Hosea

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Well, it’s good to see everybody this morning. I’m glad you made it out, even though you had to get up early. Jesus sees your sacrifice, right? So he is honored by that. This morning, if you brought a Bible with you, um, I want to invite you to turn to the book of Hosea. Uh, we’re going through the Old Testament together, and we’re getting a survey of what the Old Testament is about. And the purpose of that is, the more we understand God’s word, the better we understand God. And and the Old Testament, in many ways for us looks much like a mystery in some cases. And and the more you understand the Old Testament, the the more you can appreciate the New Testament. Uh, a lot of the Old Testament writers, uh, or, excuse me, New Testament writers, quoted the Old Testament in several portions of the Bible. Last week. We looked at the most popular, which was the book of of Hosea in the major prophets. This week we’re looking at the the minor prophets, starting with Hosea. Hosea means salvation. Isaiah and Hosea in Hebrew terms are very similar. Talking about the salvation that is to come in the Lord is what both of them reference in the identity of their name. Hosea means salvation. And last week Isaiah means salvation is of the Lord. And so both of these guys, if there’s any indication of what they are about, it’s it’s about what’s coming through the Messiah, the salvation that he will bring to us.

And so as you look at the Old Testament prophets, one of the the thoughts to, to keep in our minds is, is the idea of what God desires to carry within the theme of the last 17 books of the Bible, the last 17 books are all prophetic. Uh, the first are the first five of those, last 17 are the major prophets, the last 12 are the minor prophets. And so when you read those, those passages of Scripture, it’s important to keep in mind the big theme of what God desires for us to know. And that’s simply this, that, that God loves his people. And while God loves his people, the tendency of of us as people are to rebel against God. Uh, we we we seek to serve other masters or to make idols. And what the prophetic books help us in understanding is that what God desires from you is to not share you with anyone else. God created you solely for him, his heart to connect with or your heart to connect with his heart. And God doesn’t share. God. God knows that what he desires for you is better than what anything in this world desires for you. God knows best. And so God loves us. The tendency of his people is to rebel against that. But God within the prophetic books disciplines his people and draws us back to him.

His desire is to point us to him and then utilize us to reflect his glory in the world. God’s desire isn’t to punish his people, but to discipline his people. To bring us to repentance, to seek his face and to know him more. That’s kind of the backdrop theme of all the prophetic books of why they exist in the Bible. The prophet represented God to the people and the proclamation of what he stated. Oftentimes when the prophets would would say things within Scripture, it says, thus saith the Lord, meaning I’m not saying this, but God is saying this. And the reason God is saying this is because he desires to make himself known in his life, that you may delight in Him as He delights in you. And so God uses the prophets to bring discipline. And so today is one of those books where it’s just nothing but, you know, jaw dropping. What’s God doing? Because today we talk about the thought of spiritual prostitution. Matter of fact, if you open the Bible and you read in Hosea chapter one and two, it it starts off in these couple of chapters that sets the backdrop for us and what’s happening in the nation of Israel. It says the word of the Lord, which came to Hosea, the son of Berry, during the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

And so the Book of Isaiah is setting a backdrop to what’s happening in the nation of Israel. It’s important when you read a book of the Bible to answer the question, what’s happening at the period in which the Bible is written? Meaning, when the Bible was first written, it was written to a particular group of people at a particular time for a particular reason. And so the more you have an understanding of what’s happening behind the backdrop of that culture at the time that that Scripture is being written, the better understanding you have of God’s Word, and the more application you can make to your own life as you read it for yourself. And so Hosea starts his book in that way. This is the backdrop of everything that’s happening in my life. Now, the interesting thing about verse one of chapter one of Hosea, we’re going to take a minute on this, and we’re not going to do this with every verse. But but in verse one, Hosea talks about the southern kingdoms and their kings. And then he mentions just one northern kingdom and the king Joash. But Hosea is a prophet to the northern tribes of Israel. Remember, we’ve studied this together on a timeline that the nation of Israel had had three kings Saul, David, and then Solomon. After Solomon, the nation of Israel split in 210 tribes went to the north, two tribes went to the south.

There was a civil war between the two nations. The southern kingdom had some godly kings rule over them, and then they had some not so godly kings rule over them. The northern tribes of Israel never had a godly king rule over them at all. And so God sends Hosea as a prophet to the North to proclaim God’s truth, to see the nation of Israel and repentance coming back to God, that they may enjoy their relationship with him. But Hosea, even though he’s a prophet to the north, writes in the beginning of his book about all of these kings from the South, and then mentions one king. Yeah, one king of the North. Why does Hosea do that? Well, I think the answer for us is found simply in the promise that God gave to David in Second Samuel chapter seven, that through the line of David the Messiah would come, and through the Messiah all people would be blessed, and David’s kingdom would rule and reign forever. And so what Hosea is identifying for us as he begins this book, as Hosea is recognizing that the kingship, the rightful kingship of the nation of Israel, rests, and the idea of of David and the promises that God had given to those people. And so those writing to the North, he mentions the kings of the South. But reminds us, while he’s talking about the kings of the South, they’re still a king to the north.

And so it goes on and says in verse two he states further, when the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, go, take to yourself a wife of Harlotry. Meaning some translations say a prostitute, and have children of harlots, for the Lord commits flagrant harlotry. Or excuse me, for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord. Hosea is told in this passage of Scripture. Uh, what I want you to do, Hosea, is take for yourself a prostitute. And he goes on in verse three and it says, Hosea’s obedient to God. So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Elam. Uh, now I know why you’re what you’re going to ask this question, right? Why in the world would God require someone to marry someone named Gomer? No, I’m just kidding. That’s not that’s not I don’t know I don’t like Gomer Pyle. That’s the only that’s not even a good picture right. Like oh he’s already losing. But. Why is God requiring this? I mean, of all the ways God could have proclaimed his message, why? Why is spiritual a spiritual prostitute? Why, why, why a prostitute at all? For for his message? I mean, couldn’t couldn’t Isaiah just go and simply say this to the people? Why? Why is God picking a girl named Gomer, right? When you read the Old Testament prophets. You’ll discover that not only is God do this in the life of Hosea.

Pick this unique way for the Lord to proclaim his message. By the way, I would say this is this is just particular to Hosea, right? This is not God’s will for everyone this morning. But God does this with the Old Testament prophets. When you when you read about the life of Ezekiel in chapter four and verse 12, listen to this. This is gross. But we’re going to shock ourselves this morning. And thou shalt eat as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of a man in their sight. Ezekiel 412. You know, I don’t know. I don’t know about you, but, you know, I know some some systems back then had some running sewage systems for using the restroom. A lot of people did the whole, you know, out to the outhouse, dig a hole. I couldn’t imagine going to get ready to use the restroom. Walking out in Isaiah’s in my backyard, you know, or I mean, Ezekiel’s in my backyard digging a hole. He’s digging the stuff out. God said, I got to cook on this. What what what in the world is God trying to do? Or Isaiah chapter 20 and verse three, it says this, um, even as my servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot, three years as a sign and token against Egypt and Kush. I don’t know what the boy did in the wintertime, but three years wandering naked for God’s proclamation of his word.

Well has got doing. Cooking on human feces. One around with no clothes. Micah had to do the same thing. And now on Hosea. Hosea is marrying a prostitute. Let’s say what God is desiring to do is for the nation of Israel. Simply this shock them back to life. There comes a place in our lives where we get so dead on the inside, spiritually, and so careless about what God desires for our lives, because we have elevated ourselves to the position of God. That that we need something enormous within our lives to wake us up. To recognize how important God’s message is. Hosea is marrying to a prostitute as an indication to the nation of Israel. The spiritual prostitution that they’re reflecting and the relationship with God. When you turn to the New Testament, you’ll you’ll see in many cases that God uses the illustration as the marriage relationship between a husband and wife, as his relationship between him, himself, and the church. The life of Hosea. God is taking the relationship between Hosea and his wife to illustrate the relationship between Israel and God. Hosea is reflecting the relationship of of God to the prostitute. And Hosea desires to love his wife. And that’s why we get married, right? I know in some cases, marriages sometimes feel like they’re on the rocks. But if we think about the moment that we said, I do, the very reason for which we proclaim that is because we’re thinking about the best interest of our spouse, and we want to love them and give ourselves to them.

And in the midst of that difficulty in marriage, if we remind ourselves of that, God uses that. And the life of Hosea. Hosea marries this prostitute. He understands what God calls to in in marriage and he’s loving his wife, though her wife’s his wife’s heart is far from him. And God’s using Hosea as this example. God’s using Ezekiel. God’s using Isaiah as these crazy methods to point to the people of God’s desire for them, that God continues to love them despite their rejection of him. Hosea is teaching the world really what love is about. More specifically, God’s love, but what the idea of love brings to us. I think within our, our culture, we as, as human beings long to be connected. We long to be in community. We we long to be loved and appreciated and to know that someone cares. But we do a poor job of reflecting in this world what love is. Sometimes we teach love as something that you’ve got to earn. And for men, we’re far better at teaching love as something that’s in the area of lust, rather than giving your life away for someone else. And the idea of of ladies, we grow up young within our culture that love is more like a fantasy. Every girl has their Prince Charming, and every little girl is a princess in their daddy’s world.

They are right. But all of them don’t end in the happy tell way. Or excuse me, the fairy tale way that that many of of Disney movies portray that. Rarely do we find love displayed as a decision of your will, through a commitment that you make by faith towards someone else, that you love them despite what they do and who they are. Because love is a verb and love is a commitment. And love tells us in first Corinthians three, or excuse me, I should say 1318 love never fails. Love isn’t merited on what someone does to you, but it’s given from the one who desires to love. Love is an act of grace, and therefore, because it’s not merited, it never fails. And what Hosea is saying within this passage of Scripture is God has chosen him for this particular message is to go to the northern tribes of Israel and represent to them what my love is really all about. Because their hearts have wandered. Now. Like this. God not only talks about the wife, but then he also gets into the kids. He says in verse three, so he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Elam, and she conceived and bore him a son. And the Lord said to him, name him Jezreel. For yet a little while, and I will punish the house of Jehu for the bloodshed of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.

It’s like to say, Israel, if this message doesn’t strike you, not only do I want Hosea to marry this prostitute, but I want him to take these children and the first children that I want him to have. I want him to name Jezreel. Jezreel was a was a considered a place of bloodshed in the nation of Israel. Jehu, when he became king, the place that he stated his throne was in the town of Jezreel. And and Jehu, when he came into this town, began to massacre people, so much so that he would just be had people and throw their streets or their heads on the the side of the streets. Jehu killed the southern king of Judah during this time period, and God is is coming to the nation of Israel and says, hey, remind them of that sin. Remind them of their desire to turn away from me. Shock them back to life. Name the child Jezreel. It’s like coming today and somebody walks in and says, are you coming to church for the first time? And someone asks you what your kids names are and you’re like, hey, this is Adolf and Stalin and and Holocaust, right? There you go. There you go. Greet me. Here we are. Right. How do you embrace that? Name them Jezreel. And God goes on from there and says in verse six, then she conceived again and gave birth to a daughter.

And the Lord said to him, name her lo ruhama for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel that would ever forgive them. But I will have compassion on the house of Judah and deliver them by the Lord their God. I will not deliver them by bow, sword, battle, horses, or horsemen. Some translations say it like this. Name her no mercy. Because God is withdrawing his mercy. I don’t know if you’ve thought about this, but when it comes to the Lord and our relationship with him. God. Owes us nothing. God doesn’t have to give you tomorrow. God doesn’t have to give you today. God is a holy God. The Bible declares to us that our sin and iniquities in Isaiah 59 two hides his face from us. He is perfect. He is holy. He is separate. He is completely righteous to judge at any moment. He is. But the beauty of Hosea is that God still desires to love us in spite of sin. God still seeks after you, that you may know him and experience the joy for which he created you. He doesn’t owe it to you, but God desires to love you. And God uses the illustration of his second child to talk about no mercy. And Israel is losing the mercy in the Lord because they’ve turned their backs from him. And so he says in verse eight, in verse nine, he goes on further and says, when she had weaned lo ram or excuse me, Rahama and she conceived and gave birth to a son, and the Lord said, my name him lo ami.

For you are not my people, and I am not your God. And so if there’s any indication of where you are in your relationship with the Lord, let me let me just be clear to you. You’re not of me. As will you. You don’t desire me. Sometimes we like to fool ourselves into thinking that we are living for the Lord when we’re not. We think we’ll call ourselves the umbrella of Christian when we don’t even really know Jesus. I think the nation of Israel would have said, hey, we’re Israel. We’re God’s people, right? I mean, we’re doing nothing that God would reflect. We’re reflecting no heart that God would desire. We have no ambition to seek him with our lives. But we are Israel, God’s people. God comes to this passage and says, you’re not. Not only are you not my people, but I’m not your God. The Old Testament worked like this for the nation of Israel and their relationship with the Lord God. God gave them a promise. I don’t know if I have it on here. God gave them a promise. In Deuteronomy 1126 and 28 it says this see, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse. The blessing if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today, and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today by following other gods which you have not known.

Meaning when God established the nation of Israel, he said this Israel, if you follow me, if you pursue me, if you love me as I have loved you, I will bless you. You will become a great nation which we saw under the King, King David. But Israel, if you turn your back on me, you’ll experience cursing, and nations will come in and attack you and overcome you, and you’ll be in poverty, and you will be in starvation until your hearts come back to me, and free from the wandering that set you apart and the idolatry that you desire to pursue. There is both blessing and cursing. I don’t think that God works particularly in the way that he did with the nation of Israel per se, that the nation of Israel, God, desired to make his identity through a specific nation. And so he says to the nation, there is blessing when you follow me and there is cursing with you, follow me. And I wouldn’t say that every bad thing that we experience in this life is directly related to God bringing that curse upon us, but could be the result of the sin world, the sinful world in which we live in.

But I would say for us, the application becomes this. In our walk with God, we have two choices. We are either growing closer to him or further from him. There is no middle ground. And God says to the nation of Israel, you are not my God. And I am not your people. God uses the idea of prostitution as a way to shock people back to life, and recognizing where they are in their walk with God and where their heart is in relationship to him. You know, when I read the Old Testament, a lot of times within my life, I’ll do this. I’ll read the Old Testament. I’m thinking, you silly rabbit, right? That’s not how. That’s not how that’s supposed to go. You guys know chapter three. You just walked away from God in chapter four. Now you’re back with God. Chapter five. You walk away from God again, you silly, right? I mean, it’s so obvious to me you don’t do that, right? But, you know, in the New Testament, it tells us in first Timothy chapter four and verse three, wanting to have their ears tickled, they accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desire. You know, those stories in the Old Testament just aren’t stories for the Old Testament. It’s still the same desire of our own hearts today. We desire not to listen to the Lord as he is, but to create our own gods in ambition of fulfilling our own desires apart from him.

Wanting to have our ears tickled. We seek teachers in accordance to our own desires and our own plans. I thought about that verse last night. What does it mean to have your ears tickled? I started thinking about so much that guys, I want you to know if you if you meditate on that verse late at night, you might find yourself with your wife. What is it? Can you tickle my ear? I want to find out what that’s like, you know. But in the same way, in the passage, it’s this flirtation with the temptation from turning away from God. It’s that picture. There is this temptation that flirts with you constantly about hope that her cheeks aren’t red so good it constantly, constantly pushes you away from from that relationship for which God has called you rather than the desire of him. Every one of us, we grow closer to God or further from him. So the question you just ask is passage. How? How do I free myself from spiritual prostitution? How do I avoid it within my life? When you look at the backdrop of the nation of Israel, and as Hosea chapter one and verse one, it set the background for what’s happening politically within the nation. And I would tell us this as a warning to what’s happening in the life of Israel at the time that Hosea is prophesying the Assyrian kingdom had started to rise in power, and eventually the Syrian kingdom is going to take the northern tribe of Israel into captivity, and it’s going to attack the southern tribes, though it won’t be victorious.

And there was a time period in the history of the nation of Israel where Assyria actually, as they began to climb, started to dive in in their power in the world. And during that time Israel used it as an opportunity to heighten their own political gain and their own power as a nation to reassert themselves. When Hosea is writing this, this is the, the, the pinnacle of of the northern tribes of Israel and the power that they were able to receive in following after God. So, so meaning when, when, when Hosea is writing to the northern tribes of Israel, this is as big as the northern tribes had gotten in power before the world. And so the tendency of the nation is Israel as they begin to get powerful. As they begin to trust in those things which brought them power. You know God was a good God for Sunday. But Monday was about appreciating the agricultural crops that your nation had to feast upon. And and Tuesday was about reflecting upon the power that you have in as a nation and the alliances that you’ve created with nations around you to make you look so good to all the other world powers, and to let them know that you are powerful.

And Wednesday was just about enjoying your time apart from God because you had this extra money to appreciate. And slowly but surely, the nation of Israel started to trust in the wealth and the position in which they were gaining and started to turn their back on God. I mean, really, they saw no need for the Lord in their lives. God was just an extra thing. And I can think in my own life in a relationship with the Lord. That’s that’s really how I used to treat him at certain points. I went to church on Sunday because that’s what Sunday was for. I got to get my good in on God. Right? So God really likes me. And then a Monday to Saturdays for me. Hosea comes to the nation of Israel in verse seven of chapter two and he says, well, I don’t have it. Says in verse seven, But I’ll have compassion on you, on your house of Judah, and deliver them by the Lord their God, and will not deliver them by bow or sword, or battle, or horses, or horsemen. Meaning. Nation of Israel. You think that the reason you’re doing so well is everything apart from me? You look at what’s been done in your life as great things that you’ve done for your own life, and you don’t even realize that it’s me who’s orchestrated those things for you.

So as we begin to receive more blessing in our lives and we see God providing for our lives, the the tendency within our human nature is to trust in those things which God has provided, rather than trust in the the Lord who provided it. So I don’t like this when it comes to a relationship with God. But the way that God tends to work within our lives is, is I want him to work this way. I don’t like it on our behalf, not on God’s behalf. But when we come to church and we start opening our spiritual ears, it’s it’s usually not because something great is happening in our lives. It’s usually because of something bad’s taking place, and we’re looking for God in the midst of that difficulty. Marriage, job, relationships, whatever it is. And how can God help me in this? And God’s recognizing for the nation of Israel. Israel. You’re making this mistake that everyone makes that in the blessing of knowing me, rather than just learning to enjoy me and all of that, I’ve got to make it difficult on you for you to recognize that you have have deserted me, desiring to have your ears tickled. You’ve gone to other places and and people are living their lives apart from me. He says it in verse nine, the Lord said, my name him Liam, for you are not my God, and I am, or you are not my people, and I am not your God.

If you were to translate this in the Hebrew language, the way it translates literally says, you’re not my people and I am not, I am. Remember in the Old Testament. Exodus chapter three and verse 14. Moses goes up on the mountain to the burning bush and he asks God, God, who do I say that you are to the nation of Israel? When I go back to Egypt to lead the nation of Israel to the Promised Land out of slavery in Egypt, who do I tell them sent me? And God says, tell them I am has sent you. Yahweh. And so when Hosea is writing this passage, this is not this is the name of God in which they they didn’t liberally use. This was considered so sacred to the nation of Israel. And he sang in this passage of Scripture. Listen, I’ve had this prostitute, I’ve had these children just to reflect you. But here, here’s the here’s the cut and dry scenario for you to understand. You may think that I am your God, but I’m not. You’re not my people, and I am not, I am. I mean, you think of the story that the nation of Israel should have thought about in those moments in Egypt, their people sacrificing, their people running from slavery, their people wandering in the wilderness, following after Moses, moving into the promised Land, to know this God, to live in this land, to honor him, to to be his people.

And now they’re coming to this place and saying, remember, Israel, the whole reason, the whole reason this story began, and I am not, I am. Josiah goes on and says this. In verse 16 of the passage. It will come about in that day, declares the Lord, that you will call me if she. And no longer call me but all or bail. God has desires for them to get to a place where they recognize him as the Lord. But before they get there, God has recognized something important in this passage of Scripture. And and that’s that they have equated God with Baal. Meaning to to them in their lives. When they think about God and what you think about God determines the way that you worship God. And so when the nation of Israel thinks about God rather than associating with the God of the Old Testament, they’re associating with false idolatry that they have discovered in the land of Israel. Baal in the Old Testament was the god of agriculture. Their crops would would grow as they worshiped him. And so the tribes that existed in in Israel before Israel got there would worship this false god in hopes that their their crops would grow and they would find security through Baal. And so the nation of Israel began to adopt the same thinking towards this false God and the the way that they would worship him.

What they began to do is they looked at the God of the Old Testament, and they started looking at the gods of the land, and instead of fit in with the people and to please their own lives, they started merging these, these ideas of God together to where they weren’t really worshiping the one true God anymore. They were worshiping Baal. They created this eclectic, coexisting thought of their religious lifestyle. And God says, you are no longer my people, and I am no longer I am but my desire. And and 216 is that it will come about in that day that you will call me once again your husband. No longer would you be a spiritual prostitute. But your heart would belong to me because God desires to share your heart with no other. Every culture fights against these tendencies. To create a god that tickles their ears. To define God in a way that they desire apart from the way that God defines himself. The way that we tend to do it, even within our own culture. Today we think of thoughts like this God owes me. And so he has to give me mercy. And in the backdrop of thinking that God owes me, I’ll create religions to make him be in my debt. So I’ll accomplish these tasks so that God has to do what I tell them to, because I’ve only done things that make him feel good about me.

So God becomes my, my, my puppet or my genie that I can rub in a lamp and tell him what I need anytime I want it. Because I’ve done the things in which he has become indebted to me. Or sometimes we fight with the tendency of this God is love but is not holy, meaning God. There’s really no accountability for anything. So I’ll live like hell or live like a spiritual prostitute, because God’s not going to count it. Because God owes me and God is love. But but God isn’t holy. Or sometimes we, we tend to think this way, that God just wants me to be happy. So whatever it is I want, that’s what matters, because I’m really in charge. God’s desire for me and the basis of that, is that his only plan for my life is just to make me happy. So whatever I want that I think might make me happy, I need to pursue those things. And I want to say this God does desire for you to experience joy in him, but it’s not found within yourself. Anytime you start life centering it upon you, you’ve already failed. God created this world for his glory, and he’s brought you into this world that you may find your joy in him. So any time we start with life apart from him, we’re robbing ourselves of the the one who creates the very joy we were designed to experience.

God’s joy in you that your joy may be made full in John 1511. If we end up in life with the philosophy I’m going to do with whatever makes me happy, we have the tendency of chasing these ghosts of happiness which our soul will never find and discover satisfaction within. And so the solution for all of this. God’s desire. Just come back to me as a husband. And the New Testament. It says this but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. You want to know where Israel got off track or do you want to know? Do you want to know what God’s desire is in this, in this moment when we want to go through spiritual prostitution? It’s this Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. It’s that simple. He is king. He is Lord. This is his day for which I have been brought into. Not my day for which I tell him what needs to be done. Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Psalm 119 nine just gives an idea of how to do that. It says this how can a young man keep his way pure by keeping it according to your word? If you want to know what it means to sanctify Christ in your heart, if you want to understand what the heart of God is for this world, then it’s found in God’s Word. When you sanctify Christ within your heart, the attraction of your life is to the word through which God has proclaimed for us to know him personally and us to know him intimately.

We were joking about this on Wednesday night, but what if, what if, what if we came to church dressed like our spiritual self? Meaning, meaning I know, I know, like the last so many years I’ve put on like 30 or £40 since high school, right? I know what you’re thinking. I was a twig then, right? So, uh. So, uh. I come to church now and I am. I am really blessed, right? I could I could look like I’m pregnant on some days. And, you know, outwardly you look well, but what? What if we did that spiritually? What if you came to church on Sunday and you were dressed the way that you fed yourself spiritually throughout the week? What would you weigh? A good £20, right? What would we weigh? Sanctifying Christ as Lord in your hearts. You can say this direct relationship, the desire of of your life to know God can be directly related to your desire of digging into His Word and praying, communicating with God. When you think about the way that you’ve sought that in your life this week. Is he your God? And are you as people? Israel had fooled themselves. Or Israel, right? Israel trusting in what we want to trust in apart from him. But we give him Sunday.

Israel, trusting in other powers. Israel, who’s wandered from the Lord as prostitute and created this eclectic God to tickle their ears because it’s their desire which matters over and above his desire. It says this of Hosea. In chapter two and verse seven, she will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them. Meaning. When you try to find your joy in those things, it will never satisfy it as a ghost that you always chase. And she will seek them, but will not find them. And she will say, I will go back to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now, for she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil, and lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for bail. It was me all along. Hosea. The nation of Israel. It was. It was me that provided these things for you. You recognized and trusted in the things apart from me. But it’s always been me. And so it says in verse nine, therefore I will take back my brain. This is God saying at harvest time and my new wine in this season, I will also take away my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness. And then I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will rescue her out of my hand. I will also put an end to all her gaiety, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her festal assemblies, meaning God’s saying, and now I’m going to discipline her.

I wanted her to understand where all of these good things come from, that spiritual prostitution isn’t the way to go. I want everyone to understand that the prostitution of Pretty Woman doesn’t always end good, and not everyone gets their Richard gear, right? No. All right, that’s fine. You pop culture, right? Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Put him first in your life. I love the response that God gives. The concern within our lives is, is when we come to a place in our world where we recognize my heart is not satisfied. I’ve fulfilled it with anything but God. I need the Lord in my life and I want the Lord of my life. How is the Lord going to receive me? You ever think about that? You ever get to a place in your life, you’re like, man, I totally blew it. And you’re just walking around with such guilt from that experience, you just think, how could how could God ever love me again? I love that in this passage, God picks a prostitute. I mean, you think within society you would look at people and say, you know, if we merit God’s love, God, who are you going to love the least? And who are you going to love the most? If we if we decipher that in the most the least category, I mean, spiritual prostitution has got to be down there, right? If we looked at it that way.

And love was about earning. I mean, how would God receive me if I’ve been spiritually prostituting myself? Well, the answer is this the same way that God would receive Hosea or excuse me Gomer. He says in verse 14 of chapter two, there therefore, behold, I will allure her, bring her into the wilderness, and speak kindly to her. I love that about the Lord. You think in those moments that you say, you know I’ve blown it? God, I’ve separated myself from you. God, I haven’t given you my heart the way that you desire. God. I’m afraid to come to you, Lord. I don’t deserve your love. God, how are you going to even receive me? And he says this. I’m going to pull you away. Just me and you. I just want to pull you away. And I just want to speak into your life. I want to love you. I want to offer myself to you. I want to tickle your ear. It’s me. It’s me that you belong to. And so it’s important for me to take away all of these things that are just distracting you from me. And I just want you and me. And so in the book of Hosea, this is what the people learn. If you read the book of Hosea, the first three chapters are the meat of what chapter 4 to 14 is all about.

It expounds it through four for 14. So if you want the gist of Hosea 1 to 3 does that. And this is what happens in 4 to 14 when the people begin to realize what God is doing and it says this, I will go away and return to my place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face and their affliction, they will earnestly seek me. Come, let us return to the Lord, for he has torn us, but he will heal us. He has wounded us, but he will bandage us. God desires to discipline you, to bring you to him, to heal you. He will revive us after two days. He will raise us up on the third day that we may live before him, I think. So, uh, remark on the on the crucifix of Christ, the resurrection of Jesus. And so verse three. So let us know. Let us press on to know the Lord. His going forth is as certain as the dawn. And he will come to us like rain, like the spring rain, watering the earth. Meaning. This is what God’s saying. All he’s after is you. All he wants is your heart. As you turn to him, we call that repentance in the Bible. It’s not a process. It’s the attitude of taking your life, ruling for the the bells of the world and just turning to him and saying, God, I just want to trust in you.

I just I just want to be alone with you. And and it tells us in Isaiah that God brings the rain on our lives. So verse 23. This is what God says. I will sow her for myself in the land talking about Gomer. I will sow her for myself in the land. I will also have compassion on her who had not obtained compassion. And I will say to those who are not my people, you are my people and they will say, you are my God. You remember in the beginning God’s example to us, no compassion and no mercy was a kid’s name, not my people was the other kid’s name. Could you imagine bringing those kids in? Here’s Jezreel, no mercy and not my people and God saying, well, bring them to me. Bring them to me, because that’s what needs love. Bring them to me because that’s what needs accepted. Bring them to me. That’s what I’ve come to heal. Bring them to me because I have compassion. Bring them to me who are childless, because I will be their God, and I will care for their need. But I need you to recognize how much you need me in your life. It’s not the things of this world through which we trust in, but God alone, who supplies the future belongs to me, and I want you with it.

In in me. Trusting in me and relying on me. Come to me. Into the book of Isaiah ends this way. Whoever is wise, let him understand these things. And whoever is discerning, let him know them, for the ways of the Lord are right, and the righteous will walk in them, but transgressors will stumble in them. And God’s saying to us, why is it up through this message? Let Hosea speak to your life and find a place in this world where you are just able to get alone with God. In Psalm 139 it says, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts and see if there be any hurtful way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. As a church family. This is the way I look at the book of Hosea for us. Hosea shares the theme of what we’re about as a church. Meaning we try to make it simple in the way that we explain ourselves here. Life is about relationships. God created you for relationships. God created you to know him and as you know him, reflect his glory in this world to your relationships with others. That’s why Jesus said the two greatest commands love the Lord your God with all your heart and to love others. God desires for us to reflect in that relationship with him. God shows the idea of the husband and wife for us to illustrate God’s desire for marriage.

We know what marriage is about man and woman coming together in the deepest of intimacies, experiencing each other. That’s what it’s about. When you open this book and you and you see what’s taking place with just the first two verses, it’s intended to shock us and say, wait a minute, that’s not the way things are supposed to be. In the book of Hosea is is a statement to the nation of Israel who are so dead spiritually on the inside to shock them and say, wait a minute, that’s not the way it’s supposed to be. God created you, that your joy, his joy, may be in you and your joy may be full. God created you to know him and enjoy him forever. God created eternal life to come by way of Christ, to rescue us, that we may experience that joy for all eternity. Life is about relationships, not the secondary things that we make these false gods before us, but about him in all things. God’s desire for all of us this morning. Let’s defeat ourselves in him. To walk out of this church and feeling like we win in Christ. To walk out of our church on Sunday morning and say, these people, us who know the Lord, will strive to seek his face and to make his glory known in this world, because we are his people and he is our God. And so it becomes important for us to go to the wilderness. Set ourselves aside with him, and he may speak to us.