Hosea 3 (Messy Love Part 2)
Sunday, February 22, 2015
INTRODUCTION:
There are many things about God that for many of us, is difficult to grasp. The very idea of a great and gracious God is beyond us. What we know of Him, He has revealed to us in His word, the Bible. And even though we read it, many of us once again still struggle to fully understand Him. One idea that is especially difficult for some to understand is the love of God! We ask ourselves, “How could He love me?” But yet, the Scriptures remind us that time and time again He does just that, He Loves us! We read in John 3:16 that God showed His love to us that He gave His only begotten Son to die on the cross at Calvary. We read it, we’ve heard it for majority of our lives, but yet, for some this concept is hard to grasp. And yet, within the Old Testament book of Hosea, particularly in chapter 3 we see how God showed us love on the cross by Hosea’s faithfulness. Last week we looked at how God uses a heartbreaking tragedy in Hosea’s life in order to enable him to catch just a glimpse of the sorrow and suffering God experiences when His people sin against Him.
To me, the book of Hosea is one of the greatest loves stories we can ever read! But, for many to say this is a love story it raises the question I asked last week, “What is love?”
Our society today has been influenced so much by Hollywood and what they want us to believe LOVE to be. For example, last weekend many Americans spent almost an unprecedented $100 million dollars to watch what they believe to be a genuine, romantic movie about love. But yet, love is so much more than a feeling or physical attraction. In fact, it seems as if we use the word love without conviction today. For example, how many of you that are married or have been married love(d) your spouse? How many of you love your children? Love your grandchildren/great grandchildren? How many of you love your grandparents? Now, how many of you love food (pizza, burgers, chicken, casseroles, steak, brownies or banana pudding)? We use the word love to associate our favorite food, favorite song, favorite book, favorite movie, and even our spouse, children and family. But surely, love doesn’t mean the same thing in all these situations! But in the book of Hosea, especially in chapter 3 we see a real and genuine love (a 1 Corinthians 13 type of love) on display with Hosea’s love for Gomer and God’s love for us. Let’s take a look at Hosea chapter 3 as we will discover a reclaiming love, a redeeming love, a renewing love and a restoring love.
Hosea 3
“1Then the LORD said to me, “Go again; show love to a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulterous, just as the LORD loves the Israelites though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.” 2So I bought her for 15 shekels of silver and five bushels of barley. 3I said to her, “You must live with me many days. Don’t be promiscuous or belong to any man, and I will act the same way toward you.” 4For the Israelites must live many days with king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, and without ephod or household items. 5Afterward, the people of Israel will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come with awe to the LORD and to His goodness in the last days.” (HCSB)
I. RECALAIMING LOVE (v.1)
Here in verse one we see that Hosea has a reclaiming love for Gomer, just as God’s love for unfaithful Israel is a reclaiming love. The definition of reclaim means to rescue from an undesirable state. So God calls Hosea to keep on pursuing Gomer, to keep on loving her even as she runs after other men. In spite of how she has hurt him, caused him deep pain; in spite of how she has treated her children; in spite of how she has lived her life; Hosea still loves her! Hosea is told here, “Go again; show love to a woman…” The phrase literally means, “Show her again how much you love her.” I just want to stop for a second and say, “do you realize how amazing this is?” Hosea does not hesitate when God commands him to go after Gomer, he doesn’t sit around, twiddle his thumbs and think, “why should I go after her? After all, she has hurt me, she has humiliated me, she has broken my trust, and she has hurt our children, why should I go and rescue her and bring her back?” Because he loves her and he wants to rescue her from her life of sin! In fact, he loved her before she fell into sin and he loves her despite her sin!
What an amazing picture this is of the awesome love of God for sinners like you and me! No one had to tell God to love you or me, He loved us before we were born. He loves us when we choose sin over righteousness. Hosea’s love is patterned after God’s love, who sets the model in his love for those who have strayed away from Him to chase after and love other gods. In Gomer’s case and with the Israelites, they chose to chase after other gods and love raisin cakes! Maybe the mention of raisin cakes seem odd but that’s the point. Gomer’s love and Israel’s love is oddly misplaced and it shows that they care more about the earthly pleasures than God’s love. Just a side note about raisin cakes, they served two purposes but here they were being used in their pagan worship. In other words, they have rejected the faithful, persistent and pursuing love of God so that they can chase after Little Debbie© cakes! As I read this I found it to be quite humorous that Israel cared more about raisin cakes and seeking after other gods than choosing to worship the one that created them. But then I realized that this is exactly what you and I do when we allow our love for anything to replace our love for God!
My friends, God loves you! His love never ends. You may reject God’s love but He continues to love you! You say you may not have time for Him in your busy schedule, but He continues to love you. You may ignore Him trying to live your own life, but His heart is still for you! You may be turning a deaf ear to His pleas, but He does not stop pursuing after you. This morning, God loves you regardless of who you are, where you are and what you have done! The love that God has for you today and forever more is an overcoming, overwhelming, awe-inspiring love. God wants to rescue you from an undesirable state.
II. REDEEMING LOVE (v. 2)
Not only is God’s love for His people a reclaiming love, it is also a redeeming love! How is it a redeeming love? The meaning of redeem is to buy back. Looking at verse 2 it says, “So I bought her for 15 shekels of silver and five bushels of barley.” When Hosea finally does find Gomer it appears that she has been sold into slavery. This gives us a glimpse of how far she has fallen from being a prophet’s wife to being sold as a common slave. Gomer’s sin had truly taken her further than she wanted to go, cost her more than she wanted to pay, and kept her longer than she wanted to stay! But Hosea once again shows us what faithful love looks like as he buys his wife back for less than the price of a slave. It’s as if Gomer had cheapened herself because of her sins. Hosea may have given everything he had to purchase his wife back, but it costs him more than just his money and possessions; it also cost him his pride. Hosea went to this public forum, before a crowd of witnesses and he had to purchase unto himself a woman who had betrayed his love many times. Yet, Hosea doesn’t care about his reputation as much as he cares about being obedient to what God has called him to do. Hosea willingly paid the whole price to redeem Gomer from a life of slavery.
What a beautiful picture we see here of Christ’s redemption of sinners! You and I were as low as we could go. We were on the slave market of sin, but Jesus Christ gave His all to redeem us. Jesus didn’t pay 15 shekels and a half of barley, He paid with His own precious and costly blood! 1 Peter 1:18-19 says, “For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from the fathers, not with perishable things like silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ…” This is redeeming love that has been shown to us in Christ! 1 John 3:16 says, “This is how we have come to know love: He laid down His life for us.” Romans 5:8 says, “But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!” One thing I love here is the name “Gomer” means “completely.” She was completely lost in her sins, now she is completely loved, forgiven and redeemed by grace!
If you stop and think about the price that God paid to redeem you from your sin, how can you turn a deaf ear to Him? When you consider the price Jesus paid, the shame He bore and the lengths God has gone to make salvation possible, how can you not bow before Him in love, in obedience and in gratitude?
There is a story of a little boy who once built a sailboat. He built the sail and had it all fixed up, tarred and painted. He took it to the lake and pushed it in hoping it would sail. Sure enough a breeze filled the little sail and off it went rippling along the waves. But suddenly before the boy knew it, the boat was out of his reach, even though he waded in and tried to grab it. As he watched it float away, he hoped the wind would shift and the boat would come sailing back to him, but instead he watched his boat go farther and farther away until it was gone. The little boy returned home crying and his mother asked, “What’s wrong, didn’t it work?” “It worked too well” the boy said. Sometime later, the little boy was downtown and walked past a second hand store and there in the window he saw his boat. He walked into the store and told the owner “that’s my boat” and he went and picked it up out of the window and started to leave. The owner of the shop said, “Wait a minute. That’s my boat, I bought it from someone who brought it in.” The boy said, “No, it’s my boat, I made it.” And he showed the man all the scratches and the marks where he hammered and filed. The man said, “I’m sorry, son, but if you want it, you have to buy it.” The little boy didn’t have any money, but he worked and saved his money. Finally, one day he had earned enough money and he went and bought his little boat back. As he was leaving the store the owner overheard him saying, “You’re my boat. You’re twice my boat. First you’re my boat because I made you and second you’re my boat because I bought you!”
So if you ever think you are not worth much, remember what God thinks of you. You are His. Twice His. First, because He made you and second because He bought you on the cross. He paid a price to redeem you. You are His by redemption!
III. RENEWING LOVE (v. 3-4)
Not only is God’s love a reclaiming and redeeming love, but it’s also a renewing love. To renew something means to make it like new to restore to perfection. So, what we see in verse 3 is the woman Hosea is taking home is not to live like the woman he bought off the slave block. Her life is to be different from this moment on! She shall no longer desire the things of this world or to chase after other gods. The idea is that Hosea and Gomer are going to enter into a time of marital celibacy or abstinence. God is illustrating that Israel is also going to experience a lack of intimacy and abstinence where for “many days” they will no longer desire the things that led them away from God. Their political life caused the people to stumble, their religious practices caused a break in their relationship with God. In other words they are going to lose all their protection, security and comfort from turning from their false gods. This is just what Jesus does for every soul He saves. He transforms them into a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, old things have passed away, and look new things have come”). Those who come to Jesus are “born-again” and you cannot meet Jesus and stay like you were! As I thought about this idea, I imagined that has Hosea sacrificed his money, his time and his dignity to purchase Gomer, she has finally began to see him through different eyes. Hosea has proven his love for her time and time again and no doubt she has a new love for him.
IV. RESTORING LOVE (v. 5)
Then finally, we see that God’s love is not only a reclaiming, redeeming and renewing love but it’s also a restoring love. The idea of restoring is to bring back or to put back into a former state. We see in verse five, “Afterward, the people of Israel will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come with awe to the LORD and to His goodness in the last days.” The children of Israel will be restored by the love of God. They will return to the Lord. The word “return” here is key because it’s a word that is used twenty-two times in Hosea’s prophecy! Israel plays the part of the prodigal son here and when they return it’s in fear but they are received in love. Just as Gomer may have returned with Hosea in fear, Hosea graciously loved her, gave her worth, and gave her a new start and an opportunity to regain her status as the prophet’s wife. This passage emphasizes how the power of God’s love and covenant can overcome the horrors of sin in any relationship. There is nothing in this world that amazes me as much as the love of God. That He not only created us, he created us in His image, but He would also willingly love people like us and save us so that we may know Him fully and live. Romans 8:35-38 says, “Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: Because of You we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than victorious through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that not even death or life, angels or rulers, things present or things to come, hostile powers, height or depth, or any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ our Lord!”
Have you experienced the Reclaiming, Redeeming, Renewing and Restoring Love of God today? If you have, then praise Him for the work He has done in your life, that you are no longer the person you once were and thank Him for His grace today. If you have never experienced the love of God that comes through faith in Christ Jesus and His finished work on Calvary, I invite you to come and call on Him today. Will you trust Him today?
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