Profitable Prophets

This morning we'll be taking a look at the book of Hosea in its entirety. Now you may have heard of the major prophets of the Bible, namely Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel. Now these guys are fairly well known, often read about or referred to, and making up a large chunk of Old Testament scripture. But as I said, this morning we'll be focusing on Hosea, who is one of the minor prophets of the Bible. The minor prophets as a whole seem to be spoken of less, I would say.

They're easy to miss as you're flicking through your Bibles, as some of you right now are experiencing. Yet they play such a vital role in the history of God's people, as well as pointing us toward Christ and enriching the gospel which we wholeheartedly believe in and are called to share today. Now I really want us to encounter Jesus through this message on Hosea this morning, and for this reason alone our time spent within this beautiful prophecy will be invaluable to our faith, our holiness and our relationship with God. Some people think that Jesus is only found in the New Testament, but as we'll soon see, he's throughout the word of God. He's the point.

He's the purpose. He's the critical piece of the puzzle in scripture, including the minor prophets, and specifically the book of Hosea, which we're looking at today. Our message is called Go Get Gomer Got by God. So let's get straight into the book of Hosea. Hosea was a prophet of God who ministered during the early part of the eighth century before Christ.

You may be unsure as to what a prophet actually is, so I'm going to lay it down clearly for you. Prophets in the Bible, whether major or minor, were the mouthpiece of God. That's all you have to remember when you think prophet, think the mouthpiece of God. They basically told God's people what God wanted them to know, especially in light of what was going on among the people at that time, after God gave them special revelation. Now this was Hosea's role.

And in front of us we have the prophet Hosea, one of God's prophets, a faithful mouthpiece of God. And as the mouthpiece of God, Hosea did many things including explaining and interpreting the law recorded by Moses to the nation of Israel. He predicted and announced God's coming judgment, deliverance and any events that related to the future Messiah and His kingdom. And Hosea also acted as a watchman over the people of Israel. He gave plenty of warning against religious apostasy, political and military alliances with foreign powers and the temptation to become involved in idolatry.

To put it plainly, Hosea had a lot on his plate. Now, as I've already mentioned, Hosea ministered during the early part of the eighth century before Christ and God used him over quite a long period of time. The very first verse of the book, if you have a look there, tells us that he prophesied during the reigns of four kings in Judah: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. So based on that we can tell that he ministered for close to sixty years. That's a long time.

When Hosea began his ministry, Israel and Judah were peaceful and prosperous. But there were definitely problems looming on the horizon. To give you more insight into these problems, socially there was a growing gap between rich and poor, somewhat of a breakdown in public morality and a corrupt legal system. God described the state of the culture in Hosea 4:2. If you have a look there, when He says there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing and committing adultery. They break all bounds and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

Now to me that's a pretty clear indicator, isn't it? The state of the Israelite culture. On top of all the internal and social political turmoil that was going on, Israel was under constant fear of invasion from what was then the world's greatest empire, Assyria. These guys were smart. I mean look at them, strong, advanced, and they revelled in the art of war.

Just imagine today if a country like North Korea had all its missiles pointed at Australia. Battleships off the coast and jets constantly flying overhead. I remember when I stood on the border of Israel in 2014 and looked over into Syria, screaming Israeli jets were flying low overhead patrolling their turf. And it was terrifying. I've never felt so unsettled as at that moment in my life. And only hours before we arrived at the northern border, a Syrian tank that had ventured into the no man's land had been shot by the Israeli defence.

When we arrived, all we saw was a smouldering tank shell. The tension was so thick you could almost feel it in the air. Now Israel would have been feeling this same kind of threat from Assyria at the time of Hosea. In fact, after Hosea's prophetic ministry had ended, Israel was conquered by the Assyrians and the people of Israel were deported. And as if all this wasn't bad enough, the religious condition of the people of Israel was even more dire than anything I've just mentioned.

God had entered into a covenant with Israel, and they were violating the sacredness of this covenant relationship in every way possible. To sum it up, the people of God were idolatrous. They replaced God with the things of their own hearts. Hosea 8:11 says, because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning, they have become to him altars for sinning. They also ignored God's law.

God says in 8:12, were I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands, they would be regarded as a strange thing. God's people were living in utter unfaithfulness. Hosea said to the people in chapter 4, verse 1, hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel. For the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love and no knowledge of God in the land. Hosea describes the nation in chapter 5, verse 4, if you have a look there, as having a spirit of whoredom within them.

They know not the Lord. A spirit of whoredom. The NLT puts it like this: your deeds won't let you return to your God. You are a prostitute through and through, and you do not know the Lord. This was the context in which Hosea was called to minister.

He was called to serve a corrupt society and an unfaithful church. For nearly sixty years he was called to be God's mouthpiece to confront a nation fast spiralling into decay. On a side note, tell me how would you cope if God called you into a role like this? How would you go with a calling like Hosea's or even remotely like it? Would you be eager and ready to get up every morning and go to work for sixty years?

God's calling doesn't always match our interests and desires, does it? God's calling doesn't always resonate with our hearts. Do you think Hosea wanted to spend the next sixty years of his life wrestling with the stubborn and unfaithful people? God's calling doesn't always spark joy and enthusiasm in our beings. Do you think Hosea would have received great joy from passing down God's judgment upon his people?

But God's calling still remained on Hosea's life, and God's calling remains on your life too, right now, as we speak. Have you felt this to be true in your life? You know God's calling you in a certain direction, or maybe He's revealed it to you fully. How much of a blessing would that be? But your human mind weighs up things such as money against sacrifice, social status against humility, profit against loss, recognition against denial, security against uncertainty, success against forfeit, and the list goes on.

Like Hosea, we need to be open to God's calling on our lives, no matter what the calling might be or involve. We need to remain open to His calling, always listening for His voice, always striving to remain in sync with His Holy Spirit, always going on the promptings that He gives you, no matter the personal cost. You know, it can be tempting at times to reach for the giant pillow. You know, we're all in possession of a giant pillow, not the one on your bed. It can be tempting at times to reach for the giant pillow of your life and desires, and press down hard, suffocate, snuff out a particular calling of God on your life, and hope as you lift your weight back off the pillow that whatever it was remains lifeless underneath.

Have you found yourself in that situation before? But back to the prophecy of Hosea. As we've seen so far, Hosea had a long hard sixty years ahead of him. But as if this wasn't a difficult enough task, God asked Hosea to do something even more outrageous, more unimaginable. Quickly turn to Hosea 1:2 with me, where we read, when the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom, and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.

Excuse me? Do my ears deceive me? Did I hear that right? Did God just ask Hosea to marry an adulterous woman? A whore?

A prostitute? Yes. This is the truth found in scripture. Hosea was called to marry a woman who was a prostitute. This woman is referred to as a woman of harlotry because her whole life was marked by sexual sin, and her name was Gomer.

John Calvin described Hosea's wife Gomer like this: for he speaks not here of an unchaste woman only, but of a woman of wantonness, which means a common harlot, who has long habituated herself to wantonness, who has exposed herself to all to gratify the wish of all, who has prostituted herself not once, not twice, nor to a few men, but to all. To get the picture, this is the woman God wanted Hosea to take as his wife, a prostitute. Why? We'll soon find out. And it gets even worse for Hosea.

God not only required Hosea to marry a prostitute, but eventually when she proves her unfaithfulness after they are married by once again selling herself to other men, and performing acts of debauchery, God wants him to go after her. God wants him to go after her to get Gomer back. Hosea 3:1 says, and the Lord said to me, go again. Love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisin. Even though seemingly inevitably Gomer just couldn't help herself, she cheats on Hosea after they're married.

God wants him to go and get her back. Is this for real? What a heart wrenching process that would have been, wouldn't it? Where do you go looking for a former prostitute who's back into prostitution? Where would Hosea find Gomer?

How messy is that search? How painful is that pursuit? As he walks the streets, everyone says, oh, you don't go to those neighbourhoods. Men of God should never be seen in those places. But here's Hosea, looking for who?

Gomer, his wife. And after many gruelling, exhausting hours of searching, Hosea finds her. There's Gomer standing on a box with traders all around, naked, afraid with no hope for a future, unable to see past the darkness that surrounds her. Hosea pursues Gomer and finds her, but she's once again hit absolute rock bottom, and is now being sold as a slave. Do you think this sight would have broken Hosea's heart?

Does it not break yours? But does God say to Hosea, oh, let her go, you know, she's getting what she deserves? No. Not at all. The complete opposite, actually.

God commands Hosea to go and buy her back. Even though she's already his wife, even though she already belongs to him, even though they've shared years together, a house together, a bed together, had children together, a life together, even though they've already exchanged vows, even though she's already his wife, God commands Hosea to go and buy her back. What? Hosea has to pay for what's already his? Turn with me to Hosea 3:2-3 where we read, so I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethek of barley.

And I said to her, you must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore or belong to another man. So will I also be to you. This is faithfulness in response to unfaithfulness. Now let's just pause and think about this for a minute.

Hosea is being asked to walk into the town square, this is where it all went down, and buy his wife back at a public auction. I've already alluded to this, but do you know how a woman's slave was sold at an auction? All her clothes were removed so that the buyers could see exactly what they were bidding on. Hosea had to bear the indignity of entering into a crowd of men, gazing at his undressed wife, a woman who was his. And if that wasn't enough, he couldn't just take her and quietly walk on out of there by the back door.

He also had to bid for her. He had to bid for his own wife. Just imagine that scene for a moment. Hosea offering competing bids against other men, eyes darting back and forth between the bidders and the prize, the bidders and the prize, until he finally wins the auction by bidding fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethek of barley. Probably more than he could afford.

These other men sought to buy her to use her. Hosea seeks to buy her to heal her. Hosea now owns his wife again. He has bought her back at a price.

Just imagine the shame of that day as he took his naked wife off the auction block after being groped and grabbed and pulled by different men and walking back through the crowd of unknowing onlookers. Why did God make Hosea go through so much personal hardship? Here it is. Are you ready for it? God made Hosea go through so much personal hardship because God communicated His message, not only through the words of Hosea, but through his life as well.

He used the life of Hosea and Gomer to get the attention of the people. Just imagine the news of Hosea's marriage travelling through Israel. Everyone would have heard of this scandal. A prophet marrying a harlot, and then a prophet having to buy back his unfaithful harlot wife. How many copies would they have sold that week?

Can you imagine the shame that Hosea would have experienced? Remember, many of the men would have known Gomer intimately. They would have seen her naked. Can you imagine what it was like for Hosea to walk in the streets, the glaring looks you would have received, the knowing smiles from the unrighteous men and the scorn filled gazes of the self righteous. Hosea was not only asked to preach a message from God, but he was also asked to bear that message in his very flesh in order to wake up the Israelite nation around him.

He was commanded and sent by God to be a living spectacle. God used Hosea as an object lesson. He was trying to teach Israel that they were Gomer. The nation of Israel was Gomer, the unfaithful and adulterous wife. Israel was Gomer.

Now we can understand why God commanded Hosea to marry a prostitute. Now we can understand why God allowed Gomer to continue in sin and be unfaithful. Now we can understand why God was so set on Hosea buying back the bride that was already his. God was using Hosea, His mouthpiece, to teach Israel that they were Gomer, that they were the unfaithful and adulterous wife who had abandoned Him, that they were the ones who broke their covenant with God by prostituting themselves to other gods, that they were the ones that turned their backs on their faithful and loving heavenly husband. The question remains, what does Hosea say to us today?

And what does it mean to us? Is the book of Hosea a manual for maintaining a good marriage, or is it something more than that? Is it a caution to keep your commitments in life? Is it a moral lesson against prostitution and sexual infidelity? Well, I would say that it may speak into these things, but it's not primarily about these things.

I'm about to tell you the ultimate purpose of the book of Hosea. Hosea was primarily given to show us Jesus Christ, to speak of Him, to point forward to Him, to foreshadow Him, to foretell the story of the gospel, so that we might be able to encounter Christ through the Holy Spirit. But you might still be asking how does Hosea speak of Jesus? Let me tell you the prophecy of Hosea speaks of Jesus in that it reveals to us that Jesus is the faithful husband of the church. Jesus is Hosea.

Let's look at this more in depth. Jesus is the faithful husband. As we've seen, Hosea's prophecy is full of criticisms and convictions of Israel's adultery. Just as Hosea's wife, Gomer, continually prostitutes herself, so does Israel. But in the midst of these condemnations of Israel is the promise that God, as Israel's husband, will one day pursue and beautify His bride.

Look at Hosea 2:14-15 with me where it says, therefore, behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her, 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. And on top of this, God promised not only to pursue His bride, but to engage and attach Himself to her forever, and give her gifts of righteousness and faithfulness. Hosea 2:19-20 says, and I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy, I will betroth you to me in faithfulness and you shall know the Lord.

Not know of, but know intimately. The book of Hosea holds a promise of a restored marriage where the adulterous bride is purified, holy, righteous and faithful. However, if you remember I mentioned earlier that Israel falls to the Assyrians in July. This promised transformation doesn't happen during Hosea's lifetime. In fact, it doesn't even happen during the remaining history of the Old Testament.

Israel continues to be an unfaithful bride. So we need to ask the question, was Hosea's prophecy ever really fulfilled? Did God ever pursue His bride? Did He ever lavish on her righteousness and holiness as He promised? Did He ever betroth Himself to His people in love and mercy forever?

And the answer is a resounding, definite, unquestionable yes. He did it through the faithful husband Jesus Christ. The prophecy of Hosea points to Him. The New Testament tells us that the church is betrothed to Christ. Jesus spoke of His ministry as that of a bridegroom coming for His bride in the Gospels.

However, the New Testament speaks of a two stage process in the church's marriage to Christ. In this present age, right now, as we speak, the church is betrothed to Christ or engaged to Christ. An example of this can be seen in 2 Corinthians 11:2, where Paul says to the Christians there, for I feel a divine jealousy for you since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. The second stage of the process in the church's marriage to Christ kicks in only after the return of Christ, when our marriage to Him will be fully consummated. Revelation 19:7-9 says, let us rejoice and exalt and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.

It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, write this: blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, these are the true words of God. What a picture, isn't it? Having said this, it's important to keep in mind that the concept of engagement in the first century is very different to our modern concept of marital engagement. In the first century, to be engaged to someone was a more serious commitment than it is today.

Engagement in the first century was far more binding than it is today. The bridegroom and bride pledged themselves to each other in the presence of witnesses. Their engagement or betrothal to each other was essentially what we see in a marriage ceremony today. So it was a big deal. After this commitment to become engaged, the marriage simply consisted of celebrating with a feast, actually consummating the marriage and dwelling together permanently.

So in light of this difference between then and now, although the marital relationship between Christ and the church is not fully consummated until Christ's return, as we've seen, we can consider the church the bride of Christ today because we are, in the first century sense, engaged to Him. Christ is truly our husband. So knowing all this, we need to ask the question, how does the relationship between Hosea and Gomer function as a type or precursor or sign of Christ's relationship to the church today. You know, if this is truly the purpose of the book of Hosea, as I've just said, as we've seen, God used Hosea's relationship to His unfaithful bride, Gomer, as an expression of His relationship with His unfaithful bride, Israel. When we read Hosea, we learn of a husband who had to bear the blame of his wife's unfaithfulness.

Hosea reveals to us that God's incomparable love with His wayward bride includes bearing her blame. Like Hosea, Jesus endured absolute humiliation to buy His wife back, to buy you back, to buy me back. He bore the charge and shame of our sinfulness. He bore the shame of the cross on our behalf. Hebrews 12:2 says, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Like Hosea, Jesus bore the accusation of His wayward bride, His wilful and disobedient bride. But if you think about it, Jesus went even further than Hosea. Hosea was required to go into the marketplace and pay for Gomer. But Jesus, when He came for us, paid a much higher price at a much greater personal cost. He gave Himself as the price. 1 Timothy 2:5-6 says, for there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave Himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

Hosea paid fifteen shekels and a homer and a lethek of barley, but the cost to Jesus was His very life. And on top of this, while Hosea bore the shame of having an unrighteous bride, Jesus, in a way, became the unfaithful bride for us. You could say He became Gomer for us. He was stripped and made a public spectacle of for us.

He was paraded through the streets of Jerusalem for us. Greater yet, Jesus did something that Hosea could never do for his bride. Jesus bore the sins of His bride, and gave her His righteousness. Gave you His righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, for our sake He made Him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus is the faithful husband that transforms the harlot, that transforms you into a wife who is holy and blameless. Does the weight of that just hit you? You know, Jesus isn't your homeboy, as the fad in the youth scene put it. He's your husband. He's your perfect husband who has an incomparable love for you.

Our Hosea has come. Salvation has come, and He found you, and He found me, and He had to walk to the most despicable places, and He had to communicate and be around sinful, broken humanity. Just as Hosea searched for his wife, Jesus came searching for you. And when He found you, you weren't so neat and nice and put together. You're in chains, and you are naked, and you are sinful.

But by the grace of God, He said, how much will it cost? I'll pay whatever it takes out of love, and it costs the blood of His son. For then, and only then, through faith in Christ, can we avoid the wrath and justice that's rightly on our heads. In light of this, let me ask, how's your relationship with God going at the moment? Are you being faithful as His bride?

Are you fulfilling your calling as a follower of Christ? Or even though He paid for you, are you being unfaithful like Gomer and the nation of Israel? The truth is on this side of glory, all of us in varying degrees at different times are Gomer, because we are sinful. We are Gomer. We're spiritual adulterers.

We want to have it our way. We're willing to reject God's covenantal faithfulness for fleeting one night stands with idols. Yet while it's hard to admit that we're no different than Gomer, it's a truth that we can embrace with humility and comfort in the shadow of the cross. Until we see God face to face, we'll continue to be drawn to other things. That's guaranteed.

But for now, our husband, Jesus Christ, stands and fights because He is faithful. He pursues us and forgives us out of love. Do you see the practical joys of having Jesus as your husband? In the Australian culture where fidelity is so hard to find, where spouses so often abandon one another, Jesus is forever faithful. He promises never to leave or forsake His beloved bride.

He not only remains faithful to His bride, but He also adorns her with His holiness. The Apostle John tells us that on the last great day, we will be a suitable and holy bride. He says in Revelation 21:2, and I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. In Jesus, the prophecy of Hosea 2:19-20 is fulfilled. Jesus engages us forever in righteousness, justice, love, compassion and faithfulness.

He is our faithful husband, and we can look forward to the day when our marriage to Him will be fully consummated. We can look ahead with great anticipation to the wedding supper of the Lamb, and the joy of living with Him forever. Not because of anything we've done, but because of everything that He's done for us. In the last chapter of the prophecy of Hosea, God says of His people, I will heal their apostasy. I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them.

This prophecy of Hosea was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. In Jesus, our rebelliousness is healed. In Jesus, we freely receive the love of God. In Jesus, God's anger is turned away from us. In Jesus, we receive incomparable love.

That is how Hosea speaks of Jesus. This is how we can encounter Christ through the book of Hosea. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you so much for giving us the opportunity this morning to encounter You through the prophecy of Hosea. We thank you for Jesus.

We thank you for the gospel. We thank you that even though we were Gomer, and at times we're still Gomer, that you love us no matter our sin, no matter our condition, no matter our current state of affairs, no matter how messy our lives are or have been in the past. In the same way that Hosea pursued his unfaithful wife, Gomer, you pursued us while we were drowning in sin, and you rescued us. Your love is relentless. You paid the price as you died on a tree.

You met the cost. You gave your very self so that we can now have a living and eternal relationship with You both now and forever. Father God, we ask now that Your Holy Spirit falls down on us. Purify our hearts. Sanctify us by the power of Your Holy Spirit, the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead.

Holy Spirit, we want life in its fullest. Fill us with a joy, with a peace, with a passion that comes only from You. Fill us with clarity and courage as You reveal Yourself to us more and more through Your word as we work diligently in ushering Your kingdom in. We pray this in Jesus' precious name. Amen.