Hosea 3

CHAPTER 3THEME: Hosea commanded to take Gomer againAlthough Hosea finds out that his wife has proved unfaithful, he is commanded to go and take Gomer again.

Hosea 3:1

“Go yet, love a woman"that is, love your wife; she is your woman. “Beloved of her friend"Hosea loved her although she had been unfaithful. “Yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.” “Flagons of wine” should actually be translated as “cakes of raisins.” This is a reference to the cakes of raisins which were used in the sacrificial feasts of the Canaanites. They were a part of the heathen worship of idols, which the children of Israel had adopted. You see that God is making an application here. In effect He says to Hosea, “Now you know how I feel. I want you to go and take Gomer again. She’s been unfaithful to you, but you are to love her and take her back. That is what I am going to do with My people. Israel has been unfaithful to Me, and I am going to punish her, but some day I will bring her back to Myself.”

Hosea 3:2

Perhaps Gomer had sold herself to some group of racketeers who were running brothels in that land. Hosea had to go buy her back. “So I bought her to me.” Do you know that you and I have been redeemed? The picture here is not very prettythat is the reason it is not being preached more today. We hear a great deal in conservative circles about dedication, about commitment, and about turning your life over to the Lord. But, my friend, the first thing you need to do is to come as a sinner to GodHe has to redeem you. Just as Hosea bought this harlot, that is the way God redeemed us. Until you and I see that, we can know nothing of real commitment to God. “So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley.” Gomer wasn’t worth it, and we are not worth the redemption price which was paid for us. “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold …but with the precious blood of Christ …” (1Pe_1:18-19). He had to shed His blood; He had to suffer and die that you and I might be redeemed. Why? Because we were lost sinners, sold under sin. I have a friend who is a great preacher, but he has gotten to the place where he no longer mentions the gospel. He does not mention the fact that a man must come to God as a sinner. Oh, he tells people, “You ought to love Jesus. You ought to serve God and obey Him,” and all that sort of thing. But, my friend, that is not where you begin. You might as well go out to a graveyard and say, “Listen, fellas and girls, let’s all start doing better.

Let’s all start committing our lives to the Lord.” Why, everybody out there is dead! They can’t do anything. And until we have come to God for salvation, you and I are dead in trespasses and sins. We have no life to commit to Him. Until the sin issue is settleduntil we are born again and have received a new naturewe can do nothing that is pleasing to God.

Hosea 3:3

A man told me the sad story not long ago of how he had found out that his wife was unfaithful to him. He had actually had her followed by a detective to establish the facts. Imagine the feeling of that man! Oh, what a heartbreak it was to find out that she was unfaithful to him. I cannot think of anything worse than that. And God says to His people, “That is what you have been doing. You’ve been playing the harlot. Oh, you call Me, ‘Lord,’ but you have gone after other gods, you have turned from Me and no longer serve Me.” The Lord Jesus also said in Mat_7:22-23, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you….” Now I am going to say perhaps the strongest thing you have ever heard: If a so-called church has a man in the pulpit who denies the Word of God, denies the deity of Christ, and denies that He died for sinners, it is not a church. It is a brothela spiritual brothel! I didn’t say that; God says that right here. This is the strongest language you can imagine, and you can understand why Hosea was not elected “Man of the Year” in Israel at that particular time. He didn’t win any popularity contest in his hometown, you can be sure.

He is telling his people, “You have become a brothel as a nation. You’ve turned to idolatry and have turned from the living and true God.” Verses 4-5 of this chapter are probably two of the most important prophetic verses which supply an answer to those students of prophecy who have begun to set dates for the coming of the Lord. Although this is a brief chapter, having only five verses, it is one of the great prophetic passages in the Word of God. Dr. Charles Feinberg, a Jewish believer and an outstanding Hebrew scholar, says of this chapter, “It rightfully takes it place among the greatest prophetic pronouncements in the whole revelation of God.” In connection with this passage, you ought to read chapters 9-11 of the Epistle to the Romans. I consider those chapters to be the dispensational section of the epistle which concerns the nation Israel. In chapter 9 you have the past dealings of God with Israel, in chapter 10 His present dealings with Israel, and in chapter 11 His future dealings with them. Now concerning Israel, Hosea writes

Hosea 3:4

“For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king.” You will notice that He does not give a specific number of days. This is unusual because the children of Israel were told three times that they were to be put out of their land and they would be returned three times. Each time God put them out of that land, He told them how long they would be outexcept the last time. The first time, God told Abraham, “I am going to give you this landit’s yours, but I am going to put your children out of this land for 430 years. They will be down in the land of Egypt, and after 430 years, I will bring them back.” They did come backthat prophecy was literally fulfilled. A second time, God said through Jeremiah, “Because of your sins, you are going to be down there for seventy years.” Again, that was fulfilled literally. Now, here Hosea is speaking to the northern kingdom (which never actually returned to the land), and he says, “Israel shall abide many days without a king.” How long is “many days”? Right now we have some folk who are saying that the Lord Jesus is going to come again by A.D. 2000. I do not know where they find that in Scripture! They sound as if they have a private line into heaven! And at least one other to whom I have listened says that the generation living today is the one that is going to see the coming of Christ. May I say, that sounds good to a lot of untaught Christians, but you cannot find such teaching in the Word of God. Nowhere does Scripture tell us how long the time will be until His return. We have a lot of sensational prophecy-mongers about today. Why did the Lord say “many days” and not give us the specific number? It is because in the interval between the time Israel left the land in A.D. 70 and the time at which they will return, He has been calling out a people to His name from among the Gentiles and has been building His church. I want to say first of all that I believe we are living in the last days. Someone will say, “Do you mean then that the Lord will be coming soon?” Well, I do not know how soon because we have been in the “last days” for more than nineteen hundred years. The Lord Jesus said, “Behold, I come quickly …” (Rev_3:11; Rev_22:7), and that was nineteen hundred years ago. Therefore I am not prepared to say He will come tomorrow or next week or next year or even in this century.

I just don’t happen to know that. But I do believe we are seeing the setting of the stage, and the action will begin when the church is removed from this earth. The reason the date is not given here in Hosea is that in Scripture the church is nameless and dateless. We who belong to the true church are a heavenly people, having no name. I suppose some of you folk thought the name of the church was Baptist or Presbyterian or Methodist or Christian or even Independent. I have news for you: the church has no name; Scripture has never given it a name. The Greek word ecclesia simply means “a called-out body.” He is calling out a body today which is going to be His bride. I could make a suggestion today for a name for the church.

In the parable of the pearl of great price (see Mat_13:45-46), the pearl represents the church which the merchantman, Jesus, came and bought. He paid a big price for the church, you know. The word for pearl is margarites. If the church is to have any name at all, I think it should be Margaret. Have you ever heard of the Margaret Church? One time I told a fellow that I went to the Margaret Church; he thought I was kidding, but I really was serious about it. The church is nameless, and it is also dateless. If you had met Simon Peter an hour before the Holy Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost and you had asked him, “Do you know what’s going to happen here in a little while?” he would have said, “No. What’s going to happen?” He didn’t know, because the birth of the church had been announced, but no date had been given. And we are not given the date of the Rapture, the time when the church will be removed from this earth. For that reason we are told “the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king"no specific time period is given to us. Israel is going to abide many days “without a king.” There are those in that land today who claim that they can tell you the tribe to which they belong. I have serious doubts about that, but they make that claim. However, there is no Israelite living today who can say, “I am in the line of David, and I have a right to the throne of David.” The only One who can claim that is this moment sitting at God’s right hand. He is the Lord Jesus, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Israel has rejected their King. “Without a prince"they have no one to succeed to the throne. If the Lord Jesus Christ is not their Messiah, they have none and have no prospect of one. “Without a sacrifice.” Luk_21:24 tells us that “…Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” Therefore, many people argue that we must be to the end of the “times of the Gentiles” because Israel now has Jerusalem. Do they really have Jerusalem today? All of the holy places in old Jerusalem are in the hands of either the Moslems, the Russian Catholics, the Greek Catholics, the Armenian Church, or the Roman Catholics. And all of them have built cathedrals or churches over these spots. Israel does not possess these sacred spots, and they dare not touch them. I said once to a Jewish guide with whom I had become acquainted, “You have Jerusalem now.

Why don’t you go and tear down that Mosque of Omar and put up your own temple?” He said, “What do you want us to dostart World War III?” That would surely start it, my friendyou can be sure of that. Israel does not possess that temple area, and they do not have a sacrifice today. The only holy place they have is the Wailing Wallthey are still at the Wailing Wall. They have no sacrifice except the one which you and I haveJesus. He died nineteen hundred years ago outside the city, was raised from the dead, and is today at God’s right hand. “Without an image.” God did not give Israel any images. He had said to them, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing …” (Exo_20:4). But He had given them many things; for instance, “an ephod” and “a teraphim.” The ephod was the sacred garment worn by the high priest. Teraphim were small objects which they carried around like good luck charms and which they began to worship. God says here that they are going to get away from idolatry, that they will not have any images. That is one thing that you can say about Israel todaythey are not in idolatry. Although they have not turned to God, they certainly have turned away from idolatry.

Hosea 3:5

“Afterward shall the children of Israel return.” Afterward does not mean in the year A.D. 2000. I do not know when it will be, but they are going to return to the land according to God’s timetable. When they do return, this is the way they will return: they shall “seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.” I am going to say something that may be very startling to you. They have returned to that land, and it is remarkable what has happened over there, but it is not the fulfillment of this prophecy. The prophecy says that when they return, they will return to God, and there is no real turning to God in that land. It is the belief of at least two outstanding prophetic students whom I know, that Israel may be put out of that land again before we have the real fulfillment of this prophecy. When they return to the land, they will also return to God. There is much evidence that Israel has not turned to the Lord. When they celebrated their twentieth anniversary as a nation some years ago, they displayed a large motto which read, “Science will bring peace to this land.” The Scriptures say it is the Messiah who is going to bring peace. They are not turning to the Messiah but to science. They are looking to prosperity and depending upon economics. Sometime ago they had a large economic conference which was attended by one of the Rockefellers and one of the Fords. There were a hundred outstanding men there who each put up a million dollars to invest in that land. They are building over there like I have never seen anywhere else. A very reputable missionary in Israel was specifically asked this question: “How many true Christians are there in this land today?” This missionary is an intelligent man who speaks several languages. He was a professor who became a Christian and is doing missionary work there. He gave this reply: “Today in Israel there are fewer than three hundred Israelites who are real believers in Christ.” I know that that statement may cause a great deal of discussion and disagreement because there are those who are saying that hundreds are turning to Christ in that land. That just does not happen to be true. There are actually more Arab Christians in Israel than Jewish Christians. Missionary work in Israel is really a tough job, and there are very few missionaries in that land. Israel has not returned to God. I know when I insist that this present return to the land is not the fulfillment of the Word of God, it is contrary to what you hear so often today. However, this prophecy is evidence of that fact; and, when we consider the whole of the Word of God and not just a verse here and there, we must face up to the fact that this return is not a fulfillment of prophecy. Many ridiculous things result when people take a verse here or there and say that what is happening in Israel is a fulfillment of prophecy. We heard some time ago that they were shipping Indiana stone over to Israel to build the temple. If you have been to Jerusalem, you know that one thing they do not need is stone! Jerusalem is located on a rocky place and every hill around it, including the Mount of Olives, is loaded with rocks. Now, if Indiana wants to buy some stone, I could tell them where to get it: Israel would be glad to export some of her stone. Another example of so-called fulfilled prophecy is the argument that the growing of oranges in Israel is a fulfillment of the “strange slips” which Isaiah said would grow in that land (see Isa_17:10). However, in the Song of Solomon where it speaks of the apples and the apple tree, that is actually the orange tree. Oranges grow in that land, and it is the belief of some that oranges were taken from there to Spain and then to Florida and California. Israel is the land that grows oranges, and they are not a “strange slip.” How ridiculous these things can become! We need to stay close to the Word of God and not become one of these prophetic fanatics who are abroad today. “And shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.” “The latter days” are yet in the future. They refer to the nation Israel and to the time beginning with the Great Tribulation and going through the second coming of Christ and on into the Millennium.