All of Us Are Gomer

In one paragraph

Ray took the congregation through all fourteen chapters of Hosea in a single sermon, covering a book he described as mostly judgment but shot through with genuine hope. The driving question was whether Israel, and by extension anyone listening, had moved beyond knowing about God to actually knowing God in an experienced, personal way. That gap, between religious familiarity and real knowledge of...

Read together

1. Psalm 103:1 opened the service to lead into worship, 'Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name'
2. Isaiah 40:8 read before the offering, 'the grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever'
3. Hosea 1-3 recap of previous week's sermon on Hosea's marriage to Gomer as metaphor for Israel's unfaithfulness
4. Hosea 2:19-20 God says 'I will betroth you to me forever' in righteousness, loving kindness, mercy and faithfulness
5. Hosea 3:1-5 Hosea buys Gomer back at full price; Israel to abide without king or prince, then return and seek the Lord in the latter days
6. Hosea 4:1 God brings a legal charge against Israel, no truth, mercy or knowledge of God in the land
7. Hosea 4:2-3 swearing, lying, killing, stealing, adultery, bloodshed; land and its creatures will waste away
8. Hosea 4:4-6 no man to contend with another; people stumble; 'my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge'
9. Jeremiah 4:22 cited as a parallel to Hosea, 'my people are foolish, they have not known me, wise to do evil but no knowledge to do good'
10. Hosea 4:6-8 God rejects Israel as priests for forgetting his law; priests eating up the sin of the people
11. Hosea 4:11-14 harlotry and wine enslave the heart; wooden idols consulted; sacrifices on high places; daughters and brides commit harlotry
12. Hosea 4:15 warning to Judah not to go up to Gilgal or Beth Aven or swear 'as the Lord lives'
13. Hosea 4:16-19 Israel stubborn like a calf; Ephraim joined to idols; rulers love dishonor; wind wraps them up
14. Hosea 5:1-4 charge against priests and house of Israel; spirit of harlotry in their midst; they do not know the Lord
15. Hosea 5:5-7 pride of Israel testifies against him; Israel and Judah stumble; seek the Lord but won't find him; dealt treacherously
16. Hosea 5:8-11 blow the ram's horn; Ephraim desolate; princes of Judah like those who remove a landmark; wrath poured out
17. Hosea 5:11-13 Ephraim walked by human precept; God like a moth to Ephraim; Ephraim went to Assyria for healing
18. Hosea 5:14-15 God like a lion to Ephraim and a young lion to Judah; will return to his place until they acknowledge their offense
19. Proverbs 3:5-6 cited as the right way to walk, 'trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him'
20. 1 John 1:9 cited alongside Hosea 5:15 on confession, 'if you confess, if you agree with God about your sin, he is faithful and just to forgive your sin'
21. Hosea 6:1-3 hopeful call to return to the Lord who has torn but will heal; after two days revive us, on the third day raise us up; come like the rain
22. Hosea 6:4-6 faithfulness like a morning cloud; God desires mercy and not sacrifice, knowledge of God more than burnt offerings
23. Matthew 9:9-13 Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6 telling the Pharisees 'go and learn what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice'; he came to call sinners not the righteous
24. Hosea 6:7-9 like men they transgressed the covenant; Gilead a city of evildoers; priests murder on the way to Shechem
25. Hosea 7:8-11 Ephraim mixed among the peoples; a cake unturned; a silly dove going to Egypt and Assyria
26. Hosea 7:13-16 woe to them for fleeing from God; they assemble for grain and wine; trumpet warning like an eagle coming
27. Hosea 8:1-4 transgressed the covenant; Israel cries 'my God we know you' but they do not; kings set up without God's counsel
28. Hosea 8:5-8 calf of Samaria rejected; God's anger aroused; they sow the wind and reap the whirlwind
29. Hosea 8:9-10 Ephraim gone to Assyria like a wild donkey; hired lovers among the nations; God will gather them
30. Hosea 9:7-10 days of punishment come; prophet made a fool; Israel found like grapes in the wilderness; went after Baal Peor
31. Hosea 10:1 Israel empties his vine and brings forth fruit for himself
32. Hosea 10:11-12 Ephraim a trained heifer; direct imperative to sow righteousness, reap mercy, break up fallow ground, seek the Lord
33. Hosea 10:13 past tense: plowed wickedness, reaped iniquity, eaten the fruit of lies, trusted in own way
34. Hosea 11:1-4 metaphor shifts to God as father; when Israel was a child God loved him, called his son out of Egypt; taught Ephraim to walk, drew them with cords of love
35. Hosea 11:5-8 Assyrian shall be Israel's king; sword in the cities; 'how can I give you up, Ephraim'; God's heart churns, sympathy stirred
36. Hosea 11:9-11 God will not execute fierce anger; he is God not man; they shall walk after the Lord; sons shall come trembling from west, Egypt, Assyria
37. Hosea 12:1-2 Ephraim feeds on wind, increases lies; Judah still walks with God
38. Hosea 12:6 return by help of your God; observe mercy and justice; wait on your God continually
39. Hosea 13:4-6 God their Lord since Egypt; they knew no savior but him; knew them in the wilderness; filled and heart exalted, they forgot him
40. Hosea 13:9-11 Israel destroyed but help is in God; gave them a king in anger, took him away in wrath
41. Hosea 13:14 God will ransom them from the grave; 'death I will be your plagues; O grave I will be your destruction'
42. Hosea 14:1-3 Hosea instructs Israel to return to the Lord, take words, confess iniquity, say Assyria will not save us, renounce idols, in you the fatherless finds mercy
43. Hosea 14:4-7 God will heal their backsliding, love them freely; be like dew to Israel; they shall grow like the lily, spread like Lebanon, revived like grain
44. Hosea 14:8 Ephraim says what have I to do with idols; God says your fruit is found in me
45. Hosea 14:9 closing appeal: who is wise, let him understand; the ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in them but transgressors stumble
46. Romans 8:1 cited to reassure that there is no condemnation for those in Christ even while conviction of sin is real

Talk about it

1. Ray described the knowledge of God in Hosea as 'yada', an experiential knowing rather than knowledge about God. What is the difference between knowing about God and actually knowing Him, and where do you see that difference in your own life?
2. Ray pointed out that God says in Hosea 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice', and that Jesus quotes this twice in Matthew to people who had it memorized but still did not understand it. Why do you think it is so easy to be religious and yet miss mercy?
3. Ray asked whether, as individuals and as a church, we act just like the world around us and approach things from a business perspective rather than by the Spirit. Where do you think that pressure shows up most in church life today?
4. Ray said 'nobody ever goes after God in the good times, it is the hard times that bring us to Jesus.' Has that been true in your own experience, and what does that tell us about how God uses difficulty?
5. At the end of the sermon Ray said 'all of us are Gomer', and warned against using Hosea as a clobber passage against other people. How does seeing yourself as Gomer rather than the judge change the way you read a book this heavy on judgment?