Hosea Chapter 3 Verse 1

 God sends Hosea to go get his wife that had left him and was currently

living in adultery. Not that she had committed adultery, but that it was

ongoing. God said something specific, “Go love her.”

 This tells us a couple of things authoritatively. First, divorce in the case

of adultery is not commanded, it is permitted. If it was commanded then

God would be breaking His own commandment here. Divorce in the

case of adultery, death or abandonment are the three Biblical cases

permitted. And, there is a much harder route…, not worse, harder…

And that is love.

 This is revelational about what love really is… When we say, “I love

you,” in the purest and most true definition of the phrase, it means that I

give my life for you. My rights, my emotions, my needs, my care… My

own care, your care, the world’s care for me, I put it all on the line in

an expression of your importance to me. It’s an expression of ultimate

vulnerability and openness.

 We only know what love is because God has revealed it to us. Outside of

operating in the power of the Holy Spirit, humans are hardly capable of

love due to the fall. This is why we are commanded in the Bible to not

be unequally yoked in relationship (and certainly marriage) with

someone who doesn’t know the Lord. Not because they are bad people!

Not at all! But because the scales will tip… It will be imbalanced and

therefore without integrity like a foundation that shifts and cracks.

 Love a woman who is loved by a lover… Interestingly, in the Hebrew,

this is literally, love a woman who is loved by her friend… Any friend

that draws you away from the will of God for your life is no friend at

all… But this was the state of Israel…

 It was because of human, earthly circumstances that the Northern

Kingdom, Israel, was essentially going against the Word of God. The

temple where the temple was and people were to worship there,

specifically prescribed by God, but because of…, well, people…, they

had set up new altars to God in ways and places that He had not

commanded… But, you know, God understands, right? No…, your

“friend,” really yourself, has drawn you to it’s love over God… That is

the very definition of spiritual adultery, the current state at the time of

Israel.

Hosea Chapter 3 Verse 2

 Love delivers many things in a life, but it’s always costly. If not, it’s not

love… Hosea goes and buys Gomer from whomever she was with…,

and perhaps this was the price her friend had paid for her in the first

place, fifteen shekels of silver and about 15 bushels of barley (on the

high side). Depending on how you calculate the value of a bushel of

barley, (I’m using Leviticus 27:16) this is about 90 shekels of silver, or

about three times the price of a slave…

 The point is, he dramatically overpaid. This “friend” of hers was

probably well delighted to receive this deal. No doubt, whatever Gomer

thought, in her current state, she was worthless and simply an object to

her “friend.”

 It’s interesting because if you consider the cross of Christ, the price that

was paid for the sin of the world, it too is a dramatic overpayment. But

just like the 90 shekels of silver for a woman worth no more than 30,

(the price of a slave), God’s heart was to firmly secure me… So, He

gave everything He had in my place… To buy me from a friend that I

clung to but in objective truth was my enemy because the world and my

flesh had opened a way for me to depart from the hand of God.

 He could have just snatched her away! She was still his wife, but Hosea

wanted to make a point, much like the Lord… That what she was going

out for and selling herself for…, most likely 15 shekels, he could and

would provide so much more for her!

Hosea Chapter 3 Verses 3 – 5

 The point wasn’t to bring her back to his home. The point was to bring

her back to him. These statements of staying together many days and

what you do is what I will do is a statement of commitment and

invitation into relationship… Again, love is vulnerable and setting

aside yourself to give to someone and be for someone ultimately what

they need to be made whole with God… Not whole as a person, not

peaceful and comfortable as a person, but truly mindful towards the

environment of what they need to be right with the Lord…

 Notice the statement of sacrifice personally for Hosea. As he says that

he will dwell with her in the condition that she is in which means he will

have to join her in that condition… No prince, sacrifice, sacred pillar,

ephod or teraphim. There will be a time of loss for them both. Prince

speaks of royalty. Sacrifice, sacred pillar and ephod speak of joy and

abundance. Teraphim speaks of unity or the divine.

 Their home would be broken. But Hosea would still make it a home

because that’s what Gomer needs. Their joy would be gone. But Hosea

will wait in hurt until wounds are healed and joy is restored. This is an

excellent picture of love!

 Because one day… one day, they together will fear the Lord again.

They will seek the Lord AGAIN! His goodness will fill their home

again. So, check this out, Hosea, a picture of the Savior Himself, will

put himself out there, accept a fate and family that he never thought

would be his life, and as a result, Gomer will be righted between herself,

her husband and God and once again, perhaps for the first time, walk in

the goodness of God.

 Now, this is relentlessly about God and Israel. That’s why the Lord

brings up David their king here. Jeremiah 30:8-9 gives a prophecy that

points to the time of the Millennial Reign of Christ upon the earth, after

the days of the Great Tribulation and before the New Heaven and New

Earth, “It shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord of hosts, that I

will break his yoke from your neck, and will burst your bonds;

Foreigners shall no more enslave them. But they shall serve the Lord

their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.”

 Again, spoken of in Ezekiel 34:23-24, “I will establish one shepherd

over them, and he shall feed them, My servant David. He shall feed them

and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God, and My

servant David a prince among them; I, the Lord, have spoken.” We have

a clear communication from the King that when Jesus is Lord on this

earth, David will rule Israel under His authority. This is a promise

specifically for Israel in the last day, in THAT day.

Hosea Chapter 4 Verses 1 – 3

 There’s something about restraint that we just hate. We think that the

opposite of freedom is restraint. That’s just simply not the case. The

opposite of freedom is slavery. And crazy interestingly, the lack of

restraint leads to precisely to that! (Cross this line illustration)

 Let me try it this way. I have inclinations towards that which is not

good. Desires and temptations towards things that will yield a result that

I don’t want, however much I want the indulgence of the thing. And let

me tell you, I have a lot of these inclinations!

 Not just that but I have a tendency to justify my desires such that I

release myself to go after them… Talk myself into doing things, or

willfully ignore what I know to be good and right, on and on and on.

And, you are just like me…

 And so, restraint is not only necessary, needed, but if I have any wits

about me at all, I should welcome it. But I hate it… I’m less than a

halfwit! HA!

 Notice, when Israel cast off her restraints of the commandments of God,

look at the result… bloodshed upon bloodshed, mourning, wasting

away… It’s like this. A kite is made to fly… But it only flies if there is a

string holding it down. Let the string go…, it fails…

 The same with the receiving and the embracing of the knowledge and

truth of God, in equal measurement with mercy. Surrendering your life

to “what would God have me to do,” welcoming and embracing the

restraint of the Holy Spirit in your life, even though you would rather

live as a beast in the field (that’s called discipline), allows you to soar

higher and higher in your intended purpose!

Hosea Chapter 4 Verses 4 – 10

 This is the cycle of the flesh in that you eat but never enough, you

indulge but its never enough. You go after that which promises you that

you’ll finally be happy, but you’re not. I almost wish it wasn’t this way

but in truth, the more we set our hearts to trust the Lord, which means

obey Him, the more we deny ourselves and find ourselves satisfied!

MAKES no SENSE! But it does make it in reality!

 It’s not their lack of knowledge in terms of ignorance that’s killing them.

Destroying them. It’s their rejection of it. Receiving knowledge doesn’t

just mean you go, “Ok, FINE, I will do that!” Receiving knowledge is

actually looking into it long enough and personally enough to figure it

out to the point that you can’t help but walk in the reality of it. There’s a

bit of faithfulness and energy and effort in the Biblical concept of

“receiving” something… Such as knowledge, grace, mercy, even the

love of God…

Hosea Chapter 4 Verse 11

 This is all speaking of things of spiritually and what someone worships

with their lives. Jesus gave a teaching in Matthew 9, Mark 2 and Luke 5

(all the same teaching/event) warning that if we are to receive God then

we must be willing to let Him make us new whenever and however He

wants… Which was a call out from the Old Covenant and a promise of

the coming New Covenant. The parable He used was putting new wine

into old wineskins. It doesn’t work, they’ll burst. You have to use new

wineskins…

 So, this idea of wine, harlotry and new wine causing enslavement of the

heart is the exact same point I made already. That any god other than

God, serving any other god including yourself as a higher importance

and reality that God Almighty, leads to the kite falling even when there’s

plenty of wind! Enslavement…

Hosea Chapter 4 Verses 12 – 13

 The Northern Kingdom could not get to the Temple there in Jerusalem.

It was part of the Southern Kingdom or Judah… So, they set up altars

for themselves outside of Jerusalem…, where God was not. What were

they to do? The nation was divided?! Surely God knew their heart,

right?

 Guys, we ought not justify our inclinations when they go against the

Word of God. They should have humbled themselves as a nation, to

Judah, and the other way around. People, we do this so much, we make

the best out of our circumstance, even the good ole’ saying is embraced

across the board…, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade… Well,

what if you own the lemon farm?

 No way I’m going to (fill in the blank)… I’ll just set up a new altar…

Completely makes sense but the hard and narrow path is the one that

leads to life and there is a reason why few find it… And that reason is

typically because we own the paving company that paved the wide and

easy path…

 Harlotry is harlotry whether you’re doing it for the right reasons or

not… If you can receive this then here’s the point. Live unto the Lord,

not only where and when it’s convenient, and you will delight in Him

and He in you… And, you fulfill the only and greatest commandment.

Hosea Chapter 4 Verse 14

 This is a tough one and over the years I have not shied away from

teaching certain things however, I do discern that the way I would teach

this verse is not for the pulpit but for the person. This is a very

combative and controversial principal, that in a family, in a nation, in a

people…, in the reality of mankind, there is an order of responsibility.

And some become who they are as a result of the tyranny or teaching of

another…, and therefore let not many of you become teachers, leaders,

fathers, wives, mothers, counselors, (James 3:1), knowing that you shall

receive a stricter judgment…

Hosea Chapter 4 Verses 15 – 19

 God really goes hard in these verses against the sensical and reasonable

altars that were setup outside of Jerusalem. One in Gilgal and the other

in Beth Aven and there they consecrated an altar that was not approved,

sanctioned or commanded by God with the Word of God, “As the Lord

lives…” Say whatever you want to say, think whatever you want to

think, justify it all day long with arguments that no man can argue

against, and yet God is no man… It’s still not acceptable to Him.

 Her drink is rebellion. Through their thinking and acceptance of what is

not of God, it’s like they are pouring rebellion in a cup and drinking it.

Rebellion on the outside, (this is the picture), and they are taking it by

their own volition and bringing it from the outside to the inside.

Rebellion on the inside does what? Rebels.

 All of the rulers of the Northern Kingdom, we read this from the outside

looking in and to us it is blatantly and objectively obvious, all of them

dearly love dishonor. Ask 100 of the rulers of the Northern Kingdom,

“Do you dearly love dishonor?” What do you think 100 of them would

say? “Absolutely not…, and by asking that, what are you insinuating!”

 You are not who you think you are and neither am I. I am who they

think I am. I am who God thinks I am… My little reality of I am who I

think I am is the original sin of mankind, and a complete deception! We

need to listen far more to others in our lives and FAR more to God than

any other in terms of how and who we are…

 Oh, wait, that feels like restraint…, right… Maybe this is why the Bible

tells us that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom… Because it’s

what leads to freedom, through the pathway of accepted, received,

understood and embraced RESTRAINT.

 Or… Its verse 19 for me… A kite with no string. Wind wrapped up in

her own wings, falling to the ground, never taking flight…, never joy…,

just more shame to hide and justify away and more sacrifices to false

gods… Here’s the thing, what’s really sacrificed to false gods…? All

that God would have brought if I had of had wisdom…