Sermon: Hosea, Gomer, God, and Israel

Imitating Gods Love
#1486B

Given 04-May-19; 38 minutes

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Prosperity, coupled with the carnal mind, ultimately yields moral degeneration, which the Scriptures symbolize as adultery—faithlessness to the covenant. To dramatize the perennial harlotry of Israel and the incredible love God exhibits toward His people, He commands Hosea to marry a harlot, Gomer. Though she may initially display some affection for the prophet, she ultimately runs away with her lovers. Hosea pleads with her, grieving for her as though she has been taken away in death. After her lovers abandon her, Hosea redeems Gomer from slavery, restoring her to her former favored position. In doing so, the prophet represents Christ's command that we forgive 70 times 7, meaning infinitely, without number. Similarly, God's love for us is never-ending; He adjures us to love our brothers in Christ as Hosea loved Gomer. God commands that we relinquish the corroding grudges we hold against people, recognizing that we have been the source of trials for others. We must exercise the same love for each other as God has for us, aspiring to reap the blessing of family unity (Psalm 133).


transcript:

The book of Hosea speaks to us about spiritual idolatry, or spiritual whoredom, and what happens to the people when they reject God's laws and His way of life. He also speaks to us about God's never-ending love for His people—this incredible love He has for all of us.

Hosea prophesies to Israel about 760 years before Jesus Christ was born. Jeroboam II was on the throne of the northern Kingdom of Israel, and his military exploits had extended Israel's borders farther than they had been since the days of Solomon's glorious kingdom.

Tribute money from the subject nations was pouring into the treasury at the capitol city of Samaria. The people of Israel were enjoying a period of unprecedented prosperity.

Now, as we go through this, I want you to think about the modern day Israelitish countries, and what is going on in America, which parallels what was going on in Israel at the time of Hosea.

As is often the case with prosperity, it came with moral and spiritual degeneration. Secularism and materialism captured the hearts of the people, and sin ran rampant. The list reads like twentieth century America—swearing, lying, killing, stealing, adultery, drunkenness, perversions, perjury, deceit, and oppression (to name but a few). But the thing that grieved the heart of God the most was the sin of idolatry.

Turn to Hosea 4.

Hosea 4:12-13 "My people ask counsel from their wooden idols, and their staff informs them. For the spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray, and they have played the harlot against their God. They offer sacrifices on the mountaintops, and burn incense on the hills, under oaks, poplars, and terebinths, because their shade is good. Therefore your daughters commit harlotry, and your brides commit adultery."

The mention about this wooden staff that informs them (verse 12), which God is talking about is a diviner's rod. They had become so abased that they were even getting into those types of things. The golden calves set up by Jeroboam I about 150 years earlier had opened the floodgates to every evil expression of Canaanite debauchery, including drunkenness, religious prostitution, and human sacrifice. This is the very reason why we cannot allow God's laws to become watered down within the church. We must keep the faith once delivered and not add to it or take away from it.

Since the Eternal viewed Israel as His wife, He viewed her worship of other gods as spiritual adultery. The Old Testament speaks frequently of Israel's whoring after or playing the harlot with other gods. Turn to Deuteronomy 31.

Deuteronomy 31:16 And the LORD said to Moses: "Behold, you will rest with your fathers; and this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them.”

Think of that! God was telling them what was going to happen way back in Moses' time, way before Jeroboam II ever became king. He also warned them again when the judges were ruling them.

Judges 2:17 Yet they would not listen to their judges, but they played the harlot with other gods, and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying the commandments of the LORD; they did not do so.

God had told Israel from the beginning that He would not share with others: "You shall have no other gods before Me," which was one of God's ten great commandments. But Israel had persistently ignored His commands and, by the days of Jeroboam II the situation was intolerable.

God was about to speak decisively, and He chose a prophet named Amos, the former herdsman of Tekoa who thundered God's warning of imminent judgment. But the nation paid little attention to him. So, God spoke again, this time through the prophet Hosea, whose name meant, "Jehovah is salvation."

As I said, the Israelites blew Amos off. So, God sent another—Hosea. God always does His part in love for us, and towards us. The first thing God ever said through Hosea tells us about his unlikely marriage. God said,

Hosea 1:2 When the LORD began to speak by Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea: "Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry, for the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the LORD."

These instructions have been variously understood by different students of the Scriptures through the years. Some believed that God was commanding Hosea to marry a woman who was a prostitute. Others contend that taking a wife of harlotry would merely refer to a woman from the northern kingdom of Israel, a land that was guilty of spiritual adultery. Either way, it is obvious that she was a woman who had been deeply affected by the moral laxity of her society. God had intended to use the prophet's personal relationship with her as a penetrating object lesson mirroring His own relationship with His unfaithful people Israel. God directed him to take her as his wife. And so it was, Gomer the daughter of Diblaim became the unlikely wife of the young prophet of God, Hosea.

The early days of their marriage were probably pretty good, as their love began to blossom. That is what typically happens. God blessed their union with a son. Now, Hosea's heart must have swelled with joy. He was convinced that his marriage would be better than ever with this child to brighten their home.

God named the baby because it was to have prophetic significance to the nation. He called him Jezreel. The reason for this was that it was at Jezreel that Jeroboam's great-grandfather Jehu had first come to the throne by ambitious crimes of bloodshed and violence. While Jeroboam II's dynasty was prospering at the moment, its destruction was on the horizon, and it would end in the valley of Jezreel.

Let us continue in Hosea:

Hosea 1:4-5 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."

It was after the birth of Jezreel that Hosea seemed to have noticed the change in Gomer. She became restless and unhappy, like a bird in a cage. He went on preaching, encouraging the wayward nation to turn from its sins, and trust God for deliverance from the threats of surrounding nations. "Return unto the Eternal" was the theme of Hosea's message. And he preached it repeatedly with great power. He was telling the nation to repent, and to make changes in their lives. But they would have none of it. Turn to Hosea 6:

Hosea 6:1-2 Come, and let us return to the LORD; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight.

Hosea 14:1 O Israel, return to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.

This is what God wants from all of His people. He wants us to repent and to stay close to Him, because His love is a never-ending love for us.

But Gomer seemed less and less interested in Hosea and his ministry. In fact, she may have grown to resent it. She may have even accused Hosea of thinking more about his preaching than he did of her. She began to find other interests to occupy herself and she spent more and more time away from home.

Now, we know that this is a bad time for any marriage. The dangers are great when a husband and a wife have few interests in common. Sometimes the husband goes his way, and other times the wife goes her way. They each have their own set of friends and there is little communication to bring their two worlds together. A husband's preoccupation with his work may be the major contributing factor to the problem. Or it may be a wife's growing involvement in outside activities and subsequent neglect of the home. Or it may simply be a disinterest in the things of the Eternal on the part of either the husband or the wife, but this sets the scene for great calamity. Husbands and wives need to do things together and take an interest in each other's activities.

In this story, the responsibility is basically laid upon Gomer rather than Hosea. She did not share her husband's love for God. This brings us, secondly, to Hosea's unrelieved agony at what was going on in their lives. Scripture does not give us the details of what happened, but what it does say would permit us some speculations concerning the progressive trend that led to their tragic situation. We will eventually see this.

Gomer's absence from the home probably grew more frequent and prolonged, and soon Hosea was feeling pangs of suspicion about her faithfulness to him. He probably lay awake at night and wrestled with his fears. He preached with a heavy heart during the day.

His suspicions were confirmed when Gomer got pregnant again. This time it was a girl. And Hosea was convinced that the child was not his. By God's direction, he called her "Lo-Ruhamah," which means, "Unpitied, or unloved," implying that she would not enjoy her true father's love. The name was symbolic of Israel's wandering from God's love, and the discipline that they would soon experience.

No sooner had little Lo-Ruhamah had been weaned than Gomer conceived again. It was another boy this time. God caused Hosea to call him "Lo-Ammi," which meant, "Not My people," or "No kin of Mine." It symbolized Israel's alienation from God but it also exposed Gomer's sinful adultery. That child born in Hosea's house was not his. Now it was all out in the open. Everybody knew about Gomer's affairs.

While the entire second chapter of Hosea's prophecy describes the hopeless relationship with God and His unfaithful wife, Israel, it is difficult to escape the feeling that grows out of Hosea's relationship with Gomer, established as it is between two chapters that clearly describe that story. He pleaded with her; he threatened to disinherit her; but still, she ran off with her lovers because they promised to lavish her with material things. He tried to stop her on occasion, but she continued to seek her companions in sin.

Hosea would take her back, loving and forgiving her, and they would try again. But her repentance would be short lived, and soon she would be off again with another new lover.

Then the final blow fell (this is also talking about God's relationship with Israel). Gomer then told Hosea that she was leaving for good this time, "I found my true love," she told him, "and I’ll never come back again."

Think about how Hosea must have felt. He probably suffered quite a bit. He loved her, and he grieved for her as though she had been taken in death. His heart ached that she should choose a life that would surely bring her to ruin.

Now, his friends were probably saying, like all friends do, "Good riddance to her, Hosea! Now you’ll be through with her adulterous ways once and for all." But Hosea did not feel that way. He longed for her to come home.

Gomer was still loved by Hosea even though she was an adulterer, and God wanted him to seek her out, and plead his love to her. How can anyone love that deeply? The answer was right there in God's instructions to Hosea, "even as the Lord loves you."

Only one who knows the love and forgiveness of God can ever love that perfectly. And one who has experienced His loving forgiveness cannot help but love and forgive others. That is part of our job to love each other and forgive others especially within the Family of God in the church.

Christian husbands are commanded to love their wives as Christ loves the church. And Hosea is an outstanding biblical example of that kind of love.

Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.

When we really think about what God is telling us here, we have to come to the conclusion that our job is immense, and it is not about us. It is about love for others.

So, Hosea began his search, driven by that indestructible love that he had for Gomer, love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love should never end.

And he found her—ragged, torn, sick, dirty, disheveled, destitute, and chained to an auction block in a filthy slave market; a repulsive shadow of the woman she once was.

We wonder again: How could anyone love her now? But Hosea bought her from her slavery for 15 shekels of silver, and 13 bushels of barley. "So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and one and one-half homers of barley." (Hosea 3:2) Can you imagine the love Hosea had for her after all she had done in committing adultery numerous times. She was a complete wreck. And he had to get her back by paying for her with silver and grain. After all this, Hosea said to her,

Hosea 3:3 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."

Hosea actually paid for her, brought her home, and eventually restored her to her position as his wife. While we do not find anything else in Scripture about their relationship with each other, I assume that God used Hosea's supreme act of forgiving love to melt her heart and change her life forever.

Think about what most of us go through before we will make changes in our lives and repent. How many times should a husband or wife forgive? Some of us think that, "If I keep forgiving, then I simply enable him and his pattern of sin." Or "If I keep forgiving, she’’ll think she can get away with anything she wants." Others say, "If I keep forgiving, it is like putting my seal of approval on his behavior." Or "I can’t take another hurt like that. If he does that one more time, I’m leaving." We have heard all those kinds of responses. Those are human responses.

Now, listen to the response of Christ. Peter had asked Christ this same question:

Matthew 18:21-22 Then Peter came to Him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”

That is a great deal of forgiveness! In fact, Christ was simply saying in a captivating way, "There is no end to forgiveness."

We must use wisdom when we are dealing with things like drugs, alcohol, adultery, wife, and child abuse. We forgive the sin, but we cannot let this destructive behavior continue in our lives and their lives. That is a given.

Sometimes it is just a little slice of daily agitation that needs forgiveness—the occasional sharp word or angry accusation. But we abhor it, we let it eat at us, and fill up with bitterness and resentment, which erodes our relationship.

Maybe it is a major offense like Gomer, and we can never forget it. We stew on it, fret over it, and we keep bringing it up in our minds. And then we [sometimes] attempt to punish our mates for the hurts have suffered.

We try to forgive, but a few days later it is right there again, preying on our minds. Deep wounds take longer to heal. They will come back to our minds. There is no way to avoid that. But, every time they do, we must first remind ourselves that we really did forgive. Then we rehearse how much God has forgiven us. Then we ask Him to take the destructive unforgiving thoughts out of our minds. It is tough. It is not easy. But that is part of our job.

Forgiveness does not mean, however, that we will pay for the other person's offenses. But we will refuse to retaliate in any way to make the guilty person pay. We will absolve them of all guilt. God can use that forgiving love to melt hardened hearts and change messed up lives quicker than anything else in the world.

God's ancient people Israel kept going back to their sins. That is what they did. What about us?

Turn to Hosea 6.

Hosea 6:4 "O Ephraim, what shall I do to you? O Judah, what shall I do to you? For your faithfulness is like a morning cloud, and like the early dew it goes away.”

God never stopped loving them. God never stops loving us either, brethren.

Turn to Hosea 11.

Hosea 11:4 “I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love, and I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck. I stooped and fed them.”

God loves us and works with us just like He worked with ancient Israel and Judah. God never stops loving us. We must always remember that, especially when we go through trials and sicknesses, because it is easy to get down and blame God. Go down to verse 8:

Hosea 11:8 "How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I set you like Zeboiim? My heart churns within Me; My sympathy is stirred.”

Admah and Zeboiim were two of the five cities that went out with their kings to fight Amraphel, Arioch, Chedorlaomer, and Tidal (Genesis 14). Admah and Zeboiim and two other cities were defeated. They lost all their goods and provisions. We all remember the story in how Abraham intervened on Lot's behalf.

God is saying, "How can I allow Israel to go through what Admah and Zeboiim did?" God loves His people so much that His heart churned for what He was going to allow Israel to suffer, because of their sins. He never stopped loving them, and never stopped pleading with them. That is what Hosea's and Gomer's marriage was all about.

Hosea 14:1 O Israel, return to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.

Like God, when we fully forgive, our minds will be released from the bondage of resentment that builds in us a wall, and we shall be free to grow in our relationship with each other and with God.

Look at Hosea 7.

Hosea 7:2 “They do not consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness; now their own deeds have surrounded them; they are before My face.”

Hosea 7:9-10 “Aliens have devoured his strength, but he does not know it; yes, gray hairs are here and there on him, yet he does not know it. 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.”

You see our nation with all its problems turning to God? Do you see her turning back to God? Do you see the thousands of people called into God's church that left and went back to the world, repenting and turning back to God? Not now, but maybe in the future, but they are not turning back now.

God is warning us to stay close to Him. Keep the faith once delivered, live by every word of God, and to love one another.

There are two messages here: The book of Hosea shows us how God's love never fails, never stops. It shows us how much He loves us. God showed ancient Israel how much He loved them and wanted them to repent two ways: He wanted to make sure that they could hear His warning through the preaching of Amos and Hosea, and He also wanted them to see their adultery with their eyes through the life of Gomer. He also wanted them to understand how much He loved them by Hosea's love for his adulterous Gomer. God's love is never-ending.

How is our love for one another? That is the million-dollar question! How is our love for each other within the church?

I John 4:20-21 (The Living Bible) If anyone says, "I love God," but keeps on hating his brother, he is a liar; for if he doesn’t love his brother who is right there in front of him, how can he love God whom he has never seen? And God himself has said that one must not only love God, but his brother too."

I think the greater churches of God fall short of God's commandment on this subject. All of us in one way or another fall short. Hosea had so much love for Gomer that he forgave her no matter what. God has the same thing for us. He loves us no matter what our sins have been, but He wants us to repent.

Way back in the Worldwide Church of God days, there were three churches in the Portland area, and another church was right across the river in Vancouver, Washington. That actually made four churches in the Portland area. I can remember people getting offended or mad at each other back then. And they would drive twenty or thirty miles out of their way to attend one of the other churches just because they refused to do what God commands us to do: forgive and forget and love one another.

Turn to Colossians 3.

Colossians 3:13 (TLB) Be gentle and ready to forgive; never hold grudges. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

No matter what someone said or did that hurt you or offended you, or how they cheated you, you must forgive them. That is the command! We cannot hold grudges. We just took Passover. This is a new year for us. And now all offenses should be forgiven, and we should not be holding any grudges. We should all be at peace with one another. But the question is: Are we?

I want to tell you a story and ask you a question: A man and a woman had a little girl. She is about 4 or 5 years old. God had called this family into His church. Now this woman had a sister who was antagonistic towards God's laws and His way of life. This woman's sister knew that this family did not keep Christmas, Easter, Halloween, or any of the other pagan holidays. It was a Saturday when this all happened—the day before Easter.

This woman's sister had a daughter about the same age as her sister's daughter. She called her Saturday afternoon, after Sabbath services, and asked if her daughter could come over and spend the night and next day with them, and then she would bring her back home that afternoon.

Well, the church woman without thinking said, "Yes. The girls will have a good time together." Remember, this woman's sister knew how they believed and felt about the world's pagan holidays.

When the little girl returned home on Sunday (Easter) afternoon, guess what she had! A big Easter basket full of Easter candy. She asked her daughter where she got that and the little girl said, "I got it from Aunt [so-n-so], who took me to an Easter egg hunt, and gave me all this candy in this basket."

This family in God's church was tricked and lied to because the little girl's aunt wanted her way, and thought it was cruel to keep a kid from Easter or Christmas, or from any of the other pagan holidays. This aunt completely went against the wishes of her sister.

The question is: Should these parents take the little girl's aunt, and hold a grudge against her, and have nothing to do with her? (Remember, the aunt knew better. She knew what she was doing.) Or should they be smarter next time, and not let themselves be taken advantage of?

Now, these people loved the little girl's aunt, the woman's sister. They said that they were mad, really mad, but they let it go. And they never said anything to the aunt. These people did exactly what God wants all of us to do—do not get offended and do not hold grudges. Let things go.

Let us take a look at Romans 13, verse10:

Romans 13:10 (TLB) Love does no wrong to anyone. That’s why it fully satisfies all of God's requirements.

This verse is a mouth full! Are we not family? We are! We are the Family of God. But the greater churches of God have a problem with not forgiving one another and holding grudges. God does not want any of this.

This is how much God forgives us, and how much He loves us.

Hosea 14:4 "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, for My anger has turned away from him.”

We have all heard many sermons and sermonettes on how we should love one another. God states that in I Thessalonians 4.

I Thessalonians 4:9 (AMP) But concerning brotherly love, you have no need to have anyone write you, for you yourself have been personally taught of God to love one another.

And we have been taught over and over again.

The family in this Easter story did not want strife, hard feelings, or bad feelings within the family. They did not hold any grudges. God does not us to hold grudges within His Family either.

Do you know what happened to this sister of this woman? That aunt was called by God a few years after this incident. She learned she had to eat humble pie. (It is not good. I have eaten it before.) It is amazing how God works. This woman is still in one of God's churches. Imagine that!

This little girl's aunt ended up apologizing to her sister down the road for all her antagonistic ways, and going against their beliefs and wishes. And now she is one of God's called-out ones.

We all know that God does not lie. So we have to be honest if we are going to live by every word of God.

Romans 12:9-10 (TLB) Don’t just pretend that you love others: really love them. Hate what is wrong. Stand on the side of good. Love each other with brotherly affection and take delight in honoring each other.

The story of Gomer and Hosea is an incredible love story. No matter how unfaithful Gomer was, Hosea still loved her and forgave her. We must behave the same way. We have to have the same love that God has for us with each other. God's love for us is never-ending.

The book of Hosea tells us that the spiritual conditions at that time seem to parallel what is going on in America right now. The spiritual condition of America is about the same. We in God's church only have each other. So, we must learn to love each other like God loves us.

Now, we have all heard the phrase "As far as East is from the West." That is how great God's love is for us. What does that mean? It means that you are like standing on the equator and walking west. You could circle the globe a billion times and the west would always still be in front of you.

God's love for us is the same. It never ends. All God wants from us is found in Psalm 133.

Psalm 133:1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!

Or, at one with each other.

KM/rwu/drm





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