This morning I invite you to turn with me again to Hosea. Prophecy of Hosea following Daniel. We began an introduction on this book last week, Sunday morning. This morning I'd like to read with you again the first chapter and the first verse of chapter 2 as we consider this chapter together. Hosea chapter 1. Hear now the Word of our God. The Word of the Lord that came to Hosea, son of Beri, during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam, son of Jehoash, king of Israel. When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, Go take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord. So he married Gomer, daughter of Dibliam, and she conceived and bore him a son. 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. In that day I will break Israel's bow in the valley of Jezreel. Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to Hosea, Call her Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer show love to the house of Israel, that I should at all forgive them. Yet I will show love to the house of Judah, and I will save them, not by bow, sword, or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but by the Lord their God. After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. Then the Lord said, Call him Lo-Ami, For you are not my people, and I am not your God. 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 sons of the living God. The people of Judah and the people of Israel will be reunited, and they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land. For great will be the day of Jezreel. Say of your brothers, my people, and of your sisters, my loved one. Well, beloved, in the Lord Jesus Christ, how unbelievable, shocking, simply scandalous. Isn't that what we think when we hear a story like this? But why? Is it because of what God commanded Hosea to do? see most likely if we are honest for most of us we would admit that yes that's the first thought that comes to my mind how could god command hosea to do something like this how could god put him through that how could he make him live with such or within such a marriage it simply isn't fair but I believe we can be assured that Hosea did not think like that I believe that we can be assured that his concern was for the honor of God and he knew that he was an instrument in the hand of God to carry out the will of God and therefore our concern is not to be for Hosea and to try to psychologize him and think oh how did he feel what did he think no but with Hosea our concern is to be for the covenant God and we are to be reminded as Hosea knew and as Paul expresses in Galatians chapter 6 that God cannot be mocked that a man reaps what he sows the one who sows to please his sinful nature from that nature will reap destruction the one who sows to please the Spirit from the Spirit will reap eternal life now i trust that hosea was not concerned about what god commanded him to do but his concern with the why why did god command him to do it what it meant and he would have been grieved because of what it meant for god and we too are to be grieved beloved by what sin means against god first of all and how it grieves him. Hosea would be used as a willing instrument in the hand of God in the context of the Lord's complaint against Israel. And that complaint very simply is found in verse 2 because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord. Now those are bone-chilling words, aren't they? And they should have been chilling words even for Israel as they hear the very name Yahweh, the Lord. And they are reminded of the land as we said last week. And therefore, the Lord's complaint reminds them of the covenant relationship that they had with God. But they were not to be reminded at this time of the blessings for obedience. But they should be reminded especially of the curses for disobedience. And the Lord addresses His complaint, first of all, with the appalling picture. Secondly, with the awful punishment. And third, with the amazing promise. First, the appalling picture. Boys and girls, something that is appalling very simply is something that is the very opposite of pleasant. It's the opposite of delightful. It's terrible, something that is appalling. It's scandalous. It's horrifying. It fills one with disgust. you can't believe it and that's the appalling picture here because it comes with a shocking command go take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness a shocking command but what does it mean we began to consider this last week a little bit some would say that gomer was a cult prostitute in the context of false worship that she was a prostitute that hung out at the temple at the times of worship they say that makes more sense if you want to compare her with Israel's spiritual adultery but there's little or no evidence for that others say that this is what she will become she will become adulterous this is what she was prone to do it was part of her nature to do that but she had not yet acted on it and again still others say that she was already adulterous, that she had already been living a promiscuous life, acting on those promiscuous desires in prostitution. And of course, the last two descriptions are the most plausible, but again, I believe that she was already an adulterous woman, living that kind of a lifestyle because of the original language and the terms used, and it points to that. But there are also questions with regard to the children. Did she already have these children and was Hosea to adopt them? She may have if she was living a promiscuous life, but not necessarily. Or, do children of unfaithfulness point to the three that are listed as some say all of the Israelites were children of unfaithfulness? Well, that one's difficult to determine and I don't know that we can, but I believe the point is found in the significance of the names. And in the children who were called to bear those names, that they, like the marriage, would be visible sermons of the judgment that Hosea was to preach. But think about the implications of this marriage. On the one hand, it certainly would be untraditional in the biblical sense. God had said, a man shall leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh, exclusively from start to finish. There was to be no sharing. And therefore, Gomer was not the type that a believer ought to marry. But as well, this marriage would be painful. Because whether she already was adulterous, a prostitute, or whether she would become that way, Hosea was entering a marriage knowing that his wife would not be a one-man woman. but instead she would have a roving eye looking for greener pastures in the arms of someone else. He would enter a painful marriage knowing that he would not have the exclusive love of his wife for him. She would have a wayward heart and certainly this marriage would be a painful, a trying time. And therefore it would be difficult for him to trust her from the very start. That's what he had to look forward to. But yet the significance of this marriage, beloved, is that it was an appalling picture of what the Lord had married in pledging himself to Israel. It was going to signify the relationship that the Lord already had with his wife. And therefore the appalling picture also contains a certain comparison. Gomer was Israel to a T. Or to put it the other way, Israel was Gomer to a T. And if you think about it, the amazing thing is that Israel's infidelity, her unfaithfulness, was known by God already before. It was known by God from the period of the wilderness wandering. In Deuteronomy chapter 31, the Lord said to Moses, You are going to rest with your fathers and these people, remember, before they enter Canaan, and these people will soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake me and break the covenant I made with them. On that day I will become angry with them and forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they will be destroyed. Many disasters and difficulties will come upon them, and on that day they will ask, Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is not with us? And I will certainly hide my face on that day because of all their wickedness in turning to other gods. He knew of their infidelity beforehand, but even before this at Mount Sinai. Boys and girls, when Moses was up on the mount receiving the law of God, when the Lord made His covenant with Moses, the people were down on the bottom making that golden calf, giving their allegiance to this calf. Oh, they said, this is the Lord who brought you out of Egypt. But they were giving their allegiance to an idol. But we can go back even before this. Go back to Jacob, where when Jacob returned to Bethel with his family, after he saw Esau, he says to his household, get rid of the foreign gods you have with you and purify yourselves. And of course, we know that we can go back even further, can't we? You see, Israel's character was fully known by God when He committed Himself to her by His covenant. And therefore, we cannot overlook Israel's ungratefulness after all that God had done for her, delivering her from Egypt, bringing her through the wilderness, giving her the promised land, driving out the nations before her, and His patience time after time when they turned away from Him. And He brought them back. And all of that recorded, especially in select psalms, the history of God's dealing with His people. We sang it in Psalm 66, the last psalm. And all of that, you see, passed down through the generations. Yet the people did not show love and a faithful commitment to God. But they turned their backs on the one true God. They prostituted themselves. They ran into the very arms of idols. And therefore, Hosea's marriage and children were the means that God would use to show Israel the terrible truth of her corruption and the destruction that was to come upon them. Yet, even in the midst of this appalling picture, there is a sure comfort. There is a sure comfort for Israel. They might not have known it yet at the time, But there is a sure comfort for Israel, and that's seen in Hosea's marriage. Indeed, that marriage would serve as a divinely sent object lesson of the terrible sin of Israel and of the anger of God. But also, that marriage was a reminder of the covenant of God with His people whom He knew were an adulterous people. What a beautiful reminder of the mercy of God. But also, it's a sure comfort for us. A comfort of God's promise to us that He chose us in Christ, as Paul says, when? Before the creation of the world. And He committed Himself to saving us. Even though He knew what we would be like. Even though He knew of the sin that we would commit long after Calvary. Have you ever thought about that? I didn't until working on this sermon that after those thousands of years of Israel's history recorded and the promises given, Jesus Christ came in the fullness of time and He went to the cross and bore the wrath and punishment of God and shed His blood to pay for sin. But not only the sin of the previous generations, but even the sin that He knew that you and I would commit 2,000 years later. But already back then, God took care of that. And He chose us, even though He knew what kind of people we would be. Yet God is faithful to His Word. Also in the difficult sense. Going back to Deuteronomy 31, what He said to Moses before the people entered. And now the time was near as His complaint included, secondly, the awful punishment. beginning of verse 3, So he married Gomer, daughter of Dibliam, and she conceived and bore him a son. 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. In that day I will break Israel's bow into the valley of Jezreel. Jezreel. Now there's a lot of history there that we need to remember. We can only touch on, but Jezreel, for the people, would have been synonymous with bloodshed. When they heard the word Jezreel, they would have thought of bloodshed like when we hear Pearl Harbor. We think of the Japanese invasion of World War II. When we hear 9-11, we think of terrorist attacks and the collapse of the Twin Towers. Jezreel was best known as both a valley and a city. And here, first of all, he's talking about the city. You recall it was the second royal residence. Maybe you might call it the summer home for the dynasty of Omri. You remember his family, King Ahab, wicked Queen Jezebel. And right away, all kinds of things must come to your mind. We think of Naboth's vineyard was there. And in 2 Kings 9, Jehu was commissioned by God through Elisha to wipe out the wicked house of Omri. That's the massacre at Jezreel with all of the bloodshed that took place. But then the Bible says, I will punish the house of Jehu for that massacre. We might say, yeah, but he was just following orders. And indeed, he was an instrument in the hand of God, yet Jehu's motivation was not God's motivation. Jehu's motivation was wickedness for which he must answer. And in 2 Kings 10, verse 31, we read, Yet Jehu was not careful to keep the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to commit. And therefore, as Jehu put an end to the long, wicked dynasty of Omri, which was filled with a history of oppression and apostasy, In the same way, Yahweh would do that to Jehu's dynasty. Because it had grown hopelessly corrupt. Now last week, I said that Jeroboam II, whom Hosea mentions here, was the last of the fourth generation that the Lord promised to Jehu. And I was wrong about that. The first of the six kings that we listed, Zechariah was the son of Jeroboam II. He reigned for only six months and he was assassinated. And that was not that many years after this prophecy, and that put an end to the house of Jehu. But notice also what these verses say, And I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. In that day I will break Israel's bow in the valley of Jezreel. We might say, as the king, so the kingdom. In the time of the Protestant Reformation, if the king or ruler remained Roman Catholic, then in theory the country stayed Roman Catholic. If the king or the ruler became Protestant, then the same thing happened with the country. We think of Ehud when he killed Eglon. And after that, the nation was paralyzed, the army was paralyzed. As the king, so the kingdom. And that's what happens here. And now we're talking about the Valley of Jezreel, which it is believed was the site of many historic battles, such as the battle that the judge Deborah engaged in with Barak against the Canaanites. or the battle of Gideon with his 300 over Midianites or when Israel was overcome by the Philistines in the time of King Saul. And it is believed it is the actual place where Hosea's prophecy came true and Assyria destroyed Israel. Surely it is symbolic for the massacre of Israel, their bow being shattered. That points to their military strength being wiped out. Israel's confidence was not in the Lord. Her confidence was in her weapons, in her allies. And that confidence along with their weapons would be broken and Israel would be scattered. Jezreel means God sows. Negatively, we might say it means scattered. It's as if they would be thrown over the shoulder, discarded, like we sometimes throw garbage over the shoulder, not having any care for where it lands. And this points also then with this awful punishment to compassion being removed. Verse 6, Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to Hosea, Call her lo, Rukhama, for I will no longer show love to the house of Israel, that I should at all forgive them. Yet I will show love to the house of Judah, and I will save them, not by bow, sword, or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but by the Lord their God. What a difficult name for a little girl. We try to give our children names that flatter them. Cute names. Names that we think fit. But this little girl, when someone would see her and say, What is your name? My name is Loruchama. Can you imagine what the people would think? No pity, no love, no mercy, no compassion. That's the name of this little girl. And the love and the compassion and the pity that is being spoken of here is a deep down love with a desire for every welfare of the one being loved. The kind that parents have for their children. As David says in Psalm 103, verse 13, As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion, that deep down love, with a desire for their every welfare of those who fear Him. You see, beloved, God is long-suffering. He is patient. But He will not put up with rejection forever. Not Israel's. And not anybody's today. If you have not looked to Him in repentance and faith, He is patient. But you need to know, He will not put up with that rejection forever. And the time had come for the northern kingdom as a whole, they would face this disaster and awful punishment. Literally, no pity. And that ought to have instilled in them a sense of hopelessness. Those very words ought to have made their heart sink. Because sin creates the greatest need for the pity and the mercy of God who is the only one able to do anything about it. But no pity, beloved, meant disaster. It meant no help with sin. Indeed, sometimes when God gives one over to their own ways, The only mercy, the only pity that is left is the judgment itself. Which is meant to draw them back. No pity for Israel. But they were called to look at Judah. Now this was not a blanket guarantee for Judah because we know that Judah later on would be sent into captivity into Babylon. But for now, Judah would escape the Assyrian onslaught. Not by her own power, but the Lord would protect her. The Lord would not give her over to Assyria just as He would not give Job over to the every desire of Satan. And we see the fulfillment of this in 2 Kings 19. We read that the Sennacherib, king of Assyria, and his soldiers were marching toward Jerusalem. And Hezekiah, king of Judah, prays for deliverance. And in verse 35, we are told the angel of the Lord goes into the Assyrian camp and slays 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. they were spared. But the message to Israel was in effect that this is the salvation in store for your sister. But this is what your impenitence have forfeited. And that leads to the relationship severed. The worst part, we might say, of that awful punishment. Their leadership destroyed. Their compassion removed. And their relationship severed. Verses 8 and 9. Again, notice the patience of God. After the second child was weaned, three, four, five, six, maybe seven years, we don't know. But it wasn't overnight. The Lord gave them time. He was patient. But notice too the covenantal language here, The same language that we read in Exodus chapter 6 where the Lord says to Moses to say to Israel, I will take you as My own people and I will be your God. I will take you as My people and I will be your God. Israel was known in terms of a special relationship. They were a people of God. But theirs was covenantal disobedience. Israel had not lived according to the laws of the land which God had given that she might live long in the land He had given. She had not lived according to the laws of obedience to the Lord and exclusive worship of the Lord. And therefore the time had come for covenantal rejection. It would be turned around. The punishments put in effect. And God would no longer claim them as His, think about that. You're not mine. Not anymore. He was no longer to be their defender, their nourisher, their Savior, their deliverer, their Father, their hope, their refuge, and all that is included in God. Those who have God by faith have all that He is. He is theirs completely. But in a sense, the final nail in the coffin is when he says, I am not your God. I'm not yours, literally. I am not your I am. They had claimed him as theirs. Oh yeah, we believe in him. We believe in a lot of others too, but he's one of them. They had claimed him as theirs. But the presence of other gods proved this false. In essence, he says, stop fooling yourselves. You can say it all you want. You can believe it. But you don't have me. You don't have me. What an awful punishment. Simply unimaginable. And very clearly, beloved, the immediate direction for Israel was destruction and exile because they had broken the covenant that God had made with Moses, the covenant of the land. But the ultimate direction for Israel was deliverance and restoration as we come to these beautiful words an amazing promise beginning at verse 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 sons of the living God the people of Judah and the people of Israel will be reunited and they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land for great will be the day of Jezreel say of your brothers my people and of your sisters, my loved one. An amazing promise. Why? Because of the covenant remembered. There's hope for those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, God would put in effect the punishment that He had stated. They would lose the allowance of the land that they were given. But even more so, beyond that, God remembered His covenant of grace with Abraham. and again we have covenantal language as numerous as the sand of the seashore you know that that was central to the patriarchal promises the promise given to Abraham and restated to Jacob and we also know that this looks beyond the return from captivity indeed a remnant return but never again was Israel or Israel and Judah together never again were they powerful never again were they influential but now this amazing promise includes that Jezreel takes on a new meaning God's souls no longer scattered would they be but gathered and sown as God's people those who are holy and dearly loved and now Jezreel would be a symbol of blessing restored as God once again would claim them as my people as my loved ones indeed this punishment was for the purpose of restoring as one commentator says what god takes away he replaces with usury interest things of time by things eternal outward goods gifts and privileges by inward an earthly kingdom by heavenly an amazing promise because the covenant is remembered but that not that alone also the covenant fulfilled in jesus christ this points to jesus christ and we have new testament proof of the fulfillment of this covenant with the inclusion of the gentiles paul says in romans 9 he quotes hosea i will call them my people who are not my people and i will call her my loved one who is not my loved one and it will happen that in the very place where it was said to them you are not my people they will be called sons of the living god and peter says in first peter 2 beginning in verse 9 but you are a chosen people a royal priesthood a holy nation a people belonging to god that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light once you were not a people but now you are the people of god once you had not receive mercy but now you have received mercy the covenant has been fulfilled in jesus christ for all who believe jew and gentile alike from every tribe every tongue every nation drawn together under one ruler king jesus jesus christ of whom we sing in my place condemned he stood He suffered the bloody massacre of the cross, Jezreel. He was deprived of the Father's love, Lo-Ruchamah. He was forsaken of the Father's presence, Lo-Ami. All because of the spiritual adultery of His people, of you and me. He endured the judgment and the wrath of God, beloved, in order to earn for us the blessing of God. That blessing, though, is only for those who believe. Only for those who humble themselves and look to Him alone in repentance and faith. Because even to those who claim Him, who say, hey, we've done all these good things in your name, but have no true faith. To them, He will say one day, depart from me. I never knew you. I'm not yours. Indeed, God is patient. And His Word is true, all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved. But those who reject Him will suffer the massacre of eternal death, and they will be forever without the compassion and the pity of the one and only God from whom they have been cut off. The congregation, in sin, we are Gomer. In sin, we are Gomer. And our sin gives a message every time we sin. It gives a message. It gives a message that I know better. It gives a message that I have a better way. It gives a message that I don't care about God's way. In sin, we are Gomer. And that means that we are worthy. That means that we have no claim on God. It means that we are those whose sin grieves God so deeply. It means we have a great need for the pity and the mercy of God, which alone can take care of that sin. And He has. He has in Christ. In Christ, God has demonstrated His deep love and compassion for those who are completely incapable of saving themselves. And the result is that we will never be rejected. We will never be cast away. He will never say of you and me who believe, you are not my people and I am not your God. He will never say, you don't have me. But instead, in Christ, we have all that God is. All of His power, all of His majesty, all of His love and mercy and grace, it's all for us. And therefore, as we walk this earth, we don't have to fear. We don't have to fear when difficult days come. We don't have to fear earthly leadership. We are given the responsibility to cast our vote, and we must do so wisely, in prayer, in faith. But when we recognize leadership that is totally against the will of God, we don't need to fear that leadership. We don't need to fear economic distress. Boys and girls, you don't need to fear bullies and those who pick on you in school. They're nothing. We don't need to fear sickness. Not that these things don't trouble us at times. Not that they don't affect us. But God is our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend. And He says, fear not. When these things come upon you, I will get you through. At the same time, we are called to rejoice and be thankful in prosperity when things are going well that we might not be drawn to look away for greener pastures, but instead to keep our eyes focused on Him. And beloved, we are called to remember and celebrate all that He has done for us in Christ Jesus recorded in the very Word of God. But also since that, since Calvary, what He has done for the church, Israel again had a record of all of the power and the miraculous works of God done on their behalf, but they forgot. We are called to remember history and remember all that God has done in His church throughout history. And especially the reformation of the church in the 16th century. The spread of the gospel and the language of the people. And also how God brought His people back to the truth of the soulless, saved by grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone. And may we not take that rich heritage, that biblical heritage for granted. May we not become indifferent to it as if it means nothing. May we not lose our distinctiveness. There are a lot of churches out there with many true believers in them. May we be among those who lead our world in this day to teach the truth that salvation is only in Jesus Christ by the grace of God. And may we also remember specifically the great things that He has done in our own personal lives as we have seen His hand at work in us. May we be grateful for our salvation, beloved, not by bull, sword, or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but by the Lord our God. The believer's comfort, the Lord says through Isaiah, is fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have summoned you by name. You are mine. Our God is a God of promise. He is a jealous God. That means he has an urgent desire for that which is his, as a husband, is to have an urgent desire for his wife, a jealousy that he's not willing to share her with any other man. Our God has a righteous jealousy, an urgent desire for you and me, not willing to share us. And he has proven that in Jesus Christ. And he calls us to be his exclusively, to be faithful to him in response to his fulfilled promises in Jesus Christ in whom we belong. The cross of Jesus, beloved, is shocking. That cross is scandalous. But not necessarily because of what happened to Jesus. It points to God's complaint. It is an appalling picture of our sin. It shows us the awful punishment against our sin. But as well, we have there an amazing promise of our salvation. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, how should we respond to your word other than with humility, but also with such great joy? Indeed, Father, you have given to us such great comfort this morning. as we have considered this Your Word and been reminded of Your way with Your people and all that You have done for us, and we exalt You for that. We thank You for that. We recognize our unworthiness, O Lord, but our prayer is that indeed we would glory in this day by day, moment by moment in what You have done and help us, O Lord, by Your Spirit to respond in a way that gives glory to You. Hear us for Jesus' sake, and in His name alone, Amen.