Pastor Nate continues our study through the Bible in the book of Hosea.
[00:00:00] You were listening to the Through the Bible Studio series with Pastor Nate Holdridge. Join us as we continue our study through the Old Testament book of Hosea. Here's Nate.
[00:00:21] Well, the book of Hosea is a book that includes the story of one sighted love.
[00:00:30] What we have in the book of Hosea is the story of God's love for the people of Israel. He cared for them, he blessed them, he had provided for them, he had nourished them, he had brought them out of their slavery, but slowly but surely over time,
[00:00:47] their response of love for him began to erode, to the point that by the time Hosea came onto the scene to prophesy,
[00:00:56] the people in Israel, in the northern ten tribes were worshipping false gods, loving false gods. And in the mind of God himself, these relationships with false gods were tantamount to an adulterous relationship
[00:01:15] that a wife was engaging with illicit lovers. And so God here, through the prophet Hosea, is going to express the great sorrow of the one sighted love that he has expressed towards the people of Israel, not only the one sighted love but also the one sighted faithfulness of God in this marital relationship.
[00:01:42] And so it's a beautiful book that describes to us the devotion of God to his bride, and even though we are a different kind of bride, and that we are not the nation of Israel but we are the church, the bride of Christ,
[00:01:56] it speaks to us resoundingly concerning the kind of devotion that God has towards us, that Christ has towards us, but also that we long to have towards him.
[00:02:10] Now the prophet Hosea has often been called the northern kingdoms Jeremiah. You might remember that after Solomon died, his son Reho Bohem became king and because of his harsh ways with the people of Israel, a man named Jeroboam took the ten northern tribes to himself
[00:02:34] and they began to basically ultimately create their own separate and distinct kingdom. There was the north and there was the south, and so you have a long succession of kings in the north and kings in the south.
[00:02:51] Now the north did not have Jerusalem, therefore they did not have the temple, therefore they did not have the biblical way in which to worship the Lord.
[00:03:02] And so eventually over time they introduced idolatry and the more minor versions of idolatry that they introduced at the beginning gave way to full blown idolatry.
[00:03:17] And so just as Jeremiah eventually came to the south and prophesied to the two southern tribes Judah and Benjamin before King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians came to take them into captivity, so Hosea, years before Jeremiah, came to the north to prophesy to them about their coming destruction at the hands of the Assyrians.
[00:03:44] So an incredible book. Now it says in verse 1 that the word of the Lord that came to Hosea, a beautiful description of how it worked for these prophets, the word of the Lord simply arriving to them and Hosea's name means salvation.
[00:04:03] And so the word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Bira in the days of, and now we have the listing of four separate kings of the southern kingdom in the days of Uzziah, Jhaatham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
[00:04:19] And this word came to Hosea in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joe Ash King of Israel. Now the thing is that for Hosea to have prophesied during the duration of all four or at least parts of the four kings in Judah that are mentioned there in verse 1, he would have prophesied in much more than simply the days of Jeroboam, the king of the north.
[00:04:47] So during the reign of the four Judean kings mentioned in verse 1, there were six kings who followed the Jeroboam that is mentioned here in verse 1, Zacharias, Shalom, Menahim, Pechahiah, Peca, Hosea being the final king.
[00:05:08] And Hosea would have prophesied during all of their reigns. And so the book of Hosea, these 14 chapters represents approximately 40 years of prophetic ministry, just a powerful thing. And so now we have the date of this prophecy.
[00:05:29] So when the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, go take to yourself a wife of Hortam and have children of Hortam for the land commits great Hortam by forsaking the Lord.
[00:05:43] So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diplaeim, and she conceived and bore him a son. So now in verse 2 and 3 we're reading of the difficult calling that was placed upon Hosea's life.
[00:06:00] Now on one hand, this was a highly prophetic for the people of Israel kind of role. God would ask His prophets to do various things that you're not going to see repeated in the church era, but there were very extreme. These men lived lives that were exemplary and not just in the sense that they were righteous men, but that God would oftentimes make an example of their lives.
[00:06:27] And God is going to do that here through Hosea's marriage to Gomer. Now there is a little bit of debate about Gomer's pre-marital experience, some think that she was living in prostitution when Hosea then went and married her.
[00:06:49] Some also think, secondly, that she's a picture of a typical young Israelite woman who had given herself to the Canaanite pagan sexual practices of the day who then Hosea married.
[00:07:08] And then others believe that she was pure and righteous and a normal young woman at the time that she married Hosea, but then as time went on, she developed a wandering heart and became such a wanderer that not only did she commit adultery but she actually gave herself to a life of prostitution.
[00:07:33] My personal opinion is that it's this last category that is accurate. It seems to fit the context and the story the best. Here you have God pulling a young bride out of Egypt for Himself, they become unified, they are covenanted together, and they become His people, He becomes their God.
[00:08:03] But then slowly but surely over time, a wandering heart creeps into the nation of Israel and they eventually give themselves to an unfaithful kind of worship practice.
[00:08:17] And I think it just simply bids the question because here is God saying this is going to be the description or a picture of what my relationship with the people of Israel is like.
[00:08:27] It begs the question of am I a man that is faithful to the Lord? What kind of relationship does He have with me? Am I constant with the Lord? Am I faithful to the Lord?
[00:08:44] Now obviously there's a one-sided nature in any relationship with God, the love of Christ flowing from the cross of Christ will never be fully reciprocated by mankind. We cannot pay the Lord back in any way shape or form. His love is greater.
[00:09:03] We love Him because He first loved us. The question isn't do I love Him as much as He loves me? The question is do I love Him? Am I loving Him or am I giving myself purposefully to that which is harming my relationship with the Lord?
[00:09:22] The Lord says that the reason that I want you to do this is because the land commits great horde by forsaking the Lord.
[00:09:35] And so as God's prophet Hosea was going to illustrate the experience of God but not only would he illustrate it, think about this as God's prophet Hosea was going to experience the pain of God.
[00:09:51] Some of you are probably serving the Lord and maybe you've experienced some small snippets or small tastes of the pain that God goes through in experiencing that one-sided relationship.
[00:10:08] But the wandering of the human heart and as you've watched that and perhaps tried to minister through that maybe it's lukewarmness that you're battling against.
[00:10:19] Maybe it's apathy that you're battling against, a lack of passion for the gospel that you're battling against.
[00:10:26] And as you go through that battle it's important I think to realize this is an experience that God has on a much more intense level than I will ever experience in this life.
[00:10:41] Paul the Apostle enlisting his trials in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 said in verse 28 and apart from other things there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety
[00:10:55] for all the churches there was just this concern within his heart. And so if that's a concern that is yours you're experiencing I think a little bit of the sense that God was experiencing and so the Lord tells us Hosea why he has to take gomers and why he's to experience this kind of brokenness in his marriage.
[00:11:20] The Lord said to him verse 4 after she conceived a son and had a child the Lord said to Hosea call his name Jezriel.
[00:11:34] For in just a little while I will punish the house of J. Who for the blood of Jezriel and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel Israel and on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezriel.
[00:11:55] Now this is a very interesting prophecy from the Lord basically what you have here in the northern kingdom are this long line of kings there was originally a king named Jeroboam he was the one who pulled away from Solomon's son Rehobeum so very near the reins of Solomon and the reign before Solomon of David.
[00:12:22] So Israel and their line of kings was very fresh at that point and Jeroboam started a new line of kings in the north.
[00:12:32] Now years later instigated by Alisha the prophet there was a man named J. Who whom Alisha prophesied to that he would end the line of that original Jeroboam and that he would start his own new line.
[00:12:52] And that J. Who would from him would now come the future kings in northern Israel the problem however is that when J. Who did take the kingdom from the line of Jeroboam it was an incredibly violent blood shedding kind of action that happened in the town of Jeroboam.
[00:13:21] So it is as if God is saying to all of the kings there in that time that Hosea was prophesying to who were from the violent line of J. Who he is saying I haven't forgotten your roots, your kingly line is rooted not just in the prophecy that you would take this kingly line but unfortunately grave violence.
[00:13:50] So I'm going to judge you for that grave violence he is announcing to them so much so in verse 5 that on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.
[00:14:03] And it appears here that the Assyrians would come and when they were when they finally defeated the northern kingdoms the kingdom of Israel it would actually happen here in this valley of Jezreel.
[00:14:20] And so a stern warning it's as if God is saying listen you think that I've forgotten you think that I didn't see this brutal way in which you handled the house of Jehu but I saw it or excuse me the house of Jeroboam but I saw it I observed it I've seen it.
[00:14:39] And now years later I'm here to judge it and so that was what the name of Hosea's first son was meant to signify.
[00:14:49] She conceived again verse 6 and bore a daughter and the Lord said to him call her name no mercy for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel to forgive them at all but I will have mercy on the house of Judah and I will save them by the Lord their God.
[00:15:07] I will not save them by bull or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.
[00:15:15] So next Hosea and Gomer have a daughter together her name is supposed to be low Ruhama or as we see it here no mercy is the interpretation.
[00:15:29] So she's to be named no mercy or no love she is not loved and the Lord here in this prophecy announces that listen the mercy that I've been extending you there in the North and God had been very patient he had been very merciful which means that he had been withholding from them a judgment that they rightfully deserved.
[00:15:53] He had been withholding from them and so he's saying I've been merciful for so long but I will no longer be merciful in the South and Judah he announces they're going to survive a little longer I'm going to extend mercy to them but not in the North it is time for you to be judged.
[00:16:15] And so that's what the second child this first daughter signified in the family of Hosea and Gomer and then in verse 8 he says when she had weaned no mercy she conceived and bore a son so they have a son named Jezreel a daughter named no mercy and after no mercy was weaned they had a third child a son and the Lord said call his name.
[00:16:44] But call his name not my people for you are not my people and I am not your God.
[00:16:54] And so the name low amy or not my people what you have here is this people who were to be we're supposed to be in a covenant relationship with God who had departed from the Lord going after other gods therefore God is saying I'm now disowning you as my people I will no longer be merciful.
[00:17:13] No longer be your God so you're not going to receive mercy from me any longer I'm going to bring down judgment upon you but I'm actually going to disown myself from you or you from me yet in verse 10 and this is a beautiful promise that the Lord makes on the midst of all of this catastrophe
[00:17:39] and all of these warnings concerning coming judgment he says yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea.
[00:17:48] And so this tells us that even though God is going to pull back his mercy and pull back his relationship with the people of Israel
[00:17:57] and that he's going to remember them there in the north for their violent history he's saying still however I'm going to remember the covenant that I made with Abraham Isaac and Jacob the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea which cannot be measured or numbered.
[00:18:15] And in the place where it was said to them you are not my people it shall be said to them children of the living God and the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together and they shall appoint for themselves one head and they shall go up from the land for great shall be the day of Jezreal.
[00:18:36] So God speaks of a future day of full restoration and you have to notice a couple of the ingredients it speaks of the two kingdoms the one in the north and ten northern tribes and that one in the south Judah and Benjamin being united under one king
[00:18:57] and that one king would be a descendant of David himself one Davidic monarch would signify their return to the promised land.
[00:19:10] So the number of their children will be absolutely innumerable it will be a beautiful thing and I think many of these prophecies are yet future in their anticipation.
[00:19:21] I believe much of this will be fulfilled in the millennial reign of Christ there in Revelation chapter 20.
[00:19:28] Now once the family was established in chapter 2 God speaks through Hosea tells him what to say and how to act next and basically he's going to highlight the sin of the people of Israel that they had given themselves to spiritual adultery.
[00:19:46] He says, say to your brothers you are my people and to your sisters you have received mercy.
[00:19:55] Now again this is a word of hope absolutely a word of hope because those who had been named no mercy and those who had been named not my people there to have hope God says tell them you actually are my people and tell the sisters you actually have received mercy.
[00:20:15] So again hope is what should be there for the people of Israel and anytime that there is the prophetic word of the Lord that warns God's people and then a gap from the warning to the time of actual execution of judgment or the time where you're coming under the discipline of God.
[00:20:38] Discipline or the word of the Lord concerning future discipline and judgment is actually a great instrument of hope because you're still alive you have not been slain there is still the possibility of repentance and where there is the possibility of repentance there is the possibility of God's grace and entering into that restorative relationship with him once again.
[00:21:07] So sometimes people enter into such despair they think there's no way for them to come back to the Lord but even these people with their grave sin against the Lord there to know you actually can have mercy you actually can be my people plead with your mother he says plead for she is not my wife and I am not her husband that she until or two put away her horing from her face
[00:21:35] and her adultery from between her breasts and so God gives a stern warning and he says listen these people they're not behaving like my wife or bride any longer and I can no longer operate as her husband.
[00:21:54] Now this likely isn't a formal divorce that God is giving to the people of Israel at this point but it's God initiating ultimate reconciliation saying this is not how a husband and a wife operate she needs to he says put away her horing from her face.
[00:22:14] Now the thing about Israel at this time is that they had really definitely given themselves over to the cana night practices of going up to the hillsides and having sexual experiences underneath the trees that were designed to appease the fertility gods and the gods of the crops and all of that.
[00:22:39] And this was horing and adultery in their actual physical act but also before the Lord spiritually.
[00:22:49] And the truth is that God is a jealous God due to our army for verse 24 the Lord your God is a consuming fire a jealous God and this in one sense section of Hosea is their version of the book of James chapter 4 where we hear in verse 4 and 5 you adulterous people do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God.
[00:23:19] Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God or do you suppose that it is no purpose that the scripture says he yearns jealous over the spirit that he has made dwell in us.
[00:23:35] So when you give yourself to sin when you give yourself to unrighteousness you are actually making yourself a friend of the world and an enemy of God and stirring up jealousy in the heart of God towards your life.
[00:23:50] Now God says in verse 3 to Hosea he says you know give this warning last verse 3 I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born and make her like a wilderness and make her like a parched land and kill her with thirst.
[00:24:11] So this is a severe judgment that God is promising for the people of Israel if they persist in these adulterous relationships and one of the things that we discover is that sin against the Lord is one of the most dry producing actions in our lives.
[00:24:32] And he says here you know she's going to actually become parched and killed with thirst upon her children verse 4 also I will have no mercy because they are children of Horde.
[00:24:42] For their mother has played the horror she who conceived them has acted shamefully for she said I will go after my lovers who give me my bread and my water my wool and my flax my oil and my drink.
[00:24:59] So she had this shameful attitude and the reason for this severe judgment is found right there she said these things which led her to a shameful life and action.
[00:25:12] Therefore now here we have God describing the judgment I will hedge up her way with thorns and I will build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths.
[00:25:24] She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them and she shall seek them but not find them.
[00:25:31] And so God promises a way or a path or a hedge with thorns in other words God says I'm going to make your way difficult and again this is the grace of the Lord to not allow us to just pursue the life of sin unencumbered but he says I'm going to make it difficult for you.
[00:25:51] You shall pursue your lovers but not overtake them there's an emptiness that is described there.
[00:25:59] Then she shall say verse 7 I will go and return to my first husband for it was better for me than now.
[00:26:10] And the thing about want and dryness is that they are often the very tools that God is going to use to fix your heart.
[00:26:20] You know the sense of no satisfaction in pursuing a particular forbidden relationship or forbidden activity and as you pursue them when you come up dry and empty and without a fulfillment
[00:26:39] that is in one sense the action of the Lord in producing that dryness within so that you will as Gomer said return to your first husband and say it was better for me than than now.
[00:26:56] And so again this is a good perspective and for us life is always strongest when we are only in the worship of God.
[00:27:04] And she did not know verse 8 that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine and the oil and who lavished on her silver and gold which they used for bail.
[00:27:15] Therefore I will take back my grain in its time and my wine in its season and I will take away my wool and my flax which were to cover her nakedness.
[00:27:25] Now I will uncover her loodness in the sight of her lovers and no one shall rescue her out of my hand and I will put an end all her merth, her feasts or new moons or sabbaths and all her appointed feasts.
[00:27:37] And I will lay waste her vines in her fig trees of which she said these are my wages which my lovers have given me.
[00:27:44] I will make them a forest and the beasts of the field shall devour them and I will punish her for the feast days of the bails when she burned offerings to them and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry and went after her lovers and forgot me declares the Lord.
[00:28:02] Here the Lord announces something in his judgment upon the people of Israel.
[00:28:07] He says they don't understand that when they ate the grain or drank the wine or used the oil, they don't understand that the silver and gold they don't understand that I was the one who gave them all of those elements.
[00:28:24] And they took those elements and they used them in the worship of bale and when they worship bale what they were asking for was for grain and wine and oil, they were asking for bale to bless them when God himself was the source of their blessing.
[00:28:44] And so God announces to them here. He says I'm going to take those things away from you and here's what I'm going to do in your lives.
[00:28:53] And the judgment is very simple but very complete, very thorough.
[00:29:02] In verse 9, he says I will put an end to or I will take back my grain, my wine, my wool and my flax.
[00:29:21] In other words God is saying I am going to touch and halt your provision as a people.
[00:29:27] In verse 10, he says I'm going to uncover her loodness and so I think that speaks to us of the anonymous or private nature of their sin will also come to an end and their sin will be exposed.
[00:29:43] In verse 11, we have him saying I'll put an end to MIRTH FEAST, NEW MOON, SABBITS and APPOINED FEAST.
[00:29:51] And so the celebratory rejoicing is going to also end it will become a joyless nation in verse 12 and 13.
[00:30:01] He says I'm going to lay, waste your vines and fig trees.
[00:30:06] I'm going to punish you for the feast days of the bails and so the wrath of God, the punishment, the discipline of God coming upon the nation of Israel.
[00:30:17] And so God here through the Prophet Hosea has told the people of Israel of what will come especially if they do not get right with the Lord in repent of their sin that days of desolation are in their future
[00:30:34] if they persist in this rebellion against God.
[00:30:38] Now there is grace which we'll see in the words and phrases to come but the warning is severe.
[00:30:46] Let us walk with God with a true and a pure heart. God bless you.
[00:30:56] Thank you for listening. For additional resources and teachings or to contact us, please visit us at Nate Worldry.
[00:31:03] Thank you.