The Lord's Faithful Vows to His Unfaithful Wife

Well, last week we spent time. reviewing six principles that will help us rest daily in Christ's arms in His righteousness. And we mentioned last week that, the law cannot take us on down the football field, so to speak, to righteousness, and neither can our own good works, and neither will our own self-will left to ourselves, but it's really only faith in the fullest message of the cross preached and Christ crucified and raised from the dead. That gives us righteousness.

And that righteousness is given to us by a God who loves unlovely creatures who had once hated him. The love of God that is poured into our hearts is a love, that is for sinners and evil people and fools and weaklings like us. Rather than seeking its own good, the love of God flows forth and bestows good. We sinners in this room are becoming attractive because we are loved.

We are not loved because we are attractive. And in contrast to man's nature who avoids sinners and avoids evil people, Christ came to call sinners to repentance, not the righteous. This is the love of, of God on the cross, born of the cross, which turns in the direction. Where it does not find good which it may enjoy, but where it can confer good upon bad and needy people, bad and needy people like Gomer that we're gonna find in our text today, bad and needy people like those in Israel.

And bad and needy people like you and me. The title of this morning's sermon is the Lord's faithful vows to his unfaithful wife. when you make vows at your wedding, you're making promises you intend to keep, hopefully, right? And you're making promises to a person you love and you assume that they will be faithful to the vows that they are making.

But what most of us don't realize when we're making those vows, at least by experience. is that we are binding ourselves in an oath to a sinner. And we are doing that as a center ourselves. As we look at the, the book of Hosea, you would think that the pain that Israel caused.

Upon her husband, Yahweh would teach him a lesson, and he would throw up his hands and say, I'm done. I ain't doing that again. But actually what we see in this text is a vow renewal poem. Recorded for us by Hosea.

And part of what's shocking about this poem and Hosea is that we see the Lord emote like a jilted lover. And if anyone had the right to express righteous anger, it was the Lord. for he, after all, was a perfect husband. And Israel was an appalling wife.

Another shock to the system as we read this poem is how the Lord sovereignly incorporates Hosea's own painful experience. As a mirror of God's own experience. Hosea comes to know the fellowship of his sufferings. Hosea gets to fill up as it were, in his flesh, what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of the body, the church.

As a prophet to Israel and part of the nation himself, he is to endure his allotment of suffering that serves to mirror God's own suffering and serves as a window into God's own heart. Hosea really should make us think of Christ. But before we get into this vow renewal poem, let me give you just a little bit of a, a background or let's set the stage so that we can really understand where we're at. Hosea is called, it's been called one of the minor prophets, not because it's unimportant, but because they're smaller books.

they're called the 12, there's 12 minor prophets, and he is prophesying during a period that we call the divided kingdom. Remember you have David and then he passes the kingdom to his son Solomon. And then under Solomon, it gets divided. You have Jeroboam in the north and then you have Reaboam in the south, and then it goes on like that for hundreds of years, and now we're in the 700s BC where we find ourselves with Hosea's prophecy.

He, by the way, is a contemporary of Amos and Micah and Isaiah. And even though Jeremiah is gonna come much later, there's a lot of overlap between he and Jeremiah because both of them actually see the fulfillment of their judgment prophecies in their lifetime. Hosea is prophesying of the common destruction of the North and that happens in 722 BC with Assyria. Jeremiah is prophesying of the destruction of the South and that happens in 586 BC as Babylon destroys Jerusalem.

As we have said, this is, this book is a vow renewal. It's God renewing his vows to an unfaithful bride, and it's, it's primarily poetic. It's like a song. And what we see in this song is, is several rib cracking verses of, of warning of judgment.

There's at least 67, just rib cracking verses that, that warn of coming judgment, but interspersed are 6 mind-blowing choruses of God's reversal. and, and so we see this back and forth of judgment and then promotion of love and then judgment and then, love and, and compassion. There are 50 occurrences of God's covenant name, Yahweh, in this book. And as we come across these rib cracking verses, one of the things that we wanna make sure that we keep in mind is that we're not think that we are not like Gomer or Israel or Judah, lest we fall.

It'd be very easy for us to read this book and say, man, I'm glad I'm not like them. But if we say that, we're really missing the point. And part of the point is in Hosea's own name. The name Hosea is, is really, it's the same as Hoshea or Joshua or Jesus.

It literally means Yahweh saves. Jesus comes in Matthew chapter one, and, and he's given a name that of Jesus, for he will save His people from their sins. And so from the opening chapters of Hosea, you read of God's unbreakable love for his people, in spite of their unloveliness, their ingratitude, and their infidelity. And again, we should read this book as a type of Christ.

Jose's experience. As a rejected lover mirrors the Lord's own experience with his wife, and so we see this back and forth play between Hosea's feelings and what he experiences and the Lord's feelings with what he experiences. And like other prophets and the Bible in general, if you've read through this book anytime recently, it can be confusing. this is a very confusing book as CFW Walter says, comparing holy scripture with other writings, we observed that no book is apparently so full of contradictions as the Bible.

And not just in minor points, but in the principle matter of how we may come to God and be saved. And just one example in Hosea 9:15, God says, I will love them no more. And then in 14 verse 4, he says, I will love them freely, completely contradicting what he had said a few chapters before. And so if we're gonna understand this book, we need to understand why the Bible will go back almost schizophrenically between threats of judgment and then promises of unconditional love.

God's treatment of Israel in this book is a microcosm of his treatment of the world. For God chose Israel in part to demonstrate his love for a stiff-necked, unrighteous people. And if God can love a stiff-necked, unrighteous people, how can he love the whole world? And God's treatment of Israel is also a macrocosm of his treatment of you and me throughout our lifetime.

Because if you, if you read these books thoughtfully, you read a book like Hosea or Judges or other of the prophets, you begin to see parallels in your own life with your own cycles of adultery and renewal, and your own verses of breaking God's heart and then him renewing his vows to you. And so we must keep in mind that all we like sheep have gone astray, but the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. So let him who thinks he is not like Gomer or Israel or Judah, take heed lest he fall.

So let's look at these charges first of all.

We're gonna look at like some charges against the wife, against Israel, against Gomer. and then we're gonna look at three responses from the Lord that don't minimize Israel's sins in any way, but nevertheless demonstrate his irrevocable love. Let's look at the charges. Charges are brought against the Lord's unfaithful wife.

And we'll see this in chapter 2 starting in verse 2. Bring charges or plead against your mother. Bring charges, for she is not my wife, nor am I her husband. Let her put away her harlotries from her sight and her adulteries from between her breasts, lest I strip her naked and expose her as in the day she was born and make her like a wilderness and set her like a dry land and slay her with thirst.

This is a summary of the charges. That are brought against Israel and symbolized by charges against Gomer, Hosea's unfaithful wife. These charges are not just to be viewed as a legal infraction, but as relational treachery. The treachery that one would bring upon a marriage.

Notice, look back at verse two, bring charges against your mother, bring charges. the reason the mother, these children are being spoken to is the children are mentioned in chapter one. Hosea is, is commanded to go marry, an adulteress, and we're not really sure if he's to marry someone who's already in adultery or he's commanded to go marry someone who will be an adulteress. That's my leaning.

And then they have 3 children, a boy, a girl, and a boy, and the first child is named Jezreel, which means God will scatter. The next one is named Lo Ruhama, which means no mercy, and the next one is named Loami, which means not my people or not my child, boy and a girl and a boy. I have a boy and a girl and a boy. We thought about these names, but we decided to Go with something else, more positive in reflecting But here, Jose is commanded to name his children after what is actually happening to God's own heart.

That God is scattering and he's saying, I'm gonna have no mercy and you are not my people. And now the children are, are called to bring charges against the wife. It's almost as if they are called in to divorce court, so to speak, and to lay the charges out before. the court as to what Gomer had done.

And the, the text goes on to say, she is not my wife, nor am I her husband. Gomer here is the one that's being mentioned which symbolizes Israel and as you read through the book of Hosea, Israel is called by various names. Ephraim is used 37 times. Ephraim sometimes represents the whole of Israel.

Samaria is used 6 times because Samaria was the capital of Israel at this time. And then the first child, is called Jezreel. Jezreel actually was the, the winter palace of Ahab and then all of the other kings afterward and, and so there's some mixed metaphors that go on here between the mother and the children, and clearly there are the mother who set all of this Baal worship and harlot tree up and then the children that follow after their own mother's harlot tree. It's as if Hosea or the Lord is saying here, she has not kept her vows.

It's as if we are, we're never married or we are not married at all. We're just roommates. That's how bad it is. And what are the specific charges that the Lord is bringing against Israel through the charges against Gomer?

Well, it says, the text says, let her put away her harlot trees from her sight or literally her forehead. The idea here is let her put away her adulterous look from her face or her whoredom from her face, and he says, and her adultery from between her breasts. This idea here is immodesty in the way that she looks at men and in the way that she dresses. So The way that she's the picture here is a woman that's looking in a certain way at men that clearly says, I'm available and she's dressing in a way that clearly says to other men other than her husband, I am available.

And so that is the charge against Israel and that is the charge against Hosea's wife, Gomer. The text goes on and says, lest I strip her naked and expose her as in the day that she was born and make her like a wilderness and set her like a dry land and slay her with thirst. Israel was born when they were brought out of Egypt and then they were brought into a desert where the Lord exposed them in their nakedness because of their continual sin. That's the reference in respect to Israel.

Gomer, if she were to persist in her harlot trees, would be literally exposed in her nakedness. And then the text goes on to verse 4 and says, I will not have mercy on her children. We're mixing the metaphors now, for they are children of harlotry, for their mother has played the harlot. She who conceived them has behaved shamefully, like mother, like children.

Now, at the time that Hosea is prophesying these things, if you look back at chapter 1, verse one, the, the main king in the north that Hosea's prophecies are overlapping with is Jeroboam the 2nd. Jeroboam the 1st, you don't want to be named after Jeroboam, right? It's like being named after Hitler. Gerald Boam is a bad dude.

He's the guy who made up a brand new religion of Festivus for the rest of us. Put a calf up north, put a calf down south so that he could keep everybody from going down to Jerusalem, and they would just worship golden calves, and from there, it just got intermixed, and synchronized with Baal worship. And so anybody who's named Jeroboam II can't be a great guy. And so father like son, mother like children, and then it goes on and says, here's what she says, the Lord is, is, is giving the charges, but she said, I will go after my lovers, in other words, my other men who give me bread and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil, and my drink.

Israel's deluded. Israel thinks that all of the blessings that she is receiving have come from her harle trees, her false worship of Baal, and Gomer is also deluded thinking all the blessings that are coming into her life are from her lovers. Gomer's sins are harlotry. The mirror in Israel's sins is idolatry, particularly Baal worship at this time.

Even though Je who had destroyed all the priests of Baal beforehand, they obviously had some folks that were ready to convert right back. So what are the charges against us? These are the charges against Israel and Gomer, and as we read this as sensible believers wanting to the spirit to minister to us, what are the charges against us? Well, I would suggest a few things.

The United States, it seems to me is a parallel to Israel of the 700s BC in many ways. we have a historic faith just like Israel did. We have a synchronistic decline just like Israel did. We have modern apostasy just like Israel did, and yet we have a vibrant remnant here in the United States just like Israel did.

And yet we wanna be very careful. about making 1 to 1 parallels between Israel's Canaanite bal worship and our own individual feelings. I do believe there are some parallels that we can speak of on a national level. I'm gonna sound like I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth here in a moment.

I, I think we should be careful about trying to put a 1 to 1 parallel on our individual sins. At the same time, we do need to ask very important questions, and here's part of what by that. Baal. Worship involved child sacrifice, temple prostitution, perverted persons in the land.

This means male on male worship in sexual prostitution, not just male on male, males with children, Ashira poles, the cult of phallic images, etc. These are the types of things that were going on in the North and obviously God hated it. He hated child sacrifice, he hated temple prostitution, he hated the violation of perverted persons with children. And we, so we can't do a 1 to 1 comparison.

I don't know what your sins are and what you struggle with. All of our sins are and our righteousness is our filthy rags, but there's a difference in the type of ire that God had for Ahab and Jeroboam and those types of individuals versus the types of anger or, or disappointment that he might have with his children that fall 7 times and yet get up. So on the other hand, our culture is looking more and more like ancient Israel if you just look around us. And it began by slow movement away from loving Yahweh exclusively.

So just moving ever so slightly away from loving Yahweh exclusively ended up in child sacrifice and homosexually, sexuality in a temple of Baal. We'd never think that it would go so far, but it starts very small. Ask yourself, how have you moved away from loving God exclusively? Have you stopped coming to Christ with your sins?

That's really what we need to be asking to as people who have placed our faith in Christ, is, are you still coming to Christ with your sins today? Or have you decided to stop coming to Him with your sins? Where else shall we go with our sins but to the Lord Jesus Christ and confess our sins to one another that we may be forgiven. And healed.

So those are the charges that are brought against Israel and Gomer, and we need to allow the spirit to work in our own hearts and to think of our own country. But let's look at the three responses from the Lord that do not minimize Israel's sins in any way, but nevertheless demonstrate his irrevocable love. Here's response number 1, response number 1 in your outline, the Lord will block her path back to her lovers. The Lord will block her path back to her lovers.

Look what it says in verse 6, down to verse 8. Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns and wall her in so that she cannot find her paths. She will chase her lovers, but not overtake them, and she will seek them but not find them. Then she will say, I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better for me than now.

For she did not know that I gave her grain and new wine and oil and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for bale. So what will the Lord do in response to the charges of harlotry and idolatry? Well, verse 6, notice all the I will statements. Notice, this is again vow renewal.

When you state your vows, you're saying, I will, right? Here's what I'm gonna do, I will. And notice what God says He will do. Therefore, verse 6, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns and wall her in.

So that she cannot find her paths. God is going to set up a sin blockade. He's going to bring circumstances into Israel's life and into Gomer's life where while they will try to get back to their sins, they will not be able to. And in history, what God had set up for Israel in the north was the invasion of Assyria.

As Syria comes in, brings utter destruction upon Israel and the kings, but in doing so, he begins to block his remnant and block his loved ones from their idolatry and harlotous ways. Notice that even though the Lord is setting up circumstances that are meant in love to block, to set up a, a, a blockade against sin. She still is trying to exercise her own free will. And what will free will do left to itself?

It will go to damnation every time unless it is blocked. Look at verse 7, she will chase her lovers. But not be able to overtake them. She will seek them, but will not find them.

And so she's still trying to get through the blockade. there's so much good biblical psychology here, how the Lord will set up blocks through circumstance and through the law and tell us not to go that way. And yet in our hearts, we're so Romans seven-like and we'll bust against the wall and try to go that way. And finally, she seems to tire and says, I will go and return to my first man or first husband, and then, for then it was better for me than now.

This is reminiscent of Luke 15 with the with the son who'd gone off into his harlatrous ways and then when the Lord had brought him down to a certain point, he says, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go back to my father. Verse 8, and the, the reason, it, it kinda spells out for us some of the, of the deception that is still there in her psych psychology, verse 8, for she did not know that I gave her grain, new wine, oil, and multiplied her silver and gold which she prepared for Baal. So even though she's talking about going back to the Lord, She still thinks that all the blessings and the goodness, oh man, sorry.

Sorry.

I apologize, Siri. All right, I didn't have my volume down there. OK, let's get back on track here. Anyway, there's a culpable ignorance and a derelict, deceit.

She is deceived, she's looking out at things that the Lord gave her, receiving those blessings and turning them right back around for her idolatries. And if you think that's only Israel, and if you think that's only Gomer, then you got something coming, right? If we reflect just a little bit upon all the blessings that God brings into our lives daily, how often will we take something that the Lord gives us and turn it right around and start using it for our sinful purposes or selfishness.

In fact, there are several passages in the Old Testament that reveal an undeniable link between the prosperity of God's people and their willful failure to constantly bring to mind the glorious person and work of God.

it's one of the reasons why we hate the prosperity doctrine so much is because biblically, prosperity doesn't always result in good humility that leads us to growing in Christ. It's actually our suffering. It's actually when the Lord begins to take things from us or to bring trials into our lives that we begin to come to our senses, man, I'm gonna go back to Him. Things were a lot better.

I'm still longing for that, but I'm gonna go back to Him. So that's the first response of the Lord is to block her path to her lovers and thank the Lord for blocked paths. How many in this room had, had, had been heading in a certain direction or wanted to go a certain direction and the Lord blocked you? Probably even through the things that we weren't even aware of.

You're heading in a certain direction and the circumstances comes into your life that prevents you from doing as evil as you would have done. or a brother or sister is sent into your life or a pastor that comes and comes alongside you and gently and carefully shares with you the things they're observing in your life, and by God's grace, you're able to receive it. That is a grace from God. When a brother or sister comes to you and then the Lord grants you the grace to actually hear from somebody else, and then he begins to open your eyes up from your delusion, and you realize, oh man, that is what I'm doing.

Praise God for those blocks. But a second response is the Lord will take away what she had used to cover up her sins and forget God. The Lord will take away what she had used to cover up her sins and forget God. Look at verse verse 9 and following.

Therefore, I will return and take away or take back my grain in its time and my new wine in its season and will take back my wool and my linen and, given to cover her nakedness. Now, I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers and no one shall deliver her from my hand. So God says, I'm gonna, I'm gonna uncover her sins. I'm gonna, I'm gonna take back the things that she's been using for bail, and I'm gonna expose her sins.

This is a threat that comes upon Israel. It eventually was fulfilled in the Assyrian captivity, but it ultimately came on the cross as Jesus was stripped on the cross naked and ashamed for our own sins. The Lord will come into our lives and try to expose our sins, so that we will run to Christ and he exposed his son to the world on your behalf and mine. And it is a grace of the Lord when we get caught in our sin.

Amen. Amen. It is a grace from the Lord. Many a brother or sister has, has been running from the Lord, has been hiding sin, trying to keep it under wraps, trying to keep it in the dark.

And part of what God will do is he'll bring brothers or sisters in the church to help expose sin. A lot of times I've noticed over the years that we think that we're hiding sin, but everybody else can see it. We're the ones that can't see it. And then loving people will come into our lives and say, the way that you said that is a little harsh.

And people will very gently come across and try to expose to us the things that we can't see for ourselves, and that's part of how the Lord loves us as he uncovers and he brings circumstances in our life to take certain things back that get us not dependent upon Christ and His righteousness, the way that we should. Verse 11, it says, I will cause all of her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, hers Sabbaths, all her appointed feasts. In other words, in, in history, Israel was sent off into captivity and they weren't able to keep the feast that were given to them in the law anymore because now they're living underneath the thumb of Assyria.

And all of the things that they would rejoice in, and then eventually became synchronistic worship, God takes that away and brings them.

To sadness, and he'll do the same thing for you and I. is he'll, we can kinda go along as if everything's fine and we're, we're happy and we're partying and we're just rejoicing in life. I can't tell you how many people I've heard get up here and share testimony about how I was happy in my sin and then the Lord came and brought this gut check to me, and then I got very sad and then suddenly my eyes opened up to the love of Christ. And that's what the Lord will do is he will move the mirth away from us to bring us to a true realization of our sin.

Verse 12, and I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, these are my wages that my lovers have given me. And I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them, and I will punish her for the days of the bales to which she burned incense. She decked herself with earrings and jewelry and went after her lovers, but me, she forgot the Lord, says the Lord. There's a spiritual amnesia that had set into Israel.

They had completely forgotten the Lord. Many of these people weren't even Yahweh worshippers anymore. Remember, Romans tells us that not all Israel is Israel, and by this point in Israel's history, you even question how many prophets there are of the Lord, how many true followers are of the, of the Lord. But the Lord is still wooing them and still doing what he can through various circumstances to show them that they are not going to find forgiveness of sin.

From Baal. They are not gonna find what they really need from false gods and harlow trees. They will only find satisfaction for their soul from a God who forgives them and loves them. That brings us to our third response.

And I think this is where everything really is driving. Is this third response that doesn't minimize Israel's sin in any way, but nevertheless demonstrates his irrevocable love. Here's how we would say this, the Lord will allure her, cause her to forget her former lovers, betrothed her to Himself forever, and bless her and cause her to be a blessing to the entire world. This is crazy God's gracious hindrances lead to an even more gracious restoration.

Let's work through this part of the text, starting in verse 14. Therefore, this is our 3rd, therefore, behold, I will allure her. This word means entice her. I will seduce her.

I'm gonna go after this woman who has broken my heart, Israel, who has taken the gifts, the wedding gifts I gave her and has went and, and used it and credited other men. I'm going to go and I'm going to entice her back to myself. I'm gonna use various means to get her to look at me again, this God whom she had forgotten. I will bring her into the wilderness.

There's still an idea of bringing her out into a place where she's been stripped and removed of all the fineries of life. But I will speak comfort to her. Literally, the idea is, I will speak to her heart. Here is the Lord speaking to Israel and, and, and by way of extension, Hosea speaking to Gomer and enticing and speaking to her heart.

And you gotta know that when the Lord through the Holy Spirit begins to speak to a heart, he gets the job done. This jilted lover of a god comes and begins to entice his adulterous people and speaks comfort to them. What in the world? This seems like a complete contradiction of what we've just seen in the first two responses.

This is something that really seems to run against everything that we know about God by our natural intuitions that God is like us and we see in these verses, he is not altogether like us. Look at verse 15, and again, notice all of the I will statements. I will give her, her vineyards from there. What?

You're going to give back the things that you took away? You're going to spoil her. In the valley of Achor as a door of hope. The valley of Achor is where Aiken was killed justly.

That's what they deserve, is the Aiken treatment, but he's turning the Aiken treatment into hope. And as he had taken away the mirth, now he's saying, she shall sing there. And in the days of her youth, and in that day, we'll come back to that phrase here in a moment, when she came up from the land of Egypt. And it shall be in that day, says the Lord.

What is that day? We're gonna see that that day is the day of the Lord. We're going all the way back from Exodus and Hosea is pointing way, way out in the future to the day of the Lord, the return of Jesus Christ. And here's what it goes on to say that you will call me my husband.

And no longer call me Bale or my master. Now they will, the, the wife will willingly reach out after having been enticed and say, my husband, my dear, For, and why will this happen? I will take from your mouth the names of the bales, and they shall be remembered by their name no more. This is something that God is going to do for her.

He is going to take the name of the false gods completely out of their mouth where they won't even remember them anymore. And this is something that God is going to do for them. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He's luring them, he's enticing them, and then he's doing things for them that they have proven that they could never do for themselves, like remove the bales and the false gods from their speech.

Verse 18, in that day, that future day, I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground, the bow and the sword. a battle, I will shatter from the earth to make them lie down in safety. Now we're looking way out into the millennial period, when God will reverse the curse. And now a lion will, lamb will lay down with lion, and there will be no more war.

And then, this is probably my favorite couple of verses, maybe in the whole Bible. This is one of the reasons why I want to preach this chapter is what's coming up right here. I will betroth you. Here we go, to me forever.

I will betroth you to me forever. The word betrothed literally means, it means to be engaged to a virgin. What? I'm going to betroth Israel to me as a chaste virgin forever.

It's as if God had gone down to the local whorehouse, grabbed out the worst whore in the whorehouse, and said, I am going to marry you, my virgin. And that's, that's as, that's as, as stark as this is. We don't like to hear the words that I just uttered from the pulpit, but that is what this text is saying. That he is going to betroth this prostitute of a nation to himself forever.

And when he says forever, it's, it's not till death do us part because God cannot die and his people cannot die. This is forever. Yes, I will betrothed you to me and now notice the type of, of, of prepositions and, and descriptors that are used here in righteousness. Gomer's righteousness.

Is this Israel's righteousness? You can answer out loud. Abs there's no way. This is not Gomer's righteousness.

This is not the work righteousness of Israel. This is the righteousness of God, His own justifying righteousness. We were in rags. He gives us garments of righteousness, a wedding garment, a robe of righteousness, given to us in Christ, who were adulterers and harlots and idolaters, and now he's calling us virgins.

And it's all, I will, I will, I will. He says, I will betrothed to me in in justice, absolving them from the sentence of condemnation. Do they deserve condemnation? Absolutely.

Do they deserve the treatment of Aiken? Absolutely. What do they get? A door of hope.

Which now means they are secure in relationship to Him. I will betroth you to me in loving kindness and mercy. That word loving kindness is our covenant word heed. In loving kindness, denoting both the love, which is the spring and source of this relation, not any merit of theirs, and the tender manner in which he betroths them to himself as a virgin.

This involves the pardon of sin. This involves spiritual peace and grace and eternal life, unmerited love and sovereign mercy. He goes on and, and a third time, verse verse 20, I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. This is the 3rd time he said betrothed.

I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, keeping the marriage contract unbreakable. Christ will never suffer, suffer his faithfulness to fail. He will never break his covenant. He has always been faithful to his father who appointed him, and he will always be faithful to his bride, the church.

And you shall know the Lord. You shall know Yahweh, you shall know the Yahweh who saves, you shall know Jesus as your Messiah. He is your husband. You shall know him not just in knowledge, but in relationship, eternal life.

You shall know Him as the forgiver of sins, as the keeper of the new covenant. These are just amazing promises that God would respond to Israel in this way, given the type of behavior that they had displayed towards their God, and that Gomer is to put this on display with, Hosea is to put this on display with his wife, Gomer as a mirror. Of that same effect. Verse 21, he goes on and says, it shall come to pass in that day, that future day, that day of the Lord, that I will answer, says the Lord.

I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth, and the earth shall answer the grain and new wine and oil, and they shall answer Jezreel. This is a reverse prayer chain. I know, a lot of the, the kids probably don't remember when we had a prayer chain here at Cornerstone before everybody had cellphones and all this stuff and apps. It's like when somebody called in the church and they had a prayer request, what would happen is, it's probably Regina Skelly at the time, our secretary, she would get on the phone and call 4 people who then call 4 people, who then would call 4 people so that the whole church could start praying.

We call that a prayer chain. Anybody remember prayer chains? OK, yeah, young people have no idea what we're talking about. Now you just like put it on your app, right?

But that's what's going on in this, in this passage in reverse is the Lord is saying, I've already answered the prayer. I've already answered it. the heavens offered a prayer to me, the earth offered a prayer to the heavens, Jezreel said, hey, can you rain down upon us? This is a well-known image in the prophets, for God raining down his righteousness and granting forgiveness of sins that causes the fruit of righteousness to come up out of the ground of its own accord.

And I will sow her for myself in the earth. The Lord will spread the gospel, and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy. Now we're back to the names of these children, and I will say to those who are not my people, you are my people, and they shall say, you are my God. Notice, this is all I will, and you will do this.

This has nothing to do with what Israel, true Israel will do. It has nothing to do with what the bride will do. It's all on the Lord Himself because as the Lord has demonstrated in his charges and in his first two responses that left to themselves, left to ourselves, we would run to hell every time. Left to ourselves, we would run to our harlow trees.

Left to ourselves, we would take God's gifts and credit them to Baal. Left to ourselves, we would not follow the Lord our God with all of our heart, mind and soul, and love our neighbors ourselves. So God has to enter in and do something. And what he does is he, he reiterates his vows to his people that he had made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

And he says, I will, I will, I will, and he looks at you and he looks at me, who have prostituted ourselves with false gods over our lifetime, definitely before we're saved, but if you're honest, even throughout your lifetime, there's been this cycle of judges in your life because I know you because Romans 17. It tells me who you are, and it tells me who I am, that we run through these cycles through our lives, but God stays faithful to you and faithful to me, and he keeps alluring us.

He keeps enticing us back with His Son, and he keeps reminding you that you are betrothed as a virgin. And it's that understanding of your virgin betrothal in spite of your sins because I will, I will, I will, that causes the rain to come down and the fruit to come up, the works to come up of their own accord.

Not because you're worthy or I'm worthy, but because God is worthy, and he shows himself faithful to his bride. These are the responses that God gives. To faithless Israel and then moves Hosea to picture that in his own life. Let's look at Hosea's response quickly.

This really advances the story somewhat, but then we see his response to the Lord in chapter 3. We're just gonna cover this quickly. 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.

When he says go again, this means exactly what it means is he had married this woman, Gomer. He had had 3 kids with her. And, and then he has to go again, and he has to go get her and where does he have to go to get her? Verse 2 tells us, so I bought her for myself for 50 shekels of silver and 1.5 homers of barley.

Where did he have to go get her from the whorehouse? She had sold herself into slavery this time. She had gotten herself so into debt that now she was owned by a pimp. And so, God says to Hosea, go get her again.

Do it again. And so he goes, and I said to her, You shall stay with me many days, and you shall not play the harlot. You shall not have a man, and so I will be toward you, for the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, sacrifice, sacred pillar, Ihad terraphim. Afterward Afterward, what's that?

In the day, latter days, it tells us the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David, their king, that's the Messiah, and they shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days. Think about this, this mirror that's being portrayed between Hosea and Gomer and then the Lord in Israel. the Lord could have told Hosea to bring Gomer to the elders of the town and demand that the law be enforced and she'd be stoned. According to Leviticus 20 and Deuteronomy 22, but God commanded him first to marry her.

Then to go out and get her out of the brothel where she had sold herself. And this is all meant to put on display God's love for his bride, God's love for you and for me. What should our response be? To such a poem, such a song.

Such verses that break our ribs and such choruses that just blow our minds. Let me give a couple of suggestions. One, do not Give in to the temptation of saying, I am glad I am not like Israel. Don't give in to that temptation.

This book is in our Bibles for a reason. We are a lot more like Gomer than God. It's just a fact. Without humbling your heart under the sad reality of how frequently you participate in idol worship, you'll be tempted to stare at Israel and self-righteous disbelief and say, how could you be so hard-hearted?

That's not the intent of this book. The intent of this book is for us to look at these pages and to be convicted by our own hard-heartedness. One of the truths of this book is the immeasurable wickedness of the human heart. George Zimmick and Todd Murray say this in their commentary, the utter moral corruption is a spiritual fact that men must hear often because self-righteousness, because self-righteous hearts are slow to believe the Bible's testimony against us.

Hosea regularly exposes the national reprehensible ingratitude, rebellious lawbreaking, unthinkable pride. And it's inherent self-deception. Can God's people today be as wicked as 8th century Israel? Sadly, yes.

We can. We look at our, our nation that used to call themselves a Christian nation, and it sounds a lot like Hosea. And then we look at our own hearts that are allured by the things in the world. And we need to hear this message.

A second response that I'd lay out for us for consideration is, is believe the shocking evidence before you of the incomprehensible love of Christ in the face of hideous and miserable sin. The love of Christ in the face of hideous and miserable sin, our merciless hearts can scarcely believe it. While it is not indulgent love that winks at sin, God does not give up on Israel. He says in Chapter 11.

How can I give up on you? How can I surrender you? Is God's love for his people even today really as eternally relentless as scripture says? Gloriously, the answer is yes.

Yes, it is And so a third response I would ask us to consider is that we would all repent towards God. Change our mind and turn our hearts towards our God. And I wanna read a couple other passages from Hosea here that speak of that response of repentance. Hosea 5:15 says this and following.

The Lord, I will return again to my place till they acknowledge their offense. Then they will seek my face in their affliction, they will earnestly seek me. Hear the Lord's heart, chapter 6 verse 1, come and let us return to the Lord, for he is torn, but he will heal us. He's stricken, but he will bind us up.

After 2 days, he will revive us. On the 3rd day, he will raise us up, that we may live in His sight. Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord. His going forth is established as the morning.

He will come. To us like rain, like the latter and former rain to the earth. It's a great statement of repentance, a reminder, even a hint towards 1 Corinthians 15 of Christ being raised on the 3rd day and you and I being raised with him. Hosea 11 is one of those mind-blowing choruses, where he says, oh Israel, return to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.

Take words with you and return to the Lord and say to him, take away all iniquity, receive us graciously for we offer the sacrifices of our lips. Assyria shall not save us. We will not ride on horses, nor will we say anymore, to our own hands, you are our gods, for in you, the fatherless finds mercy. I will heal their backsliding.

I will love them freely. My anger has turned away from him. It's a wonderful statement of repentance in chapter 11 where we see the heart of God, how the heart of God is really to, to allure us to this moment in these repetitions of repentance. Consider what it says in chapter 11 verse 8 and following.

The Lord says, how can I give you up, oh Ephraim? How can I hand you over Israel? How can I make you like Adma? Or how can I make you, make you like Zeboim, that's Sodom and Gomorrah areas?

My heart churns within me, my sympathy is stirred. Listen to the heart of God. I will not execute the fierceness of my anger. I will not again destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst.

I will not come with terror. They shall walk after the Lord. He will roar like a lion. When he roars, then his sons shall come trembling from the west.

They shall come trembling like a bird from Egypt, like a dove from the land of Assyria. I will let them dwell in their houses, says the Lord, the churning heart of a jilted lover crying out to his people, saying, I have set aside my wrath, and we know when we look at the scriptures from beginning to end, how is it that God sets aside his wrath? It's because his wrath is absorbed in his Son. Jesus Christ.

That we might not, we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that the wrath would pass over us as the angel of death passed over the firstborn of Israel. Acts 5:31 says this, God has exalted Jesus. To the right hand to be prince and savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. That's the heart of our God.

He is eager to give out, not just wine and not just stuff and wool. He wants to give out. Repentance. He wants to give out forgiveness of sins, and there is no other God that you or I can go to, to find those kinds of things.

Those gifts are only held in the hands of Jesus Christ. 4th, cry out to God for help and respect to our marriages and relationships. I think that there is a message in the book of Hosea for our marriages and our relationships. The part of what you see in this book is God putting on his display for his love for his wife.

And marriage was created in the garden and reiterated in Ephesians as to be a reflection of Christ's love for his church. Your marriage, my marriage, all of you who are married or will be married, and if you just think about your relationships with people in this church are meant to put on display God's faithfulness to his people. And so there's a message here for us as we relate to our spouses, husbands and wives. I know it doesn't have include everybody in here, but many of us are married, that as you think of your wife or as you think of your husband, that you think of them in these terms, that you love them, and even if you're being despised and mistreated, you have an opportunity to put on display God's love in a unique way.

A good marriage has an opportunity to put on God's love in a very unique way, but a bad marriage also has an opportunity to put on God's love in a unique way if one of the spouses will die and say, Lord, help me love my spouse the way you love them, and the way you love me. Help me love them in spite of the fact that they've trampled on my heart and violated the covenant. these days in the world, people are getting married with the assumption of divorce. A lot of people aren't even getting married because they don't wanna go through that.

And it's crept into the church in such a way to where when, when the first sight of trouble and things come into a marriage or even late into a marriage, there's seems like insurmountable troubles. It seems like one of the solutions that people wanna, wanna go to right away is divorce. And I just want to suggest to you that while divorce will happen and while there are very complicated situations, and in no way a cornerstone would we ever countenance physical abuse, and we'll come, we come alongside many people in this church who also experience emotional and spiritual abuse.

At the same time, we exhort you to stay in even a bad marriage for the glory of God.

There are many people in this room who your husband or your wife, the best they're ever gonna have in this life is your love as the Spirit fills you and loves them, even though they're completely unworthy. And the Lord can use you to, if nothing else, love them before they go to hell. But even better than that, be a great example and love them into heaven. With your chaste example.

And so let's make a big deal about marriage and staying in marriage and not running as the world does to divorce. There's a message for us in that. And I, I would say the same thing with just relationships in general. Many times there are times where people in the church, people violate one another because it's going to happen and then people throw up their hands and they say, I will not associate with that person now.

And then they try to just distance themselves from that person in the church for a while, but eventually what happens is they leave and go find another church because they can't get in there and love somebody who's unlovable. And then they go to that church and then they find other sinners who are equally as unlovable. And what happens is they go to the next church, and then they go to the next church, and then it's not uncommon, folks to find 1015 years down the road to find people who are just doing house church now.

Because they just can't be around unlovable people.

And guess what? Nobody can be around them either. That's a sad to say, but it's a sad pattern that we see today. Last thing I'll say as far as like our response.

Is do you have a wayward family member, a friend, a child, a spouse, a parent? I think, Hosea, this poem gives us hope for our wayward family members to come and, and to pray with them and to ask the Lord for wisdom on how to bring before them some of the, the hard parts of this book that, that the threats of of, of God's blocking and his taking things away. But his ultimate heart to allure his people with his kindness and forgiveness of sins. Those of us that are parents, who have older kids or whatever, there's many heartbreaking stories in our church where you are just crying out to the Lord for your loved ones and, and just who's to say that the Lord, if he could do this for Israel, right?

If He could do this for you, who's to say that he won't do this for your loved one and that he can use you to actually allure them, entice them back, particularly with forgiveness of sins. Now I know that there is, there is a time and place for harsh words and to bring the law down upon the impenitent and the hardhearted, but I just wanna say as one of the pastors, and I think our all of our pastors would agree with this basic concept. That there are a lot of people who are just so guilt-ridden over their sins, and they've been so, overwhelmed and entrenched with sin, they have a heart for the Lord, they wanna follow him, but they've been overcome, and part of what they need is loving people to come around them just to help them get unentrenched, and they need to be reminded of God's love through Christ and the forgiveness of sins, not hell.

hell is a real thing.

We need to preach hell to the impenitent and the hard-hearted, but to the weak and the broken, we need to bring them forgiveness of sins. OK, so that's, that's the basics here. we, I just hope this, will minister to you as we look at the Lord's faithfulness to his unfaithful wife. As he clearly brings out the charges, he's not mincing words, he's bringing out their sins, but all of his responses, aren't they marked with love?

The fact that he's trying to block her, the fact that he's taking certain things away, and then he's alluring her, and that ultimately it's God saying, I will, I will, I will, and that he's the one that's moving upon them saying, let's go back to the first God. Let's go back to our first husband. I hope the spirit would minister this to you in the way that he intends. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you so much for just the blessing of your heart, for your people, your wayward people. Lord, we know that there are those that in the world that would, take the name of Christ upon their lips. But at the same time take the name of Baal upon their lips and follow false gods. And, and at the same time, we know that there are those in this very church who get overtaken by sins and temptation and threats of the enemy, and we pray, Father, that You would protect us, Lord, that You would deliver us, Lord, that you would overwhelm us because left to ourselves, we would all fall away.

Left to ourselves, we would all apostatize, but we thank you, Lord, that you hold us. In your arms, we pray that the things we've looked at last week and today would give us great encouragement. We pray this in Jesus' name, and all God's people said, Amen.