Whoa! Go and marry a “prostitute” (New Living Translation), “whore” (Message), “promiscuous woman” (New International Version). And this is all “when the Lord began to speak to Hosea.” What an introduction to the prophet profession.
É What do you think about God’s request to Hosea? What do you think Hosea thought?
Maybe with a name meaning “salvation,” Hosea though he could save her. Thought he could lover her enough to change her ways.
It seems odd that God would tell Hosea to marry a prostitute, however God often asks prophets to do difficult things to make a point. Here are a few examples…
· God told Isaiah to “Go, take off your clothes and sandals," and Isaiah did it, going about naked and barefooted. (Isaiah 20:1-2) and he did it for THREE years (Isaiah 20:3-4). Why? …as a warning sign to Egypt and Ethiopia, so the king of Assyria is going to come and take the Egyptians as captives and the Ethiopians as exiles. He'll take young and old alike and march them out of there naked and barefooted, exposed to mockery and jeers—the bared buttocks of Egypt on parade! Everyone who has put hope in Ethiopia and expected help from Egypt will be thrown into confusion. Everyone who lives along this coast will say, 'Look at them! Naked and barefooted, shuffling off to exile! And we thought they were our best hope, that they'd rescue us from the king of Assyria. Now what's going to happen to us? How are we going to get out of this?'" (Isaiah 20:3-6)
· God told Jeremiah to get some shorts, put them on and keep them on without washing them, then take them far away to hide them in a crack in a rock, then after a long time go back and get them. (Jeremiah 13:1-7). Why? God explained, "This is the way I am going to ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem—a wicked bunch of people who won't obey me, who do only what they want to do, who chase after all kinds of no-gods and worship them. They're going to turn out as rotten as these old shorts. Just as shorts clothe and protect, so I kept the whole family of Israel under my care"—God's Decree—"so that everyone could see they were my people, a people I could show off to the world and be proud of. But they refused to do a thing I said. (Jeremiah 13:8-11)
· God told Ezekiel to make a food ration to eat over 390 days on his side…and to bake it with cow dung (after Ezekiel had issue with using human dung). (Ezekiel 4:9-15) Why? Then he said to me, "Son of man, I'm going to cut off all food from Jerusalem. The people will live on starvation rations, worrying where the next meal's coming from, scrounging for the next drink of water. Famine conditions. People will look at one another, see nothing but skin and bones, and shake their heads. This is what sin does." (Ezekiel 4: 16-17)
Oh my! The life of a prophet wasn’t an easy one. God went to great measure, using visual representations in some cases, to warn His people and try to get them back on track.
We may question God’s choice for Hosea, but aren’t we all sinners? Is it really any different than God’s choice of us?
É Read Romans 5:8. What similarities do you see between Hosea and Christ?
É At the end of Hosea 1:2, what does it say the purpose of this marriage is?
É Read James 4:4. How does James start the verse? What parallels do you see to us today through this New Testament message?
From Hosea 1:2, “…for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.” And from the New Testament in James 4:4, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”
É What does it mean to be a “friend of the world?” What ways do you think you are a friend of the world? Do you ever feel like your friendship with the “world” represents unfaithfulness to God?
We’ll talk quite a bit more about this as we move through the study, but it is really an important concept to think about before we move on. God is using Hosea’s marriage to an adulterous woman to represent His relationship with Israel (and with us). In James we see this describes as friendship with the world. We want to be with God, not the world. We like to think they can coexist – that we can be a friend of both, but James says “anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God”… that we are “like an adulterous wife.” (James 4:4)
É Read 1 John 2:15-17. What three things are described as “in the world”? What are some things that would fall into each of these categories?
Verse 16 in the New Living Translation says, “For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.” The Life Application Bible12 points out that worldliness is not limited to external behaviors. It begins in the heart and is characterized by these three attitudes:
1. Craving for physical pleasure – preoccupation with gratifying physical desires
2. Craving for everything we see - coveting and accumulating things, bowing to the god of materialism
3. Pride in our achievements and possessions – obsession with one’s status or importance
These are the areas sin was brought into the world, as the serpent tempted Eve in these areas (Genesis 3:1-6). The devil also tempted Jesus in the wilderness using these three areas of attack (Matthew 4:1-11).
É Read Matthew 4:1-11. How does Jesus respond to the devil with regard to each of these three things?
Think about the things that are important to you. Do they reflect the attitudes of the world or of God?
Romans 12:2 tells us, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” The truth is we live IN this world. We have daily activities and responsibilities. This world can be consuming. The challenge is to make sure we are living IN the world, but not being conformed to it. Not being sucked into to the lures of the world, which is so easy to do. Not being changed from who God made us – in His character – to just another carbon copy of our culture, chasing after physical pleasures, things we see and achievements and possessions. We must recognize that when we do these things we are being unfaithful to God and it is devastating to him. He wants us to worship and serve only Him.
Jennie Allen in the book Anything writes:
With our minutes and days and decades, we build houses and savings accounts and busy calendars full of activity. And in some deeper way, we build our reputations and friendships and invest in our kids and careers. We are looking for this life to matter. No, we are actually looking for ourselves to matter. So we keep so busy, so distracted, so in love with everything but our invisible, patient, jealous God. 13
Reflecting on these things can be tough and uncomfortable. The purpose isn’t to feel condemnation, but to help us understand and begin to see ourselves and our culture in this study to get out of it everything that God intends for each of us personally. We can’t change our lives if we don’t know what or how to change. I pray that God opens our hearts and minds to what we need to hear, not in a condemning way, but in a loving way that makes us so excited about becoming the person God made us to be. Let’s get comfortable standing out and being uncommon… being a light displaying all the goodness of our Creator.
Remember…
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:1-2)
Let’s continue with Hosea’s response. Read Hosea 1:3-9.
So Hosea was faithful and did as God requested. With Hosea representing God’s relationship with Israel, we have to see this as a marriage deep in love. Not just Hosea’s obedience to God, but a true, deep love for Gomer who he took as his wife.
Three children were born and given names by God, each symbolizing some aspect of Israel’s relationship with God. Let’s take a closer look at the representation of each of the three children mentioned…
É What was the name and meaning of the first child (Hosea 1:3-5)?
Jezreel was in the heart of Israel. Much of the wickedness associated with Israel’s history originated here. It was at Jezreel that King Jeroboam’s great grandfather Jehu had first come to the throne. Jezreel was the place of Jehu’s bloody brutality (2 Kings 10:1-14). God is saying to Israel that their hour of punishment is coming.
É What was the name and meaning of the second child (Hosea 1: 6-7)?
Lo-ruhamah, meaning no love/pity/mercy, represented the people of Israel deliberately moving from outside of God’s loving protection where they would no longer be saved. Recall from our timeline that it wouldn’t be long (approximate 30 years after this message) before the Assyrians would invade Israel.
É What was the name and meaning of the third child (Hosea 1:8-9)?
This name is relevant to God’s relationship with Israel and to Hosea’s marriage. In chapter 2 we will read that somehow Hosea discovered this child was not his (Hosea 2:5). Imagine the devastation. Do you think Hosea knew this before or after the name “not mine” was given to him to give to the child. I’m sure Hosea hoped he could change his new wife. Love her enough to not got back to her old ways. Hosea must have been devastated and heart broken. Israel is about to experience disownership from God. Their unfaithfulness is going to result in the full effect of being cut off by God.
É What does Isaiah 59:2 say about our sins and our relationship with God?
É What happens when a person sins persistently, but has not yet felt the consequences? Have you ever had a season like this? Did it all eventually come to light?
Often when we get away with sin we get a distorted view of reality and begin to think we can sin with no consequences. Let us reflect on sins in this season of our life that we are currently getting away with. We don’t want to be separated from God in any capacity. Let’s boldly pray for early consequences and quick repentance!
Thankfully, as followers of Christ we know that nothing separates us from God…
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39)
There was only one perfect human to walk this earth. We will all mess up. How blessed we are to have a merciful God who is eager to welcome us back and make us clean if we are willing to repent and turn to Him.
Back to Hosea…what a family tree…the prophet, the prostitute and the kids: Punishment, Not Loved and Not Mine.
Let’s conclude with the remainder of chapter 1. Please read Hosea 1:10-11
Praise God! Redemption will come. Each of the representative children’s names are brought together here. I love how it reads in the Message:
"But down the road the population of Israel is going to explode past counting, like sand on the ocean beaches. In the very place where they were once named Nobody, they will be named God's Somebody. Everybody in Judah and everybody in Israel will be assembled as one people. They'll choose a single leader. There'll be no stopping them—a great day in Jezreel!"
In the place where there was bloody brutality and a destructive spiral, God’s chose people will all be together again, under one leader…a unified kingdom again. Nobody will become God’s Somebody. No stopping God’s somebodys…a great day indeed!
Let’s close Hosea 1 with the message for believers in Revelation 7:9…
Let’s close Hosea 1 with the message for believers in Revelation 7:9…
After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.
Ultimately we, as believers who repent and put our faith and hope in Christ alone, will be part of that multitude, joined with the tribes of Israel that have accepted Jesus as their savior.
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