Minor No.1 Hosea

There's a very interesting reference, which you've no need to look up, in the prophecy of Ezekiel, where that good and godly man is told to eat a scroll, and the scroll that he eats was, in effect, his sermon notes. So if ever a man's message became part of him, then Ezekiel is that man. I've never followed his example.

There have been times when I wanted to tear up my notes, but there have never been occasions when I have wanted to actually eat them. But in one sense, it's good for the man and the message to be interrelated. And it seems to me that although Hosea did nothing quite as extraordinary as Ezekiel in eating his own notes, he did, in a very, very real sense, represent his message.

I say elsewhere in some publications of several years ago that we put out from the tabernacle that it was on the anvil of life's experience that Hosea was to suffer one blow after another blow, and as a result he learnt a great deal about God, which he was in turn able to share with other people. And Hosea, you will discover, is right at the beginning of the section in our Old Testament which we refer to collectively as the Minor Prophets. He's probably put there because you get a greater understanding of the grandeur, particularly the love, and most importantly, a word I'll keep coming back to in a little while, you get an understanding of the mercy of God, the love and the mercy of God.

And Hosea comes to an appreciation of this nine centuries before Jesus was born on this earth, and he realizes something of the compassion of God because of harrowing experiences that he had to go through. Now Hosea lived at a time when politically things were rather difficult in Israel. The land of Israel, as you'll see from the little map I've put up here on the overhead projector, was actually by this time split into two.

The northern kingdom is very often referred to as Ephraim, and the southern kingdom is referred to as Judah. One of the great tragedies in the history of the Jews was when the nation split in two. Israel, or Ephraim, had as its first king Jeroboam, and the capital of Israel, Ephraim, was Samaria, and the capital of Judah was, of course, Jerusalem.

Hosea is the only prophet who comes from the north, and he speaks to the people of Ephraim. He speaks to the people of Israel. And one of the things that he has to say that's of great importance, and you've got to understand it or else you'll never grasp a lot of what's contained within this prophecy, is that this great power block, Assyria, was becoming a very threatening nation, increasingly so during the ministry of Hosea.

He recognized that ere long the armies of Assyria would be encroaching on the borders of northern Palestine, the country of Ephraim. He also recognized that Egypt here created a great threat because she is another power block. And one of the things that you discover Hosea has to censure about the Hebrews in his day is that firstly Ephraim is going to Assyria and trying to find refuge under its wing, and then it's going down to Egypt and trying to find refuge under its wing.

Trying, in other words, to look for security outside the security that the people of God should have found in the Lord God himself. So if you were to turn, for example, to the seventh chapter of Hosea, you'll discover how he makes reference to this. The eleventh verse, I think it's wrongly quoted as the thirteenth in your notes, Ephraim is like a dove, easily deceived and senseless, now calling to Egypt and now turning to Assyria.

And the heart cry of God is found in the thirteenth verse and towards the end of that verse in the same chapter. I long to redeem them. I long to redeem them.

Here's another example. Turn to the eleventh chapter, will you, and the eleventh verse. Here is Hosea making this declaration from the Lord.

I am God. I said the eleventh verse. Actually it's the ninth verse.

For I am God and not man, the Holy One among you. And as the Israelites follow God, so they will know security. But look at the eleventh verse now.

If, as came to be the case, alas, they put their trust in Egypt, and if they put their trust in Assyria, and if they're carted off eventually into Egypt or Assyria, the day will come when they will emerge from these lands like trembling birds, and they will come back to their home. They will come trembling like birds from Egypt, like doves from Assyria. I will settle them in their homes, declares the Lord.

And the final text for you to have a look at under this introductory section is chapter 13 and verse 4, where at the end of the verse you find this grand declaration. You shall acknowledge no God but me. No Savior except me.

Well you see, that's the problem confronting Hosea, and it's the problem politically spelt out of this northern kingdom. Assyria, Egypt, in whom should they trust? Well, the Prophet says you should trust in neither. You should trust in the Lord your God.

And because these people trusted in less than God, because they trusted in other nations, then Hosea has some very uncomplimentary things to say about them. Turn to the eighth chapter will you, and the seventh verse. He says there that the confidence of Israel is as daft as putting your trust in the wind, and you don't know when the wind is going to blow, nor you don't know what havoc, if it blows with great gusto, it might reap, it might reek.

And so he says they sow the wind, and they reap the world wind. They put their trust in hostile nations, and as a result they are embarrassed. Look how he puts it in the twelfth chapter, and the first verse.

Exactly the same metaphor. Ephraim feeds on the wind. So you've got the political background, haven't you? And the main thing that the Prophet has to contend with in his day.

But there's something else that I want to show you, and unless you unless you grasp this then once more I don't think that the prophecy is going to make too much sense. Let me talk to you just for a moment or two about what I shall call, in fact what is called, why do I claim to give it that designation, what is called Baal worship. Baal worship.

You might have come across that word before in your reading of Scripture, and the reason why you need to understand a little bit about Baal worship, as well as the political situation in Hosea's day, is because the Prophet has a great deal to say in criticism of this practice. Here is a drawing of one of the gods associated with Baal worship. Actually that was the god of the sea.

Now why am I mentioning this? Because when the Israelites came back from Egypt into the Promised Land, they discovered that there were people already there. They were called Canaanites, and it wasn't that these Canaanites were irreligious. In fact, had they been atheists then perhaps they wouldn't have constituted such a great threat to the Hebrews when they came back from Egypt.

But rather, these were people who worshipped the Baals, and Baals were found all over the land. There were many, many Baal gods, local deities. The word Baal means master or lord, and the Baal gods, well they were the masculine gods.

Sometimes you come across the word in modern translations of the Bible Ashtoreth, which actually is translated in the Authorized Version completely incorrectly as groves. But the word grove or Ashtoreth, when you come across it in the in the Old Testament, means the female deity. And so you've got these Canaanites who worshipped the Baals, and they worshipped the Ashtoreths.

And this worship involved practices which were absolutely disgusting. The Hebrew god was a god who gave an ethical code, a standard by which ordinary people were to live their lives. Not so unfortunately the Baals.

They were known as fertility gods. For example, if you wanted to ensure that there was going to be a good harvest following planting of the seed, then you would offer certain sacrifice to the Baals. And that offering of sacrifice, well it might involve you engaging in cult prostitution, linking your body to one of the prostitutes by the female altar, which was in the form of a pole of which you would find so many scattered around Palestine.

Now the seriousness of this Baal worship is discovered by this example. You have probably recalled that one of the sons of Saul was Mephibosheth. Do you remember coming across Saul's son? He was the man who was lame.

Now if you were to read about Mephibosheth in 1 Chronicles as opposed to in 2 Samuel, you will discover that his original name was Mary Baal. And Baal worship was so known, was so noted in Israel, that sometimes the word Baal, even amongst people who claim to worship the true God, was taken and applied to the name of their sons. So Saul's son's name is Mary Baal.

But eventually when the historians recognized what a terrible thing it was even to incorporate the name Baal into an ordinary name describing particularly the son of a king, they crossed out Baal and they inserted the Hebrew word for shame, which happens to be Boseth or Bosheth. And so Mary Baal was referred to as Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth.

Now I spend time spelling that out because it's basic to an understanding of the prophecy of Hosea. What charge did Hosea level against the people in his day? Well the charge is exactly this, that the people have turned and followed not the true God Jehovah or Yahweh, but they're following the Baals. Look at the 13th chapter will you, and the first verse.

When Ephraim spoke, men trembled. He was exalted in Israel, but he became guilty of Baal worship and died. Turn back to the 8th chapter will you, and to the 5th verse.

And once again you get another reference to Baal worship. Throw out your calf idol O Samaria. The calf idol was an image representing the gods of Egypt and also representing the Baals.

Throw out your calf idol O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of purity? They are from Israel.

This calf, a craftsman has made it. It is not God. It will be broken in pieces, that calf of Samaria.

So have you got those two things in your mind? Introductory comments but very important. A political situation in which Israel finds itself between Assyria and also Egypt and she panics and instead of turning to God, she turns to one or the other of the two power blocks. As for her religion, instead of remaining true to the commandments given by Moses under the authority of God to the Israelites, they start first of all to worship or to acknowledge the existence of the Baals who were worshipped when they first entered the land.

And by the passing of a few centuries, that primitive worship has been mixed into the true worship of the living God and so what Hosea has to deal with is not only an unhealthy political situation but he deals with a mixed religion and in the name of God he censures his northern people of Ephraim. Well now let's move to what is perhaps the easier part of our study to grasp this evening and that is the tragedy that was part of Hosea's own ministry. You remember I said he was his message in a very real way.

You will discover in the first three chapters of this book references made to Hosea's marital situation. In fact as I'm talking to you about his marital situation I'll put on my overhead projector and leave it there without further comment my little analysis of the whole book. But really we're just concentrating on the first three chapters because otherwise we'd never get through what Hosea has to say in the total 13 chapters or so which compass or 14 chapters which compass the entirety of the book.

In the first three chapters you find his tragedy is set out and it's easy to grasp. What is it? Well he marries a woman whose name is Goma and when he marries Goma he has some indication from the Lord which you'll discover in the second verse of the first chapter that the marriage is ultimately going to have problems. When the Lord began to speak through Hosea the Lord said to him go take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord.

So he married Goma daughter of Diblaim and she conceived and bore him a son. There were three children who came from the union of Goma and Hosea. The first was called Jezreel.

In those days names meant something. They had a striking significance. Jezreel means judgment and Hosea has in mind the judgment that's bound to fall on Israel because of what it's doing and going first to Assyria and then down to Egypt and also in what it's doing in worshipping false gods.

The second child that is born as a result of the union of Hosea and Goma is referred to as Lo-Ruhamah. Will you look at that? It's in the sixth verse. Those of you who are following in the authorized version will probably find that it's translated and the translation is something like no mercy.

Call her Lo-Ruhamah for I will no longer show love to the house of Israel. So Israel which is under judgment has some indication of what is in store in the naming of Hosea's first child. The second child a daughter indicates that God is losing patience with Israel and therefore she is referred to as the one who no longer has mercy directed toward her.

And then the third child she conceives again and look at the ninth verse. The Lord gives instruction as to what this son, the third child being a son is to be named. Then the Lord said call him Lo-Ammai which means not my people for you are not my people and I am not your God.

It would seem that domestically by now Hosea's marriage has run into trouble and he's even questioning who is the father of that third child. Is it his son or not his son? What a perplexing, what a frustrating difficulty for a man to have to cope with particularly bearing in mind that he's a clergyman, he's a prophet, he's a priest of God. What a scandal they'll be in the bazaars.

How they will be talking and laughing at Hosea in the marketplaces for this is a day when there is promiscuity, when permissiveness is in Israel and it's seen in every area of her citizenship. And would you believe it Hosea the preacher is in exactly the same dilemma. His wife has played fast and loose with him.

Now let's go back to Baal worship for a moment. You might have wondered why on earth did I spend three or four minutes spelling out something of Baal worship to you. Well you see if you were to accuse Gomer of one thing, one crime in a word what would you say it was? Adultery.

Now adultery is not only a terrible crime at a marital level, but if you heighten it and put it to a spiritual level it is an enormous sin. When a nation who claim to be God's own people push him on one side, forsake him and go to the Baals and the Ashtaroth and there they engage in worship. In effect they have prostituted themselves.

They have turned away from God as Gomer turned away from Hosea. And that I say is the tragedy of this nation. Time and time again they turn from the Lord and as a result God is extremely hurt.

He is filled with pain and anguish. Don't you discover something of that pain when in the 11th chapter, you remember I read it to you, references made to the early days when Israel was but a little child and God took this infant and led it and brought it out of Egypt and ultimately returned it to the promised land? God reminds them in the fourth verse, I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them.

But in the seventh verse, what do you discover? My people are determined to turn from me and as a result of the turning they commit spiritual adultery. And it seems from time to time if you just read Hosea's extracts because that's all you've got of his preaching, there would be no hope whatsoever. After all a person who has had adultery experienced in their family circle has every right according to Old Testament Scripture and perhaps there's some justification in the New to call for a divorce.

Hosea has that right but he doesn't seem to prosecute it as far as Gomer is concerned. What if God calls for divorce and estranges himself from his people? Then will there be any salvation at all? Will there be any hope? Well if you read through these chapters you'll discover that no, there will be no hope whatsoever if God deals with them at the level they deserve to be dealt with. And yet look what God says in the ninth verse of the eleventh chapter or rather the eighth verse.

How can I give you up Ephraim? How can I hand you over Israel? And then he goes on. For I am God and not man, the Holy One among you. Look what he has to say in the last chapter in the third verse and right at the end the 14th chapter and the third verse.

In you the fatherless find compassion. If there's one word that needs to stick in your mind as you read through the prophecy of Hosea it is the word mercy. If God deals with these people at a legal level then they'll be carted off to Assyria.

They'll drop down to Egypt and there will be no hope for any future restoration at all. But imagine that God is a merciful God. Imagine he's a compassionate God and then there will be some hope on the skyline on the horizon for Israel.

And that is of course what you come to realize about Hosea's presentation of the doctrine of God. How does he work out however that God is so merciful? Well let's go back to his own domestic circumstances shall we? And now we're in the third chapter. You remember Goma's left home.

She's not only gone after a man, she's gone after many men. And as a result of a life of prostitution, physically she deteriorates to the extent that no man really wants her. But Goma or rather Hosea is told by God to go and search for his wife again.

The Lord said to me, go show your love to your wife again though she is loved by another and an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes. So what does this remarkable man Hosea do? Well he goes and he searches out Goma.

And you find in the second and third verses that she's on sale in a slave market. Her price is cheap, not because it's a bargain, but she represents poor goods. The second verse says, so I bought her for 15 shekels of silver.

And if you check back in the book of Exodus I think it is, you will discover that the going price for a slave is 30 shekels of silver. But Goma is in such desperate unattractive straits that she's going relatively cheap. And so Hosea deals out the money and there's a little bit of excess in terms of grain that he has to give the merchant man.

And then he takes her back. Look at the second verse, the third verse. Then I told her, you are to live with me many days.

You must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man. And I will live with you. What an amazing thing.

What has Hosea shown towards Goma? He has shown mercy. Do you know what a good translation of the word mercy really is? Loyal love. That's my own interpretation of the word.

I think it's reasonably exact. Perhaps you could argue, well you couldn't have true love that's not loyal. So maybe if one speaks about love, loyalty is embraced within it.

But I particularly want to emphasize the loyalty that's encased in that word mercy. Hosea remains loyal to Goma even though Goma has no rights whatsoever of his love. And suddenly as Hosea is back home with Goma and the three children, he comes to this superb realization.

The very mercy and love that he's shown to Goma, so God can show to Israel. Here are these poor, deluded people making their own altars, sacrificing to their own idols, engaging in promiscuity, in sexual perversion, afraid of Assyria, afraid of Egypt, with really just a bleak future in front of them. And Hosea comes along and he starts to preach.

Perhaps he goes to Samaria, to the capital. Maybe he goes to the very sanctuary where pagan worship is being offered. And he starts to speak from the depths of his own experience.

The divine love which God preserved in his heart towards Goma, so God has in his heart towards his people. So what begins to focus when you study the prophecy of Hosea is something of the great doctrine of God. He is a God of infinite mercy.

Hosea is the nearest Old Testament book to the fourth gospel. If I were to ask you what word more than any other summarizes the fourth gospel, you would say the word love. And Hosea comes nearer than anyone else in the Old Testament to saying God is a God of love, a God of infinite compassion.

No man who truly loved his wife, no matter how foul she played him, no matter how much hurt she might have brought and disgraced to the family circle and the family name, could ever be so distressed that he stopped loving, that he had no feeling whatsoever. And this, and I choose my words carefully, is the dilemma of God when he's confronted with Ephraim. How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over? How can I make you like some of those cities near Sodom and Gomorrah who got consumed with the lava when I poured my wrath down amongst them? I can't do it.

And in perhaps the most daring verse in the Old Testament, you get an insight into the emotional nature of God. My heart is changed within me. All my compassion is aroused.

That's chapter 11 and verse 8, towards the end. Here is set out for us something not only of the mercy of God, but the fact that our God is a feeling full God. Now let the final part of what I have to share with you this evening, follow the outline notes which I've given, but I haven't stuck to, apart from this last few minutes when I propose to do that.

Let me bring to your attention two things that you can learn from the book of Hosea concerning yourself and your own discipleship. The first is this. The way that you become spiritually weak is when you start to compromise upon your beliefs and your religious devotions.

You see, the people in Hosea's day, they were so concerned about sacrifices and about ritual and about external worship, and yet God has to put them right and say, it's not those things that are terribly important. They have their worth, they have their value, but there are other things that affect you as people that is far, far more important. Your lifestyle, your attitudes, the way that you live.

And because the northern Jewish people compromised in these areas, they became very, very weak indeed. Look at the fourth verse of the sixth chapter. Description there is made of the Jews.

Your love is like the morning mist. The mist in the Middle East, the dew there, doesn't last for very long. It disappears.

It gives way to the hot ray of the sun. And says Hosea, that's just like the religious dedication of the people. It's so superficial.

It's filled with compromise. Look at the famous eighth verse of the seventh chapter, when she's referred to Israel as a cake that's not turned. She's not thoroughly baked.

She's half baked. Done on one side, the side of religion and ritual, but underdone on the side of righteousness and morality. She starts to compromise.

And the compromise is made that much more clear in the first part of that eighth verse. Ephraim mixes with the nations. And as we've seen, she did that particularly as far as her religious devotions were concerned.

And the final folly which results is that she has the marks of spiritual old age upon her. Look at the ninth verse of that seventh chapter. But he does not realize it.

His hair is sprinkled with gray. Now if you put those four things together, you could almost say that this was not only a description of Israel, it was also a description of Goma. She was in a pathetic state.

She was mixed in her likings for Oseer, and then in her preferences for other men, until eventually, because she compromised, she became what I've called a no person. Her compromise led to her disaster, as Israel's compromise led to its disaster. But the great message of this book is that no failure needs to be final.

As Oseer found Goma and brought her back to himself, so God will find his people, and he will bring them back to himself. He will redeem them. He will ransom them.

And ultimately, as they respond to his mercy, to his great love, they shall become fruitful. They shall become significant once more. When you put that into a New Testament context, you remember how Peter tells us that the mercy of God is something that has been applied to Christian people.

The Lord Jesus Christ, like Oseer, has gone into the slave market, and he's paid the price. Not a mere 15 shekels, though you remember he was betrayed for 30. Not a mere bartering with some merchant, but the surrendering of his own life on the cross.

And that is the illustration of mercy in its most absolute fashion. And when Peter makes reference to the mercy of God in 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 10, he speaks of those who've been redeemed and says, look once you were a people who were completely without mercy, but now God has shown his mercy toward you. Once you were not my people, but now you have become people of the living God.

Peter has at the back of his mind the teaching of the Old Testament prophet Hosea. And we thank God as we read that prophet, and as we come face-to-face with some of his sermon notes, because you haven't got a continual address that he preached, but rather snippets of addresses after the third chapter. We thank God for a man who not only preached a message, but was his message.

And he became that much more convincing to his people, because his theology was learned on the anvil of tragic experience in his own life. And thus we have reason to believe that some of the people at any rate listened and made a response, and in degree some of them knew the salvation blessings that are promised over against the judgments of God which are predicted within this particular prophecy.