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Introduction
The book of Hosea, perhaps more than any other, enables us to access the
heart of God. It reveals his feelings for his people, which hold in tension
both his love and his anger. The one does not contradict the other.
A TV personality’s life of drugs, drink and sex, so infuriated his wife that it
led to his divorce. When the divorce was finalised his wife was asked,
“Do you still love him?”
She surprised the interviewer by replying,
“Yes I’ll always love him”.
Similarly, despite the spiritual adultery of God’s
people who have wantonly destroyed their
relationship, when asked if he still loves them,
God in the book of Hosea answers a resounding
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“yes”!
Dan
Historical Background
After Solomon’s son had come to the
throne, the kingdom of Israel was torn in
two. Ten tribes formed the Northern
Kingdom, Israel, with its capital in Samaria,
while two tribes formed the Southern
Kingdom, often described as Judah, with its
capital in Jerusalem.
Jeroboam, the first king of the Northern
Kingdom was an astute politician. He knew
that if the ten tribes continued to journey to
Jerusalem for the great Jewish festivals,
then soon they might be wooed back into
the southern kingdom.
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Israel
Samaria
Bethel
Jerusalem
Judah
Egypt
Moab
Edom
Historical Background
This fear caused him to set up alternate places
of worship in Dan near the northern border and
at Beth Aven in the south. In each worship
centre a golden cow was set up as an object of
worship. This idol was just a ‘little worship aid’
as they continued, supposedly, to remember
the God who had bound himself to them in
covenant love. Now as king succeeded king,
idolatry developed in the land and God was
soon forgotten. A whole series of prophets
came and went, and now, just over the horizon,
lay the advancing army of the great Syrian
empire. Very soon, in 722BC, Samaria would fall
and the Israelites would be taken captive.
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The Structure Of The Book
The first three chapters provide the binoculars through which we are
intended to view the remainder of the book, which comprises mainly of
oracles of judgement. The final chapter then points to the great hope
extended to Israel by God. However, the first three chapters shape our
understanding for the remainder of the book. They describe God as;
1. the jilted lover
2. the angry lover
3. the faithful lover
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Jilted Lover
In order to drive home the spiritual
complacency of Israel, Hosea, God’s prophet
is involved in one of the most gripping of all
the acted parables in the O.T. He’s told to
marry a prostitute!
Picture the scene as Hosea drives down to
the red light district of Samaria to pick up
his bride. After the marriage he visits a
friend, who hasn’t yet met his wife. His
friend wonders what she’ll be like and what
kind of support she’ll be to him in his
ministry.
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Jilted Lover
The car arrives and out steps Hosea followed by
his new wife in a risqué mini skirt, net stockings
and low cut blouse. The make up is overdone
and the friend wonders who she is. In the course
of conversation he asks, “What did you do
before you were married?”
Hosea has a coughing fit and his friend goes off
to get him a glass of water. Later on when Hosea
is next door, his friend asks the question of the
new wife and is told, “I was a prostitute, deary”.
The friend asks, “What possessed a man of
Hosea’s position to marry this woman?”
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Jilted Lover
Now press the rewind button on the nation’s
history and ask, “What possessed God to
enter into a relationship with a sinful people
like Israel?”
That relationship was entered into at the foot
of Mount Sinai some 600 years earlier.
Amazingly, it was to a sinful people that God
bound himself. This is the amazing thing
about God’s redeeming love, he comes to the
sinfully depraved and says,
‘I want to have a special and intimate
relationship with you’.
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Jilted Lover
In the light of this how ought we to feel? What
should Hosea’s wife Gomer have thought? “I’m
spoiled goods but this man wants me – Its
amazing!” But that was not Gomer’s response.
She planned to go after other lovers. What a
slap in the face for Hosea!
Princess Diana famously commented on her
relationship with Prince Charles, “There were
three of us in the marriage, it became rather
crowded”. How much more than Diana or
Hosea must God have felt a great sense of
betrayal after Israel rejected him in favour of
idols. This is spiritual adultery!
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Angry Lover
Betrayed love invariably produces great
anger. Betrayed spouses often vent their
anger in a whole variety of ways throwing cans of paint over cheating
husband’s sports cars, cutting up all their
shirts and suits etc.
How might God communicate his anger to
his adulterous people? It was through the
names that Hosea was to give to his
children.
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Angry Lover
Hosea’s first child is named Jezreel. Yet
it’s a strange name for a child for it
was remembered in Israel as a place of
massacre.
Can you imagine any parent naming a
child ‘Auswich’, or ‘Twin Towers’. Now
the word ‘Jezreel’ literally means
‘scattered’.
It was therefore a word of judgement.
And so as a result of her unfaithfulness
Israel would become a scattered
people.
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Angry Lover
Hosea’s next child was named ‘Lo Rummah.’ It means ‘Not Loved’. Can you
imagine giving such a name to a child? Picture Hosea standing at the school
gate and shouting to his child across the playground by name, “Hey, Not
Loved come here”. Many parents give their children strange names. One
parent has recently named his child after a football team, another called
their child, “In Case Of Emergency”. But can you think of any parent who
would want to call his child ‘Not Loved’ ?
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Angry Lover
Hosea’s third child was called, ‘Lo Ammi,’
which means “Not My People”. Israel had
a false sense of security. They regularly
thought, “We are the people of God. We
have a special relationship. We are
eternally secure”. They not only took God
for granted but God’s blessings were also
taken for granted. And so this child,
whenever its name was used, would
question these assumptions. Israel was
confronted with the fact that they were a
disowned people. Such was God’s great
anger.
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Conclusion
God’s anger at Israel’s spiritual adultery has been compounded by the fact
that they were oblivious to the hurt they had caused. So self-obsessed were
they that they had taken God and his gracious provision for
granted. In such circumstances jealous anger is a
legitimate emotion. Notice however that God
expresses his anger in a way that is designed to
gain Israel’s attention – that’s the point of the
names given to Hosea’s children. God’s love is
eager to talk some sense into them, to
awaken their conscience and bring them
back to himself - there are no lengths to
which he will not go to achieve that
objective. What a great and gracious
God he is!
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