness of sin in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. For those of us, God, that you found out in our harlotry, and those of us who are in relationship with you now, those of us who are prone to wander and prone to leave the God we love, Continue to show mercy upon us, Lord. Please continue to forgive us. Truly be like Hosea to Gomer.
Be this way for us, we pray. For God certainly, we are always constantly dependent upon your grace and upon your mercy and upon the blood and the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's in his most blessed name that we pray. Amen.