Last week we began the book of Hosea, and if last week’s sermon was a Friends episode, it would have been called, “The One Where Weston Says Whore a Lot.” If you weren’t here, this was because we not only met the book’s namesake, but we also learned of the incredible thing that God had called him to do, which was to marry a promiscuous woman and have children of promiscuity. And, this marriage to the woman, Gomer, and their ensuing children form the foundation of Hosea’s prophecy, which is that Israel has also been promiscuous by worshipping other gods and that she (Israel) has also had children of promiscuity. What we said was that the primary message here from God is, “Israel, you are unfaithful, but I love you anyway.” However, God’s love for Israel doesn’t mean that Israel won’t face consequences for her unfaithfulness. It does, however, mean that God will keep his covenant and that He has plans for her restoration.
One of the continual refrains from God to Israel in the Old Testament is this: “I will be your God and you will be my people.” God says this in some form or fashion over twenty-five times in the pages of Scripture. And, it is a foundational part of God’s covenant with Israel. This relationship where he, and no one else, is God and where he claims a people for himself. Abraham didn’t go find God. That wasn’t why he left his home to journey toward the land of Canaan. He wasn’t on a quest for spiritual enlightenment…to find God. God came and found him and called him. God repeatedly tells Israel that they are like his property. He calls them a treasured possession, or a people for his possession, or a people for his inheritance.
“I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.”
That’s almost like a marriage vow. I take you.
“But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day.”
“For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”
“And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever. And you, O LORD, became their God.”
“And you made your people Israel to be your people forever, and you, O LORD, became their God.”
And on and on, throughout the prophets. Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Hosea all use this language. On into the New Testament and John’s prophecy of what is to come, the Revelation. He says in chapter 21
Revelation 21:3 “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”
So, this is the basic meta-narrative of Scripture. Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration. In creation, God and man are united. He is their God; they are his people. But, the man and woman sever that bond and the whole world faces the consequences. So that even when God takes a particular ethnic group, the Hebrews, to be his people, they just can’t seem to make him their God. And, this is largely the story of the Old Testament. The people follow God, then they abandon him for idolatry. Then they face punishment. Then they cry out to the Lord, and he delivers them. And, then the cycle repeats itself. The cycle is especially prominent in the book of Judges.
But, everything is pointing forward to a day of redemption. Not a temporary redemption, but a permanent redemption. And we are living now in the wake of this redemption. Redemption has a name, and it is Jesus Christ. But, this place of redemption is often called the “already but not yet.” Our redemption has been secured in Jesus Christ, and all those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. But, we aren’t currently experiencing full physical restoration; that is still yet to come. Jesus will return and he will bring with him a new heaven and new earth and all things will be set right…God and man will once again be in union.
Hosea 2:2-16
2 “Plead with your mother, plead—
for she is not my wife,
and I am not her husband—
that she put away her whoring from her face,
and her adultery from between her breasts;
3 lest I strip her naked
and make her as in the day she was born,
and make her like a wilderness,
and make her like a parched land,
and kill her with thirst.
4 Upon her children also I will have no mercy,
because they are children of whoredom.
5 For their mother has played the whore;
she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
who give me my bread and my water,
my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
6 Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns,
and I will build a wall against her,
so that she cannot find her paths.
7 She shall pursue her lovers
but not overtake them,
and she shall seek them
but shall not find them.
Then she shall say,
‘I will go and return to my first husband,
for it was better for me then than now.’
8 And she did not know
that it was I who gave her
the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and who lavished on her silver and gold,
which they used for Baal.
9 Therefore I will take back
my grain in its time,
and my wine in its season,
and I will take away my wool and my flax,
which were to cover her nakedness.
10 Now I will uncover her lewdness
in the sight of her lovers,
and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.
11 And I will put an end to all her mirth,
her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths,
and all her appointed feasts.
12 And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,
of which she said,
‘These are my wages,
which my lovers have given me.’
I will make them a forest,
and the beasts of the field shall devour them.
13 And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals
when she burned offerings to them
and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry,
and went after her lovers
and forgot me, declares the Lord.
14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.
15 And there I will give her her vineyards
and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth,
as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.
16 “And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’
So, suddenly, we’ve gone from a pseudo-biographical sketch to only one chapter later, a poetic narrative about a husband calling out to his wayward wife; however, the characters here are not Hosea and Gomer…they are God and Israel.
In the way Exodus 6:7 sounded like a marriage vow, this almost sounds like a divorce decree.
for she is not my wife,
and I am not her husband—
But, it is really the cry of a husband who loves his wife and wants her to turn from her unfaithfulness.
“Plead with your mother, plead—
So, there is a call for her repentance…for a turning back. But, there are also clear consequences for her not turning back.
3 lest I strip her naked
and make her as in the day she was born,
and make her like a wilderness,
and make her like a parched land,
and kill her with thirst.
4 Upon her children also I will have no mercy,
because they are children of whoredom.
5 For their mother has played the whore;
she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
Now, look at verse 5. This is really where I want to camp out today.
5 For their mother has played the whore;
she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
who give me my bread and my water,
my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
6 Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns,
and I will build a wall against her,
so that she cannot find her paths.
7 She shall pursue her lovers
but not overtake them,
and she shall seek them
but shall not find them.
Then she shall say,
‘I will go and return to my first husband,
for it was better for me then than now.’
8 And she did not know
that it was I who gave her
the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and who lavished on her silver and gold,
which they used for Baal.
So, last week we talked about taking the Lord’s name in vain. The sin of taking on his name even if he is not your king…your master. Today, the problem lies in attributing what God has done to something or someone else. It is not recognizing or appreciating his provision and power in your life by giving yourself or something else the glory that is due to him.
One of the questions that we ask around here all the time is, “where have you seen God at work?” And, the reason why we ask that question is because we’re trying to cultivate an awareness of Him in our everyday lives. The Scriptures talk about praying without ceasing, but that doesn’t mean actively talking to God constantly, it is more about living in the awareness of his presence. Walking with him. The problem for us, though, is that we are so distracted. And, yet, because we are living in the already but not yet, we have unprecedented access to him. A kind of access that hasn’t been available since the garden. And yet, so many of us are totally missing what is available to us because we are so distracted.
The thing that is fascinating about Israel was that they were deeply religious people. The problem was that they just wanted to worship false Gods instead of the one true God. With us, the same thing is true. We just get religious about other things. Meaning, we allow our lives to revolve around other things. Work, kids, sex, addictions, CrossFit. Rather than cultivating a life with God, a life that is truly lived around him, that centers on Him, we instead try to squeeze him into a life largely lived without him. If at this moment you are doing the most religious thing you’ve done this week, that could be an indicator that you are just trying to fit him into a life you’ve cultivated rather than allowing him to truly shape your life. If we have prayed more in the last thirty minutes than you have all week, that’s an indicator.
God is not interested in being an addendum to your life. He’s not interested in you “making time” for him. He desires your life and your days to flow from a place of deep rootedness in him. This is what all of Jesus’ talk about abiding in the vine was about. Because when we are disconnected, it becomes so easy to forget where all the good gifts in our lives have actually come from.
With Israel, though, it wasn’t simply that they were not living with an awareness of God, but rather they were taking the glory that was due to God for his provision and they were giving it to other gods. And, that’s the irony here. The source of provision was Yahweh, but rather than recognizing and worshiping him for what he had done, the people had become deluded to the point that they honestly thought their food, their grain, their oil, their wine was actually coming from these other gods that they had literally manufactured with their hands.
Now, how do we do this today? Is it possible that we miss or fail to fully appreciate the fact that our food, our homes, our children, our clothing have come from God. That he has given us not only what we need, but exceedingly and abundantly above what we need. Who gets the glory for that in your life? Or do you even stop to appreciate it?
Let me close with three spiritual practices that are designed to reformat our distracted brains and hearts.
- Fasting – Fasting is one of the most drastic of the spiritual disciplines, but it is so rewarding and it isn’t hard to grasp. Fasting is simply not eating, but it creates a physical awareness of your need for God that most of us who never miss a meal simply don’t have. A traditional day of fasting, like what would have been practiced in the early church, would have been from sundown to sundown. So, eat dinner tonight, and then don’t eat again until dinner tomorrow night. If you are able, I’d encourage you to shoot for practicing this one day a week. One of the earliest existing Christian documents from the era of the early church is a book called The Didache, and it suggests that the early Christians fasted two days a week, Wednesdays and Fridays.
- Set Times of Daily Prayer – Now, what do you do during those times when you aren’t eating? You pray. If you want to live a life with God, then prayer has to become central. If the extent of your daily prayer life is asking him to bless the meal, then I’d encourage you to give this some real thought. And, prayer is a learned skill that comes through practice. I’d encourage you to practice what is historically known as the “daily office.” And, this involves simply setting times of prayer throughout your day. Times that are on your calendar and in your heart.
- Daily Meditation – Take a few moments each day to read a passage of Scripture and sit with it. Five minutes…ten minutes. Allow the word of God to wash over you.
Friends, the Lord has done incredible things for us, the primary being giving his only son so that we can be reconciled to him and receive his Holy Spirit. One of the ways that we that we refuse to give him glory is by not giving him our time and attention, which is to not recognize his incredible provision through Christ. So, I want to plead with you today. Repentance is not simply about not sinning or being more moral, it is about reorienting your whole life around the things of God. What is his true place in your life? What are the changes that you need to make to give him the place of honor and glory in your life that he deserves?
