God's Messenger: Hosea

Pill Corps: Sunday 3rd July
Sermon Notes (Alan )
I read this about a married couple of whom it was said, “He took his wife for better and for worse and found out that she was far worse than he took her for!”
That could have been written by the prophet Hosea except that he started married life knowing exactly what kind of woman his future wife was. He had been told by God,
“Go and take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord.” (Ch 1:2)

God often asked the prophets to do some difficult things and God’s instruction to Hosea was not just to marry this woman and it be a marriage in name only; he was to “love her as the Lord loves the Israelites.” (ch 3:1) Hosea was to let Gomer not only into his life but into his heart, knowing that she would probably let him down, hurt him and bring disgrace to his family name.

God wanted to show Hosea that when his people went astray they not only broke his divine laws they broke his heart. God knew when he entered into covenant with them, that He would be faithful but they would go after other gods, despite their promises. Nevertheless he still went ahead such was his love for them.

Our friend Gram Seed often tells of his first reaction to the message that God loved him. “Why would God want to know a scumbag like me?” Gram has never discovered why God loves him, only that He does. The knowledge that God loved him, even when he was stealing, fighting on the football terraces, locked up in a prison cell and sitting in drunken squalor on a bench in the shopping precinct, redeemed him and transformed him.
God has never loved us on the basis of whether we were good enough or deserving. It is Paul who says, “Whilst we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.”

1. Recognising the Problem
When Hosea considered his own marriage he realised that the basic problem was that Gomer was not really committed to it and Hosea saw that the people of God of his time had the same problem.
He used many pictures to describe them but we’ll look at two from the bakers shop.
a) A heated oven.
They were like a heated oven whose baker ceases to stir the fire, from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened. (ch7:4)
In the time when Hosea lived the oven in the baker’s house would be left to smoulder overnight, retaining some of the heat. In the warm atmosphere the dough would rise enough to be ready for baking. In the morning the oven would be brought back up to full temperature again ready for the days cooking. However if overnight the bread was forgotten the increased heat would cause the bread to burn and be destroyed.
This is how people are sometimes. On the surface things look normal, but underneath they are ready to flare up and destroy what they made. Gomer was like that.
She married Hosea and everything seemed OK but the longings for her old lifestyle flared up and ruined her marriage. Eventually what is in the heart comes out and declares itself.
It was the same with the people of Hosea’s day in their relationship with God.
On the surface they loved and served God, but underneath there was an underlying fire of selfishness that threaten to destroy.
Sin does not go away unless it is put completely out. Otherwise it smoulders and threatens to flare up again and God seems further away than ever.
The good news is that we have the means through Jesus to get rid of the deep underlying passion for selfishness that just will not go out on its own.
b) A half-baked cake.
In Hosea Chapter 7 verse 8 it says that Ephraim (which is part of Israel) is like a flat cake not turned over. The staple diet in the East then was thin flat scones or pancakes. They were baked by being laid on hot stones and then turned over just at the right time. If not done properly they could end up burnt black on one side and underdone and doughy on the other.
Perhaps this was how Gomer was with Hosea. She was uneven in her enthusiasm for marriage. She wanted the security but not the responsibility. It was how the people of Hosea’s day were with their religion. They took up a thing in a fervour of excitement and almost overdid the religious bit on the Sabbath until the joy was burned out of them and then for the rest of the week they underdid it. They failed to bring God into the picture at all.
There can be unevenness in our character when we don’t allow the Holy Spirit to do a thorough work in us and infuse our life with his warmth.

2. Redeeming the wreckage
The underlying half-baked enthusiasm meant a recipe for disaster for Gomer and Hosea’s marriage. When other men came along with their flattering attentions she yielded to them first with unfaithful liaisons and then with a life of open shame, eventually she ended up in the slave market.
In fact Hosea would have been within his rights to have Gomer stoned to death for the crime of adultery. Yet Hosea also felt God prompting him not to doubt in the face of well-meaning friends who say; “You’re well rid of her,” to go and do something absolutely amazing.
Read Hosea Chapter 3 verses 1 – 3
Gomer had got to the stage where she had sold herself into slavery in order to stay alive, but the only person who had any real claim on her was her husband.
He didn’t have to do it because she belonged to him anyway, but Hosea went and bought Gomer. He paid again for what was already his.
We wonder at the forbearance of Hosea – but Hosea wants to show that if that is how HE acted then how much more is the graciousness of God in the light of His people’s unfaithfulness.
And that is the story of our own redemption. God has a claim on us because He is our creator, yet He pays the price for our freedom, even though we are already His by right.
Through the light of the New Testament we see that God’s love is even greater than Hosea had imagined. For God was willing to buy us back from the slavery of sin, not with a few pence but with the life of His own Son.

3. Restoring the partnership
Hosea has Gomer back with him physically. She has been bought and paid for but Hosea knows she is not really his until she wants to be with his willingly. David Dalziel writes that; ‘Materially it was easy to buy Gomer back. A few coins, a couple of sacks of barley and she was like any other slave, but rebuilding the relationship was another matter entirely.’
Anyone who has dealt with a rebellious child, a betrayal of friendship or who like Hosea has known the pain of their partner being unfaithful - they will know something of his dilemma. However much we love them we cannot force the return of our love. The only power we have is to go on loving despite everything.
After getting her out of the slave market Hosea wisely leaves Gomer alone.
The Good News translation of Hosea 3:3 give us a clearer idea of Hosea’s attitude. “I told her that for a long time she would have to wait for me without committing adultery; and during this time I would wait for her.”
Hosea does not force himself on Gomer. His love is different than the cheap excuse for it found in the market place. What she has done, however she has behaved, her feelings still counted for something and Hosea respects them. Such love, such respect comes from God. It is the kind of attitude that God shows towards us.
When we reject Him, however much He longs for us, God does not force Himself on us. God has the power to make us do anything, but He will not force us to love Him.

4. Releasing the blessing
If she would return to her God then Israel would really benefit. If Israel would return to God. Hosea Chap 14 verse 5b GNB promises, “they will blossom like flowers; they will be firmly rooted like the trees of Lebanon. They will be alive with new growth and beautiful like olive-trees.”

This is not a promise just for the past but a promise God makes to all of us today. If we return to God He will make something of us. I for one want Him to do that for me because I make a pretty bad job of it on my own. But not only does our redemption release promise for self-improvement. Hosea gives us a picture of how God’s love releases blessing through us.

The one God loves will be a blessing to others. Hosea continues to describe this in terms of trees. He speaks of a tree’s scent and its shade. These are both things that do not benefit the tree itself. They are a benefit to others who are close to the tree. Both things make life for other people more pleasant.
If you have worked outside in the heat when there was no shade around, you know what I’m talking about. One result of God’s freely expressed love in your life is that you will be pleasant for other people to be around. I believe this is what is described as the beauty of holiness. When a person is in a right relationship with God and he is experiencing God’s love - that love overflows into other relationships.
Conclusion
I suppose this message is a very simple one. We might say it is primary school teaching. But perhaps it is not such a bad thing to re-state obvious and simple truths. We will never outgrow our need for God’s unconditional love or His grace. The more He makes of us, the more we realise that we are nothing without his grace.

God bless

Carol