Hosea 3
COMMENTARY:
: 1 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 (157 “love” [ahab] means desire, to breath after, to be inclined, to delight in, or have affection toward.)
DEVOTION: Can you imagine what Hosea was thinking when the LORD told him to go buy his wife back from the slave market? She had left him for other lovers. She had played the adulteress well.
Yet we find the LORD telling Hosea to go buy her back and have her come and live with him again. He was not to have marital relationships with her but he was still to have her live with him.
This was an illustration of how much the LORD loved HIS people who had gone after other lovers. They were worshiping other gods. They were giving their income to other gods. They were avoiding HIM. They had no time for HIM.
This verse ends with the fact that they loved wine more than HIM. So we have a group of individuals who are supposed to worship the LORD but they love others more than HIM and love their partying more than HIM.
Does this sound like some people who call themselves Christians today? It seems that we have a low standard for those who are followers of the LORD.
Are we allowing our leaders to preach this low standard of Christianity? Are there pastors who think that it is OK with the LORD to love wine and run around on our wives? Is marriage sacred to the leaders of our churches? Is marriage always to be between one woman and one man? Should leaders condone any other marriage? Yet we find some that not only condone it but are performing them.
God has a standard that HE tells us is right for every marriage. We are to either keep this standard or not say that we are followers of the LORD. We can’t have it both ways.
CHALLENGE: Keep the standard of the LORD. Remember that today, as it was in Hosea’s day, the standard of the LORD is the same.
: 3 And I said to her, You shall abide for me many days, you shall not play the harlot, and you shall not be for another man: so will I also be for you. (2181 “play the harlot” [zanah] means to commit fornication, be unfaithful, to abandon someone to, be a harlot, or to act unfaithfully or treacherously.)
DEVOTION: Hosea was telling Gomer that she was to be faithful to him alone. She had a past but now he was talking to her about the future.
In this marriage and in all marriages the ideal is that both partners remain faithful from the beginning to the end of their marriage.
God was comparing the marriage of Hosea to the marriage that the LORD had with Israel. They had been unfaithful to HIM. They had gone after strange false gods. They had worshiped these gods without regard to what the LORD wanted them to do.
Now they were to change their ways and be faithful to HIM from this time forward. The past was done and HE was looking to the future of the children of Israel.
God was using Hosea and Gomer as an example of how a marriage is supposed to be. HE was forgiving their past and looking to the future relationship they could have together.
Israel needed to know that the LORD was giving them another chance to be faithful to HIM. HE wanted to show them HIS love and HE wanted them to love HIM back faithfully.
CHALLENGE: Today the LORD is working with the church. HE wants the church to be faithful to HIM and not worship false gods. HE wants their worship to be one that is pleasing to HIM. Can we say that the church we are attending is faithfully worshiping the LORD alone and that the leadership is seeking this type of relationship with the LORD? How much is the world influencing the church today?
: 4 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim. (3427 “abide” [yashab] means dwell, inhabitant, sit, remain, tarry, or to continue a certain state, condition or activity.)
DEVOTION: Sin causes judgment if there is no repentance. Judgment is a time when there is chastening for the people of God. During these times of chastening because of sin the children of Israel were not able to worship the way the LORD gave directions. They didn’t have a place to worship in their captivity. The Temple was destroyed. The priesthood was not functioning well. They were under the rule of a heathen nation. Things were different. This was going to last for a long time.
There are times when I hear people say that they don’t need church. In fact, some wish there was no church, so that, their Sundays would be free to do whatever they wanted without any guilt.
Well, that day could come even to America if we continue to bury our heads in the sand and look the other way when the laws of the LORD are being broken even in the church.
In many countries there are people bombing the churches. They are killing Christians with no penalty. They are praised by their religion. This could keep moving toward America. Should we be doing anything to prevent this from happening?
Yes, we should be witnessing for the LORD daily to those who are in our world. I just listened to a cousin give a testimony on a social network to the fact that God worked in her life while she was dealing with breast cancer. She gave all the glory to the LORD and asked anyone watching the video to make a commitment to the LORD if they hadn’t done it yet. That should be us on a regular basis.
CHALLENGE: If all believers presented the gospel to all their friends and just a portion of them became followers of Jesus Christ our world would be rocked. If you are looking forward to a time when there will be no churches keep acting just the way you are now.
: 5 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. (2898 “goodness” [tuwb] means good things, fairness, beauty, joy, prosperity, welfare or gladness.)
DEVOTION: Hosea and his marriage were a type or illustration of the relationship between the LORD and Israel. Israel had departed from the LORD. They had worshipped false gods. They treated these gods as lovers. They concentrated on doing whatever they could for their false gods.
Now we see that Gomer had done the same thing in her relationship with Hosea. She had gone after lovers. She had been unfaithful. It got to the point in this relationship that she was sold as a slave. Hosea was commanded to go purchase her back. He had to pay the going rate for a slave – thirty pieces of silver. He had to do it with silver and with produce. Once he had purchased her, he told her that there would be a time of separation from any relationship with any man as well as himself.
This was a typology of what the LORD was going to do with Israel. They were going to be separated for a time period of captivity. They were going to lose every blessing they had experienced under the rule of David.
After a time of separation, the LORD was going to have them return to the Promised Land. They were going to have the good things that God had provided previously. They were going to reverence the LORD. They were going to have a King. This king was not going to be David but a descendant of David, the LORD Jesus Christ. HE was going to rule in the Millennial kingdom which will be a time period of blessing.
There is suffering now but there will be joy afterward for the children of Israel.
They will have to return to the LORD. They will have to seek the LORD. They will have to fear the LORD. These three words should describe our relationship to the LORD. Are we manifesting an attitude of seeking the LORD? Are we manifesting an attitude of fearing the LORD? Are we willing to return to the LORD after we have sinned? Are we confessing our sins on a daily basis to keep our fellowship with the LORD fresh? HE offers fresh oil or a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit to those who are confessed up.
We don’t lose our indwelling of the Holy Spirit but our filling and service depends on our having a good fellowship with HIM. If we leave our confession out, HE will have to chasten us to bring us back. We don’t like HIS spankings. The children of Israel didn’t like HIS chastening. HE used captivity on them. What is HE using on us today?
CHALLENGE: Explain the good things the LORD has done for you to someone who is struggling. Help him/her understand that trials only last for a time period. Confession is necessary for the blessings to flow again.
: 5 In the last days, they will tremble in awe of the Lord and of his goodness. (NLT)
We are to stand in awe of the LORD every day. If we can look around our world and see HIS great creation we need to praise HIS name. The LORD has allowed me to see much of the United States that some people never get to see. Many people don’t travel more than 50 miles from their home all of their life. I have traveled across the United States many times. Each time I see the beauty of HIS creation.
The children of Israel knew all about the greatness of the LORD from their history but they still never appreciated all that HE was doing for them. HE took them out of captivity in Egypt and gave them the Promised Land. They lived there in a land of milk and honey and still worshiped false gods.
There is coming a day when the goodness of the LORD will just cause everyone to stand in awe of HIM. We just get a little taste of HIS glorious creation but a day is coming when the heavens will open up and the LORD will return and set up HIS kingdom.
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