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I
love ice cream. I love that new Italian
restaurant. I love big dogs. I love children. I love…The word love is overused in our
culture. Our culture does not have any
real respect for words. We do not use
them well and we do not use them appropriately. Words have lost their
meaning. So what is love? Truly, what is a love defined by God’s Word?
And what kind of love does God require of us?
I
remember being in Venezuela and arguing with one of my fellow missionaries
about love. I was arguing that my
friend’s parents who were not believers loved each other. They were a couple that I believed epitomized
“love.” The day following my argument during my quiet time I read 1 John 4:7-8,
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from
God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not
love does not know God, because God is love.
The
Lord showed me that it was impossible to truly love the way God requires us
without being born again. What I
witnessed in my friend’s parents was a glimpse of the love that God has shown
us, but it was not full biblical love. True biblical love can only happen when
we have been born of God for true biblical love is supernatural. Biblical love is far beyond our natural
ability to love. We need God’s supernatural help to love as He loves. This is the picture of the prophet
Hosea.
Hosea
was a prophet in the late eighth century.
While most Minor Prophets address the southern kingdom of Judah, Hosea
primarily prophesied to the northern kingdom of Israel. He warned the
Israelites of the coming destruction of Assyria in 722 BC. Hosea can be broken
down roughly into 2 sections. The first
3 chapters address Hosea’s personal life and the last 11 chapters contain the
prophecies of the coming judgment and the few promises of hope. The book starts with the beginning of a love
story, but one that is unexpected.
True Love is Supernatural
Hosea
1:1-3,
The
word of the LORD that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah,
Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son
of Joash, king of Israel. When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD
said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of
whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.” So he
went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a
son.
The
word of the Lord came to Hosea. God supernaturally spoke to Hosea. He told him what he wanted to do. This is supernatural communication. The
supernatural word and the supernatural love that God gives to Hosea only makes
sense if it seen as supernatural. Human
love cannot understand God’s request.
Hosea
is told to take a prostitute as his wife.
He is told to love a woman that gives herself to other men. Why would
God do this? He wanted Hosea to model
his love for an adulterous people. We see the purpose at the end of verse 2,
“for the land commits whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” The nation of Israel was
committing spiritual adultery. They were
not giving themselves exclusively to worship of Yahweh, but they were giving
themselves to other gods.
The
relationship between God and his people is so intimate that He views
worshipping other gods as an act of adultery. God is married to His people. God
is our husband, we are His bride. This
imagery is contained throughout the Scriptures.
There is a tremendous amount of intimacy that God expects with His
people. The covenant/betrothal language
is seeped with the intimacy we are called to have with God.
Hosea
1:4-9,
And on that day I will break the bow of Israel
in the Valley of Jezreel.” She conceived again 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. I will not save them by bow
or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.” When she had weaned No
Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. And the LORD said, “Call his name Not My
People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”
This
sounds like a very harsh judgment. And
it is, for true biblical love is righteous.
True Love is Righteous
God’s
love is a righteous love meaning that He loves that which is good and
right. We may say we love, but if we are
not loving that which is righteous then we are not loving as God would have us
love. True love has to be concerned with
righteousness. This is why God says to parents in Proverbs 13:24,
Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but
he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.
Discipline
is an act of love so if we refuse to discipline God says we hate our
children. If we refuse to correct people
when they enter into activities, lifestyles and behaviors that harmful, we are
not showing true biblical love. Biblical
love is always connected to righteousness and truth. Therefore, God is demonstrating His love for
the people of Israel in sending them discipline in the form of the Assyrian
army because they have strayed from their first love.
Hosea 5:1-2, “Hear this, O priests! Pay
attention, O house of Israel! Give ear, O house of the king! For the judgment
is for you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah and a net spread upon Tabor.
And the revolters have gone deep into slaughter, but I will discipline all of
them.”
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The
Lord promises discipline as an act of love.
They did not acknowledge God as the giver of good gifts (Hos.
2.8-10). Chapter 4 outlines the main
thrust of Israel’s sins.
Hosea
4:1-14,
The Lord Accuses Israel Hear the word of the
LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants
of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of
God in the land; there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing
adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. Therefore the
land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field
and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away. Yet
let no one contend, and let none accuse, for with you is my contention, O
priest. You shall stumble by day; the prophet also shall stumble with you by
night; and I will destroy your mother. My people are destroyed for lack of
knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a
priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will
forget your children. The more they increased, the more they sinned against me;
I will change their glory into shame. They feed on the sin of my people; they
are greedy for their iniquity. And it shall be like people, like priest; I will
punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds. They shall eat, but
not be satisfied; they shall play the whore, but not multiply, because they
have forsaken the LORD to cherish whoredom, wine, and new wine, which take away
the understanding. My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking
staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and
they have left their God to play the whore. They sacrifice on the tops of the
mountains and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar, and terebinth,
because their shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the whore, and your
brides commit adultery. I will not punish your daughters when they play the
whore, nor your brides when they commit adultery; for the men themselves go
aside with prostitutes and sacrifice with cult prostitutes, and a people
without understanding shall come to ruin.
Because
of the sin of the people, we read, Hosea 9:1,
“Rejoice not, O Israel! Exult not like the
peoples; for you have played the whore, forsaking your God.”
It
sounds like very harsh language. It may
even make us uncomfortable, but we have to call sin what it really is:
forsaking God, playing the whore. These
are not politically correct words, but one of the reasons why people engage in
this type of behavior is because we live in a society that refuses to use
biblical words to define sin. It is
disgusting. And when we remove the
disgust of sin, we start to engage in it or to give approval because of our
silence.
We
are trained to think that pointing out sin is unloving and judgmental, but it
is not. Biblical love is righteous. It
hates evil and clings to what is good.
Do you love like that? Do you love
what is righteous?
True Love is Forgiving
We
pick back up the strange love story of Hosea and Gomer. Chapter 3,
And the LORD said to me, “Go again, love a
woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves
the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of
raisins.” So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a
lethech of barley. And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days.
You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to
you.”
Gomer
does not deserve Hosea’s love, yet God tells him to go to her again. He commands Hosea to go again, love a woman,
even as the Lord loves the children of Israel.
Hosea is called to model to Gomer, God’s love for the children of
Israel. God wants to forgive and restore
the people of Israel. God’s forgiveness
always starts with Him extending his hand to us.
Gomer
is in the arms of another man living as an adulterous woman. It is while she is
still in the midst of her sin that God tells Hosea to go to her. In going to his sinful wife, Hosea is
modeling the love that God has for his people.
We love God, because He first loved us.
He takes the initiative to rescue and to redeem us. Gomer received love she didn’t deserve by her
loving husband who made a promise to love her forever.
As
you read this strange love story, you may start feeling sorry for Hosea. You may understand his plight for it is very
hard to love sinners, but we are not like Hosea. We are Gomer. We are sinners in need of forgiveness. We are
rebels in need of restoration. Mark
Dever writes,
“Regardless
of all the ways you may compare your righteousness with someone else’s, when
you compare yourself with God and what he has called you to be, it should be
clear that you are Gomer. You and I are
the unfaithful objects of God’s ever-faithful love. Only when we understand
this do we begin to understand what love is.[1]”
We
all are Gomers. We all have been unfaithful to our Husband, the Lord God
Almighty. And in the face of our great
need, we need to be reminded of God’s great promise of hope.
True love is Hopeful
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God’s
judgment always is mixed with hope. His
love always gives hope. At the end of
chapter 1, after God tells Hosea to name his children, No Mercy and Not My
People, he gives this great promise 1:10-11,
Yet
the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which
cannot be measured or numbered. 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 Jezreel.
God
promises that one day the children of Israel will be like the sand of the sea
and those of whom he said, “you are not my people,” will be called, “children
of the living God.” All the children of
God will be gathered together and shall appoint for themselves one head. And that one head is the head of the church,
Jesus Christ. Through Jesus Christ we
have become,
“a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies
of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were
not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy (1 Peter 2:9-10).”
We
have become a people through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have been
purchased through his death and resurrection. Jesus Christ is our head and our
hope. And we never have to fear because
God has caused us to be born again into a living hope through His resurrection
of the dead. What we know in part, we shall fully know. For Revelation 21:1-4,
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for
the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the
throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell
with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as
their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no
more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the
former things have passed away.
True
love is hopeful. It is full of great
promises. Let us end with this hopeful
love that God spoke through his loving prophet Hosea,
“When Israel was a child, I love him, and
out of Egypt I called my son…It was I who taught her (Ephraim) to walk; I took
them up by their arms, but they did not know what I healed them. I led them in with cords of kindness, with
the bands of love., and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their
jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them…how can I give you up, O Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, O Israel?...My heart recoils within me; my compassion
grows warm and tender (Hosea 11:1;3;8).
The
Lord will never give up on his people. The Lord will always show His people His
love. As the Lord will never give up in
this love, neither should we!! Let us exemplify this supernatural, righteous,
forgiving, hopeful love.
[1]
Dever, Mark. Promises Made: The Message of the Old Testament. Pg 690.
(The title of the message was also borrow from the Mark Dever's Promises Made: The Message of the Old Testament)
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