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Hosea 2:2-23

The Divine Lover Pursues

Introduction

I invite you to grab your and turn with me to 2. Hosea 2. Today Lord willing we will make our way through the second chapter in its entirety. We will begin by orienting ourselves with the Ancient Near Eastern setting of these words. That is going to allow us to get the full impact of this message.

Then we will walk through the text itself and draw out some powerful implications for the Christian life as we see how God operates with his people. In this chapter, we see a jealous husband preserve his marriage by chastising his treacherous wife and pursuing her in love. The human actors are Hosea and . But their relationship is a provocative illustration of something far more significant than one earthly marriage.

This story is about how bad God’s people really are, and how much greater his love for them is. Make no mistake, this is God’s dealing with the nation of Israel as a whole. But in Israel we see examples of our own sin, and we see how God responds to such sin.

The proceedings in this chapter show a wife who has been repeatedly treacherous, and a husband who cannot stop loving her. Surely, he will deal with her sin. He deals with her sin so that he might have a wonderful relationship with her.

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Setting

It’s the middle of the eighth century BC, a time of national peace and prosperity overall for Judah and Israel. We are roughly 30 years (give or take) before the 10 tribes that comprise the northern kingdom of Israel will be taken into captivity by .

It is now that God calls a prophet by the name of Hosea to go to a prostitute and marry her. As we saw last week, this is not a story of redemption as God saves someone with a sinful past and cleanses that person and makes them new.

Rather this marriage is a prophet and a prostitute—a prostitute that hasn’t repented.

And so, in real-life, Gomer, the wife of Hosea commits treachery against him. She’s an unfaithful wife. It is heart wrenching. And that’s the point. The whole purpose of this prophet’s marriage is so that the nation would see themselves for who they really are.

Idolatry

We need to talk a little bit about idolatry before we get into the passage this morning. The false god in our text today is . This is a word that is transliterated directly from Hebrew meaning that Hosea would have actually said Baal (and other than having a sweet middle-eastern accent) it would have sounded the same as when we say it.

The word Baal simply means lord. Owner. Master. Or Husband.

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But when Baal is used in the technical sense it refers to the principal deity of the Phoenicians and was worshipped alongside Astarte in the Land of Canaan.

Judges 2:12–13 (ESV) 12 And they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the LORD to anger. 13 They abandoned the LORD and served the and the Ashtaroth.

Baal had temples, prophets and statues.1 All the key ingredients to be a successfully worshipped false God. A place to conduct worship. False leaders to direct it. And statutes to represent it.

There were variations of Baal—you are talking about a deity worshipped for hundreds and hundreds of years before this point. Very ancient. Archeologists have discovered Baal worship in places like Egypt since at least 1400 BC.2

Baal was the storm god who brought rain to grow crops and cause flocks to increase. He brought sweet rain. If there was a drought that meant Baal was in captivity or had perhaps died. He was also the god of war and of fertility.

1 Wilhelm Gesenius and Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, Gesenius’ Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Scriptures (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2003), 131.

ed. R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old ”, ֵבּל Bruce K. Waltke, “262c 2 Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1999), 119.

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When it came to fertility, he consorted with Astarte a female deity (they were side-by-side as we read in Judges 2).

So, if you desired rain for your crops so you could make bread and feed your flocks. If you desired protection from threats around you. If you desired children and had a barren womb… then Baal was your guy. He would be your lord, your master, in some contexts your husband.

The worship of Baal became incorporated into the national religious practice in a significant way under the leadership of Ahab.

1 Kings 16:30–31 (ESV) 30 And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him. 31 And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him.

Just like a powerful leader today uses their influence to lead an entire nation into deeper in equity, Ahab and Jezebel led God’s people astray.

Syncretism

But Israel didn’t abandon the form of worship of the Lord God of Israel for Baal. They just double-dipped.

The word for this is syncretism. Syncretism is an amalgamation or a blending of multiple religious views. In our day you find religious syncretism appear in statements such as, “I don’t believe anyone

Page 4 of 25 Page 5 of 25 religion has the truth, but whatever system of truth you have, all paths lead to God.”

So, a Jewish syncretist would circumcise their sons on the eighth day, stop working at sundown on Friday night through Saturday evening in observance of the Sabbath, and observe the feasts and offer sacrifices according to the Mosaic law.

What gives? They were Sabbath-Israelites (Sunday Christians). Sunday through Friday Israel’s worship was a different story.

They reasoned there’s nothing wrong with having a safety net— another set of gods to trust in. What if Yahweh doesn’t pull through? What if Yahweh fails us? We will call upon multiples gods to cover our bases.

It doesn’t work.

Theoretically of course it could work. Except for the fact that Israel’s relationship with the Lord was a covenant relationship. It was exclusive.

The wedding vows come in Exodus 20 after God saved his people from Pharaoh’s death grip over Israel:

Exodus 20:1—I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods besides me.

I am your God. You are my people. I redeemed you. And I want a relationship with you that is unrivaled and exclusive.

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Well as we know, Israel cheated on Yahweh by worshiping other gods. But the word will not give up on her. And that brings us to our outline for this morning.

The Marriage Illustration Continues as the Lord Pursues His Unfaithful People in Two Ways (Hosea 2:2-23)

1. By confronting her with a piercing judgment (2-13) 2. By comforting her with a promising future (14-23)

2 “Plead with your mother, plead—

Here is verse two we find Hosea speaking to someone. Who is the someone? It is the children of Gomer’s prostitution, Lo-ruhamah and Lo-ammi. No compassion and No people. The daughter and son conceived through adultery.

Go to your mom… Hosea telling Gomer’s children to confront their mother. Years have passed since the birth of these children, and they’re now old enough to speak and reason.

Plead here does not mean to beg. It is legal terminology meaning to oppose, contend, dispute, it relates to legal charges. Perhaps the best way to put it in our vernacular would be, “to bring suit against.”

I wat you to go and bring charges against your mother (serve her papers, if you will). One commentator explains all that is taking place here:

A favorite and effective device of the prophets was to portray Yahweh as a prosecutor undertaking a court case against his lawbreaking people, Israel. In this passage the dominant metaphorical representation of Israel is Yahweh’s wife, whose

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unfaithfulness is the cause for him (it seems at first) to sue her for divorce by accusing her of adultery. She is the defendant— and yet it becomes increasingly clear that he still loves her. He is the plaintiff, her wronged husband. But he is also the prosecuting attorney, the judge, the jury, and even the police officer who will carry out the court’s judgment.3

Israel is on trial for spiritual adultery, but she is still loved by the prosecutor, who is her husband. At this moment however we are still seeing Hosea explain to these children why he is bringing suit against their mother. for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband—

Now Hosea and Gomer are not divorced. But the relationship is in shambles. She is with other men and she’s not his wife and he is not her husband.

They may be legally bound, but the covenant relationship is broken. Adultery breaks the marriage covenant. Even to this day in some states adultery can still be prosecuted as a felony. Adultery provides legal grounds for divorce, and a conviction will impact spousal property rights.

Simply put, adultery breaks the marriage relationship. She is not my wife and I am not her husband—maybe on paper, but not in reality.

The charge continues…

3 Word Biblical Commentary, Hosea-Jonah, 45.

Page 7 of 25 Page 8 of 25 that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts;

Here we have children who are essentially bastards going to their mom and confronting her for her lifestyle she was involved in that actually resulted in their birth.

“Mom, quit getting all dolled up to look like a prostitute and then going out on weekends to cities and solicit. Stay home. Keep your promise to dad.”

But these expressions, whoring from her face and adultery from her breasts indicate that she is a seducer and a temptress. She is pursuing other lovers.

The shame of children calling upon their mother in this way is difficult to describe.

There’s a penalty coming associated with this lawsuit? Tell her to stop…

3 lest I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst.

This threat comes now from the first-person perspective. Lest I… Hosea (but it’s the Lord)

Stripping her naked is ultimate humiliation and degradation. There’s a note of irony here, a sense of poetic justice, she has been doing humiliating and degrading things secretly, and now she’s getting a taste of her own medicine.

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As one commentator noted sexual sin is often times made to seem positive and exciting, that’s the way it would often be portrayed in entertainment. Illicit sex is depicted as being fun and exhilarating.

And we have to be honest, as the Scripture states—sin is pleasurable for season. We would not pursue it. But the full picture of adultery and the end result of it is rarely as detailed as the alluring side of things.

That’s what is happening now for Gomer and Hosea.

Adultery ends in tears, anger, depression, heartache, brokenness, grief, and shame. Gomer has been secretly shameful, and Hosea is saying now I’m going to expose your shame.

This is degrading. And it is appalling. And it is appropriate.4

There’s a reckoning that is taking place. A recompense. By that I mean this is payback and consequences for decisions and behavior.

Israel would have heard this and made immediate connection to their own beginnings as a nation, and their wilderness wanderings after disbelieving the Lord. And then Hosea broadens the indictment:

4 Upon her children also I will have no mercy, because they are children of whoredom.

4 Derek Kidner, 34

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These children of prostitution are included in the indictment as well. Like begets like. An unfaithful mother has produced unfaithful children.

5 For their mother has played the whore; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’

I will go after… I will follow after. These are the words that are used in the Old Testament to describe Israel’s apostasy in going after other gods (Cf., Deuteronomy 4:3, 6:14, etc.).

Gomer and Israel are not considered victims here. They’re being held accountable for willingly pursuing other lovers. And look at the self-deception.

She wrongly credits her lovers with giving her sustenance… her source of bread, water, wool and flax, oil and drink.

In the context of Israel, this means believing that Baal is providing for her basic needs.

6 Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths.

Her way… means the path of life.

God decides to frustrate her. Because the pathway of her life is perverted the Lord begins to make it a pathway that is fraught with difficulties. The imagery is rich, and we can all relate to it. Literally the Lord says, “and I will wall up her wall.” This is a special wall designed to frustrate and thwart the pursuit of idolatry.

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When God builds a wall, it works.

For Israel life is going to get difficult. Plans are going to get frustrated. Consequences are going to rain down.

Why? The therefore in v. 6—it’s to expose the folly. You think your false gods have provided for you? I’m going to take it away and make things difficult so you see the vanity of your false trusts.

7 She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them, and she shall seek them but shall not find them.

Her response in fear is to seek them, but to no avail. She’s gonna turn to reach for her idols and find that they are missing.

Historically what this means is that hardship is going to come against the nation… Famine? War? Indian her distress she will look to you the false gods that she has been trusting in to provide for her

Can you not relate to this? When something functional has begun to take the place of God in your life? It begins to be what you place your trust in. It begins to be the priority around which you order your life. It is what you desire most. It is what captures your thoughts, in your dreams.

And yet no matter how hard you try to pursue satisfaction from that, it does not deliver.

I can just line out microcosms in my life of this: pursuing business for vainglory and the Lord not allowing me to get what I want and frustrating my cards and humbling me. Pursuing ministry for vainglory in my own strength, and the Lord taking away opportunities and fruitfulness. Loving popularity and reputation

Page 11 of 25 Page 12 of 25 and being disliked and thought poorly of. Trusting in my own strength and be made weak. Walking in pride and arrogance thinking that I’m superior only to be humbled and brought low— exposed as a nobody utterly dependent upon the grace of God and far from the best.

Listen, when God denies you the idolatry that you think you need and he puts a wall in front of you, it is a mercy.

Of course, it is not pleasant in the moment. Some idolatries get lodged so deep within our hearts that we begin to become convinced that we need them. And so, like a drug addict that has just been involuntarily put into detox and is feeling the panic of not getting their next fix, so it is when we are prevented by God from having our idols. It is emotionally distressing and can’t even be physically terrifying.

It is a grace and a mercy from God. We are to rejoice in God intervenes and takes away the false sense of security and comfort that we receive from worshiping other things. Do you see how glorious and reassuring this is?

God is greater than our idolatry and our sin. Even if we are failing to turn back to him, if we belong to him then he will bring us back.

This is a hard path. The way of the transgressor is hard (Proverbs 13:15). That’s a favorite Proverb in our home. But this difficulty, this hard way from God is redemptive because look at what it does in the heart…

Then she shall say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now.’

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This is repentance language. Then I will go and return. Psalm 32 David described his resistance to repentance as a horse or mule without understanding being corrected by bit and bridle.

What would it take for Israel to realize that the Lord does their salvation, and it was the Lord who brought them up out of Egypt, and it was the Lord who is to be their source of strength? It took coming to the bitter end of seeing the folly and futility of trusting in idols… life got difficult and the idols failed and now they knew what’s up.

This is what it took for her to come to her senses. It is the same type of language used by the prodigal son in Luke 15—he comes to his senses and says I will go back to my father because his servants have things better than I do right now.”

Well the lie is exposed. But this turning doesn’t last yet. It is not a decisive repentance.

8 And she did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal.

This is the Lord talking. She is plural. They is plural. Israel is the She here. She took the great gifts that were given to her by the Lord, and assumed that they were coming from Baal and offered them back to Baal.

So first she fails to give credit to God for being the one who provides all things. And the second she misuses the good things that God gave. Not giving God credit for being her provider. And misusing the good things that God had gave.

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Sounds a little familiar, does it not? Our gods are not named Baal, but this is just the way we operate as sinful human beings.

God gave you everything and you were the source of none of it. And you don’t deserve any of it by what you’ve earned. What does our flesh say to that? We protest.

But I did do this. I worked hard. I sacrificed. I studied. I learned.

Really? Who gives you breath? And intellect and brain waves? And a voice? And opportunities? And his Spirit? Whom do you credit for your success? For your salvation? For your sanctification? For your growth or obedience?

You were given everything you have. You’re not the source of any of it.

Well by now we should be asking ourselves, how in the world could Israel possibly not know this? How do you improperly cite the source of your success so badly?

Israel new gave her all that she had. Verse 8 says that said she did not know, but it isn’t because she was unaware, it is because she forgot. This is us. This is so pathetic, and so predictable…

Deuteronomy 8:10–18 (ESV) 10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. 11 “Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, 12 lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks multiply and your

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silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, … 17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth…

As one commentator writes:

These passages reveal an undeniable link between the prosperity of God’s people and their willful failure to constantly bring to mind the glorious person and work of God.5

So how does God show her this truth?

9 Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season, and I will take away my wool and my flax, which were to cover her nakedness.

I’m going to take away her food and clothing. You trust in your own ability to provide outside of me and I’ll take it away the gifts to remind you to look to the giver.

10 Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.

5 Todd Murray, Love Beyond Degree, 57

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Expose her shame. Israel is going to be internationally humiliated as she falls to Assyria.

Look, when the Lord wants to bring low, he has every tool at his disposal. Remember when God humiliated Nebuchadnezzar in front of the entire nation?

This is the terrifying backside to idolatry. You worship your body, God can challenge that idolatry. You worship your ability to conquer at work, God can take it away in a moment. You take pride in your family and look down upon others in superiority, God can tear all of that down.

Sometimes God directly takes away our idols. Sometimes he uses other pressure to strip us of them.

God is so kind to us, he loves us enough to deal with our sin. But he’s not using kid gloves here. Verse 10 is brutal.

11 And I will put an end to all her mirth, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her appointed feasts.

No more mirth—that’s not the most helpful word. No more gaiety— getting closer. No more celebrations—gotcha.

God is going to end Israel’s false worship. Israel’s still practicing her religion, as idolaters. She’s going to church every week; she’s following the rules of religion and religious practice.

But her heart is not on the Lord, and now he is rejecting her hypocrisy.

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12 And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, ‘These are my wages, which my lovers have given me.’ I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour them.

For Gomer, “wages” refers to her actual prostitution. For Israel, this is wrongly giving credit to idols for providing. You think Baal has been your sugar daddy who gives you the good things you have? It’s from your own hand?

God’s gonna take it away—no more vineyards, no more fig orchards.

For an agrarian society, this is very bad news.

A modern equivalent might be something like I will destroy and disrupt your power grid, access to electricity and internet, and cut off your fuel supply. For as big and powerful as the United States is, life would be jeopardized on a national scale if God destroyed our power grid.

No gas. No groceries. No phones. No transportation. I have experienced the aftermath of hurricanes firsthand. Losing power for a week just in one isolated area makes the basics of life very difficult to acquire, let alone the instant onset of crime and economic loss.

God threatening Israel’s agriculture would be like God promising to take down our power grid. It’s is bad news.

This is part of why idolatry is foolish. If feels good. It feels necessary. It feels indispensable. Feels like something that we need for our lives. But the Bible says that it is vanity. It is fleeting. It does not last. It ends in nothing.

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The Lord continues to chastise his unfaithful bride…

13 And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals when she burned offerings to them and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry, and went after her lovers and forgot me, declares the LORD.

Consequences for idolatry and hypocrisy. Punishment.

For Gomer to commit adultery on Hosea, she would have to actively suppress thoughts of her husband and she carried out her infidelity. That is the description here of what Israel did with the Lord.

She continually silenced her conscience as the thoughts of Yahweh would come in, so she could indulge her desires. The Lord kept an account. He is bringing recompense. He is chastising his unfaithful bride.

So, after all this treachery it seems as if the story should end here. In terms of the facts of the case, they have all been established. The stipulations of the covenant relationship we’re clear from the beginning, Israel violated their relationship. Now it’s broken. Give her the certificate of divorce and walk away. It’s what she wants it anyway.

But that’s not what we find. Instead we see the Divine lover pursuing in a second way.

The Marriage Illustration Continues as the Lord Pursues His Unfaithful People in Two Ways (Hosea 2:2-23)

1. By confronting her with a piercing judgment (2-13)

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2. By comforting her with a promising future (14-23)

14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.

Major transition. Nevertheless. Contrary to what you expect. In spite of herself, and in spite of my response to punish it, I’m still going to pursue her.

So much of the provocative language thus far is been provocative in terms of how shameful it is, how grotesque it is. This language is provocative on the other end of the spectrum.

This is pursuit language.

The disregarded husband is not a pushover. He deals with the sin head on. Not because he hates this woman. Not because he is ready to walk out. But because he is fighting for the relationship to be what it is supposed to be.

First through repentance first and then through reconciliation. Behold your God! He is going to hunt her down and take her for himself and woo her. And there in the wilderness place he is going to re-establish her with blessings:

15 And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

The Valley of Achor is a blight. It was the place that Achan’s sin was discovered in Joshua 7. The whole family was stoned and burned there because he had stolen and lied.

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And the Lord says I’m gonna take you there and I’m going to make that decrepit place a place of hope for you. I’m going to give you vineyards—the sign of blessing and prosperity.

And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth…

Jeremiah 2:2—Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the LORD, “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.

This is going back to the days of puppy love and the honeymoon and the excitement of the early beginnings of the relationship. She shall answer you could say she will sing.

Exodus 15—Moses and the people of Israel sang to the Lord… you are our strength and our song, you have become our salvation, you are our God. Your name is great. You are powerful and glorious.

v.11— “Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?

There was dancing and tambourines… in church!

By the end of the song however, there was already grumbling and unbelief and God was not pleased with them. But he is promising here we are goin