April 23, 2023
Hosea 1:1-2:1
“Unbreakable Love”
Service Overview: God is a loving and faithful god who pursues and extends grace to those who aren’t.
Memory Verse for the Week:
“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” Exodus 20:4-6 (NIV)
Background Insights:
- The prophets were God’s spokesmen to call Israel and Judah back to the covenant God had made with them at Mt. Sinai. But the people refused to listen, and both kingdoms suffered for their disobedience. Israel became an Assyrian vassal in 733 BC and then was conquered by Assyria in 722 BC. The Babylonians invaded Judah in 606 BC and destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC. (Warren Wiersbe, Be Amazed: Minor Prophets, 12)
- This was a particularly horrendous time in the history of Israel. In 2 Kings 15 we find the story of Jeroboam II and his successors. One, for instance, reigned six months and then was assassinated. His assassin then reigned for one month and he in turn was killed. And things just went from bad to worse. Anarchy was abroad. In this kind of environment Hosea was called to prophesy. (D. Stuart Briscoe, Taking God Seriously, Major Lessons from the Minor Prophets, 13)
- The Canaanite religion was based on nature myths which laid great stress on fertility and little if any on morality. The resulting cult was a technique for ensuring that everything that could be fruitful and multiply did so with the least difficulty and the greatest dispatch. (H.D. Beeby, Grace Abounding: A Commentary on the Book of Hosea, 2)
- No prophet preached a more painful “action sermon” than Hosea. He was instructed to marry a prostitute named Gomer, who subsequently bore him three children, and he wasn’t even sure the last two children were fathered by him. Then Gomer left him for another man, and Hosea had the humiliating responsibility of buying back his own wife. (Warren Wiersbe, Be Amazed: Minor Prophets, 14)
- The images which dominate Hosea’s picture of God and Israel are drawn from the family: husband-wife and parent-child. Of all the metaphors used to speak about God, these two convey most successfully the combination of attributes essential to the biblical understanding of God’s relationship to his people: intimacy, dependability, comprehensiveness, duration, and authority. (James M. Ward, Amos, Hosea, 53)
What is crucial to understand about the love of God from this first chapter of Hosea?
- That God’s love is a jealous love.
(vv. 2-4 | Ex. 20:4-5; 34:14; Deut. 4:24; 5:9; 6:15; 32:16; 32:21; Josh.24:19; 1 Kings 14:22; Ps. 78:58; Prov. 6:34; Nah. 1:2; 2 Cor. 11:2; James 4:5; 1 John 4:8)
The book of Hosea opens by offering us the portrait of a dysfunctional family as a way of understanding the dysfunctional covenant relationship between God and Israel. The images used have a power to shake us and confront us with depths of brokenness that other metaphors might not have. (Bruce C. Birch, Hosea, 22)
In the Old Testament, prostitution is symbolic of idolatry and unfaithfulness to God (Jer. 2—3; Ezek. 16; 23). Since the Jews were idolatrous from the beginning (Josh. 24:2–3, 14), it seems likely that Gomer would have to be a prostitute when she married Hosea; for this would best symbolize Israel’s relationship to the Lord. (Warren Wiersbe, The Wiersbe Bible Commentary, 1394)
- That God’s love is a chastening love.
(vv. 4-9 | Deut. 8:5-6; Job 5:17; Prov. 3:11-12; 12:1; Heb. 12:5-11; 2 Peter 3:9; Rev. 3:19)
The basic message of Hosea is that God loves Israel. However, they have sinned so grievously that he is forced to punish them. Nevertheless, he has not given them up for good and will restore them to himself again. (D. A. Carson, New Bible Commentary, 765)
The book of Hosea is about judgment and hope. Each of the three major sections of the book begins with the threat of divine judgment of Israel and ends with the promise of divine restoration: (David Allan Hubbard, Hosea, 51)
When read together, chs. 1-3 have a basic theme: God’s judgment in the historical process will come against a faithless Israel, sometime after which God will initiate a period of restoration. Hosea’s marriage and children are rendered through literary devices to illustrate the theme, and the texts are thoroughly shaped with that goal in mind. (J. Andrew Dearman, The Book of Hosea, 80)
- That God’s love is a relentless and faithful love.
(vv. 10-2:1 | Deut. 7:9; 28:1-68; Ps. 86:15; 136:26; Zeph. 3:17; Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:19)
It was no cold, calculating God who planned to use Hosea and Gomer in this way. It was a God who cared. He wanted to save his bride and he had tried everything else. (Kevin Logan, What is Love?: Hosea, 8)
With prevenient initiative grace, Yahweh had chosen His people centuries before through the covenant with Abraham. He had called His “son” out of bondage in Egypt and had faithfully brought them to Sinai. “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son,” (Hos. 11:1). The relationship between Yahweh and Israel was one of gracious love for His son. (Lloyd J. Ogilvie, The Communicator’s Commentary: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, 6)
Conclusion…
What is the message of Hosea 1 for people today?
A. God doesn’t share, and we must decide.
(Ex. 20:3-6; 1 Sam. 15:23; Ps. 16:4; Is. 44:9-20; 1 Cor. 6:9; 10:14; Gal. 5:19-21; Rev. 21:8)
The book of Hosea has profound implications for our own personal relationship with God. We are confronted with our own false gods, spiritual adultery, and God’s judgment for our denial of the covenants of Sinai and Calvary in Christ’s blood. (Lloyd J. Ogilvie, The Communicator’s Commentary: Hosea, 7)
The conflict with faithfulness to God arises when the acquisition of wealth and the pursuit of pleasure begin to control us, to shape the course of our lives, to determine our priorities. Wealth and pleasure then assume a religious or quasi-religious significance and threaten to undermine our higher loyalties. They nourish self-centeredness and distract us from love of neighbor and concern for social justice. (James M. Ward, Amos, Hosea, 60)
B. God loves us too much to leave us as we are.
(Rom. 6:14-15; 12:2; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15; Col. 3:10; 1 Thes. 5:23; 1 John 3:9; 5:18)
Even when God deems it necessary to discipline us for persistent disobedience, He always does so out of love to restore us to the way of obedience (see Hebrews 12:4-11). (Jerry Bridges, The Gospel for Real Life, 96)
There was a cross of judgment and forgiveness in God’s heart before there was a cross on Calvary. Golgatha revealed God as both the just and the justifier (Rom. 3:26). This becomes very real when we consider honestly God’s problem with each of us. He cannot wink at our sin that separates us from Him or our sins that express our rebellion. At the same time, He must find a way to confront us and heal us. (Ogilvie, 15)
C. Through Jesus, we can become children of God.
(John 1:12; 3:16; Rom. 8:15-16; 2 Cor. 6:18; Gal. 3:26; Eph. 1:5; 5:1; 1 John 3:1)
Child of God, you cost Christ too much for Him to forget you. (C. H. Spurgeon)
The Bible clearly reminds us that left to ourselves, we would be lost forever. The only reason we can seek Christ in our sinfulness is because Christ has sought us as our Savior. The glory of the gospel is that the God of the universe reaches beyond the hardness of our hearts, overcoming our selfish resistance and sinful rebellion, and He saves us from ourselves. Such mercy magnifies God’s pursuit of us and crucifies our pride before Him. (David Platt, Follow Me, 47)
Nobody is born into this world a child of the family of God. We are born as children of wrath. The only way we enter into the family of God is by adoption, and that adoption occurs when we are united to God’s only Son by faith. When by faith we are united with Christ, we are then adopted into that family of whom Christ is the firstborn. (R.C. Sproul, The New Birth, Tabletalk, Mar. 2007, 7)
Gospel Connection…
Jesus, our Hosea, is a lover whose love and faithfulness was demonstrated by going to the cross to redeem those who recognize their unfaithfulness to him.
(John 3:16; 1 Cor. 6:20; Gal. 2:20; 3:13; Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14; Heb. 9:12; 1 Peter 1:18-19)
“Hosea” means salvation, the urgent need of Hosea’s family and his nation (Billy K. Smith, Layman’s Bible Book Commentary, Vol. 13, 11)
Incarnation is the most convincing, undeniable evidence of God’s prevenience. God came in Christ out of sheer grace. Christ went to the cross not because people asked for a sacrifice for their sins, but because God willed to redeem us. (Lloyd J. Ogilvie, The Communicator’s Commentary: Hosea, 26)
Spiritual Challenge Questions…
Reflect on these questions in your time with the Lord this week, or discuss with a Christian family member or Life Group.
- What strikes you most in this first chapter of Hosea?
- In our relationship with God, what are we telling Him about our need for His love and mercy?
- As Israel was unfaithful to God, in what ways is it tempting for us to become unfaithful to God? What is it in our day that competes with our affection for God?
- In what ways have you experienced God’s loving discipline? Why is it discipline is so hard and unpleasant? What is always the goal of God’s discipline?
Quotes to note…
As individuals and as the church, a study of Hosea is disturbing before it is comforting. We are drawn irresistibly into the book and find ourselves inside the skin of Hosea as he endures the pain of his marriage and realizes the anguish of God. But we will also be forced to identify with Israel and be led into a deeper realization of our own need to return to the Lord. (Lloyd J. Ogilvie, The Communicator’s Commentary: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, 7)
Against this dreadful backdrop of a ruined marriage, we see a picture of Hosea’s loyalty and forgiveness. Despite her terrible sin, the prophet goes to his wife. God has told him to show love to his wife. How unthinkable in human terms. (D. Stuart Briscoe, Taking God Seriously: Major Lessons from the Minor Prophets, 19)
Just as a husband cannot be indulgent of adultery in his wife, so also God cannot and will not endure infidelity in us. What would we think of a man or woman who does not experience jealous feelings when another person approaches his or her spouse and threatens to win his or her affection? We would regard such a person as deficient in moral character and lacking in true love. (Sam Storms, Pleasures Evermore, 302)
Even when God deems it necessary to discipline us for persistent disobedience, He always does so out of love to restore us to the way of obedience (see Hebrews 12:4-11). (Jerry Bridges, The Gospel for Real Life, 96)
God loves us as we are but never leaves us as we are. (Ogilvie, 10)
Let’s bring this closer home. There is also a very real possibility that God’s people here in North America in the twentieth century are remaking God in our image. We emerge with a God wrapped in stars and stripes. We finish up with a God who endorses everything we endorse to make us comfortable. One of the great dangers we face at the present time is that of producing a national religion that presses Jesus Christ into the mold of being the all-American boy. (D. Stuart Briscoe, Taking God Seriously: major lessons from the Minor Prophets, 24)
Israel was supposed to worship one God, ‘the Lord’, who had no goddess consort. He could not be manipulated by ritual but required strict obedience instead. Clearly, the two religions were incompatible, but the Israelites tried to mix them (1 Ki. 18:21). (D. A. Carson, New Bible Commentary, 765)
Like a parent, God loves his people, is patient, compassionate, and merciful toward them, values them for their own sake, suffers when they suffer, and desires their health and happiness. There is no limit to the range of his concern. It comprehends their whole life, everything. Nor is there any limit to the duration of his love. It lasts as long as they live. As sustainer of life, God is dependable and true. As guardian of the family’s integrity, he is teacher, disciplinarian, and protector. He is their principal source of security and their moral arbiter. In all of these respects, the role of a human parent serves as an analogy to the being and activity of God. (James M. Ward, Amos, Hosea, 54)
