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If you will, take out your Bibles
in the Old Testament, be turning with me to the book of Hosea.
We're gonna begin in the book of Hosea today by reading chapter
one and verse one, and then devote our study in this hour to an
introduction to the book and an overview of its contents.
We are continuing our study now of the minor prophets by backing
up and picking up the first book in that collection. Before we
read God's word, let's bow together. Our Heavenly Father, we are very
thankful to You for another opportunity to study Your Word and grateful
for the privilege of beginning a new series on another book
in the Bible. We are grateful, O God, for the
ways in which the work of Your prophet Hosea has served as a
comfort to Your people for almost 3,000 years. We pray, O Lord,
that you would bless us, that we would benefit by its instruction,
that you would guide our meditation, not only in this hour, but in
the weeks and months to come as we continue to learn from
your prophet as his word is applied to our hearts and minds by your
Holy Spirit. Please help us, Lord, that we
might see Christ clearly in the preaching of Hosea and that we
might believe your word as it comes to us in this sacred document. We pray in Jesus, our Savior's
name. Amen. Here now, God's Word, Hosea chapter
1 and verse 1. This is the Word of our God. The Word of Yahweh that came
to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz,
and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam,
the son of Joash, king of Israel. Thus far is the Word of God and
the introduction to this work in the Minor Prophets. Now, when
commentators and teachers deliver a series of studies on the Minor
Prophets, they usually proceed in one of two ways, either by
historical chronology as they understand it, or simply by canonical
sequence, that is, studying each of the books as they appear in
our English Bibles. Now, in our case, we're doing
neither. I would have preferred to adopt a canonical sequence
to this series of studies. It had been my intention for
some time, once we finished the Gospel of John, to turn to the
prophetic literature of the Old Testament. But when the coronavirus
came and turned our world upside down, I believed that it would
be prudent to pause all of our other teaching series and go
immediately to the book of Joel. And hopefully we found the contents
of that prophetic work to be very relevant for us in a time
such as this. But having now completed our
survey and study of the prophet Joel, we want to continue our
study of the minor prophets. And so inevitably we have to
back up and pick up the one book that we skipped over, the book
of Hosea. Now, it is important to remember
that this collection, the Minor Prophets, as we call them, from
Hosea to Malachi, is one document in the Hebrew Bible. They are
twelve books that are collected together, but one collection,
a single text, as it were, in the Hebrew Bible, and thus it
needs to be read in that way in our English translations.
We should expect to find a literary purpose and significance in the
order in which these books do appear in our Hebrew and English
Bibles. The order is slightly different
in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, but the basic
units that we've suggested before for this collection, that is,
six prophets that belong to the period of the divided kingdom,
three prophets that ministered during the period of Judah alone
after the fall of the northern kingdom, And then three prophets
who prophesied after the return from Babylonian exile. Those
three major divisions across the twelve books of the Minor
Prophets, that original order persists through both the Hebrew
text and the Greek translation. Now, we come to the book of Hosea
today, whose name means salvation. It could also be translated deliverance
or help, and several men in the Old Testament had this name,
most notably, besides this prophet with whom we are familiar, most
notably the person Joshua, Moses' assistant and successor as the
leader of Israel. Also, the last king of the northern
kingdom of Israel was named Hosea or Hosea, although his name is
usually forgotten by people or remembered only in infamy. Now,
we don't know anything about the prophet Hosea outside of
this book that bears his name. He is the son of Be'eri, or Biri,
as we sometimes say. His wife's name was Gomer. They
had three children together, although the biological paternity
of some or all of these children was dubious at best. He was almost
certainly a native resident of the northern kingdom. He calls
the king of Israel in chapter 7 and verse 5, our king. But
unlike his wife, Gomer, Hosea is not truly a man who belongs
to the northern kingdom. He is a son of Abraham, a follower
of Moses, and a loyal subject of David, as we see in terms
of his character and his covenantal commitments. And thus we might
say that Hosea is a man who is in, but not of, the godless nation
in which God has called him to minister. Now the notes that
I've given you for this introductory study are fairly extensive and
I'm going to stick fairly closely to those notes for the sake of
time trying to move rapidly through some of this material but I will
warn you that I am going to skip over entire sections of those
notes and so you can expect to find some additional material
in the manuscript that you have as opposed to what I present
in the pulpit Let's talk first about the historical background
for the book of Hosea. He prophesied in the 8th century
BC. Now, the kingdoms of Israel and
Judah divided back in the 10th century, around 931 BC. Hosea began to prophesy during
the reigns of Jeroboam II in Israel and Uzziah in Judah, who
was king over the southern kingdom. And his ministry continued until
the reign of Hezekiah. Now, this means that he prophesied
from at least 753 to 729 BC. A minimum of 24 years, but probably
a good bit longer. Some scholars have even suggested
that he might have ministered as long as 60 or 65 years. But
whether Hosea prophesied for two and a half decades or six
decades, he lived and worked during a time of tremendous transition
and tremendous strife in the Kingdom of Israel. The reigns
of both Jeroboam II in the north and Uzziah in the south were
an Indian summer of prosperity for each of those kingdoms. Syria
was in decline, the Assyrians were not yet a major threat either
to Israel or Judah, and both of these Israelite nations enjoyed
a period of general peace and economic recovery. They were
free of external threats, and they were enjoying seasons of
financial gain. The combination of a strong economy
and freedom from war and imminent threats led to widespread complacency,
carnality, and corruption. The people in both Israel and
Judah, to some extent, became self-indulgent and indifferent
to their duties to God and to their neighbors. Israel apostatized
from their covenant with Yahweh. As one commentator observes,
quote, unfaithfulness towards God and His word begot faithlessness
towards men. With the neglect to love God
with all the heart, love to brethren also disappeared, end quote.
And that's useful because it is a reminder to us that if we
want to love our neighbors well, we must begin by giving God all
of our heart's devotion. Now this was the audience to
whom Hosea had been sent to preach, and it was a very tough crowd.
But it's almost always that way with the classical prophets.
The prophets were not called to be pastors to the people.
The prophet's calling, unlike the pastor's ordinary calling,
was always an adversarial one. God sent these prophets to the
people because there was a problem, and those people needed to be
told to repent. The nation had received great
blessings from Yahweh, but they had forsaken Him in their prosperity. Their sin was worse, in fact,
than the idolatry of the pagans around them, because whereas
the Gentiles did not know the true God, the Israelites did
know Him and had a connection to Him through the covenant of
grace. God had established this relationship
with them. It was not a covenant of works
to which all men are subject by creation, but it was that
covenant of grace whereby their sins would be forgiven and their
souls would be saved. But Israel had rejected that
covenant and the God who made it with them. And they'd given
themselves to idolatry and lust and self-indulgence. And so,
their sin was not spiritual fornication as of an uncovenanted person,
it was rather spiritual adultery against the God who had made
them His own. Now, this second golden age in
Israel did not last. When Jeroboam's reign ended after
41 years, Israel went on to have six different kings in the space
of just 30 years. And of those six kings, four
of them were assassinated. Three of them reigned less than
two years each. One of them reigned for only
six months. One of them reigned for only one month. At the end
of those 30 years, the Northern Kingdom was destroyed by the
Assyrians, who by that time had become the dominant power in
the Ancient Near East and were destroying many nations. And
how quickly things changed for Israel in Hosea's lifetime. Israel went from their greatest
period of economic prosperity, military security, and quality
of public life to being annihilated. to no longer being a nation at
all. And that changed in just three
decades. If you think that a strong economy
or military power or a high standard of living guarantees security
for a nation, then I would suggest to you, you need to get better
acquainted with history and you need to spend some time reading
your Bible. Hosea was sent, along with many other prophets of this
period, to warn the people that danger lay close at hand. Their
only hope of deliverance was in turning to and trusting in
the Lord. Egypt could not save them from
Assyria. Assyria wouldn't save them from
anyone. Only in repentance and faith
could the people of Israel hope to survive. But the prophets'
preaching, unfortunately, largely fell on deaf ears. Now think
with me for a moment about the theological substance of this
book of prophecy. The key to understanding the
book of Hosea is recognizing the rather obvious parallel between
the prophet's troubled marriage that is described in chapters
1-3 and God's relationship with Israel. In the first chapter,
God tells the prophet to go and marry a wife of harlotry and
to have children of harlotry. This probably refers to the fact
that Hosea's wife, Gomer, was a true daughter of the Northern
Kingdom. She wasn't necessarily a prostitute when Hosea married
her, but she soon begins to act like one. And as each of Hosea's
children are born, it becomes increasingly uncertain whether
he is the biological father of each of them. Finally, Gomer
leaves the house, she goes after her lovers, and most friends
of Hosea would probably say, good riddance. But that is when
Yahweh tells the prophet to go after her. To reclaim her, to
buy her back out of the slavery to which sin had reduced her,
and then to bring her home and restore her as his wife. That relationship between the
two of them serves as an acted parable. It's not a literary
device. It's not a mythological or allegorical narrative. It's an actual historical experience
which God called Hosea to endure in order to illustrate the larger
theme of his ministry to Israel. Because, like Gomer, Israel has
broken covenant with and abandoned her husband. And yet God, like
the prophet, stands ready to redeem and rescue and restore
His wife if she will heed His word. And this kind of acted
parable is not uncommon in the Old Testament prophets in the
lives that they lived under the sovereignty of God. We see the
same kind of directions, in fact, given to Isaiah, Jeremiah, and
Ezekiel. And sometimes, as in Hosea's
own case, the will of God for these prophets was very hard
to bear. It had devastating personal, emotional, and family consequences. But what does that tell us about
the relative importance of the Word of God in the lives and
mouths of each of these men? I mean, who wants to marry a
woman that you know is going to betray you and break your
heart and wreck your home and upend your life? You might imagine
Hosea praying, Lord, can't we illustrate this situation in
some other way? Can't I just tell them a parable
rather than having to be the parable? But God called Hosea
to endure that heartbreak and that hard suffering which affected
his entire life, his children, and certainly his reputation
in the community. God called him to endure that
because this is how God intended Hosea to serve Him. Hosea's happiness
and his comfort and his emotional security were not God's priority. And that may be startling to
us because we want our happiness, our comfort, our security to
be high on God's list of priorities. But it simply wasn't in this
case. We need to see that the word that God gave Hosea to preach
that would be emphasized by the experiences of his life, that
word was far more important. than the prophet's own comfort
and security. Now, we said that Jeroboam II
was king of Israel when Hosea was called to serve as prophet.
Jeroboam, in this case, was the third descendant of Jehu to sit
on Israel's throne. God had promised Jehu that because
of his obedience in wiping out the cult of Baal, which King
Ahab and Queen Jezebel had institutionalized, because Jehu had gone to war
against Baal and had killed the adherents of that religion, Jehu's
sons would sit on the throne to the fourth generation. Jehu
had waged war against this religion during his rise to power. He
had even destroyed the Temple of Baal that Ahab had built.
Jehu purged the outward religion of Baalism from Israel for a
time, but he could not purge the worship of Baal from the
hearts of an apostate people. Now, Jehu was obedient in seeking
to eradicate Baalism, but that does not mean that he himself
was a faithful worshipper of God or that instead he promoted
the true religion of Yahweh in the land. On the contrary, Jehu
reinforced and renewed Israel's devotion to the idolatrous corruption
of religion which Jeroboam I had introduced a hundred years before
him. And that was a religion that
was devoted to Yahweh in name only. They offered sacrifices
to Yahweh supposedly, but they did so on altars that had been
erected at Dan and Bethel along with golden calves. The priests
who administered the sacrifices were not Levites, but could be
chosen from any of the tribes of Israel. The religious calendar
of holy days that they kept had been changed from what was required
in the Law of Moses. All of their prayers was oriented
in an idolatrous way. This would be like someone outlawing
the religion of Islam, but then requiring instead the religion
of Mormonism. This is a corruption of true
religion. It is not pleasing to God. Now over time, it became clear
that Baalism was not gone. The institutionalized cult which
had been established by the government in Ahab's day may not have been
revived in a formal way, but the idea of Baal religion was
still alive and well. The name Baal means master, and
Israel still had many false gods that they confessed as masters
in Hosea's day. We'll even see that wordplay
in chapter 2 of the book. There is even evidence that their
worship of Yahweh had become a kind of Baalism. And God's
judgment would purge them in time of that sort of syncretism. And this feature of Hosea's ministry
makes the book all the more relevant for us because we live, certainly,
in a religiously syncretistic society. Many professing Christians
have combined biblical Christianity with pagan and superstitious
forms of idolatry. We bring our idols and we bring
our idolatrous affections into our faith and our worship, but
when we do so, we end up making a new religion which is not authentic
Christianity at all. If we want to be the people of
God, we must forsake our idols. Now the prophet Hosea, with regard
to his theology, is often studied in comparison with the prophet
Amos. The ministries of these two men
overlap, even though Hosea's appears to have lasted longer.
They deal with many of the same issues, but most often people
are focused upon the contrast between their content and the
approaches that they take. Amos, for instance, emphasizes
the justice of God. whereas Hosea emphasizes the
love of God. Amos indicts Israel for failing
to love their neighbor. Hosea indicts Israel for failing
to love God. Amos preaches in a very stern
and forceful way. Hosea preaches the same message,
but he does so in a more compassionate and anguished tone. But for all
of these contrasts that we can observe, what ought to be emphasized,
and sometimes is not, is the consistency between these two
prophets. They both have a very high view
of Yahweh. They both understand Israel's
relation to God and Israel's sin in covenantal terms. They both regard God's judgment
as certain, imminent, and inescapable. And it is this Consistency, not
the superficial disparities that are most important in understanding
the ministries of both Hosea and Amos. Now we said earlier
that Israel's sin was not merely spiritual fornication like the
Gentiles were guilty of. It was a type of spiritual adultery
against their covenant God. Hosea's emphasis is on the whoredom
of their sin and their infidelity to Him. They did not merely commit
adultery with another god, they actually sold themselves like
prostitutes to any god, to any lust, to any pleasure that they
might be able to obtain. They gave themselves to everyone
and everything except Yahweh. And so that wickedness was worse
than fornication. It was worse even than adultery.
It was the defilement that you see in a serial, unrepentant,
remorseless prostitute. Hosea emphasizes, by contrast
to that sin, the jealousy, the compassion, and the love of God. The love of God for this wayward
and wicked wife. He does not minimize Israel's
guilt in any way. On the contrary, by emphasizing
God's love, that actually magnifies their sin. Because they did not
wander away from God because He was ungracious or unloving
or unkind to them. Even now, the love of God is
expressed toward them. And He is willing to redeem them
and to reconcile them. And that's beyond anything that
we might expect. We would never expect a husband
who experienced the kind of betrayal that Hosea and Yahweh did in
their marriages, we would never expect a husband to be eager
to reconcile with his wife. But Yahweh is eager. What spouse
would take back an erring mate in this way? But God is prepared
to do that very thing. He has zeal for His covenant,
He has zeal for His people, and that is communicated clearly
and powerfully both in the prophet's preaching as well as in his own
painful personal experiences. Now, we've said many times in
commenting on the prophets that the central theme of all preaching
in both Old and New Testaments is Christ, and the central imperative
of all preaching in both Old and New Testaments is repent. Well, that is certainly the case
in the book of Hosea. Hosea uses the command to repent or the
term repent or repentance or some form of it 22 times in various
ways. The people are called to repent
to God, And God is said to be ready and willing to turn away,
to repent of His judgment, and to turn again toward them, to
love them. Now in terms of the literary
structure of the book of Hosea, the basic division of the book
is clear. Chapters 1-3 tell the story of
Hosea's marriage to Gomer, the birth of their children, and
provides an introduction to the prophetic content of the book.
And then chapters 4-14 contain the prophetic discourse of Hosea. But beyond that basic division,
there is no consensus. The bulk of the book does not
divide easily into separate messages, as so much of the prophetic literature
does. Very often, as we're studying the other books of Old Testament
prophecy, we can see, sometimes because there is an introduction,
sometimes there is a date, or sometimes there is some type
of literary device that helps us easily divide and say, here
is one sermon, here is another sermon, here is another... But
there's nothing like that in Hosea. Now there are certain
features that might suggest divisions, it's just simply not clear. In
chapter 4 and verse 1, in chapter 12 and verse 2, we see courtroom
scenes in which Yahweh is arraigning His people on charges. In chapter
5 and verse 8, in chapter 8 and verse 1, there are trumpet blasts,
warnings of judgment that is soon to come upon the people. There is a three-fold division
that some have suggested because there are three sections that
seem to be concluded by promises of forgiveness and restoration
and comfort. And so that may be useful to
you. The first stretches from chapter 4 and verse 1 up through
chapter 6 and verse 3. The second from chapter 6 and
verse 4 to chapter 11 and verse 11. And the final section, chapter
11 and verse 12 through the end of chapter 14. Now, others have
pointed out alternating cycles of judgment and hope, not only
in the first three chapters, but that persist into the rest
of the book. And that pattern may be an organizing
feature, and it may be a helpful way of reading the story. But
the lack of a clear structural outline, the lack of any explicit
divisions indicates, to me at least, that this book is really
more a summary of Hosea's preaching than it is a collection or anthology
of specific messages that he preached on particular occasions.
And so what I would like to suggest is that the book is profitably
read from beginning to end as one discourse rather than as
an anthology. And no, that doesn't mean that
we're going to tackle chapters 4 through 14 in simply one sermon,
but it does mean that those chapters will perhaps be best understood
when read in one sitting or in as large chunks as possible. Now, there are several recurring
themes in the book of Hosea, a couple of which we've already
mentioned and I'll just remind you of briefly, and a few others
that we need to develop a little more. One is repentance, as we
already said. This is a major theme in all
of the prophets. It is the response of faith and obedience which
Yahweh looks for and requires of His people. If Israel will
repent, God stands ready to turn and relent of His anger and judgment.
If they refuse to turn, then there will be no one to blame
for their judgment but themselves. Another theme that we mentioned
already is God's love and compassion. This is a dominant theme in the
book of Hosea. It is emphasized by Hosea considerably
more than some of the other prophets. Now that's not to say the other
prophets do not describe or speak of God's love, only that Hosea
takes it to a greater degree or expresses it in some uncommon
ways. For example, we see God as the
broken-hearted husband of an unfaithful bride in this book.
Not only as the God of righteous indignation, whose justice will
punish their transgressions. Hosea has a lot to say about
justice and judgment, but it always is set within this context
of God's tenderness. This picture of Yahweh as a husband
and father to His people. Let me illustrate that for you.
Turn over to chapter 11 for just a moment with me. In Hosea chapter
11, look with me at the first 11 verses. When Israel was a
child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. As they
called them, so they went from them. They sacrificed to the
bales and burned incense to carved images. I taught Ephraim to walk,
taking them by their arms, but they did not know that I healed
them. 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. He shall not return to the land
of Egypt, but the Assyrians shall be his king, because they refuse
to repent. And the sword shall slash in
his cities, devour his districts, and consume them, because of
their own counsels. My people are bent on backsliding
from me, though they call to the Most High, none at all exalt
Him. 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 Zeboim? My heart churns within me. My
sympathy is stirred. I will not execute the fierceness
of my anger. I will not again destroy Ephraim. For I am God and not man, the
Holy One in your midst. And I will not come with terror.
They shall walk after Yahweh. He will roar like a lion. When
He roars, His sons shall come trembling from the west. They
shall come trembling like a bird from Egypt, like a dove from
the land of Assyria. And I will let them dwell in
their houses, says Yahweh." Do you see the idea there? Hosea
speaks about judgment. He speaks about God's justice.
He speaks about the punishment that's about to be unleashed.
The sword coming and slashing and devouring their districts.
Them being taken away. The Assyrians becoming their
king. The people being deported from the land. And yet it's set
within this context of tenderness and anguish and compassion and
sympathy, where God is saying, I am your father, I taught you
to walk when you were a little child, I've carried you and protected
you, and even though you are bent on backsliding, even though
you are bent on turning away from me, I will not utterly destroy
you. I will preserve a remnant. I
will come like a lion and roar, and when the lion roars, I will
call my sons from afar. I will bring them from the nations
among whom they have been scattered." That's a beautiful, beautiful
section. And yet, it's a section about
judgment. It's a section about justice. But it's set within
the context of God's love and compassion as a father and a
husband to His people. Now, a third theme that we see
recurring in the book is that Hosea speaks of Israel's sin
primarily in terms of adultery and prostitution. We've mentioned
this already, but I need to emphasize the difference here between covenantal
sin and the sin that men commit who are outside of the covenant
of grace. These terms, adultery and prostitution,
are used by Hosea as metaphors for covenant breaking. Now, we
don't doubt that The sexual immorality of that kind was also rampant
in Hosea's day, but his emphasis is on the spiritual infidelity
of which they are guilty. Their devotion to their idols
and to the lusts of their flesh was an act of infidelity against
the God to whom they belonged by covenant. Rather than forsaking
all others in order to serve Him, Israel had forsaken God,
and they had pursued all others. But the satisfaction that they
sought in these idolatrous and adulterous liaisons would never
be obtained. Their sin would be their undoing.
Their pursuit of pleasure would result in pain and destruction. The promise of their idols and
of their lust would prove to be a lie, because Israel would
never be fulfilled in that way. But unfortunately, they would
not listen to Yahweh or to His prophet. They would not believe
His word, and soon it would be too late. Look with me at chapter
9 now to illustrate this idea. Hosea chapter 9, beginning at
verse 1. Do not rejoice, O Israel, with joy like other peoples,
for you have played the harlot against your God. You have made
love for hire on every threshing floor. The threshing floor and
the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall
fail in her. They shall not dwell in Yahweh's
land, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and shall eat unclean
things in Assyria. They shall not offer wine offerings
to Yahweh, nor shall their sacrifices be pleasing to him. It shall
be like bread of mourners to them. All who eat it shall be
defiled, for their bread shall be for their own life. It shall
not come into the house of Yahweh." So you see that they're seeking
pleasure and satisfaction in wine and bread and feasting and
in all of these adulterous liaisons with false gods. But the Lord
says, I'm going to hand you over to those things and you're going
to find that they are not satisfying to you. Instead, they will become
your masters and they will be tyrannical lords. Hosea emphasizes,
finally, the love, or knowing, loving, and serving God. The
love that God's people ought to have for Him through a covenantal
communion. Now, knowing God, in this case,
means not merely knowing about Him, although Israel, admittedly,
doesn't know much about God at this point either. They have
forgotten God's law. His word, Hosea says, is regarded
as a strange and unfamiliar thing. But when Hosea speaks about knowing
God, he is using that verb in the sense of relational intimacy.
It's the way that the verb is used back in the book of Genesis
when it says, Adam knew Eve, his wife. God knows His people. Now the idea obviously is not
sexual in the case of Yahweh's relation to Israel, but it is
just as intimate, it is just as personal, because the husband's
relationship to his wife is a picture, Paul says, analogically, it's
a picture of the covenant relation, the covenant union between God
and His church. And so God's people must come
to know God once again. But they must not only know Him,
they must learn to love Him. They have loved their lust, they
have loved their selfish pleasures, they have loved false gods. It's
interesting, if you look at every use of the word love in the book
of Hosea, Hosea talks about Israel's love for their lovers, and he
talks about God's love for them. He never mentions Israel's love
for God. He never describes Israel loving
Yahweh. And the implication is that Israel
must learn how to love their proper husband. The defiled and
adulterous wife has to be brought home and reminded who is her
true companion, as we see Hosea do with Gomer in chapter 3. And
then God's people must also learn how to serve Yahweh. Jehu may
have destroyed the cult of Baal, but Israel was still worshiping
Yahweh as if he were one of the Baals. They are treating the
true God as if he were like all of the false gods and the idols
of the nations around them. It was not formal and outward
exercises of religion that would please the true God. God must
be known, believed, and loved. He's not merely feeding on their
sacrifices like a pagan God would. He is pursuing a relationship
with His chosen people. Now before we close, I want to
offer a pastoral application of what we've seen in this introduction
thus far. And I want to suggest that we
see God more clearly in Hosea with the lens of a broken heart. One commentator says it this
way, quote, Through his own broken heart over the conduct of Gomer
and the realization that his children were actually not his
own, Hosea could see God and Israel through tear-dimmed eyes
and a broken heart in an experience not unlike that of the Lord."
There is an aspect of Israel's sin and God's judgment that we
may not perceive or may fail to appreciate until we study
the book of Hosea. We know that our sin is great
and worthy of punishment. We know that God is holy and
righteous and will certainly judge the wicked. But do we see
God's judgment in the context of His love and covenant mercy? Do we see His judgment as an
expression of His anguished desire to reclaim us? Some of you have
found a deeper and clearer insight into the love of God through
very painful circumstances. betrayal, infidelity, estrangement
from loved ones, brokenness. These are sometimes the experiences
by which the Lord draws us closer to Himself and enables us to
see Him more clearly than we ever did before. And that is
what we will learn in Hosea. The prophet's own pain helps
him minister to those who have wronged God in a way similar
to, although far beyond, the way that Hosea's wife had wronged
him. Do we see our sin against God
the way that we would see adultery and betrayal like Gomer committed? I tend to think that we don't.
I tend to think that if Hosea was our friend and we observed
the betrayal of his wife, we would be appalled. We would be
incensed. But when we see our sin against
God, we're not appalled. We're not incensed in the same
way. We're willing to kind of give
ourselves a pass and treat it as if it were a far less offense,
when in fact, it's a far greater one. Do we see God's righteous
anger in terms of the covenant that has been broken? It's not
an arbitrary anger that God has. It's a righteous jealousy that
He has for those who are wed to Him. Do we see the Lord's
love and His invitation to return home as an anguished husband,
crying out, despite all that his wife has done, crying out,
inviting her and welcoming her return? Yahweh put Hosea through
a personal, painful, experiential course in practical theology. He used the trauma and heartbreak
of the prophet's marriage to prepare his heart and mind for
the message that God sent him to proclaim. The contents of
this book were not merely academic for Hosea, and they should not
be for us either. The Lord intended Hosea to see
his God more clearly with a broken heart. And that is what he intends
us to see as we begin to study this sacred text. Well, we have
not read Hosea correctly if we have not seen Jesus in it. He
is the bridegroom whose wife has forsaken him. He is the husband
who goes to rescue and redeem his bride from the bondage of
her sin. He is the righteous lover who
allures the woman who had been seduced and led astray and who
had herself become a seductress. And He is the Son of God who
comes out of Egypt, who brings God's people out of bondage and
death, and in whom they return to Him and dwell in His house
forevermore. All of those are images that
come directly out of the book of Hosea. The promises of this
book remain unfulfilled unless and until Christ comes to secure
and accomplish them. Hosea's ministry, therefore,
is a proclamation of the gospel, and we will find Christ in these
pages again and again. Amen.
Introduction to Hosea
Series The Book of Hosea - 2020
| Sermon ID | 5292023185096 |
| Duration | 36:47 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | Hosea 1:1 |
| Language | English |
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