Are You Cheating?

Last week we finished our study of Amos, a guy called by God from the Judean countryside to serve as a prophet in the northern kingdom of Israel. This week we start a four-week mini-series on the Prophet Hosea. Hosea even though he is preaching around the same time as Amos, has a slightly different approach. Now, to be fair, there are times in scripture we see prophets taking some unusual methods to get the attention of the people. For instance, Isaiah for three years embarrassed the people by walking the streets dressed like a prisoner of war. The prophet Jeremiah carried a yoke on his shoulders for several months. The prophet Ezekiel even used a haircut at one point as an object lesson to get his point across.

The question is why did they need to do these things? I mean the prophet Jonah preached a super simple message repent or die, and here these guys are putting on a show….

To be fair these peculiar things as Wiersbe puts in were in fact “acts of mercy.”[1] The people were suffering from selective hearing, and they were allowing the sound of God’s voice to be drowned out and were no longer heeding the Covenant. The Lord called Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and others to these strange things with the goal of shocking the people, waking them up to listen to what God had to say.

Hosea was no different from the rest of the prophets, he was called to live out a painful object lesson to wake up God’s people. Hosea was instructed to marry a prostitute by the name of Gomer who would then bear three children, two of which likely were not even Hosea’s. Then just when things didn’t seem like they could get worse Gomer left him for another man, leaving Hosea to buy back his own wife.

So why did God instruct this man of God (some think Hosea was a priest) to endure these challenges?

Well, it paints a vivid picture of what the children of Israel had done to God by chasing idols and prostituting themselves, committing spiritual adultery. We face the same challenges and temptations today. Look at what James the half-brother of Jesus said in James 4:4: “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (ESV)

Church, lest we face God’s wrath we need to heed what Hosea wrote. Each of the individuals in this story—Hosea, Gomer, and the three children—teach us critical spiritual lessons about the relationship between God and his people.

Israel had played the harlot, but God would take her back, just as he does for us when we cheat on Him.

The question we need to ask ourselves are we being faithful and true to our betrothal? When we allow other things, important things such as family, work, school, friends, to come between us and our relationship with God, we are cheating on Him. We must guard against this! Do these things matter? Yes, without a doubt and God cares just as much as you do if not more for these areas of your life but the thing you have to remember is that while God cares for your family he also cares for you. I love the illustration, when you get on an airplane they instruct you to put on your own oxygen mask first when faced with an emergency. If we don't focus on our own walk we can't hope to help anyone else!

May the words of Hosea encourage us to remain faithful to our first love!

See ya Sunday!

[1]Warren Wiersbe, Bible Exposition Commentary – Be Amazed (Hosea, Joel), (Colorado Springs, CO: Victor, 2003), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, 316