For some people, the thought that you could know God’s love is ridiculous. They think of him as some kind of stern headmaster, waiting to catch you out and punish you. Other people like to say that the God of the New Testament is a God of love, but the God of the Old Testament was all about judgment and wrath.
Hosea paints God in a very different light. God is unchanging in any way. When the New Testament says, “God is love,” it means he always has been. Hosea will help you know more about God’s love so that you might know God’s love for yourself by experience.
These notes accompany a sermon on YouTube delivered at Bromborough Evangelical Church Wirral in September 2024. You can find more in the series in our Sermon Index.
Feel God’s wrath (1:1-9)
Hosea is the first of the 12 minor prophets. From Hosea to Malachi is sometimes called the “Book of the Twelve” and seen as a single book.
The prophets have strong words of judgment and wrath to bring you, so these opening 3 chapters from Hosea are foundational: God wrath and his love are two sides of the same coin. Except that his love is his natural disposition. And his wrath is what you provoke him to – because of his great love for you.
First, read Hosea 1:1.
Most of the prophets give us details like that. Who they were, when they were preaching. It’s important to know that they were speaking into a specific time in history, to real people with real problems. For us, that does mean you need to pick up a little Bible history if you’re going to understand the prophets (and vice versa).
But Hosea jumps straight in, so so will we. Read Hosea 1:2.
God told the prophet Hosea to find and marry a promiscuous woman (a woman known for sleeping around with many sexual partners, not in a steady relationship of love). He’ll have three children with her, but Hosea is the father of just one of them. They’re a broken, dysfunctional family, full of betrayal, rejection, and hurt. And you’re given this picture as a reflection of God’s heart for Israel, his unfaithful bride, ever going after other gods.
Jezreel
Read Hosea 1:3-5.
Jehu had been a king in northern Israel. God used him to bring judgment against Israel, but Jehu was over-zealous, cruel, and vicious. He caused a bloodbath of brutality at Jezreel (2 Kings 10).
For Hosea to name his child “Jezreel” is like choosing a name of a concentration camp, or a brutal war zone. It’s gross.
So Hosea, married to an unfaithful wife, had produced the child Jezreel. It’s a picture of how the brutality at Jezreel had come from Israel’s unfaithfulness to God, her husband.
And God was about to bring judgment back on Jehu’s house.
Lo-ruhamah
Read Hosea 1:6-7.
Lo-ruhamah means “no compassion.” The girl wasn’t Hosea’s. Doesn’t say “bore him a daughter.” Every time Hosea looked at her, he was reminded of his wife’s promiscuity and unfaithfulness – his love rejected.
God is compassionate, of course. But he chooses to act in compassion to some, leaving others to suffer the consequences of their sin. You’re in one camp or the other, and it’s God’s own choice.
Lo-ammi
Read Hosea 1:8-9.
Lo-ammi means “not my people”. The boy wasn’t Hosea’s. The unfaithfulness of Hosea’s wife meant that the child would not be loved by Hosea. His devastation at the betrayal would be too great.
Likewise, the unfaithfulness of one generation of Israel meant that the next generation would not be the Lord’s.
So here’s the thing: The relational pain for Hosea is a tiny image of God’s pain at your unfaithfulness.
His judgment, lack of compassion, disownership, are all actually born out of his love for you.
He is a passionately loving God. And you jilted him. People jilt him and turn to anything other than him. (Later chapters will explore all the things you turn to – it’s uncomfortable reading.)
If you can imagine Hosea’s hurt and anger at Gomer’s unfaithfulness and betrayal, you’ve glimpsed God’s wrath against you. If he didn’t love you, he wouldn’t be so full of wrath at your betrayal of his love.
Enter God’s love (1:10-2:23)
Where Hosea goes next is pretty unexpected. Read Hosea 1:10-2:1.
Those words came partly true in the Old Testament, in times like the return from exile under Ezra and Nehemiah. They were partly true in New Testament times too.
But 1 Peter 2:9-10 says that verse 10 is about us, today:
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
In fact the promise that the number of Israelites would be “like the sand of the sea which cannot be measured or counted” has its roots in Genesis 22:17 (and Genesis 32:12). God promised Abraham that he would be a blessing to all nations. God’s grace wasn’t to be thwarted or blown off course by Israel’s unfaithfulness. The Good News of grace and blessing would still reach Bromborough, so that you could be saved.
Verses 2-13 go into some detail about how God’s bride, Israel, went after other “lovers” (gods and nations).
It proved disastrous for her. When you go your own way, things might seem fun for a while but you will bring the consequences of your sin on your own head.
Grace
But listen to how he calls unfaithful people to himself: Read Hosea 2:14-17.
In v2-13, Hosea counted all the problems that had come to the unfaithful Israel because she’d been seduced by the lovers of other gods and nations. “Therefore, I [emphatic] am going to persuade her” – God is intent on wooing you.
The Valley of Achor was where Achan sinned by taking some of the items from Jericho. It was right at the start of Israel’s entry into the Promised Land of Canaan. For the Valley of Achor to become the gateway of hope, she must go back to the start.
God said, “you will call me ‘my husband’ and no longer call me ‘my Baal’” (v16). “Baal” means ‘husband’ or ‘master’. No woman wants to be married to a ‘master’. The Bible calls on wives to submit to their husband as a loving helper, not an obedient servant. And husbands are to love their wives sacrificially, with God himself the perfect example as Christ gave his life for his bride, the church.
Your sin is deeply offensive to God, a rejection of his love and goodness, his compassion and faithfulness to you.
Called back
When you jilt him in favour of worldly trinkets, you rightly provoke his love to anger. And yet look at what he’s doing in these verses. He is calling you back. God calls you to repentance, to turn away from all your sin, and to go to him. He invites you with great tenderness, not as an overbearing ‘master’, but as one who would love you as the perfect husband loves his bride.
In Jesus’ words, “Come to me all who are weak and heavy burdened and I will give you rest.” The tender love of God is open for you to enter into. Enter into God’s love for you.
Look at what he’s inviting you to: Read Hosea 2:18-20.
I will take you to be my wife forever. Jesus said, “Whoever comes to me I will never drive away.”
I will take you to be my wife in righteousness [Doing right things], justice [putting things right], love [covenant, committed, relational love], and compassion [by his nature]. I will take you to be my wife in faithfulness [he will keep you], and you will know the LORD [in beautiful, spiritual, joyous union].
He is ready to forgive you so that you are freed from hell’s destruction and the full force of God’s wrath.
But then he will add you to his church, his people, his bride. And he will love you forever.
Union with Christ
Sometimes people wonder what’s to stop Christians sinning if they’re forgiven – does ongoing sin even matter? But a Christian is someone who has union with Christ: You’re credited with righteousness, but also: You’re sanctified and increasingly conformed to the likeness of Christ. God changes your heart and Christ is your desire.
V21-23 emphasise the full restoration for all who will come.
But is all this easy for God? Is forgiveness a simple thing?
Count love’s cost (3:1-5)
So we come to a verse that truly reveals God’s heart for you. Read Hosea 3:1.
It’s astonishing. The word “show” isn’t helpful. The text simply says, “Go again; love a woman…” Hosea is to love Gomer again. Even though she’s gone off with another lover. He’s not called to grudgingly take her back. He’s not called to toleration. Hosea is to love her.
Your idolatry is cheap and offensive – raisin cakes! You hope your holiday, or your new car, or your job will provide the kind of peace or joy or security that God can bring. You might have been a Christian a long time, but keep on slipping into sin… backsliding. And every day, he is ready to go again and love you.
All your offensive sin and rejection – and still he loves you enough to go again and love you.
But that cost him. Read Hosea 3:2.
It cost Hosea to take his bride back. It cost God the life of his Son to win you back.
He is unchanging in justice, and for him to forgive you he had to absorb the cost of your offence. The cost of your offence is death, so he died for you. That is the love this husband Jesus has for his bride, his church. He died for her. For you.
Read Hosea 3:3-5.
Hosea and his wife were to enter a period of chastity and faithfulness to one another.
That was to reflect a barren time for Israel.
The Son of David
But that time would be over in the “last days” when people would seek “the LORD their God and David their king”. That is met in one person, Jesus. In Revelation 22:16, Jesus’ last words to his church are, “I am the Root and descendant of David, the bright morning star.”
Hope, life, and love are in Christ, the perfect husband.
Hosea’s broken family displayed how sin has broken your relationship with God. All the love, hurt, betrayal, and unfaithfulness in that family reflected the complex nature of God’s love and wrath towards you because of your sin.
Though you have been drawn aside from him and messed up your life with sin, in love he has drawn you here, to woo you with love. His love for you surpasses any human love you can know. He calls you to know him. Your prayer life is to be relational, not transactional. Know him.
And when you stumble (as you will) and let him down, know this:
- Christ has fully redeemed you with his death.
- His love for you hasn’t wavered. He will go again and love you – over and over and over.
- Love without limit, days without end.