“By Faith – Hosea”

Scripture: Hosea 14:1-9

Hosea becomes a prophet to the Northern Kingdom of Israel about 10 years before Assyria invades the nation, and about 30 years before the kingdom falls. His message to the people is “Turn away from the sinful lifestyle that has ensnared you, and return to the love of your Lord God Jehovah.”
Israel had broken the covenant that the Lord had made for them, and the Godly relationship was in tatters. Foreign gods, and the images that represented them, were being worshipped on a regular basis; foreign lifestyles and the brokenness that they bring were destroying the nation; foreign sons and daughters were being married to the children of Israel; and the one true God was being left out in the cold.
Of course, none of it was God’s doing – his love and faithfulness for the people was still strong and inviolate. He hadn’t moved – the people are the ones who had turned their backs on their Most High and Living God, in favor of dead gods made of stone and wood. The Great Jehovah sent prophet after prophet to the nation, calling them to repentance. Hosea was one of them, but few would listen.

The Lord had prepared the prophet for this task in a very unusual way. Hosea was told to take an adulterous woman called Gomer as his wife, and that she would be unfaithful to him. They would have three children that we know of and each would receive a name of condemnation. And through Gomer and the children, God showed the prophet that the people no longer looked to him as Lord – that they were being adulterous toward him. (Hosea 1)

Hosea loved his wife and was faithful to her, but, as God predicted, Gomer had other plans. She cared nothing for her husband, and took off for parts unknown, to engage in relationships that were nothing, if not temporary, in nature. There was no respect or love shown by these other men, but she continued in her lifestyle in spite of the love and warmth and affection that awaited her back home.

Israel was Gomer. The people had prostituted themselves with other gods, even though they had received nothing from them in return. But God was still there, waiting and watching and sending message after message calling them to come back to him. And the Lord told Hosea that there would be a day when he would purify them and would then buy them back.

Read Hosea 2:14-17; 19

And Hosea is told to go and find Gomer and take her back as his beloved wife. He discovers where she is, and buys her from whoever owns her at the time. She will have to spend some time with no fine clothes, no savory foods, no physical affection, (Hosea 2:2-3; 9-10) but when the time of separation is sufficient, her husband will welcome her once again as his wife.
So it is between God and his people Israel.

Read Hosea 14:1-3

The prophet calls the people to repentance. They had become so wrapped up in doing things their own way that God had been left by the wayside. And this isn’t a message for just a few – it is for the entire nation. Hosea wants the people to understand the reality of what they have been doing! He says that their sin has been their downfall – but isn’t that true for all of us? The problem with sin is our tendency to forget that these worldly ways, these self gratifying ways, are the ways of earth, and not of God! And when we plan to make our own ways in life, it never turns out well. There is destruction, there is death in sin, and salvation can only be found in the Living Lord.

Remember the names of Hosea and Gomer’s children – those names of condemnation? The first, a son, was called Jezreel, after the site of betrayal and massacre (2 Kings 10). The second, a daughter, was called Lo-Ruhamah, to indicate that God would no longer show his love to Israel – he would still have love for them, but they wouldn’t experience it. The third, another son, would be called Lo-Ammi to imply a break in the marvelous relationship that had once existed between the Lord and Israel.

But the prophet is telling the people that there is still time to find their way back into God’s grace – IF they will turn away from their sinfulness, IF they will seek the Lord’s forgiveness for their failures in his name, and IF they begin to place their worship in the hands of the One True and Living God once more.

Read Hosea 14:4-8

And IF they turn back, IF they begin to follow the Lord’s ways once again, IF they denounce the gods that they had created and had then celebrated, the True Lord would be merciful and gracious to them once again. The Lord uses several images to describe the renewed relationship that will exist, IF Israel comes back.

He will “heal their waywardness and love them freely”. In other words, God will forgive their sin, effectively closing the great divide that their sin has created, and his love for the people will be restored to them without measure.
He “will be like the dew” – God will refresh and nourish and nurture the nation. They “will blossom” – they will flourish again; their roots within the Land will go deep, and they will be secure.
Ephraim, or Israel, will have nothing to do with idols anymore – their eyes will be focused on only Jehovah God, and the Lord will reciprocate – his eyes and his benevolence will be on his people once again. And he will be like a giant tree – giving shade, and protection, and fruit, and comfort.

When Israel returns from their wayward ways, God will restore the covenant, and they will know his love and passion, and it will be just as intense and perfect as it was before.

Read Hosea 14:9

The last verse of this book is for all who come after, those who will read this account of God’s faithfulness – it’s for us (!) – it describes what will come to everyone who leaves their sin and returns to his ways. The central 10 chapters of this book (chapters 4-13) are about the times when our faithlessness takes control of our lives, and turns us away from the goodness of the Lord. And when we move away, we can no longer know and follow God’s ways, because our sight is focused elsewhere.
Have you even been driving down the road, when something off to the side catches your attention? As you look in this other direction, as you focus on something of interest other than the road, you will begin to drift in that direction. And the longer your gaze is diverted, the further you will move away from where you should be! And if you continue to stare to the side of the road long enough, you will wind up crashing into some obstacle, with dire consequences!

That’s what sin does to us. It diverts our focus from God and his ways, and it inevitably will result in chaos and catastrophe for our lives.

But Hosea writes that IF we are wise, IF we are discerning (paying attention), we will understand and recognize the life hazards that are around us, and will keep our focus upon the Lord and his call on our life. But there are so many people today who think God’s ways don’t make sense, or that they are wrong, or that they have been misinterpreted, or that they need to be updated to reflect current societal norms. But quite honestly, those are the very obstacles that Hosea has been warning us about!
That’s a problem that we all are prone to stumble over. In Isaiah 55:8-9, we read “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” We don’t, and can’t, understand the ways of God, and when we begin to think that we know better than the Lord, it is then that we become “Gomers” in the life we lead. We decide that our ignorance of God is actually a matter of superior knowledge, and that our inability to understand the purpose of his ways means that his ways are inferior and purposeless when compared to ours. But the truth is that we aren't called to understand - we are simply called to faithfully follow the Lord's lead!

Talk about creating an idol! Our abilities and thoughts become a false god that stands against the Lord God Almighty! That is Satan’s issue, isn’t it! He believed that he was just as good as God, and maybe even better, and he didn’t like taking a back seat. And we know what came of his arrogance!

Where is our faith centered? Where is our allegiance? Where is our hope? Whose disciple are we?
Really!
Are we God’s, or are we our own?