Tuesday, October 2, 2018

A shocking "ask" by God to a messenger of God...


At the church where I server, we are in the middle of a sermon series entitled “When God speaks”. During this series we are looking at these letters that we often have a tendency to skip over, which are referred to as the prophets. We are going to discover who these letters that we have a tendency to skip over were written to. We are going to discover what these letters that we have a tendency to skip over reveal about who we are. We are going to discover what these letters that we have a tendency to skip over reveal about the nature of God and God’s activity in history.

And as we go through this series, our hope and prayer is that God would move by the power of the Holy Spirit in our heads, hearts and hands so that we understand and embrace the timeless and timely truths that these letters that we often skip over have for our lives. This week, I would like for us to look at a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Hosea, which is the next letter that was written by prophet chronologically, which is not necessarily the order that they are found in the Bible, where they are organized by size. So let’s look at the man and the message of the Book of Hosea, beginning in Hosea 1:1:

The word of the LORD which came to Hosea the son of Beeri, during the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

Here we see that Hosea lived during the reigns of Jeroboam, who was the king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, who ruled and reigned from 790-753 B.C. Hosea also lived during the reigns of King Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, who ruled over the southern kingdom of Judea. This letter was written during the times described in a section of another letter in the Old Testament of the Bible, called the book of 2 Kings, in 2 Kings 15:8-31. Thus, Hosea was a contemporary of both Jonah and Amos.

During this time in history, the northern kingdom of Israel was in a state of anarchy. And it was into this state of anarchy that the Lord called Hosea to be a messenger to proclaim His message to the Jewish people of the Northern Kingdom. And as we are going to discover, Hosea was a very special man. As a matter of fact, scarcely any other prophet was asked by God to serve Him in a way that would result in such deep personal anguish as Hosea was. And as we will discover, Hosea was a man who remained obedient to the Lord in spite of a life that was marked by suffering that few of us can even imagine. We see this reality in Hosea 1:2:

When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, "Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry; for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the LORD.

Now imagine yourself as Hosea. Imagine the Lord saying to you “I want you to get married. And I am letting you know in advance that the person you are going to marry will end up leaving you to be a prostitute. Yes, Hosea, you heard Me right. Hosea, I want you to marry a woman who would later commit adultery against you by becoming a prostitute. While your marriage will start off well, while you will have children with this woman who you love, eventually she is going to leave you to sleep around with others for pay. Hosea, I am asking you to do this because your marriage is going to be a picture to the people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel of the spiritual adultery that they are committing against Me by worshiping other gods instead of Me.”

Now I want us to take a minute and imagine ourselves in the event from history as Hosea. Place yourself in the shoes of Hosea. Imagine knowing, in advance, that while your young bride held within herself all the reasonable prospects of the joys of marriage, it would not- it could not last. Imagine knowing in advance that the woman you were going to marry would break your heart in a most devastating way. You are Hosea. What would you be thinking? What would you be feeling? How would you respond? We see Hosea’s response in verse 3-9:

So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. 4 And the LORD said to him, "Name him Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will punish the house of Jehu for the bloodshed of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. 5 "On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel." 6 Then she conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. And the LORD said to him, "Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel, that I would ever forgive them. 7 "But I will have compassion on the house of Judah and deliver them by the LORD their God, and will not deliver them by bow, sword, battle, horses or horsemen." 8 When she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and gave birth to a son. 9 And the LORD said, "Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not My people and I am not your God.

Hosea responded to the calling of the Lord to be His spokesman to the Northern Kingdom of Israel by obeying the Lord. Hosea married a woman named Gomer and proceeded to have three children. With the birth of each child, the Lord commanded Hosea to give each child a specific name that was designed to communicate a specific message to the Jewish people.

The first child was named Jezreel, which means “God scatters”. You see the Lord wanted to Jewish people to clearly understand that He was about put an end to the northern kingdom of Israel by scattering them far away. And in 722 B.C., this prophetic message was fulfilled by the Assyrian Empire, who scatted the Jewish people into the Assyrian Empire.

The second child was named Lo-Ruhamah, which means “unloved” or “unpitied” or “no compassion”. The Lord wanted to Jewish people to clearly understand that this would be God’s attitude toward His rebellious people as He turned them over to judgment by the Assyrians. The third child was named Lo-ammi, which means “not my people”. The Lord wanted to Jewish people to clearly understand that their selfishness and rebellion against Him would result in His rejection of the Jewish people.

However, in the midst of this word picture of rebellion and rejection, we see the Lord provide words of hope. So let’s look at those words of hope together, beginning in verse 1:10-2:1:

Yet the number of the sons of Israel Will be like the sand of the sea, Which cannot be measured or numbered; And in the place Where it is said to them, "You are not My people," It will be said to them, "You are the sons of the living God." 11 And the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel will be gathered together, And they will appoint for themselves one leader, And they will go up from the land, For great will be the day of Jezreel. 2:1 “Say to your brothers, "Ammi," and to your sisters, "Ruhamah.

After predicting judgment, The Lord, through Hosea, predicted and proclaimed that there would be a day in the future when the Jewish people would be restored both numerically and spiritually. By dropping the “Lo” from “Lo-ammi”, this would change the name to a positive idea as “one who is loved or shown compassion”. By dropping the “Lo” from “Lo-Ruhamah”, this would change the name to a positive idea as “my people”. The Lord promised the Jewish people that, as individuals and as a nation, there would be a return and restoration to the Lord.

After these words of hope, we see Hosea return to communicating the Lord’s message of judgment against the Jewish people for their spiritual adultery. Tomorrow we will look at these words…

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