The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
Hosea 1:1opening verse establishing the time period of Hosea's prophecy
1 Yahweh’s word that came to Hosea the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
God's command to Hosea to take a wife of harlotry because the land had committed harlotry
2 When Yahweh spoke at first by Hosea, Yahweh said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife of prostitution and children of unfaithfulness; for the land commits great adultery, forsaking Yahweh.”
God's command to name the son Jezreel and forecast of Israel's downfall
4 Yahweh said to him, “Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, and will cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease.
Gomer conceiving a daughter named Lo-ruhamah meaning no mercy
6 She conceived again, and bore a daughter. Then he said to him, “Call her name Lo-Ruhamah; for I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, that I should in any way pardon them.
God's promise to have mercy on Judah and save them by His spirit
7 But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and will save them by Yahweh their God, and will not save them by bow, sword, battle, horses, or horsemen.”
promise that those called not my people will be called sons of the living God
10 Yet the number of the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea, which can’t be measured or counted; and it will come to pass that, in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’
God bringing charges against Israel as an unfaithful wife
2 Contend with your mother! Contend, for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband; and let her put away her prostitution from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts;
Israel saying she would go after her lovers who give her bread and water
5 For their mother has played the prostitute. She who conceived them has done 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.’
God hedging up Israel's way with thorns so she returns to her first husband
6 Therefore behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, that she can’t find her way.
7 She will follow after her lovers, but she won’t overtake them; and she will seek them, but won’t find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.’
God's declaration to take back His grain, wine, wool and linen and destroy her feasts
9 Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my new wine in its season, and will pluck away my wool and my flax which should have covered her nakedness.
10 Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will deliver her out of my hand.
11 I will also cause all her celebrations to cease: her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her solemn assemblies.
12 I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, about which she has said, ‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me; and I will make them a forest,’ and the animals of the field shall eat them.
13 I will visit on her the days of the Baals, to which she burned incense, when she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot me,” says Yahweh.
15 I will give her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she will respond there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
God making a covenant with the beasts and birds and shattering bow and sword
18 In that day I will make a covenant for them with the animals of the field, and with the birds of the sky, and with the creeping things of the ground. I will break the bow, the sword, and the battle out of the land, and will make them lie down safely.
God promising to answer the heavens and earth and sow Israel and show mercy to Lo-ruhamah
21 It will happen in that day, I will respond,” says Yahweh, “I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth;
22 and the earth will respond to the grain, and the new wine, and the oil; and they will respond to Jezreel.
23 I will sow her to me in the earth; and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; and I will tell those who were not my people, ‘You are my people;’ and they will say, ‘My God!’”
God commanding Hosea to go again and love his adulterous wife as God loves Israel
1 Yahweh said to me, “Go again, love a woman loved by another, and an adulteress, even as Yahweh loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods, and love cakes of raisins.”
Hosea buying Gomer back at full price and telling her she shall stay with him
2 So I bought her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer and a half of barley.
3 I said to her, “You shall stay with me many days. You shall not play the prostitute, and you shall not be with any other man. I will also be so toward you.”
Israel abiding many days without king then returning to seek the Lord and David their king in the latter days
4 For the children of Israel shall live many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without sacred stone, and without ephod or idols.
5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return, and seek Yahweh their God, and David their king, and shall come with trembling to Yahweh and to his blessings in the last days.
referenced to explain Jehu's brutal massacre of Ahab's family at Jezreel
9:1 Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets, and said to him, “Put your belt on your waist, take this vial of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth Gilead.
9:2 When you come there, find Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi, and go in, and make him rise up from among his brothers, and take him to an inner room.
9:3 Then take the vial of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, ‘Yahweh says, “I have anointed you king over Israel.”’ Then open the door, flee, and don’t wait.”
9:4 So the young man, even the young man, the prophet, went to Ramoth Gilead.
9:5 When he came, behold, the captains of the army were sitting. Then he said, “I have a message for you, captain.” Jehu said, “To which of us all?” He said, “To you, O captain.”
9:6 He arose, and went into the house. Then he poured the oil on his head, and said to him, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘I have anointed you king over the people of Yahweh, even over Israel.
9:7 You must strike your master Ahab’s house, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of Yahweh, at the hand of Jezebel.
9:8 For the whole house of Ahab will perish. I will cut off from Ahab everyone who urinates against a wall, both him who is shut up and him who is left at large in Israel.
9:9 I will make Ahab’s house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah.
9:10 The dogs will eat Jezebel on the plot of ground of Jezreel, and there shall be no one to bury her.’” Then he opened the door and fled.
9:11 When Jehu came out to the servants of his lord, and one said to him, “Is all well? Why did this mad fellow come to you?” He said to them, “You know the man and how he talks.”
9:12 They said, “That is a lie. Tell us now.” He said, “He said to me, ‘Yahweh says, I have anointed you king over Israel.’”
9:13 Then they hurried, and each man took his cloak, and put it under him on the top of the stairs, and blew the trumpet, saying, “Jehu is king.”
9:14 So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. (Now Joram was keeping Ramoth Gilead, he and all Israel, because of Hazael king of Syria;
9:15 but king Joram had returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him, when he fought with Hazael king of Syria.) Jehu said, “If this is your thinking, then let no one escape and go out of the city, to go to tell it in Jezreel.”
9:16 So Jehu rode in a chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram lay there. Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to see Joram.
9:17 Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel, and he spied the company of Jehu as he came, and said, “I see a company.” Joram said, “Take a horseman, and send to meet them, and let him say, ‘Is it peace?’”
9:18 So one went on horseback to meet him, and said, “Thus says the king, ‘Is it peace?’” Jehu said, “What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me!” The watchman said, “The messenger came to them, but he isn’t coming back.”
9:19 Then he sent out a second on horseback, who came to them, and said, “Thus says the king, ‘Is it peace?’” Jehu answered, “What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me!”
9:20 The watchman said, “He came to them, and isn’t coming back. The driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he drives furiously.”
9:21 Joram said, “Get ready!” They got his chariot ready. Then Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot, and they went out to meet Jehu, and found him on Naboth the Jezreelite’s land.
9:22 When Joram saw Jehu, he said, “Is it peace, Jehu?” He answered, “What peace, so long as the prostitution of your mother Jezebel and her witchcraft abound?”
9:23 Joram turned his hands, and fled, and said to Ahaziah, “This is treason, Ahaziah!”
9:24 Jehu drew his bow with his full strength, and struck Joram between his arms; and the arrow went out at his heart, and he sunk down in his chariot.
9:25 Then Jehu said to Bidkar his captain, “Pick him up, and throw him in the plot of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember how, when you and I rode together after Ahab his father, Yahweh laid this burden on him:
9:26 ‘Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons,’ says Yahweh; ‘and I will repay you in this plot of ground,’ says Yahweh. Now therefore take and cast him onto the plot of ground, according to Yahweh’s word.”
9:27 But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house. Jehu followed after him, and said, “Strike him also in the chariot!” They struck him at the ascent of Gur, which is by Ibleam. He fled to Megiddo, and died there.
9:28 His servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his tomb with his fathers in David’s city.
9:29 In the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab, Ahaziah began to reign over Judah.
9:30 When Jehu had come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her eyes, and adorned her head, and looked out at the window.
9:31 As Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, “Do you come in peace, Zimri, you murderer of your master?”
9:32 He lifted up his face to the window, and said, “Who is on my side? Who?” Two or three eunuchs looked out at him.
9:33 He said, “Throw her down!” So they threw her down; and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses. Then he trampled her under foot.
9:34 When he had come in, he ate and drank. Then he said, “See now to this cursed woman, and bury her; for she is a king’s daughter.”
9:35 They went to bury her, but they found no more of her than the skull, the feet, and the palms of her hands.
9:36 Therefore they came back, and told him. He said, “This is Yahweh’s word, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ‘The dogs will eat the flesh of Jezebel on the plot of Jezreel,
9:37 and the body of Jezebel will be as dung on the face of the field on Jezreel’s land, so that they won’t say, “This is Jezebel.”’”
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
On February 8, 2026, Pastor Aaron walked First Baptist Jackson through Hosea chapters one through three, the first of what will be a three-part series. He described the book as roughly twenty-five years of Hosea's prophecies, and the theme his seminary professor nailed in six words: spiritual adultery and knowledge of God. The message pressed everyone in the room to identify, honestly, with Gomer.
What was said
Hosea prophesied to the Northern Kingdom of Israel during the reign of Jeroboam the second, a time of real material prosperity and military strength. The coffers were full. But wealth had not produced faithfulness. Israel had walked away from God repeatedly, and Hosea was called to announce that exile and judgment were coming. That context is what makes God's first word to Hosea so jarring: go marry a woman of harlotry, because the land itself has committed harlotry by departing from the Lord.
Hosea obeyed. He married Gomer, and their children's names became part of the message. The first son, whose birth language marks him as Hosea's biological child, was named Jezreel, forecasting where Assyria would eventually defeat Israel. A daughter followed, and the language shifts slightly, she bore a daughter, not him a daughter, signaling Gomer's unfaithfulness had already resumed. That daughter was named Lo-Ruhamah, no mercy. Then a son, Lo-Ammi, not my people. Three children, three names that spelled out God's case against Israel.
God's words to Israel through this imagery pile up without softening. You have gone after your lovers. You said they are the ones who give me bread and water and wool and oil. God's response is that he is the one who actually gave all of it, and he will take it back. He will hedge up her paths with thorns so she cannot find her way to those lovers, and when she cannot find them she will say, I will go back to my first husband, for it was better for me then than it is now.
Then comes the turn, and Pastor Aaron marked it clearly. "Therefore, behold, I will allure her." God does not simply wait for Israel to crawl back. He pursues. He says he will bring her into the wilderness and speak comfort to her there, and he will give her the Valley of Achor as a door of hope, where she will sing again as she did in the days of coming out of Egypt. That is where Good Samaritan Mission took the name for its Door of Hope program starting the following Sunday evening.
Hosea two nineteen and twenty is where Pastor Aaron said he chose the New King James: "I will betroth you to me forever, in righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and mercy, I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord." He pressed on that last phrase. Not know about the Lord. Know Him. The marriage relationship is the image God uses because it is the one that shows that distinction most plainly.
Chapter three brings the story back to ground level in just five verses. God tells Hosea to go again and love Gomer, who has gone out again and is committing adultery again. Hosea goes. He pays full price to buy her back, fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a half of barley, and he brings her home with words of tenderness. He is not negotiating. She belongs to him and he is willing to pay whatever it costs.
Pastor Aaron closed by saying the place every person in the room needs to find themselves in this story is not with Hosea. It is with Gomer. We are the ones who have wandered. God is the one pursuing. When we hit a place where we wonder whether God still loves us, this text answers the question. He is coming after us, and he paid full price.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Pastor talked about his professor summing up Hosea in six words: 'spiritual adultery and knowledge of God.' Where do you see those two themes playing off each other in your own understanding of what it means to follow God?
God told Hosea to go and marry a woman of harlotry so that his life would be a living illustration for Israel. What does it do to you when you realize God sometimes uses painful personal circumstances to speak a message through someone?
Good morning, church family. Will you please stand up and let's worship the Lord. Amen? I am so thankful every single Sunday for the privilege that we have to be here in this place and feel God's presence. Let's worship him.
Let's praise his name. Let's say, yes, lord. You are in charge. Yes, God. You know my life.
You know what's going on. Yes. You are in charge. And then through the songs, we're gonna go through a moment when we ask his help in our lives, and we recognize in our walk in by the Holy Spirit, we need his strength, his help so we could so we can keep going in the right direction. Amen?
Amen. With that in mind, please, if you are here this morning, that means God has something to tell you this morning. And be aware of that whisper. Just say while we are going through the music or sermon, just say, Lord, speak to me something that I need to hear this morning. Amen?
To have you here, everybody. There's so much going on here at Firstbee. First of all, the sound is really good at the front. So if you wanna come and experience it, would you please? There's lots of seats up front, and it makes room for all the visitors and stuff in the back.
If you would, come on up. We'd love to see your beautiful faces up here. Awana is happening tomorrow. It's our kids program. It's a blast.
Be praying for it. It's so fun. I I volunteered for it for five years, and I I'd say the the rewards are plentiful for the people who are participating and for the kids. So please be a part of that. Meal music on and the message is back on.
February 11, I believe, is the next one over in Driggs.
Wednesday night.
Wednesday night. Come come hear the music. Come to Driggs and support that. Be praying for that too. It's huge.
That's where I go to church. It's great. It's great. It's only happened one time, but it's great. Yeah.
So Wednesday night over in Driggs, Driggs Fairgrounds, or Teton County Fairgrounds in Driggs. It's great.
And, like, 73 people showed up last time. Who knows what's gonna happen this time? Let's be praying for for a big show out show up that time. Deb Hill is starting a brand new Bible study, belonging our search for home. It's about healing through relationships.
I've read through her book. It's really great, and it's really gentle. She's only looking for five ladies to be a part of it. So if you're looking for a truly small group, would you contact Deb Hill? She's she's really a special lady, and her information's on the slide.
Sisters Saved by Grace is back on. They're starting a new series, and it seems to be going really well. It's a great way to get plugged in. Ladies, if you're looking for a way to get involved, Thursday, 6PM downstairs here at the church on Building Your Strengths, show up for that one too. Youth Easter Choir has begun.
It's kicking off. Be anticipating that for Easter. How fun is that? All the calendar information is on the website. And kids don't have to worry about missing spring break.
It's not gonna impede your opportunity to leave Jackson during that mud season. And for the snowmobile retreat, we've got a special guest, Richard Largie, to talk about. Whoo.
Thank you, buddy. Thanks, Nick. Wow. You guys look great. My name is Richard Largie.
Most of you know me. A few of you might not. I'm the guy coordinating the men's snowmobile retreat in Island Park, Idaho. This year's gonna be awesome. It's a gospel centered weekend focused on building legacy for our families.
John Hammond is speaking. Is John here? Most of you guys know John Hammond. He's gonna come up and speak. We're calling it as for me and my house.
This is a great trip away from distractions and routines and responsibilities. This
is deliberate time away with other men to be real and vulnerable, engage with with one another in the word.
Do some and this do hopefully do some snowmobiling too. If you're interested in going, please let me know. If I'll get your email, and I'll send you the sign up link. If you're on the fence, just come with us. It's gonna be a great time.
And if you're planning on going, but you have a sign up link and you haven't filled it out yet, please do because I need accurate numbers for food. And we're talking about giving something away this year. Thanks for listening. I'll see out there.
Yeah. It's the best weekend of the year. Highly recommended. And even if you just cross country ski or wanna hang out in the lodge, guys come. And even if you're on the peripherals of the church, just invite your neighbors.
Invite your friends. It's the best. There will be a congregational meeting next Sunday to vote on John Hammond and Danny Sherwin as elders. So come on in between services for that as well. Oh, the First Baptist Church directory.
The first copies are out. We're gonna have you all we're gonna pass one down this side, one down this side. If you do me a favor, just look through it, see if there's any corrections that need to be made, and get it back to me. And if you haven't gotten us a picture yet, it's not too late. All the information is right on the front there on how you can send that to us.
We're trying to get those printed within a week or two. So please help us out with that. But thank you so much. We had so much response in the last two weeks. It's really meant a lot to me.
And now I know your names and faces, and that's a delight too. It's scout Sunday. Do we have some scouts in the house? Would you stand up, please?
Yeah.
Oh, we just love our scouts. They've been meeting here for eighty something years. It's really fantastic to have men. And on Wednesday nights, they come running through here, and they're doing all kinds of projects. These guys are super involved in the community, and the leaders just pour into these kids.
Thank you for all you guys do, and thank you for all of our friends who are part of the scouts. So let's give them one more round of applause. Appreciate you guys. Alright. Have a seat.
Thanks for being here, folks. We really appreciate you in missions moment. We have lots of different missionaries here at the church. And if you if you're not sure about what we do, we help people literally all over the world in places that we can't even talk about because they're doing some dangerous things and people right here in The United States. And we're just gonna pray for the missions organization here at the church that you all have sponsored.
Okay? Lord God, thank you so much for what you're doing, Lord, that your mercy extends all around the globe to every person, even in the darkest place, in the brightest place, the highest and the lowest, and everything in between, Lord God. No one is left behind, Lord God. And would you show us the people that we can help today, Lord? The people who who need you, the people who need be encouraged by you, Lord God.
The people we can take your word to, Lord Jesus. And thank you for what these people here have donated to, Lord. And as 2026 is really getting rolling here, Lord, would you show us how we can expand and how we can really help those people all around the world, Lord, in your holy name. Amen. Amen.
Yeah. Thank you so much. If you have any questions, the missions committee here is really, really active, and we'd love to be able to talk to you more about that. There's more information on the church website as well. Thank you so much for being here.
Have we missed anything? No. But we've thoroughly put you to sleep. That's great. Alright.
Well, let's let's wake you back up. Stand up. Greet each other. We'll bring you back with some music. Think?
Let's sing only king forever. Amen? And that king is Jesus Christ, our savior. Let's sing together. Amen?
Amen. Let's praise the Lord, and let's pray right now. I'll invite my wife, Yolita, to come and pray for us. Always on the spot.
Celebrate you the head. Our father God, we're so thankful that you have given us the privilege to be here. We're thankful that you have given us life that we can live and enjoy your beautiful creation. Thank you for each and every person that is here this morning ready to worship you. Please allow our hearts to be quiet.
Please allow our hearts to worship you. Allow our mind to think only on you and to receive a message from you. Please bless the message that we'll receive so that it will talk to our heart. Help us to receive something from it and use it in our daily life. Please bless each and every person that has been here.
And if they need anything, any help from you, please talk to their hearts. Thank you for everything that you do for us. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen.
Thank you, Violetta. Unfortunately, our worship leader, Ryan, and I wanna call him that way because, he does a great job. So please, when you see him, just tell him that he does a great job because indeed he he sings so beautiful. Anyway, he couldn't be here, unfortunately, because he doesn't feel okay. So he texted me.
He said, are you in? What do you think? Are you available to lead worship? And I I didn't feel good either. So first, I said, unfortunately, you know, normally, my answer is always yes, but this time I have to say no.
So I waited, a few hours, and then my in my mind, I was thinking, no. I should say yes, and God will help me feel better by Sunday. Honestly, just last night, my cough stopped completely. And thank you, Jesus, because I'm able to be here and sing and worship the Lord. Amen?
Amen. Amen. Praise the Lord. Lord God, it's so good to be here in your house, Lord. It's good to be here to praise your name, to worship you, and to recognize that you, almighty God, are in charge of everything.
Lord Jesus, I'm praying right now that you would bless everyone that is here this morning. The fact that they are here, that means you have a purpose. You have a message for their hearts. Nobody knows how we are in our daily life except you. So I'm praying for those that are struggling right now with something that only they know, and I I don't need to know.
But you know. So, Lord Jesus, would you please touch their hearts and use this next song that we're gonna sing that call them, call us, call all of us in a place where we can stand in you because of the power of the Holy Spirit that we receive forgiveness of our sins through the blood of Jesus Christ. In your precious name I pray. Amen. This song has a great message.
So let's worship with all our hearts. Amen? Come to the well that never runs dry. Drink of the water. Come and thirst no more.
Come and Praise God. Praise God.
Ushers to come forward. They're already headed forward. So, have an operatory prayer or the worship through giving time. Lord God, thank you for thank you for speaking to us through some human at some point. Thank you, lord, that your gospel travels in the lives, in the minds, in the hearts, in the overflow of the heart, out of the mouths of your humble and obedient followers.
Lord, thank you for the person that witnessed to you, to us. And Lord, may we be those people that witness you to others. Would you speak to us so that we you can speak that. Do do for his that. Sacrificial death and for his continuing presence in our lives.
Thank you, lord, for Jesus. And I ask that you would advance your good gospel, lord. We want you to do your will and your way among us and through us to the very ends of the earth. In Jesus name, amen.
Amen.
Amen. Y'all can have a seat. It's time for children's church downstairs. Alright. There they go.
Several of y'all several of y'all have come up to me in the past couple of weeks and said, hey, I've been praying for you. Thank you. I appreciate that. Some of you specifically have been saying, hey, I read Hosea. I've been praying for you because I'm not intentionally kinda teased it out there in front of me, but just telling you, I've been preparing to do this for a couple of months now, maybe three months now.
And I just kept kinda putting it back and putting it back. And at some point, this week, I thought, okay, now is the time. And so here it is, Hosea. We're gonna do chapters one through three. That was always the plan for me at least when going through this.
And in some ways, I just wanted to go through it in a hurry. One service would have been great for me but I think we're gonna break it into three sermons. So one through three is the first one and we'll start off with prayer. Lord, thank you. Thank you.
Thank you that you love us. Lord, I pray that you'd help us to identify rightly with the text in front of us and that you would present it lord and all of the thorny places of our lives that this would only hit us in the right places. So lord, may we take away from your word, your message individually and collectively for us today. In Jesus name, ask your blessing on this, the proclaimed word of God. Amen.
Amen. So, Hosea, let's just go for it. This I wanted to put in there and make sure Nick said it and he did. This is something else that he didn't say. Door of hope and this will come up more later on the sermon, I think.
But door of hope at the Good Samaritan Mission. There's gonna be one tonight, right, Dan? No. Next week. Next week.
Okay. Not this evening. Next week. Maybe I maybe I'm too soon. No.
Door of Hope started last week on Sunday evening and I just mentioned that. It'll come up in a minute. Good Samaritan mission here is a very very cool place. It's helpful to a lot of folks and has been for a long time since it was Orville's, a long long time ago. So Hosea one through three.
I usually speak from the New American Standard Version. I'm going go New King James on this one. Hosea is a collection of about twenty five years worth of poems. And so a lot of it is poetic verse. And so I think New King James sounds more poetic.
So that's why I'm going with that. Also, this is what I grew up with, it makes me more comfortable, so there we go. This is my a slide from one of my professors. When I went through seminary, had a class on the prophets. We had to read all of the prophets, major and minor in one semester and his three hour presentation on Hosea was this, spiritual adultery and knowledge of God.
He nailed it in four words. Spiritual adultery and knowledge of God. That's a really good way of looking this. It's more than four words, six words anyway. Let's start with Hosea one one.
Good place to start. The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Biri in the days of and when it says in the days of for us, a lot of times we're like, don't know who Uzziah is, but we do. You remember Isaiah in the days of Uzziah, right? We can get a general sense of what time period, what our specific sense of what time period was by who's in charge. So it's in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, the kings of Judah.
Now there are some good guys in there, but that's the kings of Judah. And so the next verse tells us whose Hosea is prophesying to. It's not Judah. And in the days of Jeroboam, Jeroboam the second to be specific. Jeroboam the second, the son of Joash, he's the king of Israel.
Israel is the Northern Kingdom. Judah is the Southern kingdom. Judah had a few good kings in there, not many. Israel had none. No good kings.
They had a prosperous life. They had wealth and they had prosperity in their times in the Northern Kingdom. Jeroboam in the valleys around there and in the in a lot of the land, it was a very fruitful time for a long time and they quit trusting in God. And they well, let's just keep going. Let's let the text say what it says.
In the days of Jeroboam the second, the son of Joash, the coffers were full. All of the prophets that we've studied so far have been pre exile. So there's a warning that exile is to come. And Hosea is the first of the minor prophets, It's the longest of the minor prophets and his is no different. He is saying there is punishment exile.
There is purification to come. Okay? So that's it. So it's time material wealth but spiritual apostasy. They have walked away from God.
Northern Kingdom. Seven fifty five if you're if you're numbers person. Seven fifty five to seven fifteen or so. He started prophesying ahead of time and I think by the end of the book, we're seeing some of the aftermath, like after the Assyrian invasion, just the very last, like the epilogue is probably after the Assyrian invasion that happens in 07/22. So one two, when the Lord began to speak by Hosea, this hit me as profound.
When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, in order for him to speak by him, he first spoke to him. That's really, really helpful for a guy whose job it is to speak. In front of a lot of people, a lot of the time. So, God, what is it you want to have said today? When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, now, just this, I'm gonna go back.
Jesus and Joshua, most of y'all know carry the sense of salvation. Shua, that part but Yeah, Shua is Yahweh is salvation. Hosea has the same root of salvation, but it's not specifically Yahweh. In this story, Hosea symbolizes salvation. Okay?
And it's his name. It's his name. It's the guy's name. But his very personal message for this one, we'll get to that in a little while. This is weird.
Kiss dating goodbye, raising kids God's way, missionary dating is a terrible idea. All of the different things that we have seen and growing up known that, oh, purity culture, all of that sort of stuff, and God's first word to Hosea is, go and take yourself a wife of harlotry. Wow. Exactly. Thanks.
Welcome, Boy Scouts. Here you are. I've been putting this off for weeks and it's scouting Sunday. Here we are. Depending on your translation, it might say go and marry a prostitute.
Go and marry a promiscuous woman. So go take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry. For the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord. God's message to Hosea and what he would show through Hosea's life is that the his people had turned his their back on him and they had done so over and over again and his life is going to be an illustration of God's people continually playing the harlot, turning away from it. Go take yourself a wife of harlotry, children of harlotry for the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord.
And so he went and he took Gomer or Gomer. I'm sorry, it's Gomer. It just is. That's what her name was. And Gomer Pyle is all I can think of too.
If I pronounced it different, you'd still be reading it Gomer. So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Dyblaim. When it mentions that Gomer, daughter of Dyblaim, I think that what it's saying is he actually paid a diary for Gomer. Okay? Maybe not, but that's what it seems to imply.
And so he went and he I know that it's so hard in our time to think about things in these sort of patriarchal terms, but he paid a dowry to be able to wet her. He went and took. I like this too because obedience is highlighted here. It says, go take and then the next verbs are went took. Right?
Go take, went took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and she bore him a son. And the subtlety of language there, when it says she bore him a son, that was his biological son. Okay? That's what the first three verses of this book say. And then the Lord said to him, call that child's name Jezreel.
Jezreel. Okay. It's not Bob. Jezreel. For in a little while, Jezreel is a place by the way.
Y'all y'all might not know that. They knew that. The Valley Of Jezreel and there's a city situated just above on a bluff overlooking the Valley Of Jezreel, and they knew that. So Hosea, your life is gonna be an illustration of the way that Israel has treated me. Jezreel is a very fertile plane.
It's a gift from God that it is in the Northern Kingdom. Call his name Jezreel. I mean, that we've got Brooklyn's and Albany's and we've got Manhattan's and we got all kinds of people that are named after places. This one is Jackson's, lots of Jackson's. Jezreel, for in a little while, I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, and I'll bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.
He's already forecasting by the fourth verse. He's already forecasting the downfall of the Northern Kingdom. During a time of great prosperity when they have military might and coffers that are full. You name your kid Jezreel. I'm gonna avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel.
If you think back to seems like our member, Jehu, but I thought Jehu was a good guy. Wasn't Jehu the guy who killed Ahab? Yes. And Jezebel? Yes.
And all of his relatives? Yes. But he did so with an unbelievable believable bloodthirst brutality. And he went overboard. He was supposed to bring down the land of Ahab.
He was supposed to do that, direct it. But he did so with more ferocity than apparently than what God wanted him to do. Right here he says, I'm gonna avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu. So according to second Kings nine and ten, if you wanna read it, it is brutal. He brutally massacred all of the members of Ahab's family brought to an end the land of Ahab.
He says, it shall come to pass in that day that I will break the bow of Israel, their military might in the Valley Of Jezreel. This is where it's gonna happen. The Assyrians are gonna whip you in the Valley Of Jezreel. So that's it. Fertile Plains still, that's just a little image of recent history.
And it says, there's a lot of yada yada here. It just there's there's time in between here, but like I said, it's about twenty five years worth of his prophecies and his life. And so it says, and she conceived again and she bore a daughter. Do you see that it doesn't say she bore him a daughter? So she was a woman of harlotry before apparently, she was a woman of harlotry before they married, and it was really hard for her to step back from that lifestyle.
And so being married, she conceived again. She bore a daughter. And then God said to Hosea, yeah, call her name, this little baby, Forgive my Hebrew. It's terrible. Means no mercy.
What a name. What a name. No mercy is the kid's name. And it's an illustration of God saying, what you've done Israel is you have turned your back on me. I saved you and I brought you out of Egypt.
I went to great lengths to take care of you and this will be this will be covered throughout the rest of the book but I'm gonna keep on switching it over into the spiritual adultery of Israel because for me, a pastor, I'm brokenhearted for Hosea because Gomer's cheated on him. I'm brokenhearted for Gomer because she can't escape the lifestyle. I'm brokenhearted because this gal's name is no mercy. This is why it's taken me so long to preach this. I've been more worried about each one of these characters and where do you identify with these characters.
I look out, sometimes if you all see my eyes closed, it's because I don't want to say what I'm about to say while I'm looking at you. Okay? That's the truth. So I don't intentionally do it, but occasionally I'll mess up and keep my eyes open and be looking straight at somebody and say something to go, oh, I wish I hadn't said that to them. Call her name no mercy.
Why? Because I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away. Exile is coming. Yet, I will have mercy on the house of Judah. Judah has remained in some ways obedient to him.
Now, Judah's going to fall eventually too but I will have mercy on the house of Judah and I'll save them by the Lord their God. I'm not gonna save them by the bow. It's not because they have military strength. I'm not gonna save them by the sword or by battle, by horses, or by horsemen. I'm gonna save them by my spirit.
That's what I'm gonna do for Judah. I'm utterly taken away Israel, the Northern Kingdom. Now, when she had weaned no mercy, she conceived and she bore a son. So it's a son, Jezreel, daughter, no mercy, and then God said, call his name Lo Ami. Lo Ami means not my people.
Again, not his biological kid. So Gomer had come back into the family and had committed adultery again with someone else, and this kid's name is not my people. Oh, heartbreaking. Have you all read Redeeming Love? A lot of the ladies in the room are saying, yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Really really mean. Francine River wrote a book called Redeeming Love yesterday. That might be day before yesterday.
I talked to my uncle who is kind of a lay pastor, and he preaches when he's given opportunity. And his daughters and his wife had all read Redeem and Love by Francine Rivers, which is a take on Hosea. And when they read it, they thought, oh, what a overwhelming love story. It's so beautiful that the God who pursues and the husband who pursues and no matter what, and my uncle, they said, read it. He reads all the time.
I was calling to make a book recommendation to him then when I called him. And he said, he read it. And they loved it, and he read it, and he goes, it was real hard for me to get through that book and it was hard for him because he was identifying he was identifying as a husband, right? Not as an adulterous wife, not as one who was being pursued, but he was having a hard time being the one who pursued. He was like, one time maybe, two times no.
And the fact that it just kept happening over and over again, it's it's tough. And I think that's another reason why it's been really hard for me to do this. Where do I identify? Not my people. God said, call his name not my people.
Can you imagine? You've heard not my circus, not my monkeys. Right? Your name, name, not my people. What was that again?
Low on me, not my people. That's his name. For you are not my people and I will not be your God. I I require you to actually be my people. This is Old Testament.
Yes, it's Old Testament. It's Old Testament when you know that, yeah, God's gonna be with you forever and everything else has the New Testament Christian. He's got the spirit indwelling. It's a different time period. It's hard to imagine this, but he's saying, you're not.
You're not paying any attention to me, my statutes, my rules. You're paying no attention whatsoever. You are playing the harlot with everything and everybody else. Yet, it says, now wait a second. You're not my people and I will not be your God.
Yet, that's a disjunctive. Yet, the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea just like I promised which cannot be measured or numbered. And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, you're not my people. There it also shall be said to them, you are sons of the living God. So, he's forecasting exile but he's also forecasting coming back from that exile and then the children of Judah and the children of Israel is not gonna be a divided kingdom anymore.
They'll be gathered together. They'll point for themselves one head. Who do you think that might be? Yeah. Messiah, Jesus.
And they shall come up out of the land for great will be the day of Jezreel, name of his first kid, the place where the Syrians are gonna take him over, and God's redemption. Say to your brothers and sisters, my people, and to your or to your brethren, my people, and say to your sisters, mercy is shown. You see how it changes from not my people to my people and no mercy to mercy. Bring charges against your mother. Bring charges.
She's not my wife nor am I her husband. She's not treating me that way. Let her put away all of her heart lit trees from her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts, lest I strip her naked, expose her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. There is the disobedience does carry a consequence. And this was also hard for me in our day and time to think about that.
The way that husbands and wives interact and to think that a man might put a wife under punishment was really, really difficult for me in our day and time. But this is a metaphor. We can't make a metaphor stand up on its back legs and walk and talk. Right? It's a metaphor.
And it's a metaphor for people, and he's saying there are consequences for that. There's a broken trust that has to be rebuilt, and there is a time. It goes on to say, I'll not have mercy on her children for they're the children of harlotry. For the mother has played the harlot, she who can see them is behaved shamefully. For she said, I'm gonna go after my lovers.
Who are they? Anybody except for Hosea? Anybody except for God in the metaphor? I'll go after my lovers. They're the ones who give me bread and my water, my wool, my linen, my oil, and my drink.
This is where I get my resources from. Therefore, behold, I'm gonna hedge up your way with thorns and I'm gonna wall you in so that you cannot find those paths. She will chase her lovers but she's not gonna be able to get to them. She'll seek them but not find them, and then she will say, well, I'll go back and return to my first husband. And then it for then it was better for me than it was now.
Every picture of Israel that we see when they're called out of Egypt, God saves them, gets them across the Red Sea, gets them across the rivers, build a build a place right here so you don't forget this moment. Stand up some stones, right? All of these ways that God has provided and they continually kept turning away from him and to whatever. Now, I can stop right here and say, individually and collectively, what are we turning away from the living God towards for our security, for our wealth, for our what does this say? Wine and song and everything else.
Whatever. Whatever. What are we looking for? She did not know that I'm the one who gave her grain and new wine and oil and multiplied her silver and gold which they prepared for Baal. I am going to take you under my wing, Israel, and I'm going to take care of you.
And when you quit trusting me, you start worshiping the golden calf right at the bottom of Sinai while he's given him his good law on the top of Sinai or in the Northern Kingdom, they had temples set up at Gilgal and forget the other place And they actually had golden calves set up in those temples in the Northern Kingdom. Still doing the same old thing. They prepared those things for Baal. I'm gonna give you good things. I can be trusted, God is saying.
Therefore, I'll return and I'll take away my grain and it's time. I'm gonna withhold from you the blessing for a while and my wine in its season and I will take back my wool and I'll take back my linen which was covering up your nakedness. Now I'll uncover the lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall deliver her from my hand. And I will cause all of her mirth. Mirth is joy as, you know, merrymaking mirth to cease, taking away the feast days, taking away the new moons, taking away the Sabbath, and all of her appointed feast.
And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees of which she has said, these are my wages that my lovers have given me. So I'll make them a forest. The beast of the field shall eat them, and I'll punish her for the days of the bales to which she burned incense. She decked herself with earrings and jewelry and went after her lovers, but me, she forgot, says the Lord. So I look at this and I'm thinking of Hosea and Gomer.
I'm trying to put it in the earthly context, and I know as a pastor that adultery is very much a part of some of y'all's lives. And I know how hurtful it is. I know how in this instance, it's really, really, really easy to identify with God for you because there's someone who has been unfaithful to you. But the analogy and the metaphor, I think it's easier for us to look at it from that perspective. I'm the good guy.
In every story, I'm the good guy. I'm not the bad guy or the bad girl in this case. For the last few weeks, I've been trying not to play a Led Zeppelin song up here or a police song. But we all have and and there are hundreds hundreds hundreds of songs about this. Now, this says, Go Marry a Woman of Harlotry and there are tons of songs like Roxanne, it could be Gomer.
Right? You don't have to put on the red light. Those days are over. You don't have to sell your body to the night. Come on.
You don't have to wear that dress tonight. You don't have to. Come on. Get the makeups over. Just be with me.
I'm here. I love you. I'm driving for you. Or I wanna tell you about the girl I love, how she looks so fine. She's the only one I've been dreaming of.
Maybe someday she'll be all mine. I wanna tell her that I love her so I thrill her with every touch. I need to tell her she's the only one I really love. That's, hey, hey, what can I do by Led Zeppelin? Right?
And whoever they stole it from because that's what they do. I got a woman on a ball all day. I got a woman. She won't be true. No.
I got a woman. She stays drunk all the time. I said I got a little woman. She won't be true. Sunday morning, we go down to church, see the men folks standing in line, say they come to pray to the Lord, but my little girl looks so fine.
In the evening when the sun is sinking low and everybody's with the one they love, I walk to town, I keep searching all around, I'm looking for that street corner girl. These things are in popular culture because they hit us in a place of just deep, deep emotion. Right? Hosea and Gomer. Me, she forgot, says the Lord.
So this is the turn. There's a there's a turn right here and it's telling us about all of the walking away from and the necessary consequences for the action. And then there's the turn and it says, therefore, behold, I will allure her. I will woo her back. I will bring her into the wilderness and I will speak comfort to her and I will give her vineyards from there and the Valley Of Achor as a door of hope.
Hey, door of hope that the good Samaritan mission starts next Sunday, 06:00 in the evening. Yeah. That's where that comes from. The door of hope is the turn. Yeah, you've done things that are unforgivable but I'm going to forgive them.
You've done some things that are in the New Testament, you know, and Jesus says, except for in cases of adultery and this is repeated adultery, right? It's heartbreaking but this chaos, this upsetting of everything that is good and holy, there's a door of hope and she shall sing there. As in the days of her youth before she got into all of that stuff, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt, remember how in love they were that they were getting out of the slavery and punishment of Egypt? The difficulty making bricks with no straw, being slaves, being delivered. That's where I'm bringing you back from there.
I'm gonna give her vineyards from there. The Valley Of Acre is a door of hope. She shall sing there as in the days of use as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt and it shall be in that day says the Lord that you will call me my husband and no longer my master. Like, really, the one I love, not the one I just have should've should obey. I'm not asking you to be a slave.
I'm asking you to be a wife. For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baal. She's not gonna call out to them anymore. They shall be remembered by their name no more. In that day, I'll make a covenant for them.
One-sided. Right? It's an agreement. I'm gonna make a covenant for them with the beast of the field, with the birds of the air, with the creeping things of the ground, bow and sword of battle, I will shatter from the earth to make them lie down safely. I am going to take care of her.
And then Hosea two nineteen and twenty. This is another reason I went New King James. I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me. God is saying, I am under my own initiative because of my mercy bringing you back in, and I am marrying myself to you forever.
Yes. I'll betroth you to me forever in righteousness and in justice in has said that sticky kind of love that is loving kindness, mercy, steadfast love of the Lord. In righteousness and justice, in loving kindness and mercy, I will betroth you to me in faithfulness and you shall know the Lord. Amen. It's not going to be a mistaken thing anymore.
You're going to know me, really. Instead of knowing about me, a lot of us know about him, you're gonna know me, really. And the marriage relationship is the one that shows that the best, and the New Testament is held up as a image of Christ and the church or God and his people. And this Old Testament passage is God and his people and he's saying, I am going to redeem because that's what I do. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness and it shall come to pass in that day that I will answer.
Did I skip something? No. And you shall know the Lord and I it shall come to pass in that day that I will answer, says the Lord. I will answer the heavens and they shall answer the earth. They shall answer with grain and new wine and oil.
Everything that you need will be provided and they shall answer just real. Very poetic. And then, I will sow her for myself in the Earth. I'm going to sow the seed that is Israel in the Earth and I will have mercy on who, her, who had obtained no mercy. Then I will say to those who are not my people, you are my people.
This is Gentiles being forecast right here. Okay? It's saying, it's gonna go beyond my relationship with Israel that I'm going after her and that's gonna be the birth of a whole new people of God. You are my people and they shall say, you are my God. Amen.
Chapter three is only five verses long. Y'all got five more verses in you. I'm just gonna read them. Then the Lord said to me, go again and love a woman. Wait a second.
Who is this me? This me is Hosea. Illustration back from Hosea's life. So all of that other stuff is God's redemption. It's shown in that relationship and then comes back in chapter three very succinctly says, then the Lord said to me, Hosea, go again and love that woman who is loved by a lover.
She went out again. Gomer. Go again, Hosea. Love a woman who's loved by a lover and is right now committing adultery. Just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel.
Go out to the one who looks to other gods and loves their raisin cakes, the raisin cakes of the pagans. So Hosea bought her. I went back. She had gone out and she had left behind the the loving home. And she went out and she had become in debt to her lovers because take take you further than you want to go, keep you longer you want to stay, cost you more than you can ever imagine.
I bought for her for myself for 15 shekels of silver and one and one half homers of barley, I said to her, that was full price by the way. He went back and paid full price. He wasn't negotiating. She belonged to him. He was willing to buy her back.
And I said to her, you shall stay with me many days. You're not gonna have to do this anymore. You shall not play the harlot nor shall you have a man, so too will I be towards you. I'm gonna take you in in tenderness. For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without Ephesians or Tarephem.
Afterward, the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king, and they shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days. And I should say, this is because they will know him. They'll finally get it. Right? And then Messiah Jesus fulfills.
And where we need to identify today is not with Hosea. Every single one of us individually and collectively, we need to identify with Gomer because we find ourselves outside. Now, praise God for his indwelling Holy Spirit that is constantly constantly convicting of us of sin and convincing us of righteousness. But when we hit a place where we are wondering whether or not God loves us, this says he loves us. This says he's pursuing us.
This says that he's coming after us. This says that he is willing. Now, a couple of other things that I wanna say, some just principles. As children of a sovereign God, we're not ever victims of our circumstance. Okay?
You're not ever going be put in a position where you have to make the devilish decision. As children of the living God, you can stand against that kind of hard stuff. Occasionally, you're going to do it unwillingly, you don't even know it, it sneaks up on you, I get that. But if you consider it, should I sell out or should I trust God? Trust God.
God assumes full responsibility for all of our needs. Even all of their needs, Old Testament wise, when they were obedient to him. So let's be obedient to him. We generally know the right way. Y'all hear every Sunday, you know.
You're paying attention. Adversity is a bridge to a deeper relationship with God. And reaping and sowing, you reap what you sow, you reap more than you sow, and you reap later than you sow. When you're in the midst of the activity that you know you're not supposed to be doing, it's gonna come back on you. Now, God's mercy shields us from that, but we can't presume upon his mercy, presume upon his grace.
Let's treat him like the good and faithful, loving, pursuing husband that he says that he is. Hosea's very personal message that if God's people would turn from their idolatry, that he would certainly save them. That was Old Testament. It's still in our walk every single day. Hey, that's the last time.
Would you all stand? Remember we started late? And I say that because we went way over, but we started way late too. This is a peppy number. This is after the turn.
Thank you, Lord, for getting us all through this. And I pray that we get the message that you have for us individually and collectively here, Lord. May we see the spiritual adultery that we're walking in. And may, like I said, the thorns of our lives not choke out the message that you have, that you are always willing and ready for us to return in Jesus name. If you would like to come forward, the altar is always open for prayer.
If you wanna talk to me, I'll put down the base and invite Josh Deepman to come up fill in. Would you sing leaning on the everlasting arms?
This song should be like good, good cold water to the soul after going through the old testament. And I'm thankful that we are we are living in this time of grace under the covenant of Jesus Christ. Amen? Amen. By the blood of by the blood of Jesus Christ, we are called children of God today.
Amen.
Nineteen and twenty from Hosea says, and I will betroth you to me forever. There's security there. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and injustice and in steadfast love and in mercy and I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. Is God almighty? He is.
And he's saying this is what he's gonna do and this is what he says you're gonna do and you shall know the Lord. Amen. Would you go and reflect his goodness on a world all around you. In Jesus name, amen. Amen.
