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HOSEA 1:1-2:1
(Reading: 1 Peter 2:4-12; Deuteronomy 30:11-20)
The Call To The Prophet
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ…
Well, what do we make of Hosea?
And it’s not only a question we’ve asked now.
It’s not just what has popped into our minds!
This has been a puzzle for believers through the ages.
For if this is true as we have just read it, what was Hosea trying to do?
Indeed, let’s take that a little further.
How do you think Hosea would have replied if you had asked him this question?
For the prophet it wouldn’t have been a question, would it?
This was simply what the Lord had told him to do.
And this is precisely where we start also in considering the text for this afternoon.
You see, the opening words of this prophetic book are absolutely definitive about this.
It begins saying, “The word of the LORD that came to Hosea son of Beeri…”.
Now Hosea is a variation of Joshua.
And Joshua, as some of us will know, comes from the verb, ‘to save’.
Indeed, Jesus is the Greek version of Joshua and that’s definitely salvation!
Hosea, though, seemed to have been a common enough name.
It is also sometimes called Hoshea, which was the name of the last ursurping king of Israel.
The name of his father, Beeri, is less common.
It means “my spring”, perhaps suggesting the joy the family had over the birth of a male child through whom the family continued.
There was nothing to suggest that this man was from any special or privileged background.
All that we can really know is that he was probably born in the northern kingdom.
The difference here, however, was the call he had received to be a prophet of the LORD God Most High.
In the words of the first aspect to the sermon, IT IS CLEAR HOSEA IS A PROPHET.
Now, being a prophet would have been no small thing in an age when there were some great prophets.
For in this same era there was Jonah and Amos in the north, and Micah and Isaiah in the south.
This was no mean company to be part of.
But in each of these there was the same Spirit empowering them to declare the Word of the Lord.
And Hosea was just as inspired as any of the others.
In fact, what we will see is just how driven he is by the Lord as he shows in the most graphic way the extent of Israel’s spiritual decay.
The Hebrew word used for “word” here helps us see this.
That word is dabhar.
It’s a word that means something more than we would associate with the word for “word”.
Because it has in it also a connection with the deeds and actions of the prophet.
What Hosea would say and do will preach God’s Word in the most special way.
And let’s not think that that was so easy for that time.
For the people were enjoying some good days.
Syria the old foe was gone altogether.
And Assyria, the Mesopotamian monster, was quite caught up in its own problems for this period of time.
Both Israel and Judah had kings enjoying long reigns.
There was Jeroboam II in the north and Uzziah in the south.
The people certainly seemed to be religious.
They largely kept to the traditions of the past.
But here is where we need to dig a little.
Because you have a look at the names of the kings in verse 1.
And as we do that we might recognise more Judean kings than kings of Israel.
Yet in this period of time there were other kings of Israel.
In fact, they had more than Judah had during this time.
Unlike most of the Judean kings, however, they didn’t follow the way of the Lord.
And that’s not to say the Judean kings did that exactly by the book either.
Of Uzziah and Jotham it is said that while they while they did what was right in the eyes of the Lord they didn’t remove the high places of pagan worship.
Ahaz didn’t follow the ways of the Lord at all.
It was only Hezekiah who was faithful in this, for he did destroy those high places and other idolatrous worship.
Those other half a dozen kings of Israel in this time were completely evil, however.
There isn’t a good word to be said about them.
And Jeroboam II is the one mentioned here for a special though ignominious reason.
Now, what could that be for, you wonder?
Well, it was because Jeroboam, though an evil king, was used by God for Israel’s good.
2nd Kings 14 describes this for us.
In verse 24 there we are told that he did evil in the eyes of the Lord and so followed in the footsteps of the first Jeroboam.
But then verse 25 says, “He was the one who restored the boundaries of Israel from Lebo Hamath to the Sea of Arabah, in accordance with the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, spoken through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher.”
And this also draws in an earlier prophecy.
For in 2 Kings 10 verse 30, Jehu had been told that because he followed the will of the Lord his descendants would be on Israel’s throne for four generations.
Well, that time was up.
It was all down-hill after this.
Jeroboam’s son, Zechariah, was king only six months before he was assassinated.
Within 41 years the kingdom of Israel was all over.
Assyria deported all the Israelites.
No one and nothing was left.
So the situation of Israel during Hosea’s time was desperate spiritually.
While Judah couldn’t claim a clean sheet herself – far from it – she yet had the temple worship and the Davidic kingship.
That’s something which we’ll come back to in verse 11.
But it’s clear already now that the Lord through Hosea is stating the supremacy of the throne in Jerusalem.
And so we come to what Hosea is to say and do.
You see, in the verses 2 and 3 HOSEA IS CALLED TO MARRY A PROSTITUTE.
This is our second aspect.
Yes, you heard it correctly.
One no less than the Lord’s own prophet receives the word from the Lord to go and marry a prostitute.
No matter how one understands what’s going on here, the message becomes very graphic.
As Derek Kidner comments, God is going to show His people how much they are hurting Him.
Using the betrayal of a marriage – the most damaging of all things to the closest human relationship – God is going to show how much He cares for His own.
Words would have told the people how bad it was.
And words had certainly been clearly said to them by Hosea and the other prophets of this time.
But now it’s going to really be in their faces.
Now it’s going to be acted out in real life!
There is some dispute over what type of prostitute Gomer is.
Was she a common street prostitute?
There were certainly those found amongst the people, although they shouldn’t have been there.
This seems unlikely, however.
What is more probable, and is supported later on in verse 2, is that Gomer was a shrine prostitute.
Gomer is an example of how far the people had gone away from the Lord by following the gods of the nations around them.
For what was still so dominant in the land were those pagan religions the pagan princess, Jezebel, had so strongly promoted.
They were the Baals and the Asherahs.
They were the beliefs that all fertility came out of the sacred marriage between Baal and the earth.
That was a marriage celebrated in the worship of the Baalites with sex rites and cultic prostitution.
This is the reason the Lord gives for Hosea doing this.
As He says at the end of verse 2, “because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the LORD.”
Or in the words closest to the original Hebrew, “Go, marry a whore, and get children with a whore, for the country has become nothing but a whore by abandoning Yahweh.”
This is strong language.
But even this translation misses out the fourth time the root word for ‘whore’ appears in this verse.
And in case we think that being a cult prostitute might mean this woman is simply delude and misused, there is another word for that and that appears only in chapter 4.
So let’s be in doubt - here is a woman with a history and a roving eye.
Congregation, this conveys the most devastating scene.
Israel was meant to be married to the Lord.
In the words of Deuteronomy 6 verse 4, God’s people were told, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”
And that meant, in the words of verse 5 there, they had to love the Lord their God with all their hearts and with all their souls and with all their strength.”
If this isn’t enough we see next that GOD’S JUDGMENT IS REVEALED THROUGH CHILDREN’S NAMES.
The third aspect to the text.
Names could be a powerful witness to the Lord.
We often read in Scripture when people were named, or renamed, to bring home a particular action of the Lord’s.
It might because their being born was itself an answer to much prayer – like Samuel.
It might be because a man showed faith in a struggle and overcame, as Jacob did and so was renamed Israel.
Or the name itself could be the message.
We see that in the name ‘Jesus’.
That refers to Him being the Saviour.
And in other names it is quite the opposite.
For then it is a judgment.
Like the name Phineas’ wife gave her son in 1st Samuel 4 verse 21, when she heard the ark of the Lord had been taken and her father-in-law and husband were dead.
For that name was ‘Ichabod’ – which means, “the glory has departed from Israel.”
The names Hosea gave these three children are in this same vein.
Because they are names which would leave the people of Israel in no doubt as to what the Lord is going to do.
The name given to the first born is Jezreel.
This is not a personal boy’s name.
It is a place name.
And Jezreel was the place which had many bad memories associated with it.
This northern valley was valuable agriculturally.
Remember, it was Naboth’s vineyard there that King Ahab lusted after.
He had Naboth falsely charged and killed.
And so blood was spilt there.
But that’s nothing compared to what Jehu later brought on the house of Ahab.
For he totally wiped them out – every last one of them.
And there Jezebel’s body had been eaten up by the dogs where she was thrown to the ground.
To call a child then ‘Jezreel’ was like naming your child today ‘Auschwitz’.
And while some might say it was just desserts for Ahab’s household, because of how evilly pagan they were, there was also Jehu’s attitude to consider when he went around murdering them all.
For while the Lord had commanded him to destroy Ahab’s house, and he did that well, he yet was a butcher in doing that and in all he did.
2 Kings 10 verse 30 commends him but 2 Kings 9 verse 27 also shows him trying to kill the king of Judah, Azariah.
It was an attitude to violence which had not left Israel nor her royal family ever since.
There were no good kings amongst them.
From Jehu on there is the repeated refrain describing each of them, “he did evil in the eyes of the Lord by following the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat.”
Now, Jezreel had once been a glorious name.
It was where Gideon had once his mighty victory with just three hundred men.
But now it was totally inglorious.
It was a name that bore a curse – the curse of bloodshed which had plagued this northern kingdom for centuries.
And very soon it would be in this valley that Israel was guttered by the Assyrians.
In 733 all the northern territories of Israel would be chopped off and all its inhabitants taken to Assyria.
This is what verse 4 refers to as “Israel’s bow being broken in the Valley of Jezreel.”
There would be no foreign power’s “bow” that would be broken this time.
It would be the end for them – judgment day!
Well, this is just the first child’s name!
What next?
Verse 6 says Gomer had a girl.
But here we already have a question.
For this is not the same expression as verse 3 where we’re told Gomer bore Hosea a son.
And we find the same said about the third child in verse 8.
Congregation, the children of this very dysfunctional family are also showing God’s graphic message to Israel.
This girl and the next boy aren’t even Hosea’s!
The girl’s name continues this on.
For much as we might have thought losing a war and a kingdom was terrible enough, how about losing the mercy and compassion of God?
That’s what her name means.
Lo-Ruhamah literally mean “no pity” or “no mercy”.
So using the Hebrew verb which expresses the most tender love, care, and compassion imaginable, the prophet completely negates it.
Now, we know God’s compassion is still there.
This book of Hosea shows it right throughout its pages, especially towards the end.
But how long can you show love to one who receives it not?
Didn’t Jesus Himself say in Matthew 23, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.
“Look, your house is left to you desolate.”
We might wonder about where Judah fits in here.
Verse 7 seems to suggest a special favour to them.
But how much different were they?
This is where we pick up from what came up in the opening verse.
Because there is no doubt Judah has God’s favour here.
And when the Assyrians swept through twenty years later it was Jerusalem spared from annihilation.
But note something about that soon coming invasion.
For it was then that Hezekiah had laid the Assyrian ultimatum before the Lord.
He looked up and not down.
And then it was miraculously clear it wasn’t any of their military force that did it.
It was all of the Lord God!
In verse 8 we read that Gomer has another child – a son.
And aren’t you wondering: How can Hosea stand it?
He would have been constantly thinking, ‘you are not my child, you are not my child!’
It’s very apt then that the thought, ‘you are not my child’ becomes the words ‘you are not my people.
The Lord turns the personal dilemma into the national one.
Here we come to a climax in the names.
With Jezreel there was the declaration of judgment.
But with Lo-Ruhamah it goes that much further with the withholding of love.
And now to top it all off, here is the break in the covenant relationship.
To announce, “you are not my people” is the death of them – physically and spiritually.
All the covenant curses laid out in Deuteronomy have come to a head!
We need to note that this is in reference to Israel, the northern ten tribes.
Grammatically speaking, the clause introduced by “for” in verse 9 shows that the background for this is the covenant promise of God.
In Exodus the Lord lovingly declares that they are to be His people and He is to be their God (Ex.3:14f; 6:6-8).
The “I am” of the final phrase in verse 9 is the strong reminder of that gracious covenant with God they’ve rejected.
And that means the promised centred in the name I AM is now null and void.
Israel’s lost it!
But this can makes us wonder about the next three verses.
Because they seem to say something else.
And so it is we come to the fourth aspect to this passage this afternoon.
This tells us, YET THE PROMISED MESSIAH WILL COME.
To say in verse 10 that the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore would have puzzled Hosea’s listeners.
For according to 2 Kings 15, verses 19 and 20, in about 738 BC there were about 60,000 land-owners in the northern kingdom.
Being like the sand on the seashore was way beyond that!
Yet this figure of speech is exactly the same as the Lord God spoke of to the patriarchs.
For example, in Genesis 22 verse 17, the Lord says to Abraham, “I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore.”
Congregation, we move from judgment deserved to mercy undeserved, from something small to something very big.
That this is miraculous is obvious.
That it is solely of God’s grace is even more patent.
For how else could it be that in the place they were called, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘Sons of the Living God’?
No hint of Baal here!
This is the true, life-giving, productive God who will change everything into perfect blessing.
A bit unreal?
We might well think so based on past performance.
But Isaiah is not the only prophet to speak about the coming Messiah!
Verse 11 states that most forcefully.
Because there will be one leader over them all.
The heart of Hosea’s message is found here.
This is the promise on which his ministry was to be based.
For while the opening chapters relate what Hosea is doing personally, and the middle chapters how the people have lost it completely, the final chapters are all about God and what He is doing.
That’s the glimpse we have here.
It’s a little peep, if you like, of what we’ll see with the full view later.
And what a sight it will be!
Imagine one ruler over them all.
A leader who wouldn’t be a soldier because there’s force involved here.
And then you will see the twelve tribes in total harmony.
Verse 1 of chapter 2 describes the tenderness they will have toward each other then.
So, congregation, is this the coming together of the Jews from all over the world to one place?
Will the Jezreel of verse 11 then be the Armageddon so many Christians believe as the place of God’s final victory through the physical Jewish race?
Is that what the apostle Paul means when he quotes Hosea in Romans 9 verses 25 and 26?
But that’s not exactly what Paul is addressing there.
And neither is it what another apostle, Peter, was speaking of in chapter 2 verse 10 of his first letter.
For there he says, “Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
Both apostles are actually referring to the inclusion of the gentles in God’s people, the covenant community.
So Hosea is speaking of the new covenant age.
Congregation, Hosea ends here with joy and hope.
Under the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ, there will be a great change and renaming of God’s people.
That’s the Age we live in now.
You see, nothing like this coming together and unification occurred later in the Old Testament.
And certainly nothing like the great number predicted was found before Christ’s coming.
Yet now we do see the prophecy coming true.
As Paul says in Galatians 3 verse 8, “The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: [saying] ‘All nations will be blessed through you.’
Brothers and sisters, this is the joy which drew Jesus to the cross.
This is what Caiaphas correctly said, when he prophesied that Jesus would die not only for the Jewish nation but for all the scattered children of God.
There in John 11 verse 52, he said Christ would bring them together and make them one.
People of God, this is all about us!
Church of Christ, this is where we are found.
Dear believer, let’s show how much it is already so!
Amen.
PRAYER:
Let’s pray…
O Lord God, we have heard Your Word proclaimed again this day.
We have seen how the Old Testament Church went against You.
They deserved the punishment they got.
And yet You are so gracious.
Despite all that man has done against You, You sent Your one and only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to suffer and die for us.
May we have meet Him this night.
In His saving name alone we pray, Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Sjirk Bajema, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
(c) Copyright 2008, Rev. Sjirk Bajema
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