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Sermons PREACHED BY JOHN GAINES |
Hosea:
The Broken-Hearted Prophet
1. A child's view of grown-ups must be very confusing, but adults know life is more complicated that children realize.
3. The writing of the prophet Hosea helps us understand just a little what it's like to be God. Reading this book, we grasp some of the answer to age-old questions like, "If God is all-good and all-powerful, why doesn't He just rid the world of suffering and evil?"
a. Even God operates within limits. He is bound by the definition of His own nature [Hebrews 6:18; Matthew 19:26; Matthew 26:39; Hebrews 9:22].
b. Hosea's marriage to Gomer is set forth in the book of Hosea as a real life illustration of the relationship between God and His people, Israel.
I. LOOKING AT HOSEA
A. Hosea was a prophet in the 8th century B. C. His ministry lasted about sixty years.
B. Hosea began his ministry near the end of a period of military success and prosperity for both Israel and Judah.
1. 2 Kings 14:28 (NKJV)
2. King Uzziah in Judah [2 Chronicles 26:5-8 (NKJV)
3. Early in Hosea's ministry, the power of Assyria had declined. However, the situation soon changed. As foreseen by Hosea, the Assyrians under Tiglath-Pileser III (745-727 b.c.) revived their expansionist policy in the West. In 733-732 b.c. the Northern Kingdom was made a puppet state within the Assyrian Empire (2 Kings 15:29). After plotting revolt, Israel was defeated in 722 b.c. by the Assyrians and Israel’s people were deported (2 Kings 17:1-6; 18:10-12). [Bible Knowledge Commentary, Old Testament]
C. The major themes of Hosea’s message can be summarized in three words: sin, judgment, and salvation.
1. In exposing Israel’s sin, Hosea emphasized its idolatry.
a. Hosea 4:17 (NKJV) "Ephraim is joined to idols, Let him alone.
b. Hosea 8:4 (NKJV) "They set up kings, but not by Me; They made princes, but I did not acknowledge them. From their silver and gold They made idols for themselves; That they might be cut off.
c. Hosea 11:2 (NKJV) . . . They sacrificed to the Baals, And burned incense to carved images.
d. Hosea 13:2 (NKJV) Now they sin more and more, And have made for themselves molded images, Idols of their silver, according to their skill; All of it is the work of craftsmen. They say of them, "Let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves!"
2. Hosea compared Israel’s relationship to the Lord with marriage and accused Israel (the Lord’s "wife") of spiritual adultery. She had turned to Baal, the Canaanite storm and fertility god in an effort to promote agricultural and human fertility.
a. Hosea 2:8 (NKJV) For she did not know That I gave her grain, new wine, and oil, And multiplied her silver and gold; Which they prepared for Baal.
b. Hosea 2:13 (NKJV) I will punish her For the days of the Baals to which she burned incense. She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry, And went after her lovers; But Me she forgot," says the LORD.
c. To illustrate Israel’s infidelity Hosea married a woman who would, like the nation, prove unfaithful to her husband.
3. Many other sins are mentioned in the book.
a. Social injustice [Hosea 12:7]
b. Violent crime [Hosea 4:2; 6:9]
c. Religious hypocrisy [Hosea 6:6]
d. Political revolt [Hosea 7:3-7]
e. Foreign alliances [Hosea 7:11] Seeking alliances with worldly powers showed a lack of trust in God to protect them.
f. Selfish arrogance [Hosea 13:6] With their physical needs satisfied, they saw no need for God.
g. Spiritual ingratitude [Hosea 7:15] Instead of gratefully serving God because of the strength He had given them, Israel turned against Him and devised evil against the Lord.
II. ISRAEL'S ADULTERY
A. The literal meaning of adultery is fornication by a married person.
1. God intends for marriage to be an exclusive relationship. An adulterer has broken his or her wedding vows!
2. Adultery is sometimes used in the Bible in a figurative sense to illustrate unfaithfulness to God. Israel broke their covenant with God when they worshiped idols. [Jeremiah 3:8-9 (NKJV) "Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also. 9 "So it came to pass, through her casual harlotry, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.]
3. Some today want to give adultery only this secondary figurative meaning.
B. The literal meaning of adultery was a fact of life in Hosea's marriage.
1. Look at God's commission to Hosea in Hosea 1:2 (NKJV) When the LORD began to speak by Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea: "Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry And children of harlotry, For the land has committed great harlotry By departing from the LORD."
a. There is considerable dispute among scholars and commentators about whether or not Gomer was already a prostitute when Hosea married her.
b. In any case, God knew that Hosea's wife would be unfaithful to him. God's command caused Hosea personal turmoil, but it serves as a powerful living lesson of the cost of unfaithfulness.
2. Three children are mentioned in Hosea 1.
a. Gomer conceived and bore Hosea a son whom God named Jezreel.
b. Then we are told about two other children borne by Gomer -- a daughter named Lo-Ruhamah ("I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel") and a son named Lo-Ammi ("for you are not my people"). It is noteworthy that the text does not say that Hosea was the father of these children. Hosea 2:4-5 makes it clear these children are children of harlotry: "I will not have mercy on her children, For they are the children of harlotry. 5 For their mother has played the harlot; She who conceived them has behaved shamefully. For she said, 'I will go after my lovers, Who give me my bread and my water, My wool and my linen, My oil and my drink' (NKJV).
C. God applies the situation in Hosea's life to Israel's unfaithfulness to Him [Hosea 2:8-14 (NKJV) For she did not know That I gave her grain, new wine, and oil, And multiplied her silver and gold; Which they prepared for Baal. 9 "Therefore I will return and take away My grain in its time And My new wine in its season, And will take back My wool and My linen, Given to cover her nakedness. 10 Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, And no one shall deliver her from My hand. 11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease, Her feast days, Her New Moons, Her Sabbaths; All her appointed feasts. 12 "And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, Of which she has said, 'These are my wages that my lovers have given me.' So I will make them a forest, And the beasts of the field shall eat them. 13 I will punish her For the days of the Baals to which she burned incense. She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry, And went after her lovers; But Me she forgot," says the LORD. 14 "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, Will bring her into the wilderness, And speak comfort to her.]
III. CONTINUED LOVE
A. God promises a renewed relationship with Israel [Hosea 2:16-20 (NKJV) "And it shall be, in that day," Says the LORD, "That you will call Me 'My Husband,' And no longer call Me 'My Master,' 17 For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals, And they shall be remembered by their name no more. 18 In that day I will make a covenant for them With the beasts of the field, With the birds of the air, And with the creeping things of the ground. Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth, To make them lie down safely. 19 "I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me In righteousness and justice, In lovingkindness and mercy; 20 I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, And you shall know the LORD.]
B. Carrying on with the real-life parallel with Hosea and Gomer, God commands Hosea to rescue his wife and love her again [Hosea 3:1 (NKJV) Then the LORD said to me, "Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the LORD for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans."]
1. Hosea bought his wife for 15 shekels of silver and 1 1/2 homers of barley. Some believe Gomer was being sold into slavery. If so, this shows the degree of degradation into which she had fallen. Others speculate that this was money he paid to her "pimp" to free her from prostitution. Hosea demonstrated great love in "paying the price" to redeem his wife from bondage.
2. Hosea made a covenant with Gomer.
a. She would stay with him for many days.
b. She would no longer "play the harlot" or have intimate relations with a man.
c. Hosea promised to abide with the same faithfulness toward her.
3. The parallel to God's relationship with Israel persists. [Hosea 3:4-5 (NKJV) For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim. 5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They shall fear the LORD and His goodness in the latter days.]
CONCLUSION
Copyright ©2002 by John Gaines. May be reproduced for non-commercial purposes provided this notice accompanies any use.
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LEONARD STREET CHURCH OF CHRIST |
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