Who To Love

Hosea 3:1-5

Then said the Lord unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.

Who then is this friend of whom the Lord speaks. We will yet see should he see fit to tell us the whole story. See, there are a lot of things which we do not yet know. Hosea saw only the situation of a woman he loved going from gone all the time to stepping out with another. Sometimes God will give you a birds eye view of the situation before he gives further details. See, there are some things going on that only God can account for. So should some of you let him keep them, settle them, and balance them for so is he God. If any can save and deliver in this situation, then only he can. Even when you do not yet know what is going on. Even when it seems the night has gone on too long and won't give way to a song. Even when it seems the morning will never come. Even when you feel like you're back with your father still living in that cave. How then can you love such a woman as that unless the Lord command it. See, she's been stepping out with her friend and you thought you were her only. So then she has become an adulteress almost overnight it seems if the babies are any indication. How can you love gone all the time, an end of her father, and the one who has sowed much unless the Lord command it. Then the still small voice in your ear that keeps you up at night tells you to do as unto the Lord. It's a rather alarming thought is it not. What if the Lord's association with such has corrupted your view of him. What then will the outcome be should the friend enter into your house lying to you. What then we shall soon see. Were it not for the grace of God, this whole situation might have perished long ago. Herein is seen the long-suffering of God even in an object lesson. So that all the world might hear and come to him. See, there is purpose in your pain that only God knows. It is for the love of the Lord towards the children of the backslidden. How do you think the Lord feels. For his people of the house of Israel have sought others besides him and drank much at their hands. The flagons of wine expresses the love Solomon and his Song shared. Remember these came from Egypt and even as far away as the half prince of Edom, if the tales of Scripture are to be believed. Were it not so, then there still remains the mixed marriage of Israel with the world among all the lands to which they were carried. Modern scholars know it as the diaspora. But dispersion or no, it is at the Lord's hand they have drank. Even the cup offered in judgment is an expression of love at his hands.

So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:

I saw a popular film recently that rendered the translation thusly: "So I paid good money for her." Here Gomer is seen in a real situation indeed. It seems her wandering ways have taken her captive into something she cannot escape. If she could, she would have come home again as usual. But she has not, so Hosea went out looking for her. My, what trouble he must have had in finding her. But at last he did being sold for a price. With the care for the children, for his wife, and himself I am not quite sure where he has got the money from. Scripture doesn't say yet it does see fit to mention the price. There were fifteen pieces of silver involved for the backslider, exactly half the price of Judas for his betrayal of Jesus. How many of you know that sin always has a price. When it comes to the body of Christ offered for sin, that was free. But the price of betrayal and wandering knowingly goes much deeper than that. Nor does God take such lightly. It cost Judas his whole life as seen in when he went out to the field of blood and hung himself. Nor did the price stop there. For the story tells how his body fell to the ground as the rope maybe broke, we don't know for sure. Regardless, it spilled open onto the ground. It is often said that from the blood of the martyrs the church grew. The crossover in conversion is made in ... as the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies. There it abides until it springs forth bringing the harvest with it. What then shall come of the blood of the betrayer and the sinner alike. See, the homer of barley used to signify a life. Then the half a homer of barley is given for the harvest that will come. For the harvest goes unto the end of the world as the Lord sends forth his reapers to gather such. Then will the wheat be separated from the tares and set aside. By the half there is seen an offering for sin. I find it funny that Hosea now takes it upon himself to serve in the priestly function of judgment in Ezekiel 45:13, yet being the son of a foreigner. For the "holy portion of the land" for the priests shall this be. So then barley also has ties for something else, being used in ceremonies and payment for witchcraft of that time. Ezekiel 13: tells how the women given to such would sew craftily to trap the souls of men but would do nothing to help any escape. See, God came to set men free not to steal, kill, and destroy as did their father the devil. It is unto this hot mess express of a woman that Hosea has come. Along with him went the priestly appointment of God over his family and judgment over the divinations of the people. Now you already know you cannot serve both God and something else whether that be the altar of yourself or someone else. You may not understand just yet. But hold on, God is doing something.

And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee.

It seems there is a connection between abiding with Hosea, the faithful husband and being brought back. Here Hosea is in effect saying, 'before you can do more, I am keeping you with me.' He could easily have allowed her to go the way of the rest which were taken away. Many men of today would have settled on divorce just as then. Gomer appears very tone deaf indeed. Here she is with her babies back home and her man alone while the nation falls into captivity all around her. Large numbers of them are carried to God only knows where and here all poor Gomer cares about is stuffing her body to forget about what her father did. There is no thought spared for others at all. How often would Hosea have filled that need for her has she but allowed him. So would God have gathered his people to him and been all that for them.

For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim:

Herein are they now seen without. There is much God has to say "the children of Israel" could do without. Since they saw fit to live without the Lord, God would also do without them. How just of God to reflect the hearts of his people. As their God he was not, then divorced from him they would be. There would be no king to rule over them for which they had pleaded. There was neither prince either to guide them and light their way. Nor would there be sacrifice for they had left the whole of their sacrificial brethren behind. So complete would be their destruction that they had not even a mirror to see themselves with. If a man went hunting for them, he would have to look long and hard indeed. Nor is there ephod for judgement since they had abandoned the righteous one in their haste. The divinity would no longer be theirs to control. It seems I could almost reach into the confusion and write Ichabod if I were the devil. But God in his mercy would not allow such to happen. Notice the contrast with their brethren, the other two, who yet remained faithful. To them the Lord sent the king of kings and Lord of Lords, the Savior who would save his people from their sins. For is he not the prince of peace and the hope of his people. So also came the sacrifice slain from the foundation of the world. The image arrived too on the little cat paws of the only begotten, full of grace and truth. In him do the Gentiles trust for his name's sake. He holds both the judgment and the divinity alike.

Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days.

I can hear some of you saying 'but I thought David's been dead for years.' You would be correct and gone too if time is any indication. Why anyone would want that man to return is far beyond me. What with all the innocent blood he shed and all, his family drama, and mental instability. Sure God has been given the throne of his father David. But what happens when a large group of people suddenly return looking for someone they have not sought before in their life and demanding David. I find this to be the most startling in all the text. Note David's position as the last faithful ruler of the kingdom before Solomon to whom was promised division. Remember, it was for Solomon's love of the foreigner and stranger within their midst that the kingdom was divided. Fast forward with me if you will to Jesus time, where an evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign...there will be no sign given save for the prophet Jonah sign..... What of the ruler David sign which ran away from the people and his throne going to dwell in the dens and caves of the earth. See there is a similarity between David and Jonah. Both ran away from what God called them to. Such dwelt in impossible places and were even killed for their disorder. God raised up Jonah under his power after three days and nights in the whales belly. See also his Son who was three days and nights in the heart of the earth. All these God raised up again.

To us, we need no such sign for them that believe, find him precious. Yet the returning nation would surely need God and anything else he could spare. Not to make it sound like a group of hungry strangers turned up seeking a home. But that is exactly what happened as history would have it, fifty years prior. Since then, the land has swelled and grown as more have returned. But the seeking God part, is a little bit hard to understand. After everything, why now. See, the time of Jacob's trouble has come of which Jeremiah 30:7-9 speaks. At the time King David appears though, a lot has gone on. Ezekiel 37:21-25 shows the coming together of the two kingdoms as one prior to the time when David stands up. But in all points these agree that David shall be king and the people no more divided. It seems the stray tribes have found their prince after all; he has been hiding jn Ezekiel 34:22-24 all along. Really it is clear that for this cause God has raised him up. it should come as no great shock to all that know him.

So God delights himself in giving his children good gifts what with the resurrection, restoration, and all. Even better than David their prince is King Jesus, the prince of peace who will be found of them when sought with their whole hearts. For what could be better than David and say ten or twelve sons but the Lord. After all this, I guess they would fear him. Were he to do naught but just be God, I feel even that would be enough. Sure he is God all by himself. But how he delights in doing for his children. At this point, though they were once beggars standing in need of God's grace and unsure of finding it, he is so over it that you see the goodness of God in the land of the living. Were it the latter days or no, yes, even the last minute left till his return, would he do it. Like the good father of .... he delights in doing good to his people. Notice how used to the old bad father they are that gave scorpions and rocks instead of all things good. Small wonder then these appear so timid before him fearing lest he answer them not. Even those once not the people are now called the people and the children of God.