Welcome to our series of messages on the book of Hosea. Hosea means deliverer or savior. Deliverer or savior. I'm going to read a little bit here that Spyros Odiotes writes in his Hebrew Greek study Bible. And then we're going to refer also to all the parables in the Bible by Herbert Lockyer. Hosea is the first book in the Book of the Twelve Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, the prophet-priest in Israel in the second half of the 8th century BC, beginning during the reign of Jeroboam II and he was contemporary with Isaiah and Micah in Judah and began his career shortly after Amos' brief one in Israel. Hosea foresaw Israel's exile to Assyria and actually witnessed some of it happen. The title of this message is the parable of the whore, the parable of the prostitute. This book is talking about a prostitute, a unfaithful wife, which Hosea's wife was. Hosea's wife and Israel were twin sisters. He was the last prophet of prophet God raised up in Israel to try to get the people to repent. Hosea's task was doubly sad because at God's direction he took a wife who was just unfaithful to him as Israel was to her God. The first three chapters relate to the sordid details of their stormy marriage. Of the three children born while they were living together, only one was Hosea's. Gomer. Gomer left Hosea for other lovers. Gomer means hot chick. That's what she means. That means passionate, hot. Gomer. Gomer left Hosea for other lovers, but got herself into such trouble that she wanted to return home. In loving forgiveness, Hosea brought her back. All of this was an object lesson to Israel, who had been just as faithless to God as Gomer was to Hosea. The remainder of the book records Hosea's portrayal of their sins and disastrous consequences. Marilyn, could you push that chair down just a little bit back that way? a little bit more. Through it all, God's love and compassion stand as a remarkable pillar of God's love. The picture of God in Hosea is that of a loving husband who yearns desperately to have a faithful wife. Israel, however, will have none of it. and the consequences of our sins must play themselves out, although hope for the future is actually never lost. Now we come to chapter one and verse one. Hosea chapter one and verse one. We'll also read all the parables in the Bible. Some of Herbert Locker's remarks about this, the word of the Lord, the bar, how the bar, Jehovah which came to Hosea the son of Barry during the days of Uzziah Jotham Ahaz and Hezekiah kings of Judah and during the days of Jeroboam the son of Joshua Joash the king of Israel when the Lord first spoke through Hosea the Lord said to Hosea go take your wife of a Go take your wife in a whorehouse Go look for your wife in a whorehouse. Go look for your wife. Go look for a prostitute. Go look for a prostitute for your wife. What a terrible statement. All, every man that I have ever known in my life wished for their wives to be faithful to them. And the wives wished for their husbands to be faithful to them. But now God commands Hosea, and remember what Hosea means, deliverer or savior. He tells him to go take your wife in a place where a man would not normally look for a wife. And have children of harlotry. For the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord. And he went and took Gomer, That means heat or hot chick, hot woman. And the daughter of Diblem, Diblem, double embrace. That's what Diblem means, double embrace. In other words, you're embracing one and embracing the other, embracing one and embracing the other. And she conceived and bore him a son. And the Lord said to him, name him Jezreel, Jezreel. Jezreel means God sows or God will sow For yet a little while and I will punish the house of Jehu for the bloodshed of Jezreel And I will put it in to the kingdom of the house of Israel now, this is a pretty sad dark hour for Israel Israel and and Judah separated after Solomon after Solomon died they separated Jeroboam and Rehoboam and it came about on the day that I will break the bowl of Israel in the valley of Jezreel and she conceived again this is Gomer she conceived again and gave birth to a daughter and the Lord said to him name her Loruma Loruma now this is an adulterous woman This child is not Hosea's child at all. Lo means not. Ru'amah. Not pitied or have no compassion. Not pitied or have no compassion. That lo in the front is the adverb of negation. No compassion for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel that I should forgive, ever forgive them. But I will have compassion on the house of Judah deliver them by the Lord their God by Jehovah the God of them and I will not deliver them by a bow or sword or battle horses or horsemen when she had weaned low rumah she conceived and gave birth to a son again this is not Hosea's children she's a harlot she's a harlot she is a hot chick whoever she sees she chases after and she conceives from them, not her husband. Many women want the thrill of the chase and then they run back home when they get pregnant. In the time that we live in today, women have birth control. Women can be just as absolute, flagrantly immoral as they want to be and maybe not suffer the consequences of pregnancy. At one time, pregnancy was a great deterrent to a woman's unfaithfulness, but not today. Now, the Lord said, name him. Name him Lo-Ami. Lo-Ami. And Lo-Ami means, not my people not my family this child is not of my family or you are not my people and I am not your God yet the number of the sons of Israel will be like the sand of the sea which cannot be measured or numbered and I will come about and it will come about that in the place where it is said to them you are not my people it will be said to them you are the sons of the living God the love of God is magnified here the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel will be gathered together and they will appoint for themselves one leader and they will go up from the land and for a great will be the day of Jezreel now here we have a parable we have a parable an allegory a simile we have Israel likened unto the Hosea's ungodly Unfaithful prostitute of a wife the whore of a wife that he had taken and God uses this Illustration to prove a point about Israel Israel is an unfaithful like people unfaithful Say to the brothers of Ami of my people and to the sisters of Ru'amah, no compassion, contend with your mother and contend for she is not my wife and I am not her husband. And let her put away her harlotry, her prostitution, her whoredom from her face and her idolatry from between her breasts. have many attributes that men desire. Now, it's describing them very plainly here in the Song of Solomon, it also does that. Let her put her holitry, her hurdom from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts, lest I strip her neck and expose her as in the day when she was born. I will also make her like a wilderness, make her like a desert land, and slay her with thirst. And I will have no compassion on her children, because they are not my children. They are children of adultery, of whoredom. For their mother has played the whore. She who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water for that day, my wool and my flax and my oil and my drink. Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns. I'm going to make her pathway rough. If you've ever tried to walk through a safflower field, it is not really possible. He said, I'm going to make her like a safflower field. I will build a wall against her, though she cannot find her paths. And she will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them. And she will seek them, but will not find them. She will say, I will go back to my first husband, for it was better for me than now. For she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil. I lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal. they use for the lords. These lords are pagan gods. Therefore, I will take her back, my grain at harvest time, and my new wine in its season, and also take away my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness. And I will uncover her in the sight of her lovers, and no one will rescue her out of my hand. I will also put an end to all her gaiety all of her party time. She will have no more parties, no more gaiety. Her feasts and her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her festival assemblies, and I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, these are my wages. She got these vines and fig trees by being a whore. When Judah went and thought he found a prostitute, and he gave her his staff and his signet ring and his belt, and he promised her wages for allowing him to have sexual intercourse with her. And then, when he found out she was pregnant, he condemned her, and she gave him his signet ring, his belt, and his staff, which had his lineage on it, and said, by this man I became pregnant. And he said, I am more, you are more righteous than I am. And she had twins. Twins of Hollertree. But she wasn't a harlot. He was chasing a harlot. She wanted to bring seed up. which my lovers have given me, and I will make them a forest. And the beast of the field will devour them, and I will punish her for her days of the Baals, of the false gods. And when she used to offer sacrifices to them, and adorn herself with earrings and jewelry, and follow her lovers, so that she forgot me, declares Jehovah. Now let's go to all the parables of the Bible, and he talks about this parable of the whore, parable of the faithless wife. He said, much has been written regarding the marriage of a Hosea and Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, in this event to be interpreted as a prophetic vision. He said, is this event to be interpreted as a prophetic vision? an allegory, a parable of divine truth, and therefore not an actual historical event? Or is it the account of Gomer strictly literal? I believe it really happened. I don't think it was a story. On page 101, he goes on to say here that The most reasonable interpretation of the marriage is that Gomer was not actually an adulterous, unchaste woman at the time of her marriage. But he told him, told Hosea to go after her and found her in an act of prostitution. That's a little bit different than what he's saying here. This woman was a faithless, unclean woman and he found her. He told him to go take a woman of harlotry. go to a whorehouse go where a prostitutes are and propose to one of those prostitutes now let's go on there was an unfaithfulness in political relationships in Israel there was unfaithfulness in political relationships all through Hosea's prophecy of divine judgment it is pronounced upon Israel for her alliance with and depended upon surrounding powerful heathen nations unholy alliances had been made with Assyria and Egypt. And to the mind of Hosea, all of this policy of subversive subservience to foreign empires was a flagrant violation of the Old Testament theocratic kingdom principle. To the mind of the prophet, political affiliations for the sake of expediency constituted a treacherous abandonment of Israel's God. And so with scathing figurative words, Hosea denounced the unfaithfulness of Ephraim, singled out as the dominant tribe. Yet the whole nation was involved to Jehovah, the Lord of hosts, leader of Israel's armies and the supreme protector of their soil. So we have these descriptive similes, allegories, parables, metaphors. Ephraim is a silly dove hovering between Egypt and Assyria for help. Hosea 5.10-7.11 A covenant is made with Assyria and the oil is carried to Egypt. Hosea 11.1 Strangers have devoured his strength and he knows it not. Hosea 7.9 The purpose of Hosea's stern denunciation was to lead Israel back to faithful dependence upon the God of Israel, or the God of Jacob, and returning in penitence to him, to confess, Asher will not save us, Hosea 14, 1, 2, 3. There was unfaithfulness shown in idolatry. There are various metaphors used in the Bible to represent God's association with and care of his people, but the most sacred and endearing of them all is that of a marriage covenant, the Bride of Christ in the New Testament. Expressions of which abound, Jeremiah has a whole chapter devoted to Israel as an adulterous wife, invited to be reconciled to her divine husband, Jeremiah 3, 1 and 14. Hosea likewise employs the similar parable with the addition of an adulterous wife as a visible sign to the Jewish nation of their unfaithful, idolatrous sensuality and excessive prevailed." Their excesses prevailed. The worship of the true God had been degraded into calf worship, then to Baal worship in the Canaanites. Such idolatry was guarded by Hosea and other prophets as treachery to the pure and holy God of Israel. This form of spiritual idolatry, spiritual fornication, consisted in loving and serving the creature more than the Creator. Covenantness and sensuality are spoken of under the term in Romans 125, Colossians 3, and Philippians 3.19. But God was too low to let his people remain in their unfaithfulness. And Hosea's unchangeable love for his prodigal wife was a reflection of God's unchangeable love for his wavered people and of his desire to take her back. We have the parable of the prodigal son in the New Testament showing the love of God. His wife of Hortums in declaring his purpose to redeem the people from idolatries. God said that he would hedge up their way with thorns, alluring them and provide them for a door of hope. I will call them my people in Romans 9, 24 through 26. The response that gladdened the divine heart may be found in the words, we will follow after other lovers no more. But we will return to our first husband, Hosea 2 and 5. Isaiah 26 and 13, Hosea is in passionate tones endeavored to awake a yearning for the old and privileged covenant relationships which the God of Israel had brought his people out of Egypt. The parable germs, the parabolic germs. It would be a profitable exercise to tabulate the expressive figures of speech so numerous in Hosea. The miniature parables are an art of brevity. Brevity causes obscurity and obscurity being designed by the Holy Spirit to call forth prayerful study. A beauty peculiar in the Hebrew poetry and many prophetic writings is that of the amplification of the important truth. Amplification. With figurative illustrations and sublime metaphors. Metaphor means to carry a cross. Simile means to do something like it. Allegory means to say something different. Sublime metaphors explained by simple declarations. Thus if Israel follows, the Lord, he will be her, to her as the latter and former reign upon the earth, Hosea 6 and 3. The return of the showers after drought illustrates the refreshing and fructifying grace of God. Your goodness is as a morning cloud, as the early dew and goes away, Hosea 6 and 4. We are here taught man's instability and the forbearance of God man's instability and the forbearance of God all of God's children have gone astray but God is faithful we think of these further parabolic sentences Ephraim is a cake not turned gray hairs are here and there Hosea 789 Ephraim as a cake not turned Ephraim was soft in the head. A cake not turned when you're putting pancakes on a griddle, you've got to turn them over or the one side is raw and the other side is too done. Ephraim is a cake not turned. He is a cake that's soft on top or soft in the head. Gray hairs point to the causes and symptoms of the spiritual decay. They have sown to the wind and they have reaped the whirlwind. 8 and 7 illustrates how my misery and disasters are the inevitable consequences of sin. Israel is an empty vine. 10 and verse 1 describes a fruit fruitlessness of a life when self is the principle and the majors and the end of our actions. We are the only fruitful in the best sense as we abide in him. We are fruitful when we abide in God, who is the true vine, John 15 chapter. We see these Old Testament parables brought right into the New Testament. We have the parable of the prodigal son. We have the parable of the vine. We have the parable of the sower and the reaper. We have the parables of those that sowed the tares in the master's field. As for the fruits of God's favor, what beautiful imagery Hosea uses to describe them. Imagination cannot conceive a richer display of divine blessings about faith both to Israel and to the churches found in the last chapter of Hosea. I will be as the dew. God's communications are often as silent as they are sublime. Dew distills silently and almost imperceptibly on the ground, yet it insinuates itself into the plants which it falls. and thus maintains their vegetational powers. God's visits to his people are secret. As he seeks to cheer and revive their fainting spirits, he shall grow as a lily. Growth, beauty, fragrance, and fertility are expressed in the mixed metaphors of this verse 14, 5-7. Quick of growth has a beauty of all its own. The olive tree is renowned for its manifold uses. The smell of lemon refers to the odiferous vines, the lofty cedars and symbolic of the fragrance and the strength of life lived in the will of God. When you live your life in the will of God, you are pampering yourself. Revive as corn and grow as a vine are especially emblems of the fruitfulness of those who dwell under the shadow of God's wings. I am like a green fir tree, Hosea says in 14 and verse 8, with its remarkable thick shade, which cannot be penetrated either by sun or rain. The fir tree afforded a safe retreat from the rays of the meridian sun and also from the violence of impending tempest and heat. The parabolic of our secure holding place in him from whom our fruit is found. In conclusion, the Book of Hovea has three prominent values. They are its unveilings of sins and judgment and love. Sin. In chapters four through seven we see how a holy God suffers as he looks down upon the foul sin of Israel. Sin is intolerable in the presence of his august holiness. Sin saps the vital juices, physical, mental, and spiritual, until a mere shell is left. Sin cuts the optic nerve of the soul. You can't see any longer when you're full of sin. And it also hurts the holy, loving heart of God. God's Holy Spirit, when we are being wooed by the Spirit of God, God's Spirit suffers over us as it did in Genesis 1 and 2. God suffered and mourned over the faces of the deep. God suffers over us and mourns over us as we go astray. God suffers and mourns over us as he woos us back to his will of judgment. A just and holy God must bring severe judgment. Chapters eight through 10. Love spurn calls for judgment. Deliberate breaking away from the covenant vows made reputation inevitable. So in stern language, Hosea told the people that they would reap the whirlwind because of their unprecedented faithlessness. Israel judgment was inevitable and necessary. God whips us when we are wrong and doing wrong. We need to thank God for our corrections. Thank you, God. If you have to, kill me, Lord. I'm yours. I'm yours God doesn't whip the devil's children he whips his children he corrects his children of love what amazing love and grace are proclaimed by Hosea how shall I give you up Ephraim his past present and perspective love are fully described as a loving God he will provide restoration healing forgiveness and full salvation we're saved by grace For in grace you're having been saved through faith, and that is not of yourself. It is a gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are created unto good works, that we should welcome them. Unfailing in his own love, in spite of his wife's treachery. A treacherous wife. Hosea's heart cry is that of a champion. Is that of a champion. human lover representing the champion lover of all time seeking his own love wins through the gain and gains the victory chapters 11 to 14. Through all of the future or the failure of Israel there may be heard the music of the love of Jehovah. As Micah is one of the 8th century prophets we can glance at his use of the word parable in his brief yet weighty prophecy. In that day shall be one take up a parable against you and lament with a doleful lamentation Hosea 2 and 4. Here the prophet is saying in effect the enemies shall repeat in mockery the doleful lamentation with which you bewail your pitiful state. Isaiah and Micah have a remarkable similarity of style and the same power of graphic description. Micah, however, is more tense and gives the telling touches with which Isaiah's utterances expand into a long burst of sustained eloquence. As with the other prophets, Micah knew how to use apt parabolic languages, just like Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah. Using parabolic teachings, allegories, metaphors, Hyperbole, similes. God wants you. He wants your life. He wants you to love him as he loves you. May we be intelligent in our choices. May we love God as he loves us. By grace, we're saved. It's not out of us. By faith, we're saved by grace. by faith. And the faith does not come from us. The calling does not come from us. There's nothing in us wants to go to God. God calls us. God gives us the volition to respond or reject. And when we're saved, follow the inclinations of the Spirit of God in our hearts. Follow Him. Follow Him. We go astray, God moves us back. We go astray, God woos us back. We go astray, and God woos us back because he loves us. May God's word richly bless your heart. Father, we pray that your word will go out into the world, and we know that it will, that people will feast on it, that they will appreciate your word, appreciate your love and your grace. Those are out there that don't know you I pray father that they will come to the saving knowledge of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ he died for our sins was buried resurrected for our justification for our righteousness. Father let them understand that the God that they serve is a God that reached down and touched us with love in the person of Jesus Christ God became flesh the word Jehovah means he who shall become you became to lead us to you and to save us, to keep us saved, to nurture us, to love us, to correct us.