This post by christinecoltman was originally published at GRACE PLACE
Hosea ch4 – ch 6 v1-3
We are continuing to look at the book of Hosea. The last study was at the end of November so let us remind ourselves of what we know so far. If this is your first time to this group please don’t worry this quick re-cap will bring you up to speed and for those who need a refresh this will remind you.
The book of Hosea does present a grim picture of our sinfulness but it also presents a glorious picture of God’s love and grace. It is an incredible picture of the heart of God towards sinners.
The first session (Hosea ch1 & 3) Hollie started by giving us a historical overview to give context. Hosea lived in a time when the twelve tribes of Israel had divided into two kingdoms the north and the south. The ten Northern tribes were called Israel (or Ephraim) the two southern tribes were called Judah. There had been a time of bloodshed and worship of other idols but then came a time of prosperity and peace, which has led to spiritual laziness, which led to spiritual adultery.
Hosea was instructed by God to marry a prostitute. Ch 1 v 2 ‘Go take yourself a wife of whoredom and have 3 children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord’ (ESV). This sounds like strong language. Hollie pointed out that the word ‘Whoredom’ used three times is huge. Hosea presents to us a sad marital drama as an illustration of what sin is; ‘sin is spiritual adultery’. Christine quoted Tim Chester who says ‘Sin is not simply breaking Gods law. It is breaking Gods heart’.
Hosea the prophet was instructed by God to marry a prostitute called Gomer who then had 3 children, named Jezreel (Punishment), Lo-Ruhamah (not loved) and Lo-Ammi (not mine). The meaning of the children’s names show us that turning our back on God always results in judgement. During their relationship Gomer left Hosea for another man but Hosea continues to love Gomer and took the humiliating responsibility of buying her back.
In chapter 1 Hosea was told to marry ‘an adulterous wife’. In chapter 2 it is God who is married to an adulterous wife; chapter 2 takes us to the heart of Hosea’s message. God is passionate about his people. In addition, one feature of this passion is that He is wounded by his people’s unfaithfulness. In session two Christine bought four points; firstly that that our relationship with God is like a marriage, secondly our relationship with God is like a bad marriage, thirdly how God healed his marriage and what it cost him and then finally what that restored marriage will look like. The session started with drought and famine and finished with wine, rain, and abundant blessing. ch2 ends with v23 saying ‘you are my people’. I encourage you all to listen to both Hollie and Christine’s sessions as my re-cap does not do it justice.
The first three chapters are interesting and tell you what was happening in Hosea’s life. You get to chapter four and it can feel a bit like you are getting stuck in the mud! The message is primarily to the Northern kingdom of Israel but sometimes mentions the Southern kingdom of Judah. We are now getting into the prophecy section, which runs through to the end of the book. So as we go through the rest of the book, it isn’t a linear story where chapter four builds up to chapter fourteen with a start and a finish. Instead, these are various prophecies that God gave to Hosea to go out and speak at various times over a long period.
The section I am looking at with you this evening is chapter 4 to chapter 6 v 1-3 – I am not going to go verse by verse as time does not allow. Have your Bible open to the passage if you find it helpful. Some of you may have read it through in preparation or have done the study guide, but keep an eye on the screen because I will be putting pertinent sections up there. What I hope to show through these verses are:
- The Impact of Sin
- The Consequences of Sin
Also acknowledging the need to know God in an intimate way like a marriage, Hollie began our series with a reading from Ephesians Ch 5 v 31-32 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh. This mystery is profound and I am saying it refers to Christ and the church”.
Lets look at chapter 4 v 1-4.
The Lord has something against the people; he has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. The Lord has a problem with the children of Israel. It feels like God is about to take people to court for the way they have been living and what they have been doing. God has a charge against the inhabitants of the land and what is that charge? You can actually break it up into two sections that run from verse 1 into verse 2. You can break it up into ‘what there is not’ and ‘what there is’. We see what there is not in verse 1; there is no faithfulness, steadfast love and knowledge of God. We are going to see that those charges, faithfulness, steadfast love and knowledge of God are going to be very important for the rest of Hosea’s prophecies. Those themes will pop up repeatedly as we continue through the book of Hosea.
God is saying that the people of Israel are not faithful to him, like Gomer not being faithful to Hosea. In the same way, Israel had no ‘steadfast love’; it is fickle, again like Gomer. In some cases with the people of Israel, there is just no love at all. They do not know him; there is no knowledge of God. This does not mean they do not know about him. The word for knowledge there, is that there is no real intimate knowledge of him in the same way Gomer had no real intimate knowledge of Hosea.
That is what should be there but isn’t now let’s see what is there but shouldn’t be. There is cursing (swearing), lying, murder, stealing and committing adultery. He also says they break all bounds and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
Because of their sin, the land mourns (v3). People start to mourn with it as God takes away the animals and birds. You can imagine the people would ask why, but v4 says ‘yet let no one contend’; there is no counter argument. Everyone is guilty, even the priests. They were even encouraging the sin because that meant the people would bring sacrifices of the best meat; v 8 says they will feed on the sin of my people.
In verses 9-19 we see THE IMPACT OF SIN.
- Communal impact of sin (v 9-13) – the sin of the priest spread like a drop of food colouring in water. The priests had no knowledge of God, so neither did the people. The priests led them astray. A few years ago I tried windsurfing I didn’t master the ability to turn around so I kept going in the direction away from the shore and all of a sudden I could not see the shore any more. The priests led the people away from the truth until they could not see the truth. They all left to satisfy their own desires, eating what they wanted and drinking but not being satisfied, turning to other Gods for direction. They even ask a piece of wood for advice! They think a stick can tell them the future (v12).
- Generational impact of sin (13-14) – The pagan temples at the time were more like what we would know as brothels. They had forgotten God’s design and intention for relationship of intimacy between husband and wife. The wives and daughters became prostitutes, so behave in the same way as the men. God punishes the men for failing to teach the family God’s way; we all have a responsibility to be a godly example to children. Not just our own but those who are in the church; Vicki gave out the names of each of the children recently, written on pebbles so that each child would have at least one person praying for them. They are the next generation who need to know God.
- Relational impact of sin (v15-19) – this is a warning to Judah not to get caught up in this mess. The North was called Bethel (house of God), but now called Beth-Aven (house of nothingness). He is saying, stay away from them they are like a stubborn heifer (v16). I was bought up on a farm; heifers do not want to be led, they lead you, not like sheep who are led. The Israelites refused to be led. The same is true of us; our sin impacts others. When we take our eyes off of God we forget who he is and what he has promised to do. When our affections are taken away from God it affects others.
Moving on to Chapter 5, we can see THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN (v1 – 14).
Verses 1-3 start to lay down the judgement; we start to see that they will be accountable for the way they lived their lives. God says “I know Ephraim and Israel is not hidden from me”. God sees into our hearts; he knows our desires and both the priests and the people will be held accountable.
- Sin leads us away from freedom (v3-4) we all have desires and thoughts that are against God; the people of Israel constantly pursued them. They became enslaved by their desires; they chose not to turn back to God.
- Sin leads us away from God (v5-7) Sin leads you into danger. If God tells you to do something and you do the opposite, it will not lead you to God. Their pride and arrogance prevented them from seeing the danger. They were led like flocks and herds in the wrong direction, so they will be devoured by their own sin.
- Sin leads us away from peace (8-11) Sin leads you into conflict with others. There was a war about to break out; the Assyrians were moving in and Israel wanted Judah to join but they declined and joined forces with the Assyrians against Israel (2Kings 16). Israel’s sin would lead to their desolation.
- Sin leads us away from stability (v12-14) Sin leads us into destruction. Hosea tries to capture the terror of this by using powerful images. A flood of water v10, a devouring moth v12, corrosive rot v12, a festering wound v13, a vicious lion v14.
Chapter 5 v15 “Then they will go back to my place until they admit their guilt. And they will seek my face in their misery they will earnestly seek me”. This verse suggests there is hope; this is the good news of Hosea. God hasn’t gone anywhere; he is asking for acknowledgement of their guilt and to seek his face and in their distress to seek him. God was and is patiently waiting for us to acknowledge the depth of our sin. The more we come to see the depth of our sin, the more we come to see the extent of God’s love.
In Chapters 4 and 5 we found ourselves in the courtroom facing the accusations of God. The evidence has been laid out and the verdict of judgement is certain.
Chapter 6 v1-3 “Come let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but he will hear us he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive us, on the third day he will restore us that we may live in his presence. Let us acknowledge the Lord let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises he will appear he will come to us like winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth”. There is a dramatic intervention; Hosea is speaking on behalf of the people he is also pleading with the people. There is still hope, God has torn us that he may heal us; what he has struck down he will bind up.
I know some of you here tonight but I don’t know all of you and those I know, I don’t know like God does. Maybe you are going through a difficult time with God where he feels distant. Maybe its God’s discipline, not to get back at you but to lessen your attachment to the things of this world. Maybe you are not yet a follower of Jesus and you are going through a difficult time; this could be a wakeup call to you, an invitation from God.
So how can God be both the tearer and the healer? How can he injure us then bind us up? How can he injure and tear those who turn to him? The answer for us today here tonight is Jesus. I know as a child in Sunday school if there was a question asked and I gave the answer ‘Jesus’ I thought I had a fair chance of being right. In this case the answer is one hundred percent right. At the cross, Jesus was torn that we might be healed. He bore the guilt of our sin in our place. 1 Peter 2 v 24 “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed”. Hosea was right. On the third day, God did restore his people. As Jesus walked from the tomb, God’s people burst into life. Like dry ground quenched by the winter rains.
If we do not have an intimate knowledge of God, we will start to worship other idols. Do we have something in our lives that is stopping us from having a personal and intimate knowledge of God? A deep knowledge, not just head knowledge but buried in our heart knowledge. Could it be your job, money, your children, your husband, food, alcohol, the church, even yourself? We read at the beginning of chapter 4 the Israelites had no knowledge of God. Now, chapter 6 verse 3 says ‘Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him’ (NIV) and the ESV says ‘Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord’.
God is waiting for you to turn to him. If you pursue him he will reveal himself; through us spending time with him, talking to him, and listening to him through his words to us in the Bible. Put yourself in a place where you are exposed to his word. Meet with his people like we are this evening. God wants to be our only lover, he does not want to be pushed aside for other idols.
Resources:
‘Hosea: the passion of God’ Tim Chester, Christian focus publications 2014 reprinted 2024
Ashley Herr – ‘seeing into the heart of God’ Redemption Bible Church online YouTube.