All right, we need to open our Bibles to Hosea chapter one. The first sermon of a new series is always somewhat challenging because we're all somewhat changing our perspective a little bit. Let me use this as an introduction. It's from James Boyce. He writes, one winter, several years after I had began my ministry at 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, I decided to preach on the minor prophets. Now, the minor prophets are not minor because they're minor in significance. They're usually called minor because they're of shorter length than Isaiah or Ezekiel or Jeremiah, but the first in order in the Bible of the minor prophets so-called would be the book of Hosea. Hosea lived at a time when he was contemporary with Amos. In the north, those 10 tribes that comprised the nation of Israel, most of the time in Hosea's prophet referred to as Ephraim, who seemed to be the head person in the north by tribal identity. Hosea was ministering at the same time as Amos in the north and at the same time as Isaiah and Micah in Judah in the southern part of the kingdom. So here's James Boyce deciding to preach. He says his motives were not noble. I had recently completed a very heavy load of writing, and I was looking for books that were not too long in which I could handle, as I thought, without an unusual amount of difficulty. I was not expecting much. But as I began to preach, the minor prophets came alive with such force, even with my little preparation. that I decided to stop the series until I'd have time to study them more thoroughly and write the studies for eventual release in book form. It took me some time to get to them, but when I did, I found that I could not simply rush through them as one might push on through other better known books of the Bible. These works were powerful. They spoke to present sins and called for present action. I found that I could not absorb more than one or two at a time. And as a result, I spread out the preaching on these books over 10 years. The proper way to describe their impact on me is to say that they dramatize the character of God as few other books do. That's a challenge for me, challenge for all of us. I look back over the past 10 years here, and I'm really grateful for the church as the church, because you've been willing to attend to long series of sermons through the book of Isaiah all the way through the book of Jeremiah. Last year, at the end of the quarter, we did a small group study on the book of Micah. And before that, I remember a study in Sunday school on the book of Malachi. I think that's an encouraging sign because the minor prophets are not normally the subject of much attention in the broader evangelical church today. And that just shows our own, I believe, paucity of spiritual maturity. The fact that we could love John's gospel, but not remember Amos is in the Bible is a reflection of our own meagerness of spiritual maturity. Let me give you perhaps one of the best examples I can think of. This is a book I ordered not too long ago. It's a book by Jeremiah Burroughs, An Exposition of the Prophecy of Hosea. As you can see, that book is 700 pages long. And the pages are written with such small print on a large page that easily four of these pages would fit on one page of modern publication. So you just begin to wonder why were people's priorities in another day so different from our day? I mean, 700 pages times four, that's almost 3000 pages of close exegesis and preaching from the book of Hosea. Saying, why in the world could it be that important? How could anybody ever say that much from the scriptural text? And the answer, of course, is multiplied more could be said of this. Let's look at the first chapter tonight. The word of the Lord that came to Hosea. Now, Hosea by a name comes from the same Hebrew word as Savior, as Yeshua, Jesus, Joshua. It's built on the same idea of salvation. The word of the Lord came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. Now notice those four kings are all kings of Judah. We're talking about a time period between 700 and 800 B.C. Now, what did I say happened in 1000 B.C. this morning? David. OK, so it's about what? Two hundred years after David. This also closely connects with where we left off the sermon series from Elijah not too many weeks ago, you recall. Because Elijah's ministry coincided somewhat with the death and punishment of Ahab and the one who displaced Ahab's kingship was Jehu. Jehu being referenced in just a moment in Hosea's prophecy. During the reigns of Jeroboam, son of Jehoash, king of Israel. And it's to the northern kingdom, the northern tribes that Hosea will be addressing his prophecies. It's quite interesting, really, that if you look at the time chart in which Hosea lived, which was in general a very prosperous time during Israel's history. If you were to look at the leading economic indicators in Israel, they would have been spiking upward for the most part. You would say, wow, what God's blessing is doing to them. Look how they're prospering. When at the same time, the state religion has become Baal worship. And as you know, Elijah combated that fiercely. But in any case, if you begin to look on a time chart when Uzziah in the south began to reign up until the time when the northern kingdom was taken into captivity by the Assyrian invasion. Are you following? The time period in which Hosea ministered could have been as long as 60 or 70 or perhaps even 80 years. It was a long ministry. John Calvin wrote that it was certainly greater than 60 years and probably continued beyond 70 years. And this prophecy interpretation by Jeremiah Burroughs Puts the time period is perhaps as many as 80 years. Now, why is that significant? Well, it's significant for one reason, because in the last 30 years of the kings of the north in Israel, there were six kings. That's how volatile the political situation was in which Hosea was bringing the word of God. Six kings in 30 years. But he perhaps had already been a prophet, bringing forth the word of God for at least 30 years before that. Jeremiah Burroughs, for instance, who I just mentioned, is writing this long commentary. He only lived 46 years in his whole lifetime. And John Calvin, of course, you know, died in his mid 50s. So as these commentators are commenting on Hosea's long prophetic ministry, they're saying, He was a prophet longer than I've been alive. Do you know any ministers who have been faithful for 60 or 70 years? Say, wow. Now, here's where the real drama begins. Verse two. When the Lord began to speak through Hosea. The Lord said to him. Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord. So we married Gomer, daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. This is unparalleled in all the scripture, I would suggest. for what God is asking his faithful spokesman to do. Some of the interpretations here and some of the translations suggest that God told his prophet Hosea to go to the house of prostitution, pick out a woman of harlotry and take her as your covenant partner for wife. And the whole idea is so revolting, especially to the Jewish mind of that day, even in their fallenness, so repugnant that people have said that couldn't be true, it couldn't have actually happened. Now, among those who have said it couldn't have actually happened that way is John Calvin. And in fact, Jeremiah Burroughs takes the same track after Calvin to say the message that Jesus wanted to give to his Adulterating people was such that he gave it to the Prophet Hosea via a vision, via some kind of an allegory, because no one in Israel would have listened to a prophet who intentionally went to the whorehouse to get a wife. They wouldn't have countenanced that. It's too completely absorbed, absurd. So Calvin thought the idea probably went something like this. God shows the prophet this message via allegory or vision. And then what Hosea does is he goes publicly before the people to announce what God had told him. and basically said this, here I am acting out before you a story that God has communicated to me. And the story goes like this. I'm going to play the part of God. And you all are going to play the part of my wife. You'll be Gomer and I'll be God. and addresses it like that, it would still be the word of God. But Hosea isn't actually actually living it out. Now, this is one of those places where I think it's right to say. God said, go take a wife who is immoral. And Hosea. Did it actually? The. The difficulty of it is involved somewhat with the translation of what it means to marry a woman guilty of sexual sin. And I think the better way to understand it is to say. Hosea really married this woman. But obviously he. would have married her earlier in life before she was devoted to a life of adulterous behavior. In other words, God tells him ahead of time, this woman that you take to be your covenant partner. I'm warning you ahead of time, she's not going to be faithful to you. But at the time you're married together. She's not yet an adulterous. Do you understand? And yet, Hosea is willing to do that, willing to take the woman to be his wife and later understanding that when she turns unfaithful to him, what's really going to be happening is. The word of the Lord, not only spoken, but pictured before the people will go something like this. You know how my marriage has turned out. My wife was a beautiful lady. In fact, you saw us in the chapel together and you thought, oh, what promise, what a beautiful couple. But you also know how things have turned out. You know that after some amount of contentment with me, she decided she really couldn't be content with me. And she went off to find other lovers. And I stand here before you to tell you that. Now, what's going to be amazing is God also says after she's been unfaithful, I want you to go find her, take her out of another man's house and bring her back to your house. And God is saying, The reason I want you to do this is because we are presenting a portrait of relationship here. You see what Hosea, the husband, is going through right now? Hosea is playing my part. And Gomer is playing your part. Now, are you watching? Are you listening? That's why James Boyce takes this story and he has an amazing caption to it. He says, this is the second greatest story that's ever been told. Because it's so easily transferable then into the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. As I read on for a moment. He married Gomer and she conceived and bore him a son. Now, Gomer is going to have two other children, but the two other children that Gomer has are not called sons of Hosea. The idea would be Hosea has one legitimate son. He was the father for the first child. But look what happens then. The Lord said to Hosea, this first child cause call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. I would read the kingdom of Israel to be parallel to the house of Jehu there. What did we learn about the massacre of Jezreel? Do you remember the Elijah stories? What happened to Jezreel? When Ahab was slaughtered, why was Ahab slaughtered? Why did the dogs lick up his blood? Because of what? One particular sin that happened about Naboth's vineyard. Remember how God says, you're not going to outlive this. In that day, I will break Israel's bow in the valley of Jezreel. Now, if a nation has its bow broken, what does that mean? Have you ever hunted with a broken bow or one that sort of collapses on you? I mean, it just makes me wince to think of that taut string collapsing on my wrist. It's useless, a twisted bow. God's going to break the strength of this nation. Now, listen, Gomer conceived again. Incidentally, Jezreel means scattered, and the reason God showed the name scattered was a warning. That's what's going to happen to the nation. Gomer conceived again and notice it's Gomer that gives birth to a daughter, but there's no mention that it's Hosea's child. And that's the point. She's had a child now by another man. The Lord said to Hosea, call her Lo-Ruhamah. For I will no longer show love to the house of Israel that I should at all forgive them. How would you like to have a name like not loved? I mean, that was the some child, some illegitimate child was running around with the name. No mercy for you. And yet I will show love to the house of Judah, the north, the south. I will save them not by bow, sword or battle or by horses or on horsemen, but I'll save them by the Lord, their God. Now, after she had weaned, no mercy, no love, lo Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. And again, now notice it's Gomer's child, but it's undoubtedly not Hosea's son. And the Lord said, call him low me. That means not my people. For you are not my people, and I'm not your God. To understand this story, I believe you have to understand it really in the long term perspective. Because something's happening. With the execution of God's covenant with his people, that puts a great break in his close relationship to them. When you see the news of Israel today, you look at Israel and say, that's God's people. They're not God's people. Not the way they were meant to be God's people. God's people today are the people who are in Jesus Christ. They're the new Israel, the Israel of God. You want me to show that more thoroughly, I want to keep my finger there and go to. Is it second, Peter? First, Peter. Chapter two, I believe. Chapter two, verse nine. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation of people belonging to God. Who is that in such a favorite special position? Is that the northern or southern kingdom of the Israelite ethnic people? Peter's writing to the Gentile church. So that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Look at verse 10. Once you were not a people. You were low a me, but now you're the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, Lo-Ruhamah, not loved. But now you have received mercy. That's not talking to Benjamin Netanyahu today, you understand? It's talking to us. Where did he get the dual phrase, not my people, but my people, no mercy, but now mercy. Where did he get that idea? He's Peter, the apostle in the New Testament. Where did he get that idea? And the answer is he's reading what Jeremiah Burroughs commented for three thousand pages about. But on the other hand, does that mean that God's completely finished with the Jewish race as a people? Probably not the way it's sounding here. Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. Who heard that for the first time? About seashore and SARS and who was that? God says, I haven't forgotten what I promised Abraham. And what I promised to Abraham can be your inheritance, too. Not because you are so righteously blessed in Hosea's day, but because I made a promise and I'm not going to go back to my promise to to Abraham. Who's Abraham's children? Those who have the faith of Abraham, how was Abraham justified by faith in Christ? How long has Israel been scattered? Israel still scattered today from Tel Aviv to San Francisco, don't you know that? Will they always remain scattered? Not my people? Well, we know some of them are his people, the Apostle Paul and his colleagues. Many Jews have turned to Christ, but have they all yet turned to Christ? Is the fullness of the Gentiles yet been filled up or the fullness of Israel at the same time? And the answer would be no. Now you're going to ask me, OK, tell me how it all fits together. And I'll say, I'm not sure yet. But the long term picture that's coming through Hosea is one of separation for covenant breaking. But now, listen. God says you play the part, the profit part, you you act out me. And Gomer and family, that's the people. Now you go out and. Get your wife back. Well. The people of Judah and the people of Israel will be reunited, and they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land. For great will be the day of Jezreel. Save your brothers, my people, and of your sisters, my loved one. I believe Jose is talking about a time still in the future. It's not finished yet. How's that for an introduction to a mysterious sounding book? We'll go into more detail later, but this is the overriding question that I want you to ask your soul. And don't expect the pastor to give you all the answers all the time. Because frankly, I don't have all the answers all the time. But here's the thing that ought to haunt your soul. What kind of a God is this? He puts his hand on Hosea and he says, I want you in this drama to represent me. You play my part. I mean, what can you say except, yes, sir. You're scripting this movie. But what kind of a God is this? Who says, go marry a woman who's going to be an adulteress. Because I want the adulteress to understand. I want them to see in you, Hosea. how I'm responding to your adulterous behavior. The God evidently being represented is a God of emotion, a God who feels, a God who has personal traits, who can feel betrayal. A God who would open himself to pain and trauma. Is that right? Can that be right? A God who would be vulnerable to betrayal. A God who would be willing to love sacrificially and suffer humiliation, so to speak, in the eyes of the world. Or is that too much weakness to be accurate of God? Or is that vulnerability in itself that might be considered weakness, really an exhibition of glory that you really can't understand yet? I mean, what could exhibit a greater amount of perfect faithfulness? than to go after your adulterating wife who has two children by other men. Just because the covenant that doesn't mean anything to her really still does mean something to you. This is the God who loves. You say, oh, sure, God is love. No, this is the guy who loves in this way. This is a God who who forgives. This is a God who restores. This is a God who punishes. This is a God who casts off, that's what he's going to do to his people. This is a God who sues in court because that's going to happen. God's going to bring his suit. For divorce, so to speak, in the court of righteousness. and present the evidence. Well, how can he be a God who does that while at the same time he loves and forgives? He's a God who appeals for justice. He's a God who expects repentance. He's a God, most basically, who speaks. who goes to this extent to try to communicate. A God who exercises, perhaps above all, patience and long suffering for all of redemptive history, so to speak, to work this out in its completion. That's the kind of God, a little bit of the kind of God, that he's saying, and I want you to portray before a watching world and especially before my people. And it's a story that really only gets fully, finally told through the cross of Jesus Christ. So with that as an introduction, shall we pray? Father, our understanding of you and your word, your character and your nature certainly needs to be expanded in our hearts. Because when we consider all these qualities that are rightly yours, our little minds just don't comprehend how you can balance perfectly this kind of sacrificial love with unbending righteousness and justice at the same time. how you can chastise and punish and scatter and cast off and at the same time redeem and forgive. And we ask that you give us an ability to absorb more than we've absorbed before. Because in many ways, this drama still goes on and to some degree I do believe We're still playing one of two parts. We're playing the part of living out what God is like, or living out the part of what it looks like to be an adulteress. And help us to face that squarely. Thank you for this Lawrence Day mercy. And the fact that we can face the Judgment Day unafraid, hidden in the refuge of Jesus Christ. We pray in his name.