By Woodrow Kroll
Part 12: Life Lessons About Sin Learned From Hosea - Number 3 of 3
We've been thinking about what we can learn from the story of Hosea. It's a great book, fourteen chapters. It's a personal story, a story of a husband who is going to take a wife, Hosea to take the wife, Gomer.
God warned Hosea that Gomer was going to become an adulterous wife. He said, "I want you to marry her anyway. You will have children with her and these children will be a constant reminder of Israel's bad past and glorious future." Now, if I was this man Hosea, I'm not sure I could have done this. I don't know if I could obey God the way Hosea obeyed God. As much as I appreciate you, folks, I'm not sure you could have done this either. Hosea must have been a pretty special guy.
I want us to learn some lessons about life from Hosea. We've learned some lessons about sin; we've learned some lessons about God. Now let's learn some lessons about life and look at Hosea himself as a person. I want you to think with me about what this book teaches us about life.
The first thing I notice is here in chapter 1, all the way back in the beginning of the book. "The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri, during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel." 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 he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son" (Hosea 1:1-3).
Now, notice all the questions Hosea asked before he obeyed. Notice all the arguments he preferred, to a Holy God; inviting him to take a woman who is going to become an adulterous wife. Notice all the alternative plans he suggested to God before he obeyed.
Oh! Don't waste your time because none of those things are there. What I learn about life is that life obeys God when life is rich. Real obedience, my friend, does not pander after explanations. You and I live in a part of the world, in a society that will do just about anything as long as people explain it to us. God says, "I want you to do it without explanation."
Think with me�God came to Abraham in the Chaldees and then He came to him in Haran. He said, "Abraham, I want you to leave your family behind and I want you to come with Me. And we're going to go to a wonderful land. I'm going to give it to you and your descendants." And Abraham said, "Fine God, tell me where it is before we go. Tell me how far away it is. Give me a little! Take a digital camera and take some pictures and bring them back to me so I can see what this land looks like. And God, I'd like to sign an order that if I don't like this land, that You'll return me to this land, because it's pretty good where I'm at now." That's sometimes how it is today when people serve the Lord.
A young couple is raising support to go to Nepal, and they say to the mission agency, "We'd like to come with your mission. Can you tell us about the retirement plan? Do you get a 401K with this mission agency? Most importantly, if we go and don't like it, how soon can we come back?" What a bunch of babies we are anymore.
See, real obedience does not pander after explanations. This man Hosea never questioned why God would tell him to do such a stupid thing. He couldn't understand. He thought this had to be dumb, certainly not the holy thing to do, and yet he did exactly what Abraham did.
He trusted God's character, even when he did not understand God's directives. I read a story of Corrie ten Boom. You know Corrie ten Boom, a wonderful Christian woman. When Corrie was older, in fact she was eighty at the time, she felt this impression from God to go spend some time ministering to two nurses that she knew. And she went to their building. She told this in one of her books, she said, "I felt God telling me to go up to the tenth floor where they lived and to simply minister to these two nurses."
Now the problem is, Corrie is eighty years old and she has a bad heart. And there is no elevator in the building and it's ten floors up. She said, "I got up to the first floor and I just sat there a while and puffed. I got up to the second floor and I leaned against the wall. And I made it to the third floor." And after much time, she finally made it to the tenth floor, huffing and puffing all the way.
She went and knocked at the door. The two nurses were home but what she didn't know was that the nurses' parents, their unsaved parents, were there visiting. She told this delightful story in one of her books. She said, "I had the great joy of leading their mothers and fathers to the Lord." Imagine what she would have missed if she had asked God for some explanation for her obedience.
Real obedience does not pander after explanations. Hosea chapter 6 verse 6 says, "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings." See, what God wants from us is not our stuff. God doesn't want our money. God doesn't want our time or our intellect. God wants us, He wants us to simply say, "Here I am God. You do with me whatever You wish to do with me."
Now if I were Hosea, and God came to me and said, "Hosea, are you willing to follow Me?"
I would say, "Yes Lord, I'm willing to follow."
"Are you willing to do whatever I ask you to do?"
And I would say, "Yes, Lord, I'm willing to do whatever You ask me to do."
"Are you willing to take a wife that you know is going to become an adulterous wife and not love you?"
"Would You say that again, God? Would You give me a list of the best reasons why You have to ask something like that of me?"
What I learn from Hosea is Hosea doesn't bat an eye, he simply obeys. Obedience is better than sacrifice. God is not looking for what you can give Him. God's looking for your obedience. Now I learn that, from the Book of Hosea, these lessons about life. I learn that God is interested in my obedience. I also learn that God tells me that righteous living is its own reward. Remember the other day when I was saying that judgment and sin bring about their own consequences, that all God has to do in order to punish us for sin, all He has to do to correct us for sin is let sin take its natural course? Sin is its own punishment.
The flip side of that is that righteous living is its own reward. You don't have to have a pat on the back for living righteously. You don't even need heavenly rewards to live righteously. For living righteously is its own reward. Let me show you what I mean. Chapter 10 of Hosea, in verses 1 and 2, "Israel was a spreading vine; he brought forth fruit for himself. As his fruit increased, he built more altars; as his land prospered, he adorned his sacred stones. Their heart is deceitful, and now they must bear their guilt. The Lord will demolish their altars and destroy their sacred stones."
Now, these verses tell us how bad it is when we simply sin against God, and God allows the natural consequences of our sin to happen. Go now to chapter 14 verse 9, the end of the book, the last line, the summary page, the epilog: "Who is wise? He will realize these things." See, we're talking about lessons we can learn. This verse is perfectly suited for us.
"Who is discerning? He will understand them. The ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them." Now it doesn't say, "Walk in the ways of the Lord and you will never become ill." He doesn't say, "Walk in the ways of the Lord and your cancer will be gone tomorrow." He doesn't say, "Walk in the ways of the Lord and you will become wealthy." In fact he doesn't say most of what you hear on TV.
What He says is, "Walk in the ways of the Lord because they are right." You do it because it's right, not because it's rewarding. Righteous living is its own reward. Let's look at a sampling of the verses that I picked up out of the Psalms about righteous living. The promises of God for righteous living are your promises. Listen to this, Psalm 34 verse 15, "The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are (open and) attentive to their cry." You want your prayers to get through to God, live a righteous life. It's its own reward.
Psalm 37 verse 39, "The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord; He is their stronghold in a time of trouble." Psalm 55 verse 22, "Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous fall." That's God's promise to you! Psalm 37 verse 25, "I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread." Now it doesn't say, "His children will have all the bread they need." He does say however that, "the righteous will be never be forsaken by God."
Psalm 112 verses 6 and 7, "Surely he will not be shaken; a righteous man will be remembered forever. He will not have fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord."
Listen, I don't know what bad news awaits you when you get home. I don't know what bad news awaits me when I get home. Quite frankly, I'm willing to wait until I get home to find out. I don't know what bad news awaits us, but I do know this: If you and I live a righteous life, there isn't any bad news that the Lord and I can't handle together. Righteous living is its own reward. This man Hosea lived righteously when his wife did not, and God said, "It's OK, Hosea. It's OK."
You're probably not familiar with the name Max Dukes. Max Dukes lived in New York City. Max was not a Christian. He refused to take his children to church. He refused to send them to church. He was not the kind of person who was godly. Max Duke had 1,026 descendents. Of his 1,026 descendents, someone kept record of what this family did. Three hundred of these descendents went to prison. The average stay in prison for his 300 descendents was 13 years. One hundred and ninety of his descendents were prostitutes. Six hundred and eighty were admitted alcoholics. His family cost the state of New York, where they lived, an excess of $420,000 just to incarcerate them and put them in rehab programs. Max Dukes lived in New York City and lived an unrighteous life.
Jonathan Edwards lived about the same time as Max Dukes. He loved the Lord. He went to church; he made sure his kids went to church as well. Somebody has tracked the descendents of Jonathan Edwards as well. He had 929 descendents. Of that 929, 420 of them became ministers of the Gospel, 86 of them became university professors, 13 of them became university presidents, 75 of them authored books, 7 of them were elected to the U.S. Congress, 1 of them was vice president of the United States, and to date his family has cost us nothing.
Righteous living is its own reward. Hosea lived righteously even when his wife did not. At the end God said to him, "I want you to continue to love that wife and I will bring her back to you." There's one last lesson I think we need to learn. It's right here in the last verse of the Book of Hosea. It's the lesson that there are two ways in life, and one of them is wrong:
"Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them. The ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them" (Hosea 14:9).
See, here's a husband and a wife. Hosea is living God's way; Gomer is living the world's way. Hosea loves Gomer; Gomer does not love Hosea. God loves Israel. God is living the righteous way; Israel is living the unrighteous way. God loves Israel, but Israel does not love God. They have forgotten God. And if it's the 1st Psalm or anywhere else in Scripture...
Proverbs chapter 12 verse 15, "The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice." See if it's that verse or if it's the advice that the Lord Jesus is the only Savior this world will ever have. If it's the advice of the Lord Jesus, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few will find it" (Matthew 7: 13-14).
Whether it's the advice of God in the Old Testament or the advice of God the Son, Jesus, in the New Testament, we have to understand, folks, that one of the great lessons to come out of the Book of Hosea is that there are two ways to operate your life. And one of them is wrong. And in a world that seems to migrate to the Gomer side of life, and claim it's none of our business how they live their lives,I want to remind you, God's Word says there are two ways to live your life. One of them is wrong, and one of them is right.
Proverbs chapter 14 verse 12 says, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is the ways of death." Gomer was headed for death when she was brought back out of that marketplace of sin in Hosea 3. She was loved back to her relationship with Hosea in that chapter. The world is headed for death. There are two ways to live life: One of them is right and one of them is wrong. And, my friends, you have to decide which of the two you will choose.
Now the choice is yours, but I want to remind you, it's not right for you. It's either right or wrong. God doesn't say, "You can live however you want that will be right with you." That's a post-modern world thinking, but it's not God's Word's thinking. God's Word says, "There's a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."
I remember when I was in college. There was a very popular song, back in college and seminary and graduate school days. A very popular song sung by a very popular singer, but I'm not going to identify the singer. But he had blue eyes. The song said, "I did it my way." What a fool! Because the Bible says "There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is death."
You can live your life in a Gomer mode, or live your life in Hosea mode. One of these will lead to life and the other will lead to death. Things haven't changed from the eighth century B.C. to the twenty-first century A.D. There is still a lesson to be learned from life, and about life, from the Book of Hosea. The lesson is that there are two ways to live life, and one of them is wrong.
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