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.
Introduction: Hosea's Faithful Obedience
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.
Israel's Theological Failure
You may turn to chapter 4 at verse 1.
Scripture Reading: Hosea 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. 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.
Covenant Curses Upon Israel
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.
Deprivation, Humiliation, and Loss of Joy
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.
Promise of New Covenant Restoration
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.
The Wilderness and the Door of Hope
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.
Permanence of the New Covenant Betrothal
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.
Righteousness, Loving-Kindness, and Faithfulness
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.
Reversal of the Covenant Names
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.
Chapter 3: Hosea Redeems Gomer
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.
The Command to Love Again
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.
Redemption and Suspended Privilege
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
Application and Concluding Thoughts
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.
Closing Prayer
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.