Mercy still shown to Judah
Hosea 1:6-7
And she conceived again and bore a daughter. Then God said to him:
“ Call her name Lo-Ruhamah,
For I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel,
But I will utterly take them away.
7 Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah,
Will save them by the LORD their God,
And will not save them by bow,
Nor by sword or battle,
By horses or horsemen.”
This is the second child that is born to Gomer, a girl. Her name literally means “no mercy”. God here explains that He is through with showing mercy to the house of Israel. They have had their chance, but now is the time for them to be conquered by the Assyrians and taken away as captives. But the part of the verse we are going to look at today is how God is still willing to deal with Judah.
The very army that defeats the northern tribes of Israel, decide to go south and do the same with Judah. They are successful in taking much of the area but then they get to Jerusalem. Arrogant over their defeat of the north they start taunting the God of the Jews, not understanding that God had used them to chastise His people.
There is a great story about what goes on in Isaiah. It is two chapters long and goes into great detail about how all the sides involved were feeling and thinking. Either read or listen to Isaiah 36 &37 then answer these questions.
How are the promises to Judah made in Hosea 1:7 fulfilled?
What is Sennacherib’s attitude about God?
Who is sent to fulfill Sennacherib’s order to conquer Israel?
What does the Rabshakeh (love this name) say about the God of Judah?
What proof does the Rabshakeh offer that he can fulfill his threat?
How do the emissaries react to the threat?
What does Hezekiah do when he receives the threat?
What happens to the Rabshakeh?
What does Hezekiah do with the new letter he receives from Sennacherib?
What does Isaiah tell them?
What does God do?
How does Sennacherib die?
Why do you think God did it this way?
I’ve asked you a lot of questions about this story because I want you to think about what is really going on. It’s a great story about God’s might and ability to save those that turn to Him but it also shows us that sometimes our enemies come against us simply to show everyone around us what power God has. But it is also a warning to not become too complacent in God’s deliverance, for in the next two chapters Hezekiah blows it and God tells Judah that they will be conquered by the Babylonians in the future.
It also tells us not to expect God’s mercy to always be there for us. How often we hear someone say that now they are going to have fun, but in the future they will think about God. Israel no longer had that future and in 70 years or so, Judah would not either. I think that is why in Hebrews we are warned not to put off our relationship with the Lord. We have no idea what our future holds.
Hebrews 3:13
13But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Take some time to write out for yourself why it is important for you to stay close to the Lord daily.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Remember
Week? Day? Remember
How often the Bible tells us to remember. There are important milestones in our lives, and we are to stop, build an altar and remember what has been done. When the Israelites crossed the Jordan and entered into the Promised Land, a stone to represent each tribe was to be taken from the river and piled on the other side as an altar of remembrance to the following generations. They were told to do this so that when the children would see the stones they would ask, “What do these stones mean?” It would be the perfect opportunity for the parents to then teach their children about how God had delivered them and brought them into the Land of Promise.
We all have those stories that we like to tell. Maybe how we met our spouse, when a child was born, or something cute the kids would say and of course, how much harder we had it as children than our kids or grandkids do. But the stories that God wants us to tell over and over are about how we have been given freedom, how our enemies have been defeated, how we were bought and paid for with an extremely high price. We are to tell the stories that give God the glory and we are to add new stories as the Lord does new and marvelous things in our lives. Our testimony of how we were saved is wonderful, and worth the retelling, but there also needs to be current stories so others can see that God is indeed working in us daily.
Let’s see what we are to remember in Hosea.
Hosea 2:7
7 She will chase her lovers,
But not overtake them;
Yes, she will seek them, but not find them.
Then she will say,
‘ I will go and return to my first husband,
For then it was better for me than now.’
It is interesting to note what is going on in this section of Scripture. God is telling Israel why she is being punished. It is because of the blatant idolatry and spiritual harlotry that is rampant in the land. We will look at that in another place. The point I want to emphasize today is there can come a time when the sinner comes to their senses and realizes that it was God that took care of them and had been such a great blessing to them and that even if they returned and were treated like God’s slave it would be better for them than the life they are leading now as a slave to their sin.
The New Testament counterpoint to this verse is found in the parable of the prodigal son. We have all heard this parable over and over so let’s look at the similarities between it and Hosea’s wife.
Read Hosea 2-3 and Luke 15
Let’s list some similarities:
Both the prodigal son and the harlot wife wanted similar things. They wanted to live life on their terms and not follow the one that had authority over them, whether a father or a husband.
• They left home
• They wanted a life of sin and debauchery
• They spent everything they had on sinning
• They ended up as slaves
• They were so low that the pigs had it better than they did
• They finally realize that where they came from was not so bad
• Their blessings had come from the person they had run away from (father or husband, as the case may be)
• True freedom was serving their father or husband not their own selfish desires
Now let’s look at Hosea and the father…how are they similar?
• Both loved the one that had left
• Both are a portrait of God the Father
• Both were willing to give their all to get them back
• Both looked for the one that was lost
• They were not afraid to look silly when they welcomed back the one that had strayed.
This last point is very important. As they both represent God the Father. In Middle Eastern society for a man of status to lift his robes and run to greet his son would have been very undignified. And for a man to buy back the wife that had made a fool of him would have been unheard. Both Hosea and the father are setting themselves up to be a laughing stock for many years to come in their community but their love was more important to them that what the gossips would say about them later.
Look at the two sections of Scripture again and see if you can find any other similarities (either between Gomer and the Prodigal or Hosea and the father) and jot them down here.
I want you to take a moment and write out how you think Gomer would have felt to be bought back by her husband that she had shamed.
Can you identify with these feelings?
Even if you have never lived a life like the prodigal or Gomer, can you admit that there have been things you have allowed in your life that could have caused your destruction?
Take the time now to write out your thankfulness to God the Father for paying the price to redeem you from a life of self defeat. This can be your altar of remembrance!
If you do not feel that you have been welcomed back by the father/husband of your soul yet, now would be a good time to realize that the only way to freedom is to turn back to Him and repent. There is a feast waiting for you! All you have to do is tell God how sorry you are for the life you have led and ask Jesus to come into your life right now.
Or maybe you are already a believer, but do not feel you are living the victorious life…these stories should inspire you to know that God is there watching for your return so He can throw a feast in your honor and he has already done everything necessary for you, just turn back to Him and accept His forgiveness.
How often the Bible tells us to remember. There are important milestones in our lives, and we are to stop, build an altar and remember what has been done. When the Israelites crossed the Jordan and entered into the Promised Land, a stone to represent each tribe was to be taken from the river and piled on the other side as an altar of remembrance to the following generations. They were told to do this so that when the children would see the stones they would ask, “What do these stones mean?” It would be the perfect opportunity for the parents to then teach their children about how God had delivered them and brought them into the Land of Promise.
We all have those stories that we like to tell. Maybe how we met our spouse, when a child was born, or something cute the kids would say and of course, how much harder we had it as children than our kids or grandkids do. But the stories that God wants us to tell over and over are about how we have been given freedom, how our enemies have been defeated, how we were bought and paid for with an extremely high price. We are to tell the stories that give God the glory and we are to add new stories as the Lord does new and marvelous things in our lives. Our testimony of how we were saved is wonderful, and worth the retelling, but there also needs to be current stories so others can see that God is indeed working in us daily.
Let’s see what we are to remember in Hosea.
Hosea 2:7
7 She will chase her lovers,
But not overtake them;
Yes, she will seek them, but not find them.
Then she will say,
‘ I will go and return to my first husband,
For then it was better for me than now.’
It is interesting to note what is going on in this section of Scripture. God is telling Israel why she is being punished. It is because of the blatant idolatry and spiritual harlotry that is rampant in the land. We will look at that in another place. The point I want to emphasize today is there can come a time when the sinner comes to their senses and realizes that it was God that took care of them and had been such a great blessing to them and that even if they returned and were treated like God’s slave it would be better for them than the life they are leading now as a slave to their sin.
The New Testament counterpoint to this verse is found in the parable of the prodigal son. We have all heard this parable over and over so let’s look at the similarities between it and Hosea’s wife.
Read Hosea 2-3 and Luke 15
Let’s list some similarities:
Both the prodigal son and the harlot wife wanted similar things. They wanted to live life on their terms and not follow the one that had authority over them, whether a father or a husband.
• They left home
• They wanted a life of sin and debauchery
• They spent everything they had on sinning
• They ended up as slaves
• They were so low that the pigs had it better than they did
• They finally realize that where they came from was not so bad
• Their blessings had come from the person they had run away from (father or husband, as the case may be)
• True freedom was serving their father or husband not their own selfish desires
Now let’s look at Hosea and the father…how are they similar?
• Both loved the one that had left
• Both are a portrait of God the Father
• Both were willing to give their all to get them back
• Both looked for the one that was lost
• They were not afraid to look silly when they welcomed back the one that had strayed.
This last point is very important. As they both represent God the Father. In Middle Eastern society for a man of status to lift his robes and run to greet his son would have been very undignified. And for a man to buy back the wife that had made a fool of him would have been unheard. Both Hosea and the father are setting themselves up to be a laughing stock for many years to come in their community but their love was more important to them that what the gossips would say about them later.
Look at the two sections of Scripture again and see if you can find any other similarities (either between Gomer and the Prodigal or Hosea and the father) and jot them down here.
I want you to take a moment and write out how you think Gomer would have felt to be bought back by her husband that she had shamed.
Can you identify with these feelings?
Even if you have never lived a life like the prodigal or Gomer, can you admit that there have been things you have allowed in your life that could have caused your destruction?
Take the time now to write out your thankfulness to God the Father for paying the price to redeem you from a life of self defeat. This can be your altar of remembrance!
If you do not feel that you have been welcomed back by the father/husband of your soul yet, now would be a good time to realize that the only way to freedom is to turn back to Him and repent. There is a feast waiting for you! All you have to do is tell God how sorry you are for the life you have led and ask Jesus to come into your life right now.
Or maybe you are already a believer, but do not feel you are living the victorious life…these stories should inspire you to know that God is there watching for your return so He can throw a feast in your honor and he has already done everything necessary for you, just turn back to Him and accept His forgiveness.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Week 2 Day 1 Gomer
Week Two Day One Gomer, a harlot
Read again the first few verses of Hosea.
Hosea 1: 1 The word of the LORD 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. 2 When the LORD began to speak by Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea:
“ Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry
And children of harlotry,
For the land has committed great harlotry
By departing from the LORD.”
3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
Let’s take a few minutes to see what we can discover about Gomer in the first three verses of Hosea 1.
1. What was Gomer?____________________
2. When did Gomer live?(during which kings)________________________
3. Gomer was the daughter of whom?__________________
Now let’s take a quick look at what some of the names mean in these verses to get a better understanding of the story. (Names usually mean something in the OT. We will see this more clearly when we get to the names of Hosea’s children.)
Hosea means the same as Joshua, the Lord saves, salvation
Beeri means a source of water such as a spring
Diblaim means double raisin cakes…the raisin cakes were offerings made to the idols
Gomer is usually a man’s name and means to finish or complete
Looking at the two families and their names, what importance do you think these names may have? (This is just our own ideas and not to be found in Hosea—so no wrong answers)
Remember when Hosea was written, this is at the end of the Northern Kingdom of Israel’s rule. During the life of Hosea, Israel is conquered by the Assyrians and taken away as captives. Could this be the end that Gomer’s name refers to? Also, we see that her parent, Diblaim is named for something that was associated with idol worship, and this idol worship is the main reason for the judgment that is coming on the Northern Kingdom.
On the other hand we have Beeri, a source of water and Jesus is called the living water and Hosea which is salvation. Even though Israel was soon to be destroyed, God still promises that there will come a time when Israel will be redeemed.
Gomer as a prostitute
There were two different types of harlots or prostitutes mentioned in the Old Testament. One is your everyday prostitute that sells her body in exchange for material gain, whether money, food, clothing, shelter or some other kind of perceived need. The other type is called a cult prostitute, and they could be male or female, and they did what they did as part of the religious practices of idol worship. Part of the worship of these idols included sexual practices that would stimulate the false idol to give fertility to the land and the people that worshipped them.
Being honest about human nature, why do you think these practices have had such widespread success?
Tomorrow we will take a more in depth look at how Israel had fallen into these cultic sexual practices, but for the rest of today let’s think specifically about Gomer.
We do not know Gomer’s background specifically from what Hosea wrote, but by looking at other parts of the Bible and historical documents we can know pretty much what her life was like. There were only a couple of reasons for a girl to become a prostitute. She could have been sold into prostitution by her family or master, if born a slave. She could have been left for dead after her birth and picked up by the Temple priests to become a prostitute or she could have been born to a prostitute, so this was basically the family business. Since we have the name of a parent, we can guess she had not been left for dead as a newborn. And because of the name, Diblaim, referring to raisin cakes, I would dare to guess this was the family business and more than likely they were not ordinary prostitutes but those in Temple service to one idol or another. Girls raised in an idol’s temple would see a lot that we as parents do not want our children to see. Sexual practices would be taught to her from a very early age and how to please the idol that was being worshipped. As stated, these temples had both male and female prostitutes as well as many other deviant forms of sexual activities. Her whole life she would be surrounded by blatant immorality.
How would growing up in an atmosphere such as this affect the child?
Do you think Gomer’s idea of marriage could have been affected by this life?
Without getting into any specific sexual sins, what would this lifestyle teach a young person about who they were and what was expected of them?
Is there any way to change this self image?
Many of us have been exposed to sexual immorality, either through how we were raised, or by sins that we have gotten into on our own. Whether we realize it or not, it will affect how we act in our marriage and other inter-personal relationships. That is why pornography is such an insidious sin. These sins take the joy away from our lives and can cause us to go looking elsewhere for our satisfaction.
Right now take a moment to write out a prayer that repents of this dis-satisfaction and ask God to help you enjoy your life to its fullest, whether single or married. If you are single then sex is not to be a part of your life and if you are married, then only sex with your spouse is what God has intended. In both cases, God intends for us to have a life of joy and satisfaction.
Prayer:
Read again the first few verses of Hosea.
Hosea 1: 1 The word of the LORD 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. 2 When the LORD began to speak by Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea:
“ Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry
And children of harlotry,
For the land has committed great harlotry
By departing from the LORD.”
3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
Let’s take a few minutes to see what we can discover about Gomer in the first three verses of Hosea 1.
1. What was Gomer?____________________
2. When did Gomer live?(during which kings)________________________
3. Gomer was the daughter of whom?__________________
Now let’s take a quick look at what some of the names mean in these verses to get a better understanding of the story. (Names usually mean something in the OT. We will see this more clearly when we get to the names of Hosea’s children.)
Hosea means the same as Joshua, the Lord saves, salvation
Beeri means a source of water such as a spring
Diblaim means double raisin cakes…the raisin cakes were offerings made to the idols
Gomer is usually a man’s name and means to finish or complete
Looking at the two families and their names, what importance do you think these names may have? (This is just our own ideas and not to be found in Hosea—so no wrong answers)
Remember when Hosea was written, this is at the end of the Northern Kingdom of Israel’s rule. During the life of Hosea, Israel is conquered by the Assyrians and taken away as captives. Could this be the end that Gomer’s name refers to? Also, we see that her parent, Diblaim is named for something that was associated with idol worship, and this idol worship is the main reason for the judgment that is coming on the Northern Kingdom.
On the other hand we have Beeri, a source of water and Jesus is called the living water and Hosea which is salvation. Even though Israel was soon to be destroyed, God still promises that there will come a time when Israel will be redeemed.
Gomer as a prostitute
There were two different types of harlots or prostitutes mentioned in the Old Testament. One is your everyday prostitute that sells her body in exchange for material gain, whether money, food, clothing, shelter or some other kind of perceived need. The other type is called a cult prostitute, and they could be male or female, and they did what they did as part of the religious practices of idol worship. Part of the worship of these idols included sexual practices that would stimulate the false idol to give fertility to the land and the people that worshipped them.
Being honest about human nature, why do you think these practices have had such widespread success?
Tomorrow we will take a more in depth look at how Israel had fallen into these cultic sexual practices, but for the rest of today let’s think specifically about Gomer.
We do not know Gomer’s background specifically from what Hosea wrote, but by looking at other parts of the Bible and historical documents we can know pretty much what her life was like. There were only a couple of reasons for a girl to become a prostitute. She could have been sold into prostitution by her family or master, if born a slave. She could have been left for dead after her birth and picked up by the Temple priests to become a prostitute or she could have been born to a prostitute, so this was basically the family business. Since we have the name of a parent, we can guess she had not been left for dead as a newborn. And because of the name, Diblaim, referring to raisin cakes, I would dare to guess this was the family business and more than likely they were not ordinary prostitutes but those in Temple service to one idol or another. Girls raised in an idol’s temple would see a lot that we as parents do not want our children to see. Sexual practices would be taught to her from a very early age and how to please the idol that was being worshipped. As stated, these temples had both male and female prostitutes as well as many other deviant forms of sexual activities. Her whole life she would be surrounded by blatant immorality.
How would growing up in an atmosphere such as this affect the child?
Do you think Gomer’s idea of marriage could have been affected by this life?
Without getting into any specific sexual sins, what would this lifestyle teach a young person about who they were and what was expected of them?
Is there any way to change this self image?
Many of us have been exposed to sexual immorality, either through how we were raised, or by sins that we have gotten into on our own. Whether we realize it or not, it will affect how we act in our marriage and other inter-personal relationships. That is why pornography is such an insidious sin. These sins take the joy away from our lives and can cause us to go looking elsewhere for our satisfaction.
Right now take a moment to write out a prayer that repents of this dis-satisfaction and ask God to help you enjoy your life to its fullest, whether single or married. If you are single then sex is not to be a part of your life and if you are married, then only sex with your spouse is what God has intended. In both cases, God intends for us to have a life of joy and satisfaction.
Prayer:
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