Chapter 15 “A Marriage With A Message”
2 Kings 17:7-14, Hosea 1-3
Intro – Audrey gave me a really unique Christmas gift this year: it was a container with 52 pieces of paper in it, on which were written 52 ideas for a date. We are hoping to have one date per week this year. We believe it’s important for married couples to not stop dating once they’re married, but keep investing in the relationship through intentional and enjoyable time together.
Happy to report we are off to go a good start. Most of them are not too simple or complex. Our date last week was to re-read the love letters we wrote to each other back in the day, during college, even before we were really a couple…were just friends…and it’s been really fun to revisit those days and relive that stage of our lives and watch the progression of our relationship.
You see it in how we signed the letters: it starts out with, “Your brother, Bob”…then “Luv, Bob”…then “Love, Bob”…finally “All my love, Bob”
-we keep these letters under lock and key in case they fall into the wrong hands…our kids want nothing to do with them…don’t want to know anything about them…
For those of you that are married, written a love note lately? Been on a date? How is your marriage going? We all know there are seasons to a marriage, from intense joy and connection to a period of distance, even when things are strained and difficult…
The point is to keep it growing…healthy…to keep it centered in Christ…and if help is needed, to reach out to those you trust to get that help…just don’t neglect it and hope it stays strong…needs to be nurtured and tended to like a garden…
An Unlikely Marriage
Today in chapter 15 of The Story, we are going to look at a very unlikely marriage that God Himself arranged…
…a marriage we read about in the book of Hosea…
-so this would be a good time to start searching for the book of Hosea in your Bible…it’s 7 books to the left of Habbakuk…3 to the right of Lamentations…
Let’s pray…
I Period of the Kings 2 Kings 7:7-14
Before we get to Hosea, I need to give you some background to help you see where we are in the unfolding of The Story and how this period in Israel’s history relates to the OT prophets…
-so for that, we need to go to 2 Kings where we see a great summary of this time period…
-you’ll remember from last week, that we are in the time known as the divided kingdom, two kingdoms, a northern one consisting of 10 tribes with its own king and a southern one consisting of 2 tribes with a different king.
The period of the divided kingdom was a bad time for God’s OT people…a time of great sin and unfaithfulness and pagan worship and detestable practices…
-during this period that lasted for a few centuries, both kingdoms had a series of 38 different kings…and only 5 were described as good. The rest were evil and led their people into disobedience against God…
Here’s the summary of that time period from
2 Kings 7:7-14…
During this period of time, God sent 9 prophets to the northern kingdom alone, to speak to the people, to warn them of their sin and try to call them back to God…and to tell them that if they didn’t then they could anticipate dire consequences from God in the form of great judgment…
But here is the part of God’s upper story that we should find absolutely remarkable: no matter how bad our behavior as God’s people, God loves us no matter what and is constantly calling us back to Himself to forgive us and restore us, if we will only choose to do so…such love, mercy and grace…
Hosea and Gomer (Hosea 1-3)
To show you just how far God will go to get through to His people, to get their attention and to bring them back to Himself, He arranges a marriage…He speaks to a prophet named Hosea and asks him to marry a prostitute named Gomer…
Let’s read their story, starting in the first chapter of that book (found it yet? right beside Daniel)
-read Hosea 1:2-11…
-do you hear the mercy mixed with the judgment?
Now what could God possibly be up to in His upper story with this unlikely marriage? Randy Frazee asks, “Is it possible that God wants Hosea to marry Gomer so she can turn her life around and become a follower of God? That would be a nice reason. But, this isn’t what happens. Despite Hosea’s pure and faithful love, Gomer keeps her night job.”
As a matter of fact, though we don’t know all the details, Gomer disappears for a while and returns to her life of prostitution…Hosea is stuck at home with the three kids committed to being a faithful husband and father.
Eventually, God tells Hosea to go find his wife. And it appears from ch. 3 that she is owned by some guy, her pimp, who offers her services to whoever will pay the right price.
We pick up the story in verse 3:1-5…
Note on v.2: he doesn’t pay for her services, he buys her outright…pays half of what the OT tells us a female slave was worth…30 shekels of silver (Ex. 21:32)…he pays half in cash and half in barley…
God’s Purposes for This Marriage
So why this marriage? this prophetic assignment? What is God trying to say and do with Hosea’s marriage to Gomer? with buying Gomer back from her pimp?
God is doing two things:
1. showing His people their true condition
-that they are being unfaithful to Him…committing spiritual adultery…
Despite their covenant of love with God, Israel had become unfaithful to Him. They had pledged their loyalty to Him, but started sneaking out at night to love and worship other gods…
If one of Hosea’s pompous religious friends would have said to him, “Why are you married to a woman like that?” Hosea would have shot right back, “The better question is, why is such a pure and holy God married to an adulterous people like you?”
2. inviting them back to His heart
God is showing how far He will go to reclaim those who have turned away from Him and are following other lovers…
-that’s the heart of our God who will stop at nothing to bring back a lost and broken sinner…even to the point of sacrificing His own life…
How God Brings Back the Unfaithful Hosea 2
Speaking of that, there are at least four ways we see that God brings back the unfaithful person, the lost and wayward, the ones He loves so much…
And we find these four things in ch.2…
-for those of you that are waiting for a lost loved one to come back…and they’re far away from God…may this bring hope and encouragement to you…
-also provide a way to pray specifically…
1. blocks their evil way 2:6-7…
Pr 15:19 The way of the sluggard is blocked with thorns, but the path of the upright is a highway.
-Ps 139:7-12
Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
2. ruins the pleasure of sin 2:9-13…
-takes the joy out of it, makes it empty, meaningless…
- I often pray for wayward loved ones…turn it sour in their mouths…
-that’s what God did with me during my rebellious teen years…just before writing those letters to Audrey…
-eg prodigal son story, Luke 15
3. allures with His tender love 2:14-16…
Rm 2:4 God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance
-people think that if they let God speak to them, He’s going to blast them…but the opposite is actually true…
* Chantel’s love letter from God…
4. renews the marriage covenant 2:19-20, 23…
-invites us to commit ourselves to Him again…
-second chance at choosing to love God faithfully…
eg Dan and Diane’s vow renewal story…
So where are you at today on your way back to God?
* far away or close up?
* finding your way blocked?
* finding sin to be distasteful and empty?
* hearing that still, small loving voice of God?
* ready to renew your commitment to Him? You may be a prodigal son or daughter ready to come home today…
Call to Faithful Love
There’s lots of “gods” fighting for our heart’s love…money, sex, power, comfort, ease, ambition, fashion, the perfect body…
But God is asking you to love Him first and most…to love Him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength…to make Jesus Christ number one in your life…to put Him above all others and everything else…
James gives us a great warning in his book, ch 4:4:
James 4:4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
I’d say it’s way better to be a friend of God instead of a friend of the world and an enemy of God…
What do you need to “dethrone”… that is robbing your heart of exclusive love and devotion to Jesus Christ?
The Price Jesus Paid to Buy Us Back
-just like Hosea with Gomer, Jesus was willing to go and find us, to go to the worst place…in order to buy us back to Himself…
…and pay the ultimate price of His life…
1 Pet 1:18-19 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
Conclusion
So, there’s really only one response we can give to that: simply put, “Jesus, I’m Yours…all I am and all I have…it’s Yours…
Prayer…