#145. Hosea 1-7: Loved Beyond Failure | God's Relentless Pursuit of His People

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This is The Dwelling Place from Entrusted Ministries.

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I'm Stephanie Haycox, and today we'll

look at the first half of the book

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of Hosea The Bible began with a

marriage in the garden, And it ends

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with the marriage feast of the Lamb

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The picture of Christ and his bride is

one of the primary metaphors in scripture

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of God's relentless devoted love for us

Before I begin, I'm gonna say that this

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episode needs to be for mom ears alone.

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It's difficult to talk

about the Book of Hosea

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without bringing up some sensitive topics

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Hosea is the first of the minor prophets.

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The term minor doesn't relate to

the importance of the prophet,

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but just the length of the book.

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Like the names Joshua and Jesus,

Hosea also means salvation.

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We don't know much about this man except

that he was most likely from the Northern

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Kingdom because he seemed to know so much

geographically and historically about it

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And that means that he and Jonah

alone were the only two prophets

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from the Northern Kingdom.

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But Hosea's message was

for Judah and Israel.

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He prophesied during 755 to 710 during

the reign of various kings, beginning

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with Jeroboam II in the Northern Kingdom.

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As we've discussed, the nation of Israel

was seemingly thriving financially

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and diplomatically at that time, but

their hearts were far from the Lord

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It seems to me that this is one of

those books of the Bible that really

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speaks to the heart of a woman.

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If you've ever wanted to be fought

for Or to know how much you're loved.

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Reading this book speaks volumes about the

unfathomable depths of God's love for us.

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Although we have the perfect display

of Christ's love on the cross, the way

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that God uses the allegory of marriage

powerfully reveals His love for us

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john K.

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Goodrich explains that there

are six cycles of judgment and

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restoration in the Book of Hosea.

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The first emphasizes the children as

signs and takes place in chapter one.

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The second cycle in chapter two

emphasizes the unfaithful wife.

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The third elevates the faithful

husband in chapter three.

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The fourth occurs in chapters four through

six and emphasizes Israel's unfaithfulness

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And the fifth cycle chronicles

God's resulting discipline upon

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the nation in chapter 6 through 11.

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And the final cycle is

in chapters 11 through 14

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which emphasizes God's faithfulness

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I hesitated over whether or not

to bring this up, as I know that

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the movie was rather controversial

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But I would love to talk about the

book, Redeeming Love, for a moment.

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It's authored by Francine Rivers.

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Before she became a follower of Christ,

she wrote pretty spicy romance novels.

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but when she became a believer, she

developed severe writer's block, and

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for a long period of time, she just

couldn't write until she felt the

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Lord give her this idea of writing

the story of Hosea, but setting it

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during the Gold Rush in California.

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In the book, there's an honorable

young man named Michael Hosea.

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He's pure, and he loves the Lord.

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One day, he sees a beautiful young

woman and feels the Lord tell him

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that this is his bride-to-be But

he discovers she's a prostitute.

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He's shocked, as he's certainly waited

for marriage and expected a godly

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young woman to share his life with.

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The book follows his pursuit of her And it

speaks powerfully for those who have tried

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to love someone that's been hurt before

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for those longing to

love like Christ loves.

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And I think it also speaks to the

level of forgiveness that God is

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asking us to walk in toward others.

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And that's a really important message

for our own marriages and our parenting

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Often as women, when we read things

like this, we're so enthralled with this

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idea of being loved so faithfully that

a man would patiently, wholeheartedly,

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sometimes literally fight for you But

the greater message of redeeming love,

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and certainly the Book of Hosea, is that

regardless of your circumstances, there

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is a Lord that loves you patiently,

wholeheartedly, faithfully and he

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has jealously fought for his bride

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So let this book be to you a confirmation

that you are thoroughly known and loved.

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The book begins, The word of the

Lord that came to Hosea, the son

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of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah,

Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of

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Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam,

the son of Joash, king of Israel.

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When the Lord first spoke through

Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea,

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Go, take to yourself a wife of

whoredom and have children of whoredom.

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For the land commits great

whoredom by forsaking the Lord.

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So he went and took Gomer, the

daughter of Diblaim, and she

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conceived and bore him a son.

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And the Lord said to him, " Call his

name Jezreel, for in just a little while

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I will punish the house of Jehu for the

blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end

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to the kingdom of the house of Israel,

and on that day I will break the bow

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of Israel in the valley of Jezreel."

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She conceived again and bore a daughter.

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And the Lord said to him, " Call

her name No Mercy, for I will no

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more have mercy on the house of

Israel to forgive them at all.

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But I will have mercy on the

house of Judah, and I will save

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them by the Lord their God.

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I will not save them by bow or by sword

or by war or by horses or by horsemen."

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When she had weaned No Mercy,

she conceived and bore a son.

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And the Lord said, " Call his name

Not My People, for you are not

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my people and I am not your God.

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Yet the number of the children of Israel

shall be like the sand of the sea,

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which cannot be measured or numbered.

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And in the place where it was

said to them, 'You are not my

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people,' it shall be said to

them, ' Children of the living God.'

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And the children of Judah and the children

of Israel shall be gathered together,

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and they shall appoint for themselves one

head And they shall go up from the land

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for great shall be the day of Jezreel

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Let's go back to the beginning of

the chapter when God says, "Take

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for yourself a wife of whoredom

and have children of whoredom.

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For the land commits great

whoredom by forsaking the Lord."

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Right away, what we need to understand

about this book of the Bible is

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how much our sin and our chasing

after idols or worldly pleasures

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is adultery against the Lord.

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He is rightly jealous for us, and

instead of being put off by that word,

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we should feel so cherished by it.

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rather than looking at Gomer's sin

and condemning her, let's evaluate our

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own hearts, saying, "Lord, where am I

seeking fulfillment apart from you?"

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We were all created to worship, and

as we aim to point our kids to be

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wholeheartedly devoted to Christ,

we need to make them aware of

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this tendency within us to worship

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what we can see before us

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It surprises me a little bit, but some

commentators, including the MacArthur

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commentary, don't believe that God

was calling Hosea to marry a current

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prostitute, but that God was revealing to

him that Gomer would become a prostitute.

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See, that term whoredom in the Hebrew

refers to both an occupation and a sin.

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So we know this was not a one-time

occurrence, but she had devoted

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herself to unfaithfulness.

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But how would Hosea know to take a wife

who was going to be unfaithful to him?

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I agree with the Moody commentary,

as it seems more likely to me

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that she would have already

been involved in this occupation

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when Hosea married her and that she

went back to it After he married her.

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But when I meditate upon it, aren't

both options incredibly painful?

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Think about marrying someone that

you knew would be unfaithful to you.

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It's heartbreaking.

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It's a painful call that God puts

on Hosea, but it's the best picture

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the Lord could give us of the

loyalty of His love despite Israel's

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sinfulness Did you notice that God

said, "And have children of whoredom"?

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It's entirely possible that

these children were not Hosea's.

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Maybe he never knew

which ones were or not.

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Nevertheless, he's called to father them.

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The first child is called which means

God will scatter, and it foreshadows

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Israel's exile in 722 by Assyria.

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I know we keep covering that

point in history through so many

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books of the Bible, but it was a

monumental event, and the Lord led

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multiple accounts to be given of it.

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Next, Gomer has a daughter, God says to

call her No Mercy, which means not pitied.

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this is an announcement that God is not

going to give mercy to Israel anymore

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His patient endurance is reaching an end.

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But Judah will continue to have mercy.

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next Gomer has a son.

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God says, "Call his name Not

My People, for you are not my

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people, and I am not your God."

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In the original Hebrew,

your God is not there

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but It more literally translates

to, " I will not be I Am to you."

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I Am That I Am was God's covenant name

that He gave in Exodus 3, and this

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symbolizes His rejection of Israel

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If you're thinking, haven't we learned

that this covenant is dependent upon

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God's faithfulness and not ours?

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That's entirely true, but God is not

forsaking the promises He has made to

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Abraham and to Moses and to David, because

that line continues through Judah, and God

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has separated off a remnant for Himself.

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And if we keep reading, we see That

God will restore Israel back to him

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And in that exact location where God

said, "You are not my people," they

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will be called His people, and Israel

and Judah will be unified during

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that millennial reign of Christ,

worshiping under one head, the Messiah

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now let's look to chapter two,

beginning that second cycle

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emphasizing the unfaithful wife.

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Hosea and Gomer present an allegory of

God punishing Israel's faithfulness.

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" Say to your brothers, 'You are

not my people,' and to your

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sisters, ' You have received mercy.'

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Plead with your mother, plead, for she is

not my wife, and I am not her husband."

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After a lengthy, rebuke, the restoration

is described beginning in two fourteen.

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Therefore behold, I will allure her

and bring her into the wilderness

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and speak tenderly to her.

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And there I will give her

vineyards, and I will make the

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Valley of Acre a door of hope.

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And there she shall answer as in the

days of her youth, as at the time when

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she came out of the land of Egypt.

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And in that day, declares the Lord, you

will call Me my Husband, and no longer

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will you call Me my Baal; for I will

remove the names of the Baals from her

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mouth, and they shall be remembered by

name no more And I will make for them

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a covenant on that day with the beasts

of the field, the birds of the heavens,

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and the creeping things of the ground.

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and I will abolish the bow, the

sword, and war from the land, and

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I will make you lie down in safety,

and I will betroth you to me forever.

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I will betroth you to me in

righteousness and in justice,

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in steadfast love and in mercy.

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I will betroth you to me in faithfulness,

and you shall know the Lord.

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And in that day, I will answer, declares

the Lord, I will answer the heavens,

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and they shall answer the earth.

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And the earth shall answer the grain,

the wine, and the oil, and they

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shall answer Jezreel, and I will

show her for myself in the land, and

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I will have mercy and no mercy.

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And I will say to not my

people, " You are my people."

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And he shall say, " You are my God."

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, Three times God says,

"I will betroth you."

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He is bringing the bride price while

Israel brings nothing to the table.

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And the price he'll pay for his

bride is his very character, his

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righteousness, justice, loving

kindness, compassion, and faithfulness

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And that moves us to the third cycle,

which elevates the faithful husband The

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Lord said to me, "Go again, love a woman

who is loved by another man and is an

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adulteress, even as the Lord loves the

children of Israel, though they turn to

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other gods and love cakes of raisins."

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Hosea pays a steep price to release

Gomer from the debt she incurred.

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We don't know exactly how this

happened, but since she's departed him

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She owes a payment and she needs to

settle it for him to bring her home And

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in verse three, " And I said to her,

' You must dwell as mine for many days.

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You shall not play the whore

or belong to another man.

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So I will also be to you.'

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For the children of Israel shall

dwell many days without king or

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prince, without sacrifice or pillar,

without ephod or household gods.

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Afterward the children of Israel

shall return and seek the Lord their

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God and David their king, and they

shall come in fear to the Lord and

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to his goodness in the latter days."

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Isn't it beautiful how in each cycle there

is a picture of restoration and hope?

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with the next God strongly

rebukes his adulterous wife

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In verse six we find, "My people

are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

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Because you have rejected knowledge, I

reject you from being a priest to me.

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And since you have forgotten

the law of your God, I also

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will forget your children."

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Remember in the Torah that parents

and the priests were commanded

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to pass on the knowledge of the

Lord to the next generation, but

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they have forgotten all of this

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And the people no longer know their God

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At the end of the chapter, God says, "Like

a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn.

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Can the Lord now feed them like

a lamb in a broad pasture?"

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The level of their rebellion and

their lack of character is requiring

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their captivity to refine them

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In chapter five, there's a rebuke

against the nations seeking their

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strength in the king of Assyria But

the Lord tells them that the king of

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Assyria will not be able to protect

them from the Lord's judgment upon them

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And we'll conclude with

this portion in chapter six.

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Which begins, " Come, let us

return to the Lord, for He has

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torn us that He may heal us.

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He has struck us down,

and He will bind us up.

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After two days, He will revive us.

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On the third day, He will raise

us up that we may live before Him.

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Let us know, let us press

on to know the Lord.

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His going out is as sure as the dawn.

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He will come to us as the showers, as

the spring rains that water the earth."

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This is one of my mom's very

favorite verses, and I painted

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it on a banner for her once

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But I love thinking about this reality

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That when we press in to know the

Lord, we are sure to follow Him.

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We will not be disappointed

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And in Him, we rightly find all

we desire and were created for

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Heavenly Father, we are humbled

by the depth of your love for us

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We're filled with gratitude for your

faithfulness to purify us from our sin

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and to remove any obstacle that stands in

the way of us worshiping you and you alone

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Though we do not worship Baals on high

places anymore, we pray that you would

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open our eyes to any places that we

seek to be satisfied apart from you.

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We agree, as Piper says, that you are most

glorified in us when we are most satisfied

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in you, and we long for that to be true in

our hearts and in our children's hearts.

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As we spend so much time devoted to

discipline and character training

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and instruction, I pray that the

joy of knowing you would be evident

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to every one of our children.

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We thank you that your coming

is as sure as the dawn.

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May the hope of your return, Jesus,

be on the forefront of our minds.

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It's in your name we pray.

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Amen.