The Lord faithfully pursues and rightly punishes those who choose to engage in spiritual adultery...

This week we have been looking at a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Hosea. We looked on as the Lord commanded Hosea to marry a woman who would end up committing adultery against him by becoming a prostitute. The Lord had Hosea do this so that his marriage would be a picture to the people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel of the spiritual adultery that they are committing against  the Lord by worshipping other gods instead of the Lord.

 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 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, 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; The Lord promised the Jewish people that, as individuals and as a nation, there would be a return and restoration to the Lord.

We looked on as the Lord used the powerful imagery of adultery to reveal the depths of the selfishness and rebellion of the Jewish people against the Lord. The Lord painted this powerful word picture of the adultery that Gomer committed against Hosea to reveal the reality that, just like Gomer, the Jewish people, in their unfaithfulness, had severed their relationship with the Lord. Just as Gomer pursued other lovers that would pay her for sex, the Jewish people chose to pursue her lovers, which were the false gods of physical nourishment and material possessions, comfort and protection, and pleasure to pay her.

And just like Gomer and her physical adultery, the spiritual adultery of the Northern Kingdom of Israel would have consequences. The Lord would respond to the spiritual adultery of the Jewish people by eliminating all access to her lovers of physical nourishment and material possessions, comfort and protection, and pleasure that the nation had been pursuing through the worship of false gods instead of the Lord.

And again, after predicting judgment for their spiritual adultery, The Lord, through Hosea, predicted and proclaimed that there would be a day in the future when the Jewish people would experience restoration to the Lord. The Lord would pursue the Jewish people and persuade them to return to the covenant relationship that they had entered into with the Lord. The Lord proclaimed that only through the trouble of judgment for their spiritual adultery would they have the opportunity and hope of restoration of their covenant relationship with the Lord that they had broken. On that future day of restoration, the Jewish people would be devoted to the Lord as a result of the Lord’s steadfast love and faithful devotion.

Today, we see the Lord then point the Jewish people back to the powerful word picture that He was painting through Hosea’s relationship with Gomer in Hosea 3:1-5:

Then the LORD said to me, "Go again, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes." ² So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a half of barley. ³ Then I said to her, "You shall stay with me for many days. You shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man; so I will also be toward you." ⁴ For the sons of Israel will remain for many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar and without ephod or household idols. ⁵ Afterward the sons of Israel will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king; and they will come trembling to the LORD and to His goodness in the last days.

Here we see the Lord command Hosea to pursue and love his wife Gomer, even though she had left him to live as a prostitute that pursued other lovers that would pay her for sex. However, Gomer found herself in a place in life where she was no longer free. Instead, Gomer found herself at a place in life where she was a slave. And because Gomer was now a slave, in order to restore their relationship, Hosea would have to redeem, or purchase her freedom.

In the culture of the day, a slave was usually purchased for 30 shekels of silver. Hosea proceeded to pay the price to purchase, or redeem, her from slavery by paying half in money and half in grain. After redeeming her from slavery, Hosea placed Gomer in forced seclusion in his home. Now a natural question that could arise here is “Why would Hosea do that?”

You see, Gomer was placed in forced seclusion as a word picture to the Jewish people of the exile that they would soon experience at the hands of the Assyrian Empire. The Lord was painting a word picture to the Jewish people to reveal the reality that, upon being conquered by the Assyrian Empire, the Jewish people would be stripped of their kingdom and their tools for idol worship.

However, after their time in exile, sometime in the distant future, in the last days of God’s story here on earth, the Jewish people would return to seek to experience the covenant relationship with the Lord that had been entered into through their most famous king, a man named King David. The Lord used the relationship between Hosea and his wife Gomer as a word picture to reveal the reality that, in the future, the Lord would keep the covenant commitment that He made to the Jewish people, but that the Jewish people had broken, by redeeming them from slavery to their selfishness and rebellion so that they could experience the restoration of the relationship with Him that they were created for. 

And through the rest of the book of Hosea, the prophet continued to reveal how the Jewish people were acting like spiritual sluts as they pursued physical nourishment and material possessions, comfort and protection, and pleasure to pay them in a way that would satisfy their deepest desires.  Hosea continued to reveal how the Jewish people were acting like spiritual sluts as they pursued the worship of false gods, while the corrupt religious leaders of the day led the Jewish people to have a lack of knowledge of the Lord.

However, in the midst of their spiritual adultery that led them to behave like spiritual sluts, the Lord continued to pursue the Jewish people in an attempt to persuade them to return to the covenant relationship with the Lord that they had broken. However, while Hosea called the people to return to the Lord, he did not expect a positive response. Yet, in spite of their spiritual adultery, the Lord refused to totally abandon His people. For many Jewish people in Hosea’s day, just as it is today, they were given a chance to return to the Lord after rebelling against the Lord. However, just like today, when one chooses to rebel against or suppress the truth about the Lord, there is a “point of no return” at which time God will rightly and justly punish such selfishness and rebellion. We see Hosea reveal this reality in Hosea 14:9:

Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; Whoever is discerning, let him know them. For the ways of the LORD are right, And the righteous will walk in them, But transgressors will stumble in them.

And, it is here, when God speaks, that we discover a timeless truth about the nature and character of God and God’s activity in history. And that timeless truth is this: The Lord faithfully pursues and rightly punishes those who choose to engage in spiritual adultery. You see, the point of the book of Hosea is that the Lord is faithfully committed to His covenant commitment in the face of our spiritual adultery.

Just like the Jewish people, all of humanity, in our unfaithfulness, severed the relationship with the Lord that we were created for to instead pursue other lovers. Instead of loving the Lord, humanity chooses to pursue the love of false gods such as physical nourishment and material possessions, comfort and protection, and pleasure to pay us in a way that would satisfy our deepest desires. And just like the Jewish people, our spiritual adultery has consequences. Just like the Jewish people, the Lord responds to the spiritual adultery of those who reject and suppress the truth about God to pursue the love of false gods by rightly punishing that adultery.

Yet in the midst of this spiritual adultery and judgment, the Lord faithfully pursues His people in an attempt to persuade them to return to the covenant relationship with the Lord that they had broken. In the midst of our spiritual adultery, the Lord keeps the covenant commitment that He made, but that we have broken, by providing all humanity the opportunity to be redeemed from slavery to our selfishness and rebellion so that we could experience the relationship with Him that they were created for through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son Jesus.  

So here is a question to consider: Are you acting like a spiritual slut? Are you committing spiritual adultery? Are you claiming to be a Christian but, in reality, are pursuing physical nourishment and material possessions, protection and comfort, and pleasure so that they would pay you in a way that would satisfy your deepest desires?  Do you profess your love for Jesus on Sunday only to give out your love to things other than Jesus the rest of the week?

And how are you responding to the reality that the Lord faithfully is pursuing you in an attempt to persuade you to live in the relationship with Him that you were created for? Because, as we have discovered, the Lord faithfully pursues and rightly punishes those who choose to engage in spiritual adultery.