There is a wonderful old hymn by George Matheson

O LOVE THAT WILT NOT LET ME GO,
I rest my weary soul in thee:
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
The story of God’s chosen people of Israel is the story of God’s love which will not let them go. Generation after generation of the Israelites rebelled against God. So much that in Hosea’s time God would bring judgment on the Northern Kingdom of Israel and they would be invaded by the Assyrians. But all the time, God never stopped loving them. So this evening we will look at God’s unfailing love towards his people from Hosea chapter 11, but jumping around other bits of Hosea as well.

God’s Saving Love

Hosea 11:1 ‘When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

It was God’s love which had rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt in the first place. God called the Israelites “my first born son” when he met with Moses in Midian, long before he brought them out of Egypt with the miracle of passing through the Red Sea on dry land. Just as God knows us and loves us and calls us and saves us long before we first come to love him. That is the miracle of grace.

It was the calling and the destiny of the Israelites to be God’s firstborn son, his children. But it wasn’t because of anything in the Israelites themselves which caused God to save them. Rather it was because of God’s love.

Deuteronomy 7 7 The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.

God did not save the Israelites because of their own merits, but because of his steadfast love and mercy, the undeserved grace of God. But that rescue was only the beginning of the blessings God would pour down on Israel.

Hosea 11 3 It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
taking them by the arms;
but they did not realise
it was I who healed them.
4 I led them with cords of human kindness,
with ties of love.
To them I was like one who lifts
a little child to the cheek,
and I bent down to feed them.

What a beautiful picture of the way God brought Israel through forty years in the wilderness and gave them the victory to take possession of the Promised Land. Cords of human kindness – ties of love – like a mother feeding her child. Like all children, Israel’s life started off with so much promise. But then as the years went by they fell short, as we saw two weeks ago,

Hosea 6 4 ‘What can I do with you, Ephraim?
What can I do with you, Judah?
Your love is like the morning mist,
like the early dew that disappears.

The problem of evaporating love.
Hosea 9 10 ‘When I found Israel,
it was like finding grapes in the desert;
when I saw your ancestors,
it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig-tree.
But when they came to Baal Peor,
they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol
and became as vile as the thing they loved.
The problem was spiritual adultery, worshipping idols and false gods.

God has done even so much more for us as Christians than he did for Israel. He forgives all our sins, he makes us his children, he gives us new birth and new life and he even dwells in us by His Holy Spirit. May God preserve and protect us from ever repaying his saving love in the terrible ways Israel did. The Old Testament is the story not only of God’s steadfast love but also of Israel’s waywardness.

Hosea 11 2 But the more they were called,
the more they went away from me.
They sacrificed to the Baals
and they burned incense to images.
3 It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
taking them by the arms;
but they did not realise
it was I who healed them.

Despite all the blessings God poured out on his chosen people, they wandered further and further away from him. We saw this earlier in God’s judgments on the priests who failed to ensure that Israel kept the law of Moses.

Hosea 4 6 my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.
‘Because you have rejected knowledge,
I also reject you as my priests;
because you have ignored the law of your God,
I also will ignore your children.
7 The more priests there were,
the more they sinned against me;
they exchanged their glorious God for something disgraceful.

Destroyed from lack of knowledge. Rejecting knowledge and ignoring the law of God. Familiarity breeds contempt, success breeds pride. Exchanging their glorious God for disgraceful idols and false gods. Time and again the sins of Israel are attributed to their rejection of God and his Law. Failing to acknowledge that the blessings they received had come from God.

Hosea 2 8 She has not acknowledged that I was the one
who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil,
who lavished on her the silver and gold—
which they used for Baal.

Hosea 4 Hear the word of the LORD, you Israelites,
because the LORD has a charge to bring
against you who live in the land:
‘There is no faithfulness, no love,
no acknowledgment of God in the land.

No acknowledgement of God! The people don’t know their God so they don’t give their worship to Him. The priests and prophets had failed in their calling. Like the Pharisees in Jesus’s time, they were blind guides, making their followers twice as fit for hell as they were themselves. All the people of Israel had followed them into sin. There’s a reminder here for us to pray for Christian leaders, ministers and Christians who are in the public eye. The devil loves to tempt Christian leaders into sin, to discredit them or to use them to lead Christians astray through false teaching. And there’s a challenge for every one of us to be growing closer to God, reading and studying the Bible for ourselves, so that we are not led astray by false teaching.

Having said all that, the sins of Israel were not only due to ignorance but often due to wilful disobedience.

Hosea 11 5 ‘Will they not return to Egypt
and will not Assyria rule over them
because they refuse to repent?
6 A sword will flash in their cities;
it will devour their false prophets
and put an end to their plans.
7 My people are determined to turn from me.
Even though they call me God Most High,
I will by no means exalt them.

They refuse to repent – “my people are determined to turn away from me”. Deliberate sin.
Every Christian faces this daily battle to say no to sin and yes to God.

Romans 7 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.

But now the Israelites are going to reap the consequences of their continued rebellion.

Hosea 8 7 ‘They sow the wind
and reap the whirlwind.
The stalk has no head;
it will produce no flour.
Were it to yield grain,
foreigners would swallow it up.
8 Israel is swallowed up;
now she is among the nations
like something no one wants.
9 For they have gone up to Assyria
like a wild donkey wandering alone.
Ephraim has sold herself to lovers.

Hosea 9 3 They will not remain in the LORD’s land;
Ephraim will return to Egypt
and eat unclean food in Assyria.

Israel will get their just desserts – they will find themselves metaphorically back in Egypt again! In poverty and slavery.

Hosea 8 12 I wrote for them the many things of my law,
but they regarded them as something foreign.
13 Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to me,
and though they eat the meat,
the LORD is not pleased with them.
Now he will remember their wickedness
and punish their sins:
they will return to Egypt.
14 Israel has forgotten his Maker
and built palaces;
Judah has fortified many towns.
But I will send fire on their cities
that will consume their fortresses.’

Israel’s sins were grievous. Idol worship. Spiritual and physical adultery and immorality. Putting their trust in foreign gods and foreign armies instead of putting their trust in the God who had saved and created them. We must make sure that we do not fall into the sins of our generation. Materialism. Pride. Indifference. Worshipping the false gods of Money, Sex and Power, Entertainment and Celebrity. Or we would richly deserve the same punishment as the Israelites. But by the grace of God, we are held, like they were, by God’s steadfast loving-kindness. Because the whole Bible is the story of

God’s love which will not let us go

Hosea 11 8 ‘How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, Israel?
How can I treat you like Admah?
How can I make you like Zeboyim?
My heart is changed within me;
all my compassion is aroused.
9 I will not carry out my fierce anger,
nor will I devastate Ephraim again.
For I am God, and not a man—
the Holy One among you.
I will not come against their cities.

Here we see the tension which every parent knows and experiences between justice and love, punishment and mercy. The only thing the Israelites deserve is judgment, but instead God is going to show them mercy.

You may not remember Admah and Zeboyim. They were two cities on the plains which were destroyed alongside Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis chapter 14. Moses had warned Israel beforehand that they would be destroyed in that way if they rebelled against God and worshipped foreign gods when they were established in the Promised Land.

Deuteronomy 29 23 The whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulphur—nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim, which the LORD overthrew in fierce anger. 24 All the nations will ask: ‘Why has the LORD done this to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger?’
25 And the answer will be: ‘It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their ancestors, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. 26 They went off and worshipped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them. 27 Therefore the LORD’s anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book.

So God had warned the Israelites centuries before that a terrible judgment would fall if they worshipped idols and false gods, but the nation had sinned anyway. They deserved the complete destruction which God had threatened, but instead God decided to reduce the sentence. The righteous and holy God always has the right to punish sin. But God’s love for his chosen people outweighed his anger.

Hosea 11 8 ‘How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, Israel?
How can I treat you like Admah?
How can I make you like Zeboyim?
My heart is changed within me;
all my compassion is aroused.
9 I will not carry out my fierce anger,
nor will I devastate Ephraim again.
For I am God, and not a man—
the Holy One among you.
I will not come against their cities.

Instead of judgment God will bring mercy. He would spare a remnant of his chosen people. Centuries later Ezra would look back on the events of invasion of Israel by the Assyrians and then the invasion of Judah and the destruction of Jerusalem and of the Temple by the Babylonians.

Ezra 9 13 ‘What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us less than our sins have deserved and have given us a remnant like this.

Because of God’s divine character, his steadfast loving kindness and his covenant loyalty, he will not bring total destruction. In his mercy, God will preserve the faithful remnant of his chosen people.

For I am God, and not a man— the Holy One among you. I will not come against their cities.

Some people nowadays misunderstand this to mean that “God is too loving ever to punish sin.” That is not what the Bible teaches. There is no hint of universalism or the idea that “everybody will be alright in the end” in Hosea or anywhere else. What this does show that those on whom God has already set his grace will always be safe in his love. Grace is getting another opportunity when you haven’t earned it or deserved it, and even if at the time you don’t actually want it. However much we may wander from God, his love will never let us go, however much it may cost him. The way Hosea accepted his unfaithful wife Gomer back is a visual aid for the way God will win his people back

Hosea 3:1 The LORD said to me, ‘Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.’
So God was embarking on a second rescue mission, to win his chosen people back to himself. This was the heart of the message of Hosea, summed up as we saw back in chapter 2.

Hosea 2 14 ‘Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the wilderness
and speak tenderly to her.
15 There I will give her back her vineyards,
and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she will respond as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
16 ‘In that day,’ declares the LORD,
‘you will call me “my husband”;
you will no longer call me “my master”. ….
19 I will betroth you to me for ever;
I will betroth you in righteousness and justice,
in love and compassion.
20 I will betroth you in faithfulness,
and you will acknowledge the LORD. …
23 I will plant her for myself in the land;
I will show my love to the one I called “Not my loved one”.
I will say to those called “Not my people”, “You are my people”;
and they will say, “You are my God.” ’

This is the love of God which will not let Israel go. This is the love of God which will never let us go if we belong to him. However far they have wandered away from him, God will bring his chosen people back to himself, the body of Christ, the new temple built out of living stones, the church. Because his love is unchanging. God’s love never fails. God’s love will never let us go. Praise God for loving us so much!

O LOVE THAT WILT NOT LET ME GO,
I rest my weary soul in thee:
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

It is remarkable that when Hosea married his wife Gomer he knew she was going to be unfaithful to him. It is even more remarkable that God set his love upon his chosen people Israel, when God knew in advance all the ways in which they were going to be unfaithful to him. They would worship false gods, making idols for themselves like the golden calf and also bowing down to the Baals and the Asherah, the fertility gods of the surrounding pagan nations. Instead of putting their trust in God, Israel would also form political alliances with other nations. They would reject God’s laws and desecrate his Temple and pollute his Sabbaths.
Yet God kept on loving the Israelites. For almost a thousand years since Moses, God had kept on loving his chosen people. From time to time, God would call his people back to himself through good kings, and through the priests, and through his messengers, prophets like Elijah and Elisha and now Hosea. In Hosea chapter 7, God is still calling his people to repent and return to him and he uses four memorable pictures to illustrate the sins of Israel. These pictures can act as warnings for Christians as they show us the kinds of sins believers can fall into even today
Israel the half-baked loaf – the problem of partial holiness.
The Northern Kingdom of Israel is also called Ephraim,
Ephraim is a flat loaf not turned over.
When you are cooking bread in a pan rather than in the oven if you don’t turn it over half way through it ends up only half cooked – the perennial problem Mary Berry would call the “soggy bottom”. Israel is as worthless as a half-baked cake.
9 Foreigners sap his strength, but he does not realise it.
There were two problems – worshipping foreign gods and also making alliances with pagan nations. Both of these were draining the life out of Israel as they were relying on other nations instead of the one true God. One commentator wrote, “how better to describe a half-fed people, a half-cultured society, a half-lived religion, a half-hearted policy, than as a half-baked loaf – inedible because it is burnt on the one side and raw on the other?” God demands wholehearted obedience. His chosen people should belong to him alone, set apart for him. God commanded this time and time again in the law of Moses.
Leviticus 11 44 I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves along the ground. 45 I am the LORD, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.
In his farewell speech Moses had warned the Israelites of the dangers of compromise and set a stark choice before them.
Deuteronomy 30 15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
Moses had warned Israel. The command is clear, to love God with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength and all our mind. And we have seen this call to stand out from the crowd and to be different repeated many times in the New Testament. To be set apart, holy as God is holy.
1 Peter 2 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
People should see the difference Jesus makes in our actions and in our speech, in our lifestyle and in our love. In Hosea’s time Israel was led astray by fertility idols. Today too many Christians are distracted by the all the false gods of Money and Entertainment and Celebrity and the lure of a nice comfortable easy life. How tempting it can be to become a little bit holy, but not too holy. But if that is the case then we become as unpalatable to God as a half burned half raw half-baked loaf. The problem of partial holiness. Then there is a second picture.
Grey hairs here and there – the problem of spiritual decline
Hosea 7:9 …His hair is sprinkled with grey, but he does not notice.
New Living Translation Their hair is gray, but they don’t realize they’re old and weak.
Good News Translation their days are numbered but they don’t even know it.
If the Israelites had turned away from God suddenly and dramatically, they would probably have realised the mess they were in. But here is the danger with unfaithfulness and adultery. It takes something which is pure and then little by little pollutes and destroys it. That which was pure is spoiled – it is adulterated. This is what had happened to Israel. One act of worshipping false gods, then another, then a political alliance, turned into temple prostitution. The Israelites’ faith in the living God was polluted so slowly and gradually that they didn’t even notice. Their hairs turned metaphorically grey as their vitality was sapped away.
And that is the way some Christians drift away from God. Not in one big obvious sin. Not in one dramatic fall. But a slow and imperceptible decline. A little stumble here, letting standards slip there. Skipping one worship service, then another one the next month, then being too busy for prayer meeting or home group or Christian service. Slow decline turns into apathy.
I think this is a picture of how some Christians have drifted through the Covid lockdowns and are now struggling to return to church and to fellowship. It is too easy to become spiritually flabby without even noticing.
Churches can fall into the same trap. I think this is also a picture of how some corners of the church have been declining for decades. One little compromise here, disregard clear Bible teaching on certain issues there, accommodating themselves to the views of the world around. The slippery slope of spiritual decline – grey hairs here and there, and they don’t even know it.
Revelation 3:1 ‘To the angel of the church in Sardis write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
A church which rests on its laurels, which becomes complacent about holiness and prayer and evangelism, which doesn’t care about biblical truth and sound doctrine, can so easily follow Israel into spiritual decline.
There is hope for us all, however few or however many grey hairs we may have. We can always return to God. But there is a solemn warning for us all from the story of Israel.
10 Israel’s arrogance testifies against him, but despite all this
he does not return to the LORD his God or search for him.
Israel had become so comfortable in their spiritual adultery that the whole nation had passed the point of no return. Judgment would be coming. Then there is a third vivid picture in Hosea 7.
Israel the silly pigeon – the problem of wavering loyalties
11 ‘Ephraim is like a dove, easily deceived and senseless—
now calling to Egypt, now turning to Assyria.
12 When they go, I will throw my net over them; I will pull them down like the birds in the sky. When I hear them flocking together, I will catch them.
“Silly, witless doves,” the New Living Translation puts it. “Bird-brained, mindless, clueless” the Message says.
God was their help and strength. It was God who had brought the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and through the Red Sea safely on dry land. It was God who had given them the victory as they took possession of the Promised Land. Egypt could never save Israel. Assyria could never save Israel. Only the Almighty God would be able to rescue them from their enemies. But instead the Israelites kept wavering from one political alliance to another. God would be their strength and refuge, their ever-present help in times of trouble. But instead of putting their trust in God, Israel were just flitting around.
Here is a challenge for Christians. If we face problems, when do we turn to God. First? Or last? Or not at all? When we have problems with our health, or with neighbours or in our family, money problems, fears about the future. Do we turn to God and depend on God? Too often Christians struggle with problems by themselves, or turn here there and everywhere for solutions or for help, instead of looking to God for help. Israel were turning to other nations instead of to God, silly pigeon!
Partial holiness, spiritual decline, wavering loyalties. These problems have inevitable consequences, expressed in the fourth picture.
Israel the faulty bow –
Hosea 7 16 They do not turn to the Most High; they are like a faulty bow.
Their leaders will fall by the sword because of their insolent words.
For this they will be ridiculed in the land of Egypt.
Because they refused to put their trust in God, his chosen people of Israel had become as unreliable and useless and ineffective as a crooked bow which always missed the target. When it came to fulfilling God’s purposes and bringing glory to God, Israel were not a help but a hindrance. More useless than a faulty bow which doesn’t only miss its target but risks injuring other people or even recoiling and killing the user and causing more damage than the enemy. God’s people had strayed from him and rebelled against him. It wasn’t just that they were missing out on the blessings God longed to pour down on them. Israel were no longer able to fulfil God’s purposes for them. They could not fulfil their destiny as a holy nation and a royal priesthood. So God’s honour was insulted. His glory was tarnished in the eyes of the world. God’s chosen people had become a half-baked loaf, with grey hairs but they didn’t know it, a silly pigeon and a crooked bow. Now they were worse than useless to God.
Like any church which sees discipleship and holiness and evangelism as optional extras.
Like any Christians who have lost their way and become spiritually weak and powerless.
Like any believers whose enthusiasm and commitment flit from one thing to another but never to the things of God.
All these are no longer a strength but instead have become a liability in God’s continuing mission to redeem the world. They are missing the target. Their stories are warnings to Christians of sins to avoid. Paul wrote this to the Corinthians about the sins the Israelites fell into in the Old Testament.
1 Corinthians 10:11-12 These are all warning markers — DANGER! — in our history books, written down so that we don’t repeat their mistakes. Our positions in the story are parallel—they at the beginning, we at the end—and we are just as capable of messing it up as they were. Don’t be so naive and self-confident. You’re not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it’s useless. Cultivate God-confidence. (Message)

The half-baked loaf – grey hairs here and there – the silly pigeon – the crooked bow. Let us not become complacent or make the mistake of saying, “we would never do that.”

As we look at scriptures like the book of the prophet Hosea, they can seem remote from our lives today. We read about the Israelites worshipping idols and false gods, and even stooping to ritual prostitution, and we can easily say to ourselves, “We would never do that!” And it is true that not many Christians nowadays consult idols made or wood or offer fertility sacrifices to nature gods. Baal worship is not a major threat to the church today.
There are some modern parallels to the sins of idolatry the Israelites were committing in Hosea’s time, which still drag Christians into sin today, but those tend to be in far away places and not in UK. Adultery is a temptation which is easy to recognise, if not to avoid, particularly for prominent church leaders in certain circles. In general, we think it is easy to avoid the sins Israel were committing in Hosea’s time. Then there is a real danger that we can be lulled into a false sense of security, when we think about the sins of Israel and say, “We would never do that.” But then Hosea chapter 6 gives us a “wake up call.” The prophet gets to the heart of Israel’s problems, and we will see three kinds of sins which are just as much a threat to Christians today as they were to the Israelites – three deadly sins waiting to trip us up and even ensnare us if we don’t watch out. Starting in the first three verses.
‘Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us;
he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.
2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us,
that we may live in his presence.
3 Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains,
like the spring rains that water the earth.’
That sounds alright, you may say. Israel coming back to God. And it would be great, if their repentance was genuine. But it was not. The Good News Bible makes the meaning clearer and even gives the section the title,
“The people’s insincere repentance.”
Hosea 6:1 GNT The people say, “Let’s return to the LORD! He has hurt us, but he will be sure to heal us; he has wounded us, but he will bandage our wounds, won’t he? 2In two or three days he will revive us, and we will live in his presence. 3Let us try to know the LORD. He will come to us as surely as the day dawns, as surely as the spring rains that water the earth.”
The words attributed to Israel by the prophet here are ironic, even sarcastic. Israel thought that just saying some nice words would keep God happy. But empty words without changed lives mean nothing.
They were taking God’s love for granted. They were relying on being God’s chosen people, the redeemed of the Lord. They had become complacent in their relationship with God. They thought that whatever they did wrong, God would automatically forgive them without them needing to repent.
He has hurt us, but he will be sure to heal us; he has wounded us, but he will bandage our wounds, won’t he? 2In two or three days he will revive us, and we will live in his presence.
Christians can too easily drift into the same sin of complacency. Taking God for granted. Paul challenged the Roman Christians on this.
Romans 6:1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
The risk of taking God’s amazing grace for granted. Just because God has saved us that doesn’t mean we can live in any way we like. Our wonderful undeserved salvation brings with it an obligation to live a new life in discipleship and holiness.
The problem the Israelites experienced was superficial repentance. They were not confessing or even acknowledging their many sins. They just presumed God was going to forgive them, presuming on the grace of God. The same problem can still trap Christians today. We may say, “God have mercy on me, a miserable sinner.” But those are only empty words if we are failing to recognise the sins we fall into, if we are not determined to do our very best to stop sinning by God’s grace. Some Christians tolerate their sins, and even wallow in them. True repentance will involve penitence – deeply regretting and weeping and bewailing our manifold sin and wickedness. Somebody has said, “repentance is the tear in the eye of faith.” Tears and sorrow for the past. And then repentance will involve turning away from sin for the future. The Israelites were not penitent and they were not changing their ways.
The people say, “Let’s return to the LORD! He has hurt us, but he will be sure to heal us; he has wounded us, but he will bandage our wounds, won’t he?
Empty words like those of the Israelites are not enough. God is not interested in insincere repentance or in people who take his love for granted. Hosea had just made this clear in chapter 5
Hosea 5 4 ‘Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God.
A spirit of prostitution is in their heart; they do not acknowledge the LORD.
5 Israel’s arrogance testifies against them; the Israelites, even Ephraim, stumble in their sin;
Judah also stumbles with them.
6 When they go with their flocks and herds to seek the LORD,
they will not find him; he has withdrawn himself from them.
Christians must make sure that our repentance is always genuine and that we never take God’s love for granted, or presume on the grace of God. But then the Israelites were falling into a second sin. In verse 3 it sounds as though they might have the right idea
3 Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him.
Pressing on to know God is a good start. Trying to know God better, seeking for him and searching for God. But the trouble was, the Israelites didn’t follow up on these good intentions.
4 ‘What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah?
Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears.
The people suffered from evaporating love. Like in Jesus’s Parable of the Sower and the Different Kinds of Soil, the seed sown on rocky ground which sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow, but when the sun shone the plants withered because they had no root. Like people who receive the gospel but quickly fall away when the going gets tough. Evaporating love.
Again, we must not feel complacent. We shouldn’t think this couldn’t happen to us. Remember the words of the Risen Jesus to the Seven Churches in the Book of Revelation.
To the church in Ephesus,
Revelation 2 4 Yet I hold this against you: you have forsaken the love you had at first. 5 Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
And to the church in Laodicea
Revelation 3 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, “I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.” But you do not realise that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so that you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so that you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so that you can see.
He who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall. It is impossible to love God too much! The Israelites suffered from evaporating love. One minute they were pressing on to know God, the next they were worshipping idols and engaging in immorality. Inconsistency. A failure to press on and persevere in the things of God.
It is lovely to see new Christians who are really excited about prayer, and the power of the Holy Spirit, and evangelism and holy living. Are we still as enthusiastic about these things as we were when we first came to know Jesus. Our love for God should be increasing year by year, not waning. The Israelite’s love was transient as the evaporating dew. And then they fell into another tragic sin which brought God’s judgment.
Hosea 6 5 Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth—
then my judgments go forth like the sun.
6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.
The problem was Outward activity without inward reality. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees using exactly these words.
Good News Translation v 6 I want your constant love, not your animal sacrifices. I would rather have my people know me than burn offerings to me.
Israel’s worship had become empty and meaningless, outward acts rather than heartfelt devotion.
And here is a warning for Christians today, because it is still too easy to let busy activity get in the way of our relationship with God. We can know all about God, but not know God himself. We can be more concerned about the form of our acts of worship than we are about the God we are worshipping. We can be more concerned about getting the words of our prayers right than about the God we are addressing in our prayers. We can be so preoccupied with the physical building of the church, or the events and activities of the church, that we forget that the church is actually the people. We all need to make sure that what matters in our lives are the inward spiritual realities and not just the outward activities.
I heard about a letter written by the great preacher David Watson in his final days. He acknowledged, “I have loved God’s work more than I have loved God. I have loved God’s Word more thank I have loved God. I have loved God’s people more than I have loved God.” The dangers of allowing outward activities to take the place of inward realities.
The Israelites started off with the right ideas. Let us return to the Lord. But that returning was spoiled by insincere repentance and by taking God’s love for granted. Then they said, let us press on to know the Lord. But their love evaporated. All because they had been preoccupied by their outward activities and neglected spiritual realities. As we see all the different kinds of sins the Israelites fell into, let us not be complacent. Let us make certain that we do not make the mistake of saying, “we would never do that”.

There is a very old story of a lady who used to go to church with a pitchfork. When the minister was speaking about a particular sin she would say to herself, “That sounds good – that’s good for Brother Brown.” A little later she would be saying, “That’s good for Sister Sophie.” But then one day the true gospel transformed her life. Instead of her pitchfork, the lady would bring a rake and whatever the preacher said she would respond, “Oh yes, Lord, that word is for me.” Those who have ears, let them hear.

Hosea chapter 4 continues the prophet’s theme of God’s judgment on the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
Hear the word of the LORD, you Israelites,
because the LORD has a charge to bring against you who live in the land:
‘There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land.
2 There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds,
and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

3 Because of this the land dries up, and all who live in it waste away;
the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea are swept away.

The sins of the Israelites were so severe that they were even bringing destruction on the Promised Land. The people were breaking the Commandments,
2 There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds,
and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
the root cause of all this evil and wickedness was actually what was lacking in the people.
‘There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land.
When people do not have faith in God, and have no love, and do not even acknowledge God, then all kinds of terrible sins will follow. And remember, these charges are not being made against pagan nations who did not know God. Israel was God’s chosen people, his holy nation, his royal priesthood, his special possession. How much worse it is to say there is no acknowledgment of God in the land
But who is to blame for this dreadful situation which God’s chosen people have fallen into? Hosea goes on to explain that God’s judgment is burning especially against a particular group of people.
NIV 4 ‘But let no one bring a charge, let no one accuse another,
for your people are like those who bring charges against a priest.

The Hebrew in verse 4 is very hard to understand. That 2011 New International Version doesn’t bring out the real meaning. The New Revised Standard Version is clearer.
NRSV Yet let no one contend, and let none accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest
The Good News Bible puts it this way.
GNT The LORD says, “Let no one accuse the people or reprimand them—my complaint is against you priests.
Personally I think the New Living Translation makes the meaning most clear.
NLT “Don’t point your finger at someone else and try to pass the blame! My complaint, you priests, is with you.
God’s judgment was coming on the whole nation of Israel, for they had all rejected God and drifted into worshipping idols and false gods. But the blame for that lay fairly and squarely on the shoulders of the priests. The very people who God had entrusted with the spiritual life of Israel were the ones responsible for her downfall..
4 ‘But let no one bring a charge,
let no one accuse another,
for your people are like those
who bring charges against a priest.
5 You stumble day and night,
and the prophets stumble with you.
So I will destroy your mother—

The nation would be destroyed because both the priests and the prophets who should have been leading the Israelites to God were failing in their callings.
6 my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.
It was the special responsibility of the priests to teach the people the law of Moses so that they would all obey the law. But the priests were failing to do that.
‘Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.
The priest had abandoned God’s law – so God would reject them. Their lack of knowledge would bring on the destruction of the Israelites. But the priests weren’t just failing to teach the law. They were bringing false teaching, actually leading the people to worship idols and false gods, encouraging everybody to sin.
7 The more priests there were, the more they sinned against me;
they exchanged their glorious God for something disgraceful.
8 They feed on the sins of my people and relish their wickedness.

So God’s judgment will fall particularly on the heads of the priests who were leading the people into idol worship, and worse. This was not just spiritual prostitution but the ritual prostitution of the fertility cults of the surrounding nations, who believed that sexual immorality, drunken orgies and other despicable pagan rituals would produce good harvests. The priests were taking their living for leading the people to worship false gods and not the One True God, the glorious God who had saved and created Israel. So judgment will come on them all.
9 And it will be: like people, like priests. I will punish both of them for their ways
and repay them for their deeds.
10 ‘They will eat but not have enough; they will engage in prostitution but not flourish,
because they have deserted the LORD to give themselves 11 to prostitution;
old wine and new wine take away their understanding.

Instead of faithfully worshipping the one true God and Saviour, the people were worshipping idols.
12 My people consult a wooden idol, and a diviner’s rod speaks to them.
A spirit of prostitution leads them astray; they are unfaithful to their God.
Unfaithful to their God, as Gomer Hosea’s wife had been unfaithful to him. The priests are even offering sacrifices to the pagan gods at their altars built on high places.
13 They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills,
under oak, poplar and terebinth, where the shade is pleasant.
All this pagan idol worship was leading the ordinary people into all kinds of immorality.
Therefore your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters-in-law to adultery.
14 ‘I will not punish your daughters when they turn to prostitution,
nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery,
because the men themselves consort with harlots and sacrifice with shrine-prostitutes—
a people without understanding will come to ruin!

Hosea is very clear – God’s punishment will fall on the Northern Kingdom of Israel for their immorality and their lack of understanding. And there is a solemn warning for the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
15 ‘Though you, Israel, commit adultery, do not let Judah become guilty.
‘Do not go to Gilgal; do not go up to Beth Aven. And do not swear, “As surely as the LORD lives!”
Judah would need to stay firm and resist the same temptations. But Israel had already fallen too low – the Israelites were already doomed by this idol worship.
16 The Israelites are stubborn, like a stubborn heifer.
How then can the LORD pasture them like lambs in a meadow?
17 Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone!
18 Even when their drinks are gone, they continue their prostitution;
their rulers dearly love shameful ways.

The Northern Kingdom of Israel was now trapped in their sins. They had gone beyond saving.
19 A whirlwind will sweep them away, and their sacrifices will bring them shame.
Judgment was coming. And the blame rested squarely on the shoulders of the priests who had abandoned the law of God and led the people into worshipping false gods and into depths of immorality. The nation would be wiped out because there was no acknowledgment of God in the land. … My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.
So what does all this have to say to us today? I believe Hosea chapter 4 is a solemn warning to those who follow in the footsteps of the priests in the church today. To ministers and preachers who teach in the church and to those who lead God’s people in worship.
The priests in Hosea’s day had abandoned God’s Law, leaving the people in ignorance of what God required and even teaching them to worship false gods. They had rejected knowledge and ignored the Law. That to me is a warning to all the preachers today, especially the famous ones, who depart from Bible truth. All the teachers who cut out of their Bibles the difficult bits they don’t like or who tell us that what the Bible says doesn’t apply today or that Christians don’t need to obey what the Bible teaches us any more. Some are open about which bits of the Bible they are rejecting. Other preachers can be more dangerous because they don’t actually base their teaching on the Bible at all – they just give entertaining and encouraging messages of hope which aren’t really founded on anything. The result is the same. My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.
The priests in Hosea’s time led the Israelites into immorality and ritual prostitution. There are preachers today who say that God’s standards of sexual ethics don’t apply any more, condoning and even encouraging behaviour even between Christians which was universally condemned in previous generations. The church desperately needs preachers and teachers and theologians who do not “reject knowledge” and “ignore the law of God.” We must beware of being led astray by teachers who exchanged their glorious God for something disgraceful.
The apostle Paul had these instructions for Timothy which still seem very relevant today.
2 Timothy 4 2 preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather round them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
Preachers and teachers should not compromise the Christian faith by just telling people what their itching ears want to hear. We must be faithful to what God has revealed to us in the Bible
The other great sin of the priests of Hosea’s time is that they led people to worship idols instead of the one true God, even offering sacrifices to those false gods. Those priests just gave the people what they wanted and what they asked for. And this I think gives a serious warning to anybody who is entrusted with the responsibility of leading God’s people in worship, not only clergy but also thr increasing ranks of worship leaders. We must make sure that we are actually leading people to worship God, and not just giving people what they think they want.
I read an interesting blog article this week reporting how an Old Testament scholar Michael Rhodes compared the worship of God we find in the Psalms with the worship of God reflected in the chart of the Top 25 Christian worship songs. He found a number of themes like justice and concern for the poor and oppressed which are very important in the Psalms to be almost completely absent from those top 25 Christian songs. On the other hand popular worship songs tend to focus on the emotional encounter of the individual with God, what one author has described as “Jesus is my boyfriend” songs. They often talk about “I” and “me” whereas the Psalms talk much more about “we” and “us”. So many modern worship songs express celebration and triumph while the Psalms so often talk about suffering and lament. Most of the top 25 Christians worship songs were written by just a few individuals. Michael Rhodes commented, “if those professionals keep writing songs that just edit out enormous portions of the biblical language of worship, churches will have to fire them and find other resources OR our worshiping lives will be impoverished.”
It may be true that all some Christians want to sing at this time is cheerful triumphant songs. But coming out of the Coronavirus pandemic what we all need is actually a healthy balanced diet of worship which gives space for reflection and mourning and lament as well as rejoicing.
The other point the article made was that sung worship in many large and popular churches seems to emphasise performance rather than participation. Songs are written for the band to perform rather than for the congregation to sing together. The commercialisation of Christian music through YouTube and digital downloads has produced popular worship songs which a generation of Christians love to sing along to in the kitchen or in the car, but which are a long way from the kinds of worship we find in the Psalms. The hymns and songs we use in our times of worship shape the faith and the life of our churches. Unless God’s people are really worshipping in spirit and in truth, there is a real danger of ending up with no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God.
So Hosea brings a warning to worship leaders and song writers, and to preachers and ministers. And let me finish by explaining why I think those warnings are particularly important for churches at this time. We are all beginning to emerge from the massive upheaval of the Coronavirus pandemic. Many churches are struggling in these days. Not only have the finances of many churches been hit very hard. In many churches, worshippers and even church members are not all returning. The last 20 months have caused very many people to take a long look at their lives and re-evaluate their priorities, and for some people church (or sometimes the church they used to belong to) is no longer as important to them. For many people, church has become a video they can tune into from their sofas whenever they want to watch a recording, rather than a community they are happy to belong to. There are also some people who used to be very active in their churches who have been glad to be less busy, and are not wanting to take up all their old jobs again.
Churches are wanting to bring people back into church again. But the temptation will be greater than ever for ministers and preachers to tell people just the things that are easy to hear, rather than the hard truths of the Bible. For worship leaders the temptation will be to give people just the popular songs they enjoy singing, rather than to lead them in the broad riches of worship, which of course includes times of prayer and testimony and prophecy and silence as well as just singing.
In Hosea’s time, Israel came under God’s judgment because there was no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. God’s people were destroyed from lack of knowledge. But this was the fault of the priests who had rejected knowledge, “ignored the law of God” and “exchanged their glorious God for something disgraceful.” So it is that a people without understanding will come to ruin!
These things are given as warnings to us today. Remember what happened to Israel.
19 A whirlwind will sweep them away, and their sacrifices will bring them shame.
Let those who have ears hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches

There are few things which will inevitably damage and destroy a marriage, but adultery is one of them. Hosea had married an adulterous wife who he knew would be unfaithful to him. But that was prophetic symbolism of the ways that the nation of Israel had been unfaithful to their God, the one true God and their Saviour. All the Israelites had been guilty of chasing after false gods, to the point when God is ready to reject his chosen people altogether.
Hosea 2 2 ‘Rebuke your mother, rebuke her,
for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband.

So God makes one last desperate plea to Israel and warns the nation that his judgment will fall unless she changes her ways.
Let her remove the adulterous look from her face
and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.
3 Otherwise I will strip her naked
and make her as bare as on the day she was born;
I will make her like a desert,
turn her into a parched land,
and slay her with thirst.

ISRAEL’S SIN

Over the centuries there were many sins that Israel fell into. In Hosea’s time the first was offering worship to idols and false gods.

Worshipping false gods

4 I will not show my love to her children,
because they are the children of adultery.
5 Their mother has been unfaithful
and has conceived them in disgrace.
She said, “I will go after my lovers,
who give me my food and my water,
my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.”

Led astray decades before by King Ahab and his Queen Jezebel, the false gods the Israelites had been worshipping were the Baals, the false gods of the Canaanites. They were fertility gods. Sacrifices were offered to the Baals to guarantee good harvests. But Israel’s unfaithfulness would have gone beyond spiritual adultery. Baal worship involved ritual prostitution, so many of the Israelites would have descended to physical immorality with each other and with the pagan tribes nearby. Those were sins which demanded the death penalty in the Law of Moses. Israel had “played the harlot” as the King James Authorised Version puts it. But before we judge the Israelites too harshly, let us remember the kind of world we live in, where immorality is everywhere and too often the church has remained silent. And too often, prominent church leaders have fallen into temptation as well. But as well as offering worship to these false gods, the Israelites were also putting their trust in them and

Depending on false gods

V 5. She said, “I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.”

Instead of relying on the one true God to provide for their needs, the Israelites were depending on the false gods the Baals for everything.

8 She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold— which they used for Baal.

Faith in Almighty God for good harvests had been replaced by trust in false gods. This failure to trust in God was just as much an act of unfaithfulness as actually offering worship to the false gods. Again we should listen to the warning – who or what do we put our trust in ro provide our needs and for our safety and security in the future? Are we relying on God, or do we sometimes rely on money or medicine or technology to keep us comfortable and safe? If we are not putting our trust in God alone, then we can be tempted into the same kind of spiritual unfaithfulness as Israel fell into.

God plans to call Israel to repentance

6 Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes;
I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.
7 She will chase after her lovers but not catch them;
she will look for them but not find them.
Then she will say,
“I will go back to my husband as at first,
for then I was better off than now.”

Here we see the amazing grace of God that he doesn’t abandon Israel. His love will never let her go. So he embarks on a two stage plan to save his chosen people from their adultery. The first stage will bring punishment and then the second stage will reveal God’s love once again.

GOD’S PUNISHMENT for Israel’s sins

God’s punishment is an expression of his discipline. Firstly he will withdraw his blessing from Israel.

9 ‘Therefore I will take away my corn when it ripens, and my new wine when it is ready.
I will take back my wool and my linen, intended to cover her naked body.

The people were acting as though their harvests were coming from the false gods the Baals. God would show that all the blessings they enjoyed were from him – all his to give and equally all his to take away.

12 I will ruin her vines and her fig-trees, which she said were her pay from her lovers;
I will make them a thicket, and wild animals will devour them.

If God had kept on providing for Israel they would just have kept on ignoring him. So instead he takes his blessings away. With some people, sometimes God does withdraw his blessing to bring us to our knees so that we return to him. If he kept on prospering our lives we would keep on ignoring him. God needs to bring us to a low place before we acknowledge him again. That can be the only way that God brings some people to their senses. Sometimes the only way up is down!

Then God demonstrates the emptiness of the false gods

10 So now I will expose her lewdness before the eyes of her lovers;
no one will take her out of my hands.
11 I will stop all her celebrations: her yearly festivals, her New Moons,
her Sabbath days—all her appointed festivals.

By withdrawing his blessing, God was showing the Israelites that the pagan gods were completely powerless and that only the Almighty God of Israel was omnipotent. God needed to break the Israelites’ trust in the false gods so that they would reject and banish them entirely. Israel would need to return and put their trust in their God and Saviour once again.

13 I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals;
she decked herself with rings and jewellery, and went after her lovers, but me she forgot,’
declares the LORD.

That was the greatest sin the Israelites were committing. They had forgotten their God. They had forgotten all he had done in saving them from slavery and making them his chosen people and establishing them in the Promised Land, the land flowing with milk and honey. The people had forgotten that is was God who provided for all their needs. So God would have to discipline the whole nation. The Letter to the Hebrews reminds us that God will sometimes deal with Christians in the same way.

Punishment as discipline

Hebrews 5 5 And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,
‘My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.’
7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Sometimes God will treat Christians as he treated Israel in Hosea’s time. Sometimes God will withdraw his blessing and take us through hard times so that we will come back to him and put our trust in him again. That was the first stage in God’s plan to bring Israel back to himself, to bring her to her knees. But that was only a preparation for the second stage of the plan, which reveals once again
GOD’S LOVE FOR ISRAEL

Just listen to the beautiful tenderness as God sets out to woo Israel once again.
14 ‘Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness
and speak tenderly to her.
15 There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she will respond as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

All God wants is for his chosen people Israel to be a faithful wife once again. So God is not going to force Israel to love him. Instead he will gently court her and win her back. Such amazing grace! And God’s love for us is just as beautiful and tender.

The word Achor means trouble. The Valley of Achor was the place where judgment fell on Achan as we read in Joshua 7. Achan kept some of the spoils from the fall of Jericho for himself when God had commanded that they should all be consecrated to the Lord. So Achan’s crime was the first act of disobedience and his execution by stoning was the first punishment God commanded after the Israelites had entered to take possession of the Promised Land. The Valley of Achor, this place of punishment and place of trouble in the past, would become instead a symbol of hope for Israel.

God promises to give Israel

An even richer relationship
16 ‘In that day,’ declares the LORD, ‘you will call me “my husband”;
you will no longer call me “my master”.
17 I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked.

Worshippers of the Baals called their false gods “my master”. In contrast, the nation of Israel would call God “my husband” and she would not just be his treasured possession and his holy nation. Israel would be his bride.

So there would be a new betrothal.

18 In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky
and the creatures that move along the ground.
Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety.
19 I will betroth you to me for ever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice,
in love and compassion. 20 I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD.

Israel would have a new relationship with God, an even deeper relationship characterized by righteousness and justice and love and compassion and faithfulness. These beautiful promises will obviously remind you of the words we looked at just a few months ago from Psalm 85

Psalm 85 10 Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other.
11 Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven.
12 The LORD will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest.
13 Righteousness goes before him and prepares the way for his steps.

Wonderful promises which of course ultimately find fulfilment in the marriage of The Messiah, the Christ, and his Bride the church. A new betrothal, and even deeper relationship, and then there are promises of

Even greater blessings

21 ‘In that day I will respond,’ declares the LORD—
‘I will respond to the skies, and they will respond to the earth;
22 and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and the olive oil,
and they will respond to Jezreel.
23 I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called “Not my loved one”.
I will say to those called “Not my people”, “You are my people”;
and they will say, “You are my God.” ’

However much righteous anger God felt for Israel, he never stopped loving them. The symbolic names given by Hosea to his children revealed the extent of God’s judgment. But here is the wonderful promise that those names will be reversed. “Not my loved one” will be blessed with so much love. God will say once again to those who were “not my people”, “you are my people.” And once again his chosen people will respond, “you are my God.”
So although Israel must face God’s punishment for their unfaithfulness, Hosea promises that one day God’s love will win his chosen people back to himself. However great their sins may be, God’s love and mercy is greater. The theme of this chapter is indeed judgment, but it is even more a glorious theme of hope. And this gives us encouragement and hope. Even if we drift away from God, his love will never let us go. He may discipline us. But then God’s love will always woo us and win us back. We will always be his people and his beloved ones. And we will always ultimately say once again, “you are my God”.

In 931 BC after the glorious reigns of David and Solomon, the nation of Israel split into two Kingdoms. The larger Northern Kingdom led by Jeroboam was known as Israel and the Southern Kingdom led by Rehoboam which included Jerusalem was called Judah. In the ninth century BC God sent the prophets Elijah and Elisha to call the Northern Kingdom away from idol-worship. A century later the prophet Hosea delivered God’s messages to the Northern Kingdom of Israel between 760 BC and 722 BC, at about the same time as the shepherd prophet Amos.
Although if I had been Hosea, I am sure I would not have accepted God’s call to be a prophet when we hear the first thing God said to him.
2 When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him,
‘Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her,’ (NIV2011)
The 2011 NIV translation doesn’t really convey how shocking that command from God actually was. Nor does the 1984 NIV.
“Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness.”
The New Living Translation says “Go and marry a prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution.”
Even the New King James Version is very blunt.
NKJV “Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry And children of harlotry,”
Absolutely not the first words anybody would want to hear when God called them to be his prophet. The very first thing we should recognise in the Book of Hosea is the inspiring example of the prophet’s obedience to God. Hosea was not just called to deliver some messages from God. He was called to marry a promiscuous wife and to give his children weird names. Obeying God flows over from saying the right things to doing the right things, whatever the cost. If only we were always as obedient to God’s commands as Hosea was.
To understand Hosea 1 we need to think a bit about “prophetic symbolism”. Sometimes God’s prophets were called to take specific actions which would have a symbolic meaning. One obvious example is Samuel’s message to Saul.
1 Samuel 15 26 But Samuel said to (Saul) “…. You have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you as king over Israel!”
27 As Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore. 28 Samuel said to him, “The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors—to one better than you. 29 He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a man, that he should change his mind.”

The tearing of the robe was a prophetic symbol indicating God’s rejection of Saul as King.
In Ezekiel 4 God commanded the prophet to make a model of Jerusalem and lay siege to the model, as a symbol of the siege which was going to fall on Jerusalem under the Babylonians. “This will be a sign to the house of Israel.” God said.
In the New Testament, Mary anointing Jesus with oil and wiping his feet with her hair was prophetic symbolism pointing forward to his death and burial.
Jesus putting mud on the eyes of the man born blind as part of his healing symbolised the words Jesus had just said. John 9 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’ Jesus cursing the fig tree, and turning over the tables and driving the merchants and the money-changers out of the Temple, both symbolised Gods judgment on Israel in his day.
So Hosea marrying this unfaithful wife would be an act of prophetic symbolism.
2 When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him, ‘Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the LORD.’

NASB95 “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry; for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the LORD.”
NLT
“Go and marry a prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the LORD and worshiping other gods.”
So Hosea marrying Gomer, knowing that she would be unfaithful to him, was an act of prophetic symbolism representing the unfaithfulness of the Northern Kingdom of Israel to her God and saviour, the LORD, Yahweh. The prophet’s message was expressed in a dramatic and even scandalous action. We will look in weeks to come at the different ways in which Israel were being unfaithful to God. Writing at the same time to the same audience, Amos is concerned about the absence of righteousness and justice. On the other hand, Hosea is speaking out particularly against the worship of idols and false Gods. Gomer the unfaithful wife is a symbol of the spiritual unfaithfulness of the Israelites.
3 So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

Gomer then has three children, children of unfaithfulness, children of promiscuity, children of harlotry. The first was Hosea’s son. We don’t know who the fathers of the others were. And God instructs Hosea to give each of the children names which have a prophetic significance and meaning.
4 Then the LORD said to Hosea, ‘Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. 5 In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.’

You might remember how King Ahab and his wife Jezabel had led Israel into worshipping the Baals and the Asherah, the false gods of the Canaanites, in the time of the prophets Elijah and Elisha. We read in 2 Kings After Ahab died his successor Jehu initially clamped down on Baal worship, but then Jehu overstepped the mark and brutally massacred all the descendants and the allies of Ahab in the valley of Jezreel. This had made God very angry, especially because Jehu continued to encourage the people to worship other false gods, golden calves at Bethel and at Dan. The name of Hosea’s son Jezreel would be a constant warning that God’s judgment was going to fall on the Kingdom Israel and on Jehu’s household.

6 Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the LORD said to Hosea, ‘Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means “not loved”), for I will no longer show love to Israel, that I should at all forgive them. 7 Yet I will show love to Judah; and I will save them—not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but I, the LORD their God, will save them.’

Not a very cheerful name, “not-loved”. But a solemn prophetic warning that God was already withdrawing his love and protection and forgiveness from the Northern Kingdom of Israel. On the other hand, God’s love would continue towards the Southern Kingdom of Judah, indeed he would continue to intervene to protect Judah. The Northern Kingdom would end when the Assyrians captured Samaria in 722 BC but Judah would continue under God’s blessing until the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 587 BC.
8 After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. 9 Then the LORD said, ‘Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.

This final name reveals the extent of God’s judgment. As we were thinking this morning, Israel were the chosen people of the LORD, his treasured possession. He had brought them out of slavery in Egypt through the miracle of the parting of the Red Sea. He had made his covenant with them on Mount Sinai.
Exodus 19 3 Then Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain and said, ‘This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: 4 “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.’
A kingdom of priests and a holy nation, the LORD Yahweh was their God and Israel were his chosen people. He kept them safe through the wilderness and brought them victorious into the Promised Land. Jerusalem was God’s holy city and the Temple on Mount Zion was the place on earth where God was most present to his people. But no more.
9 Then the LORD said, ‘Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.

Prophetic symbolism – marrying a promiscuous wife and children given names with a prophetic significance. God’s judgment is coming for Jehu’s massacre in Jezreel. Israel are now “not-loved” and “not my people.” Not an easy message for Hosea to deliver, and even harder because the words were reinforced by dramatic prophetic symbolism.
But praise be to God – that will not be the end of the story! Because like many of the prophets, Hosea’s message is not only one of judgment but also one of hope. We will see week by week how God is going to punish Israel for her sins, but at the same time that God has not given up on Israel.
10 ‘Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people”, they will be called “children of the living God”. 11 The people of Judah and the people of Israel will come together; they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.
2 ‘Say of your brothers, “My people”, and of your sisters, “My loved one”.

God had promised to give Abraham descendants as many as sand on the seashore. And that promise is renewed here. Although for a while God was going to remove his love from Israel, one day that love will be restored. Although for a time they will be treated as “not my people” one day they will again be called “children of the living God.” What is more, at that time the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah had been divided for nearly two hundred years. But here God is promising that one day the whole nation will be reunited under one leader – and that leader of course will be the Messiah.
2 ‘Say of your brothers, “My people”, and of your sisters, “My loved one”.

There is hope for Israel looking ahead to the day when God will show his love for them once again. They will be God’s chosen people once again, beloved by God once again. And that reassures us that nobody is beyond hope. Anybody can be restored to God’s love. We will see how that can happen in the weeks to come. Even in the midst of warnings of terrible judgment, we also have the promises of God’s love which never lets us go.