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May I turn in your Bibles to 
Hosea? We'll look at chapters 2 and 3 this evening. Hosea chapter 
2 and 3. This morning we looked at chapter 
1, specifically the prophet's marriage to Gomer. We saw that 
it was, in fact, a literal marriage. This man, Hosea, who prophesied 
during the kings listed in chapter 1, who functioned probably between 
the years 750 to 715 BC, primarily targeting the northern 
kingdom of Israel, was told to take for himself a wife of harlotry 
and children of harlotry. The reason given in chapter 1 
verse 2, for the land has committed great harlotry by departing from 
the Lord. So Hosea's marriage to Gomer 
would serve as a vehicle to communicate to the people what God's relationship 
with Israel looked like. Additionally, the three children 
born to Hosea and Gomer, Jezreel and Lo-Ruhamah and Lo-Ammi would 
communicate specific messages of judgment to the nation of 
Israel. So we'll pick up reading in chapter 
2 at verse 2. This then begins the Lord's marriage 
to Israel. 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 as 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 loved 
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, we thank You again for this, Your Word, and we pray 
for the ministry of Your Spirit. We pray that You would guide 
us and lead us and instruct us, that we may rightly think Your 
thoughts after You, that these things would change us, that 
they would affect us, and they would promote in us the sorts 
of things that are pleasing in Your sight. Do forgive us again. Wash us and purify us from all 
sin and from all unrighteousness. And we pray through Jesus Christ, 
our Lord. Amen. Well, as we noted this 
morning, the prophet Hosea is certainly a dedicated man. He's 
certainly devoted to the Lord God of Israel. God called him 
to take a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry. He didn't 
hesitate. He didn't stop. Rather, he did 
what the Lord had commanded. We saw this morning as well, 
that serves as the backdrop to manifest what is going on in 
terms of Yahweh's relationship with Israel. Already we looked 
at the first several verses in chapter 2 just by way of review. We noted the broken relationship 
in verses 1 to 13. God indicts the people generally 
in 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. We 
look specifically at chapter 4 where that is fleshed out in 
more detail. We see what is the nature of 
Israel's infidelity with reference to the living God. You may turn 
to chapter 4 at verse 1. 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. So their first problem primarily 
was a theological problem. They rejected God. There was 
no knowledge of God. They had no desire to understand 
God and to enjoy the relationship that he had established. While 
they turned to Baal, while they worshipped Baal, they were rejecting 
the Lord God Almighty who had given them the good gifts the 
multitude of gifts that He had bestowed upon them. We saw that 
as a recurring theme. Verse 6 in chapter 4, My people 
are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, 
I also will reject you from being priests for me. Because you have 
forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. So their theology, or their lack 
of theology, or their bad theology, their pursuit of Baal, their 
rejection of Jehovah, cause them then to engage in all manner 
of sin. Notice in chapter 4 at verse 
2, by swearing and lying, killing and stealing and committing adultery, 
they break all restraint with bloodshed upon bloodshed. We 
look at a society that is filled with that sort of ethical transgression, 
we ought to conclude there is no fear of God before their eyes. This is precisely the Apostle 
Paul's point In Romans chapter 1, they know God, but they don't 
honor God as God, nor are their hearts thankful. And as a result 
of that, God gives them over, and they pursue all manner of 
filth. and unrighteousness and all ungodliness." 
So you see there's nothing new under the sun. The same sorts 
of things that populate our day are the same sorts of things 
that were going on in the 8th century BC in the northern kingdom 
of Israel to which Hosea was sent to call the people to repentance. Remember that the Lord God threatened 
judgment, punishment, chastisement, upon them in verses 3 to 6. He would humiliate them. He would 
eject them from the land. They would receive no mercy from 
the living God. They would be hardened in their 
course of pursuing their false gods. And then in verse 6, he 
indicates that he would prevent them. Therefore, he, behold, 
I will hedge up your way with thorns and wall her in so that 
she cannot find her paths. I gave the illustration, this 
would be akin to the man whose wife had been unfaithful when 
he takes her cell phone away, he takes the car keys away, he 
takes the credit card away so that she cannot go out and engage 
in that manner of lawlessness. But imagine if you will, she's 
deprived of all those things and nevertheless she makes a 
break for it and she pursues those lusts. That is precisely 
what the Lord says will happen with Israel in this section. Verses 7 to 8, they will feign 
a return. She will chase her lovers, verse 
7, 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." It's a very terrible way to seek the Lord. That is 
not repentance. That is not returning to Him. That is rather trying to use 
Him to give the things that you desire. They saw the futility 
in Baalism, and so now they'll turn back to Yahweh because their 
crops are dying. because they're not eating from 
the land, because their new wine and their oil is dissipated and 
they have need. So it's when they feel those 
temporal wants that they then return to the living God. Well, 
God sees right through that. God will have nothing to do with 
that. He says in verse 8, For she did not know that I gave 
her grain, new wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and 
gold, which they prepared for Baal. So all the things that 
God had given them in their history, they had taken those things and 
used them in the service of that which was not God. And that brings 
us to new material. We didn't get to verses 9 to 
13. Again, the Lord highlights that 
He would punish the people. Do you remember when we studied 
the book of Deuteronomy? That document, that covenant 
document that God made with the nation of Israel. At the end 
of the book, in chapters 27 and 28, God pronounces blessings 
and cursings. God says, if you go into the 
land and you do what you're supposed to do, you will be blessed. If 
you go into the land and you function covenantally, you function 
in a faithful manner, you will receive benefit, you will receive 
blessing, you will receive all manner of good things. But then 
he goes on to highlight the curses. We made the observation studying 
the book of Deuteronomy. that that land that was so wonderful, 
that land that was so lush, that land that was so plentiful and 
would produce so much good things, would become a house of horrors 
to them if they rejected their God. And that is precisely what 
we see here, threatened by God in Hosea chapter 2, Verses 9 
to 13. He says in the first place there 
would be deprivation of blessing. Verse 9. 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. This is righteous with God. When 
you take those things that He gives, and you abuse them, and 
you spend them on your lusts, and you waste them, and you traffic 
in things that are unrighteous, and ungodly, and rebellious against 
Him, it is good and neat for Him at a time to stop giving 
you those things. You're just going to take them 
and squander them on your lusts, It is righteous with God to deprive 
the sinner of those particular things. And that is what He would 
do ultimately to Israel. We just read that in chapter 
39 of the prophet Isaiah. Wasn't Hezekiah's response a 
bit cheeky? Well, at least it's not going 
to happen on my watch. It's a terrible response. He's a good king in Judah. It's 
a terrible thing. At least during my reign, we'll 
enjoy peace. I don't really care about posterity. I don't really care about the 
coming generations. I really don't care about what 
is to be successively, but for right now, as long as we've got 
ours, everything is going to be good and peachy. You have 
to understand the significance of what happened in that Babylonian 
captivity. Here is God's people. Here is 
the apple of His eye. Here is His choice ones, His 
beloved ones, His wife. Because they violated covenant, 
because they broke His law, they come and they decimate and they 
take them from their land. Remember, throughout the Pentateuch, 
the graciousness of the land is underscored. It is the land 
that the Lord God is giving you. This was God's gift to His people. But that old covenant arrangement 
was conditional. In order to maintain a hold on 
that land, they had to function faithfully. And here, the covenant 
curses are falling upon them. Notice, he will publicly humiliate 
them. Again, verse 10, now I will uncover 
her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall 
deliver her from my hand. One commentator suggests that 
he will hold her, carry out the humiliation, and nobody will 
stop it. The idea isn't that they won't 
be able to take my beloved from my hand. The idea is that when 
he parades her throughout the nations for her sin and for her 
rebellion, she is going to feel the pangs of that act. And then notice the cessation 
of joy. Verse 11. That's a big one, isn't it? Again, 
going back to our studies on Wednesday night in the book of 
Deuteronomy, God gave the nation of Israel feasts. God gave them 
celebration. God regulated parties. God said that you are to enjoy 
great feasting these several times during the year. Imagine 
that. Do you think Baal? Do you think 
Ashtoreth? Do you think that Moloch commanded 
their worshipers to be happy? I always think of that section 
in Philippians chapter 4 where Paul tells us that God takes 
our joy seriously. What does Paul say? Rejoice in 
the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice. You ever met people that say, 
oh, Christianity, what a harsh system. What an unfun system. What a, what a, just a albatross 
around the neck. What a drag. Does your God command 
you to be happy? Does your God take your joy seriously? The God of Israel did. He told 
the nation of Israel to enjoy themselves, to tithe money, and 
to buy good things, and to feast, and to revel in the good gifts 
that the Lord God had given them. Notice in verse 11, we see a 
reversal of that blessing. I will also cause her mirth to 
cease. Her feast days, her new moons, 
her Sabbaths, all her appointed feasts. When they were dwelling 
in Babylon, do you think they got a day off for the Sabbath? Do you think they got a day off 
to remember the Feast of Tabernacles? Do you think they got a day off 
to engage in some feast that Yahweh of Israel had enjoined 
upon them? Certainly not! God says when 
you go into this land, you will be deprived of these blessings. What you are seeing in this section 
is the reversal of covenant blessing. Because they were unfaithful, 
because they were rebellious, God would send cursing upon them. Keep that in mind, because as 
the prophet looks forward to the new covenant, we see again 
a reversal, this time from curse to blessing. That's what's going 
on here in the movement of the chapter. Verse 12, he says, 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. It's 
a height of arrogance, the height of wickedness, ascribing to Baal, 
her lovers, what the Lord God had given to them. It's just 
an offense and an affront. It's like the man who's been 
given gifts by God. He's been given a good mind. 
He's been given able hands. He's given the ability to make 
things or build things. I always marvel at good carpenters 
or electricians or builders or guys that have those skills because 
I don't have them at all. Marvel at people that mathematically 
are very, very sharp and able and can just do all that sort 
of thing. Those are gifts given by God. Those are mental or physical 
equipment given to you by the Lord God. To take those things 
and to go out and do well, to take those things and go out 
and make money, to take those things and to be prosperous and 
successful, and then to sit back and say, look at what I've done. How come we see the folly in 
that when we're reading the book of Daniel and we see Nebuchadnezzar 
sort of strutting like a proud peacock looking over his kingdom 
and he looks and he says, look at all that I have accomplished. That's what's going on here. 
That's what's going on in your heart when you reject the Lord 
God of Israel and you serve idols. You bow down to Baal. You give 
yourself praise and yourself glory for the abilities that 
God, the Lord, has given. That is precisely what He's indicting 
them for in this section. I will destroy her vines, her 
fig trees of which she has said, these are my wages. that my lovers 
have given me. Baal owed me this because of 
what we did in terms of inciting him to bless. So I will make 
them a forest and the beasts of the field shall eat them. 
Keep that one in mind for when we look at the reversal in verse 
18. But just for a moment, look at 
13 because here he summarizes the whole spiel. 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." Now, I suppose that some would take this verse and say, 
well, earrings and jewelry are wicked. Earrings and jewelry 
are sin. If you have earrings and jewelry 
in right now, pop it out, throw it far from you. That's not the 
point. You know that God decked His 
people with earrings and jewelry? Do you know that in Ezekiel 16, 
when God the Lord rehearses how He found Israel, He saw them 
writhing in their blood and He said, live, live. He washed them, 
He cleansed them, and He decked them. He clothed them beautifully, 
and He put earrings on their ears. He put nose rings in their 
noses. He gave them these good things 
so that they would be adorned for Him. In the book of Revelation, 
in chapter 21, John sees the new Jerusalem coming down out 
of heaven adorned as a bride for her husband. Hosea 2.13 is 
not anti-adornment. Certainly, it can be overdone. 
Certainly, it can be abused. Certainly, too much adornment 
is not a good thing. But the point of Hosea 2.13 is 
that this woman decked herself out. She did her hair. She put 
her earrings on. She put her makeup on. She put 
her perfume on, not to adorn herself for Yahweh, but for the 
bales of the land. God says, that's wicked. They 
forgot me. That's the problem indicated 
in Hebrews 2.13. I'm sorry, Hosea 2.13. 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. Again, just put it into the human 
context. Gomer got herself all polished 
up. Gomer got herself looking really 
good, really nice, really beautiful. She said, Hosea, I'm out for 
the night. And she goes and pursues her 
lovers. What's the problem? It's that she's rejected her 
man and she has sought out that which God condemns. So that is 
his indictment upon the nation. The first half of the chapter 
deals with their broken relationship. Now notice the second half deals 
with restoration. Restoration. The prophets already 
spoken of this in chapter 1 verse 10. Chapter 1 after telling us 
the meanings of these three children who had names that God had determined. This Jezreel this low Rahama 
and this low Ammi, the reality that the northern kingdom would 
fall, that it would be without pity and mercy, and that ultimately 
the people of Israel would be identified as not my people. But the prophet is quick to answer 
the question, what is? What is the reality? Is God, 
who promised Abraham, not faithful? No, he's faithful. He's going 
to cut off this generation, but that doesn't mean a cessation 
of his covenantal blessings. Chapter 1, verse 10. 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. Going back to chapter 2, verses 
14 to 23, this is a promise of restoration of the relationship. God highlights the wilderness 
in verse 14. I will allure you, I'll take 
you out to the wilderness. Now see, Israel didn't like the 
wilderness experience, but it was there that God was a father 
to them. Deuteronomy 1, verse 31. It says, 
and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried 
you as a man carries his son in all the way that you went 
until you came to this place. Isn't that beautiful imagery? 
You know, when we've looked at these sermons in this summertime, 
God's grace in the Old Testament. I certainly wanted to visit Deuteronomy 
1.31. You see, there the people are being upbraided for having 
complained against God and rumbling against God. They interpreted 
the wilderness as if God was taking us out here to kill us 
and destroy us. God says, no, that's not the 
point. I carried you in the wilderness 
the way that a father carries his son. So when the prophets 
refer back to the wilderness, this is a good thing in Israel's 
history, when God the Lord was a father to his people. We're 
going to restore the blessing. This reference in verse 15, I 
will give her vineyards from there in the valley of Achor 
as a door of hope. She shall sing there. Didn't 
he just threaten to take away her mirth, to take away her joy, 
to take away her feasts, to take away all those good things? Now 
he says, in the Valley of Achor. Does anybody remember where the 
Valley of Achor is? What the significance of Achor 
was in biblical history? Joshua 7.26. It is the place 
where Achan was stoned to death with stones for having violated 
the law of God Most High. So that place of judgment, that 
place of stoning death for a criminal in Israel, is going to be the 
place of hope in this restoration period. You're starting to see 
the reversal motif. When they sin, God reverses the 
blessings into curses. But as God prophesies, or as 
the prophet prophesies concerning the new covenant, the curses 
that were enjoined upon them are being reversed into blessings. That's the flow of the chapter. 
That's what he says in verse 16. He says, 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. What is 
this covenant with the beasts? Again, I think it's reversal 
of the curse. Back in verse 12, So I will make 
them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. 
Now in this time of restoration and blessing and hope, the beasts 
of the field will not eat you. They will not destroy you. You 
will not be driven from the land by them. This goes back again 
to previous revelation. Leviticus 26, 22. a parallel 
passage to the blessings and the cursings of Deuteronomy 27 
and 28, where the Lord promises, if they offend, I will also send 
wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, 
destroy your livestock, and make you few in number, and your highways 
shall be desolate. So you see, in the midst of this 
promise of condemnation, there is the Pope, of blessing, the 
hope of restoration, the promise of new covenant religion, and 
that is precisely what 19 and 20 convey. He doesn't say, behold, 
I make a new covenant with you, the way that Jeremiah the prophet 
does. Jeremiah 31, 31 to 34. That is the promise of the New 
Covenant through that prophet. This is the promise of the New 
Covenant through Hosea. Notice, I will betroth you to 
me forever. That is a mark, an identifying 
element of the New Covenant. Permanence. This is why paedo-baptist 
theology fails. I don't want to offend needlessly, 
but Paido-Baptists teach that infants are sprinkled and become 
members of the New Covenant. Well, according to Jeremiah and 
according to Hosea, the New Covenant is permanent! Jeremiah specifies, 
I will make a covenant with them, not like the covenant that I 
made with their fathers, which they broke. What's the point? The new covenant, to use a theological 
term, is inviolable. It is unbreakable. When you are 
in by the grace of God, you stay in. This is why Paul can write 
Romans chapter 8, the last few verses. Nothing can separate 
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 
This is why the great shepherd in John 10 says that no one can 
pluck you out of my Father's hand. This is why Paul the Apostle 
can say, I am certain, I am confident that he who began this good work 
in you will complete it onto the day of Jesus Christ. and 
identifying mark and element true of the New Covenant is permanence. You see, the Old Covenant wasn't. The Old Covenant was conditional. The Old Covenant meant that when 
they broke it, they were cast out of the land. That's why in 
Hebrews chapters 8, And ten, we see that the new covenant 
is a better covenant founded on better promises with a better 
hope. And one of those promises and 
part of that hope is the permanence of this covenantal arrangement. 
I will betroth you to me forever. The Church will never undergo 
this house of horrors that Israel underwent in the land. The Church 
will have her trials. The Church will have her afflictions. 
The Church will have her difficulties. The Church will have her problems. 
But Christ is covenanted to build His Church, and the gates of 
hell shall never prevail against it, because I will betroth you 
to me forever. Notice the other elements involved 
in this new covenant arrangement. Yes, I will betroth you to me 
in righteousness and justice. It's the righteousness and justice 
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans chapter 4, God is both 
just and the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus Christ. What is the purpose behind the 
cross in the mind of the apostle in Romans 3? 25 and 26. I mean, 
there's a multitude of purposes in the Apostle's mind, but specifically 
in Romans 3, 25 and 26, God sets forth His Son as a propitiation. That means His Son takes the 
wrath of God for His people. For those of you who have not 
been with us and heard that definition, this is a Bible word you need 
to know. Propitiation is beautiful. It is splendid. It has to do 
with God's wrath. in and of itself ought to terrify. 
But propitiation is the facet of Christ's cross work, where 
when he goes to the cross, he takes the wrath of God due to 
his people. It's beautiful. And why does 
he do that according to Romans 3, 25 and 26? To set forth, to 
establish to propagate, to determine, to 
declare His righteousness. You see, in order for God to 
be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in the 
Lord Jesus Christ, Christ must go to the cross. He must satisfy 
divine justice. He must receive in His own body 
the penalty due for sin. So when we read that God will 
betroth us to him forever, and it's going to be in righteousness 
and justice, remember that the covenant head and the new covenant 
arrangement is the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that, these 
things are true. Because of us. Notice, he goes 
on. Highlight these elements with 
reference to new covenant religion. In loving kindness and mercy. This is what Christ secures for 
his people. He lives in obedience to the 
law, He satisfies the righteous demands of God. He dies as a 
substitute at Calvary. He rises again for our justification. And we are the benefactors, the 
recipients, the blessed beneficiaries of this loving kindness and mercy. The word loving kindness that 
you find peppered throughout your Old Testament is a particular 
word. Some of the, I think the ESV 
might translate it, steadfast love. That's a good translation. It refers to the love of the 
covenant God. It is rock solid. It isn't just 
this loving kindness, yeah, he's there. It is a love rooted and 
grounded in and established by the covenant Lord himself. And 
then he highlights, I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, verse 
20, and you shall know the Lord. You see, Hosea is not only A 
godly man who obeys the Lord and marries the harlot that the 
Lord tells him. But Hosea is a genius of theology. Hosea is 
a covenant theologian, you know, far better than Calvin, far better 
than Turretin, far better than, you know, Witsius, far better 
than all of these men. He is just weaving together these 
covenantal themes to set before us the blessings that are for 
us in the new covenant community. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, 
and you shall know the Lord." It was promised that the Northern 
Kingdom would be cut off. They would be loamy, not my people. They would not know the Lord. 
Well, the restoration of God's dealings with his people ushers 
forth in this reality of communion with the Lord. We get to Revelation 
21, that's everything, isn't it? Revelation 21 and 22, what's 
the blessing of being in God's covenant people? To have Him 
as our Lord, for us to be His people. That's what Adam and 
Eve had in the garden. They had Him as their Lord and 
they were His people. The first Adam forfeits that 
through his sin and rebellion. The second Adam secures that 
for his people through his obedience, through his merit, through his 
righteousness, through his law-keeping, he secures it on behalf of his 
people. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness 
and you shall know the Lord. Now, let's just finish up this 
chapter He says, 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, with oil. They shall answer Jezreel. Then 
I will sow her for myself in the earth. That's what Jezreel 
means. The Lord sows. The Lord sows. Notice there's 
a reversal now. Jezreel was the place of destruction 
in chapter one. Jezreel was the place of decimation. In chapter 1, now Jezreel is 
being called the place where the Lord sows his people. Verse 
23, and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy. Lo-Rahamah is being reversed, 
right? In the New Covenant, this reversal 
takes place. Then I will say to those who 
are not my people, you are my people. Lo-Ammi has been reversed 
in New Covenant religion. And they shall say, you are my 
God. McCombski comments on the reversal. The reversal of the names is 
theologically significant. It represents the fact that God 
has not forgotten his ancient promise. The nation will go into 
captivity, but God's promise is not vitiated. That means done 
away with or annulled. Beyond the captivity is a bright 
future when a new people of God with a new covenant will be born. That's what the prophet is speaking 
of here in chapter 2 verses 14 to 23. Now to end our message 
this evening, our study from this morning as well. Chapter 
3 comes back to present day reality. Hosea has been trafficking in 
the blessings of the new covenant to come. He's indicted the people 
of Israel for their sin. Now there's some family matters 
that Hosea has to tend to. That's chapter three. And again, 
Gomer and Hosea parallel Israel and Yahweh. They're intertwined 
in verses one to five in chapter three. Notice, first of all, 
the command in verse one. Then the Lord said to me, go 
again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing 
adultery. So she was a woman of harlotry. He marries her. They have three 
children together. Now she's engaged in adultery. What would be the natural tendency? 
Write that certificate of divorce and send her on her way. I'll 
keep Jezreel. I'll keep Lo-Ruhamah. I'll keep 
Lo-Ammi. You can take the other children 
and head out. Wouldn't that be a tendency? 
Wouldn't that be a temptation? Isn't that something that would 
rise up in your heart? God tells him to go and love 
her again. We don't see Hosea resist. We 
don't see Hosea reject. We don't see Hosea say, but God, 
don't you see what kind of woman she is? Lord, I think it's useless. I think it's hopeless. We don't 
see Hosea buckle under or knuckle under the pressure of those watching 
on. You ever heard of a Hosea in your own experience and you 
said, man, this guy's a nut. This guy's an idiot. Doesn't 
he know what she's doing to him? Doesn't he know what kind of 
woman she is? Doesn't he know the hurt and 
the harm that she's capable of? Hosea is told to do this and 
he does it. And as we saw in chapter one 
at the original command for him to marry her, the reason given 
for the land has departed from the Lord. Here the reason is 
given. 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 
look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans. It's 
as if God can't stop loving his people. They're recalcitrant, 
they're incorrigible, they're rebellious, they're prone to 
wander, they're prone to leave him, and yet he says, I'm gonna 
love you, I'm gonna woo you, I'm gonna win you back, I'm gonna 
keep you for myself. This is the hesed, this is the 
loving kindness, this is the grace that we've been studying. 
throughout this chapter. It is shocking. It is amazing. If I was Hosea's friend, I would 
say, you're nuts to take her back again. You have got to be 
out of your mind. You have got to be crazy. If 
I had audience with the Lord God and I was looking down at 
Israel, I wouldn't say, you're nuts, but I would certainly say, 
that is odd, that is strange, that is astounding, that is shocking 
that you would take them back. Look at how they treat you. Look 
at how they've rejected you. Look at how they've defied you. 
Look at how they've rebelled against you. And you're going 
to take them back? God says, yes, I'm going to take them back. Notice, he redeems her. So I bought her for myself for 
15 shekels of silver and one and one half homers of barley." 
I mentioned this morning, we're not to probably read a fully 
developed Pauline doctrine of atonement and substitution and 
redemption and curse bearing and the purchase of Christ at 
the cross, but we're certainly not to miss the hint. We're certainly 
not to miss the referent. We're not to miss the reality 
that redemption is given by Hosea through a price. He pays for 
her to return her to his home. And then notice in verse 3, he 
suspends her privilege. What does that mean? Verse 3, 
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." You're coming back, I've purchased you, I've 
redeemed you, you're mine again, but we're going to suspend privilege 
for a time. We're going to suspend marital 
intimacy. We're going to suspend the sort 
of communion and the camaraderie that the covenant of companionship 
is marked by. We're going to take this slow. 
We're going to make sure we are doing things on the up and up. 
I too am going to resist that tendency to enjoy that conjugal 
fellowship with you. That then points to verse 4. 
There is a suspension of privilege with reference to the nation 
of Israel. When they go into the exile, 
when they go into Babylon, when they are decimated by Assyria, 
what happens? They're cut off from the temple, 
they're cut off from the altar, they're cut off from all of the 
things that mark the covenant community and the blessed privileges 
that God enjoins upon his people. for that period of time when 
they're in the exile. They are not knowing the kind 
favor of God on them. They are His possession. He is 
their God. He will keep them. But that intimacy 
and that union and that joy that is had between lovers is suspended 
for a time. You see, what happens with Hosea 
and Gomer parallels what happens with Israel and Yahweh. And then that leads us finally 
to verse 5. Afterward, this refers to the exile, to the captivity, 
whatever you want to call it. Afterward, after they come out, 
the children of Israel shall return. They shall seek the Lord 
their God and David their king. They shall fear the Lord and 
His goodness in the latter days. This in small compass takes the 
history of Israel and communicates what is going to happen from 
this time forth. They will go into exile, but 
after they come out of exile in that new covenant era, they 
will, in fact, seek the Lord. They will, in fact, return to 
the Lord. They will see David their king. We read at the outset of worship 
in Ezekiel 37, 24 and following, that it's David who comes in 
the New Covenant to be the king of his people. As New Covenant 
readers, as students of the Bible, we know that that's the Lord 
Jesus. That is David's greater son and 
David's Lord. So the prophet Hosea is ending 
here, preaching Jesus Christ to the 8th century inhabitants 
of the Northern Kingdom. of Israel. The concepts of exile 
and restoration are conspicuous. So to summarize, all that we 
have seen today, the marriage of Hosea and Gomer was an acted 
parable of the marriage between God and Israel. The Prophet engaged in a task 
that probably not many of us would be up to, to take this 
woman of harlotry and these children of harlotry and to have children 
with her, to name them these names that God had given as an 
indictment against Israel. The prophet does this to highlight 
God's grace, God's mercy, God's kindness. Yes, the firmness. Yes, the judgment. Yes, the justice. Yes, the fact that God is not 
going to renege on the covenantal curses as well. But the reality 
that there was a day coming that God the Lord would make a yea 
and amen of all of his promises through Jesus Christ. I'll read 
that quote I started off with this morning from McCombski. 
The prophecy of Hosea is a tapestry of grace. As the prophet loves 
a woman, his 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 will and receive us 
back to himself as Hosea received Gomer. A second concluding thought. I touched on this this morning 
as well. The shocking nature of this whole situation. Remember 
we took some time to defend the literal view. I said that John 
Calvin took a symbolic view. Here's what Calvin says about 
guys like me who take the literal view. He says, there is no doubt 
but that God describes here the favor he promises to the Israelites 
in a type or vision. For they are too gross in their 
notions who think that the prophet married a woman who had been 
harlot. They are too gross in their notions who think that 
that's actually what happened. I think it is precisely what 
happened to shock the people, to shock us, and to shock us 
further concerning the manifestation of God's grace. There's an interesting 
statement by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 23. He says, we, talking about himself 
and his companions, we preach Christ and Him crucified. He says that Jews are looking 
for signs and Greeks are looking for wisdom, but we preach Christ 
and Him crucified. He says that message of Christ 
and Him crucified is foolishness to the Greeks. They look at it 
as so many weird things. What is the deal in that? But 
to the Jews, it's a stumbling block. The word is literally 
a scandal. First century Jews were scandalized 
by the notion of a crucified Messiah. First century Jews were 
shocked by the reality that blood atonement was made by Jesus of 
Nazareth. I suggest to you that they were 
as shocked in the 8th century BC over the scandal which is 
God's grace being poured out on His people. A third concluding 
thought is the effect that this grace should promote in the hearts 
of its recipients. The effect that this grace should 
promote in the heart of its recipients. Notice verse 5 in chapter 3. 
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. They shall fear the Lord and 
His goodness. It was grace that taught my heart 
to fear. If thou, Lord, shouldst mark 
iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? Psalm 130 verse 3. Psalm 130 verse 4 says, But there 
is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. goodness, the graciousness, the 
mercy, and the kindness of God ought to promote in our hearts 
reverential awe, worship, praise, adoration. And the final concluding 
thought is if you're an unbeliever tonight, it ought to promote 
in you a desire to flee, to run to Jesus, to go to the Lord of 
glory, to go to the only savior for sinners, The one who is David's 
son, yet David's Lord. The one who is the type, or the 
anti-type rather, of Hosea. The one who bought us back through 
his blood shedding at Calvary. The one who satisfied God's wrath. The one who lived in obedience 
to God's law. He alone is the one who can save 
you from your sins. Return, seek the Lord your God. David, your king. You shall fear 
him, then you shall fear his goodness in these latter days. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ 
and you shall be saved. That's what Hosea is communicating 
to you tonight. Well, let us pray. Our Father, 
we thank you for this, your word. We thank you for the prophet 
Hosea. What a great story of your faithfulness and of your 
kindness and of your graciousness. We thank you, Lord God, that 
you have shown these things to us. We pray that they would indeed 
produce fear in our hearts, rejoicing in our hearts, praise and worship, 
and all those things that are fitting for your people. I ask 
now that you would go with us. I pray that you would bless this 
church. Bless each individual here with 
your peace, with your protection, and with your loving kindness. 
We ask these things through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. We'll 
close with a brief time of meditation.