COMING HOME TO GOD'S LOVE

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You know, this marriage thing, right from the start, has been a tough thing, has it not? Man and woman, husband and wife, it seems like marriage jokes provide more material for stand-up comedians than any other subject. However, I do not know of a person in the Bible who had a tougher time in his marriage than this man, Hosea.

We come now to Hosea, chapter one, and verse two. In verse two, I want you to see what God told this man, Hosea. Now, remember, they are living in very, very good economic times. We read in verse two of Hosea, Chapter one, "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."

In verse two, God commands Hosea to take an adulterous wife. In all honesty, friends, most of my colleagues who teach God's Word are like I am; we would prefer to skip over this verse and go right on to the next one. This is tough stuff. You are brave people, because when we have to deal with Hosea taking a wife of adultery, it is really a hard thing to deal with. Stay there a minute. You do not have to turn to this. I just want to read a passage to you. I want to set the stage for why it is so strange that God would even suggest that Hosea take a wife like this.

Let me read a few verses to you and I will identify the passage later on. I want you to listen and not to watch. "At the window of my house, I looked out through the lattice. I saw among the simple, I noticed among the young men, a youth who lacked judgment. He was going down the street near her corner, walking along in the direction of her house at twilight, as the day was fading, as the dark of night set in.

Then out came a woman to meet him, dressed like a prostitute and with crafty intent. (She is loud and defiant, her feet never stay at home; now in the street, now in the squares, at every corner she lurks.) She took hold of him and kissed him and with a brazen face she said: 'I have fellowship offerings at home; today I fulfilled my vows. So I came out to meet you; I looked for you and have found you!

I have covered my bed with colored linens from Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. Come, let's drink deep of love till morning; let's enjoy ourselves with love! My husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey. He took his purse filled with money and will not be home till full moon.' With persuasive words she led him astray; she seduced him with her smooth talk.

All at once he followed her like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer stepping into a noose till an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare, little knowing it will cost him his life. Now then, my sons, listen to me; pay attention to what I say. Do not let your heart turn to her ways or stray into her paths. Many are the victims she has brought down; her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is a highway to the grave, leading down to the chambers of death."

That, by the way, is not a John LaCarr novel; that is the book of Proverbs, chapter seven. These are very poignant words, though, about the prostitute, and God's feelings about prostitution and about adultery. Now, here we are in Hosea, chapter one, right in the very second verse, and it appears to us that God says to Hosea, "I want you to take, as your wife, a prostitute."(Paraphrase)

I think perhaps the greatest thing we have to wrestle with in this series is why God would suggest that Hosea take a prostitute. How could God allow His holy prophet to marry a prostitute? That is a good question! You have to wrestle with that. We cannot really go on in this book and talk about coming home to God's love until we deal with an issue like this.

So, let me suggest to you today some of the reasons that God might have told this man Hosea to do this. I want to suggest four possibilities to you and we will weed them out as we go along so we might get some insight into why God would tell Hosea to do such a thing.

The first possibility is that when He told Hosea to marry Gomer, to take a prostitute as his wife, that this marriage was only a hypothetical marriage. It did not really happen. This is a vision that Hosea has. God is telling him, "Look, if this were the case, Hosea, this is what I would have you to do. If you did marry a prostitute, this is how things would work out. You remember all that I have to say about prostitution."(Paraphrase)

Therefore, some people would argue that this is simply a hypothetical marriage that never happened. It was not physical. It was not real. It was, perhaps, an allegory. Maybe God was revealing something to Hosea the way He revealed it to Daniel, in a vision or in a dream. One possibility clearly is that this is not real. This is only hypothetical.

You may ask yourself, why even advance a theory like that? I think the reason is that this theory would sidestep the thorny issue of God telling his man to marry a prostitute. That just does not make any sense, Friends. In order to sidestep the moral difficulty of having a holy God tell a holy prophet to marry an unholy woman, some have suggested that perhaps this was hypothetical. It never really happened. It is just here to teach us a lesson.

Look with me please, at Hosea, chapter three. It is a short chapter. Let me read it to you. "The Lord said to me, 'Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another, and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.' So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley.

Then I told her, 'You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you. For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or idol. Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days."

Now, does chapter three sound hypothetical? Rather, it is straightforward, is it not? The way he writes in chapter three sounds like this really happened. Therefore, I do not think we can explain away the problem by simply saying this is a hypothetical case. The possibility is that God told this man, Hosea, to take a prostitute, but it was only a hypothetical situation. I do not think that is what happened here at all.

A second possibility is that this marriage was only spiritual and not at all physical. See, if it is only a spiritual infidelity, then the infidelity is not infidelity to another man, it is to another god, and that happens all the time.

Now, in this theory, Gomer is unchaste because she has gone after other gods, not gone after other men. Her adultery is spiritual adultery, and I think we can see that in church, we can see that in our nation, we can see that in nations around the world--spiritual adultery. So, there is a theory that this is only a spiritual thing and not a physical thing at all.

Again, you have to ask yourself, well why would this theory even be advanced? And, again, I think presumably it addresses that same issue that it does not then have God telling His holy man to take an unholy woman as his wife. This is talking about what Israel did in an unspiritual way.

Again there is that problem that it is addressed straightforward, and it does not seem to be hypothetical or spiritual. So, let me suggest a third possibility to you, and that is that this marriage was an actual, literal marriage, that Gomer was, in fact, a prostitute, and that God did say to Hosea, "I want you to go marry a prostitute."(Paraphrase)

Now, that is the literal translation. That is the literal understanding, the literal interpretation of this passage. The marriage did occur. Gomer was already an unchaste woman, an unfaithful woman. God specifically told Hosea to go find an unfaithful woman and to marry her and to bring her into his life. However, this theory, again, though it is very plain in its language, does not deal with the issue of a holy God telling a holy man to take an unholy wife. Therefore, let me suggest a fourth theory, or possibility, to you.

The possibility exists that when God told Hosea to take a wife, she was chaste at that point, but became a prostitute later in her marriage to her husband. Now, if you look at the language, it can clearly support this fourth possibility. It does not say that he was to go find a prostitute and marry her. It simply says that this was going to be a wife of unfaithfulness.

Go; take to yourself an adulterous wife--not, perhaps, an already adulterous wife, but one who would become an adulterous wife. The language does permit us that interpretation. Why this theory? Well, I suppose one would have to say this theory exists because we do not know what else to do with this passage.

Moreover, since it is a possibility, it is as good as any of the others. So, we can run on that track for a couple of days. Let us assume that God told Hosea to take Gomer as his wife, knowing that at some point in their marriage relationship, Gomer was going to be unfaithful to him. Let us assume that happened. If that happened, how does this relate to Israel? Remember, this entire thing is a picture of God's love for Israel, and Israel's unfaithfulness to God, so, you fit Israel into your interpretation, whether Gomer was a prostitute already, or one who was coming down the line.

Let me suggest to you that there are several things we do know about Israel that can help us interpret how God could tell this man to take such a woman as his wife. First of all, we do know that Israel was chaste when she was espoused to God. She was a chaste nation. When God selected Abraham, drew him out of the country, and took him to the Promise Land, when God created a people, this was not an existing adulterous people. This was a people, who were, at that point, chaste to God.

Put your hand in Hosea and turn back a couple of books to Jeremiah, chapter two. Listen to what Jeremiah, the prophet, has to say about the chastity of Israel when God began his love relationship with her. Jeremiah, chapter two, verse one: "The word of the Lord came to me: Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: I remember the devotion of your youth."

Now listen, chastity. "I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved Me and followed Me through the desert, through a land not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits of His harvest; all who devoured her were held guilty, and disaster overtook them,' declares the Lord." We do know that when Israel first came to God as a nation, she was a chaste nation. We know that, and we have to fit that into our understanding of how Gomer could be chaste or unchaste.

Secondly, we know that again, and again, God extended His love to Israel. Let me read to you just a few verses out of Jeremiah 31. Beginning at verse one, listen at the love of God to Israel. " 'At that time,' declares the Lord, 'I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they will be My people.'" This is what the Lord says: 'The people who survive the sword will find favor in the desert; I will come to give rest to Israel.'

The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: 'I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel. Again you will take up your tambourines and go out to dance with the joyful. Again you will plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria; the farmers will plant them and enjoy their fruit. There will be a day when watchmen cry out on the hills of Ephraim, 'Come, let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God.' "

See, when it comes to Israel, she began as a chaste virgin to God. Again, and again, and again, God says, I am going to show My love to you even though you have been unfaithful to Me, Israel. I will show My love to you at any time, Israel; any time you feel the need. I want you to know you can come back to Me. My arms are open. I will not overlook your sin, but I will welcome you back. You can always come back to God's love.

The third thing we know about Israel, we learn from Hosea, Chapter14, and the last chapter in this book we are studying together. Listen to this. "Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall! Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to Him: Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips. Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount war-horses. We will never again say 'Our gods' to what our own hands have made, for in You the fatherless find compassion. I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for My anger has turned away from them."

See, God's love is ever-present love. We know that Israel was chaste when she began. We know that God reached out to Israel time, and time again, while she was away from God, being unfaithful to Him. We also know that at the end of the book, in the last chapter of the story, God says, Repentance will always lead to your restoration. All you have to do is come home to God's love, and you can enjoy the love of God forever. (Paraphrase)

You may remember that a few years ago, a man went to the Rijks Museum, in Amsterdam, took out a knife, and began to slash some of Rembrandt's famous paintings, especially the Night Watch. Soon after that, another guy, who was a little bit crazy, rushed into St. Peter's in Rome, took a hammer, and began to chip away at the Pieta, Michelangelo's Pieta.

I want you to think with me. Those are modern day examples of how people try to destroy a relationship between people and something they take pride in, something they possess, something they enjoy. In this case, it was artwork. However, the Pieta was not thrown away because it was damaged. Neither was the Night Watch thrown away. Experts were brought in and both of them were repaired, so, today, both of them can still be seen. One is in Amsterdam, and one is in Rome.

You see, my friends, when you and I really mess up our lives, like Israel did, God does not throw us away. He holds out His arms to us, and welcomes us home to prepare us, to restore us, to allow repentance, to bring restoration to us. And, the wonderful thing about God's love is how He can love us when we are so far from Him, how He can love a nation that was so far from Him, His own people!

Because of His love, He can love our nation; He can love any nation. He can love any family, any person on the face of the earth. How can God love us when we are unfaithful to Him? If Gomer, the wife of Hosea, was chaste when he took her as his wife, and she became unfaithful to him, remember that God says to him, I want you to go back and I want you to buy her out of the marketplace of sin, and I want you to love her again. (Paraphrase)

In this obscure book in the Old Testament, a book that hardly anybody ever reads, a book that hardly anybody ever preaches on, we have this wonderful and delightful picture of God reaching out to us and saying, Come on home to My love. Welcome home to My love. (paraphrase) If you simply confess your sins, God is faithful and just to forgive you your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. The arms of God are ever reaching out to us to help us to come home to His love. In my opinion, it is the best book in the Bible from which to learn the lesson about the love of God.

By Woodrow Kroll
www.backtothebible.org
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