Married To God

In Matthew 22:35-40, a lawyer asked Jesus which is the great commandment? Jesus responded, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Jesus divided the ten commandments into two categories. The first four call us to love God with all our being. The last six call us to love our neighbor as ourselves.

What are the first four commandments? In Exodus 20:3, the first commandment is to have no other gods before God. In Exodus 20:4, the second commandment is to not make images to be worshipped. God is a jealous God. In Exodus 20:7, the third commandment is to revere the Name of God. In Exodus 20:8-11, the fourth commandment is to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

In Hosea 1:2, the Lord gave the Prophet Hosea a harsh assessment of His people. He said...

“The land has committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord.”

The great harlotry the Lord speaks of is unfaithfulness to Him. They have other gods before Him. They have images that they enjoy more than His. They treat His Name shamefully. They don’t have dates with God one day per week to maintain a close relationship with Him.

“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.’ So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. Then the Lord said to him: ‘Call his name Jezreel, for in a little while I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu and bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. It shall come to pass in that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.’” Hosea 1:2-5

The Lord calls Hosea to embody His unhappy relationship with unfaithful Israel. His wife Gomer bears him a son and he calls his name Jezreel. God’s plan is to avenge the blood that Jehu shed in Jezreel. Jehu slew the Ahaziah King of Judah and his 42 brothers. He slew the 70 sons of Ahab King of Israel. He slew all the priests of Baal. He urged the servants of Jezebel to throw her down from a tower which they did. God was going to take Israel down and rebuild her on a better foundation that bloodshed.

“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. 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. Now when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son.’ Then God said: ‘Call his name Lo-Ammi, for you are not My people, and I will not be your God. Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, you are not My people, there it shall be said to them, you are sons of the living God. Then the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together and appoint for themselves head; and they shall come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel!’” Hosea 1:6-11

In addition to their son Jezreel, Hosea and Gomer have a daughter named Lo-Ruhamah and a son named Lo-Ammi. Lo-Ruhamah means “not an object of mercy” and Lo-Ammi means “Not My people.” “I will utterly take them away” refers to Israel being removed from their land and taken into exile and captivity. God promises to save Judah from being taken by the Assyrians which He did in the days of Hezekiah. Yet, there is hope for Israel. God promises to replenish their population, call them His people once again, and bring Judah and Israel back together.

“Say to your brethren, ‘My people,’ and to your sisters, ‘Mercy is shown.’ Bring charges against your mother, bring charges; for she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband! Let her put away her harlotries from her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts; lest I strip her naked and expose her, as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. I will not have mercy on her children, for they are the children of harlotry. For their mother has played the harlot. She who conceived them has behaved shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink.’” Hosea 2:1-5

How hurtful for a father to say to children that their mother is not his wife. He is not her husband. That he is not going to have mercy on them because they are not his children. She sold him out for lovers who wined and dined her and gave to her the kind of clothes she preferred. The family has turned against him and against the core principles for which he stands. Though it hurts him, he must speak the truth that they are not his.

“Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and wall her in, so that she cannot find her paths. 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.’ For she did not know that I gave her grain, new wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold—which they prepared for Baal.” Hosea 2:6-8

The Lord had to corral her with hedges of thorns and walls to keep her from going astray. When she begins to suffer lack, she returned to him. She didn’t realize that her blessings, which she gave to false gods, had come from him.

“Therefore I will return and take away My grain in its time and My new wine in its season, and will take back My wool and My linen, given to cover her nakedness. Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall deliver her from My hand. I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her New Moons, her Sabbaths—all her appointed feasts. And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, of which she has said, ‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me.’ So I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. I will punish her for the days of the Baals to which she burned incense. She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry and went after her lovers; but Me she forgot, says the Lord.” Hosea 2:9-13

Though she returned to the Lord physically, her heart was far from Him. So, the Lord stopped her indulgent parties and made her sin known. She believed that her works of service to other gods were decking her with earrings and jewelry. So, the Lord sent beasts to devour her riches. The Lord wanted to revive her memory of Him.

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her. I will give her vineyards from there, and the Valley of Achor as a door of hope; she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt. And it shall be, in that day, says the Lord, that you will call Me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer call Me ‘My Master,’ for I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals, and they shall be remembered by their name no more. In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, with the birds of the air, and with the creeping things of the ground. Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth, to make them lie down safely.” Hosea 2:14-18

What did the Lord to give her in exchange for her physical losses? He comforted her. He gave her vineyards. Jesus is the vine. As she abided in Him, good fruit came forth. The valley God gave her yielded everlasting hope. She sang to God again. She gladly owned God as her husband again. Once, the false gods, the evil spirits, were purged from her, she spoke of them no more. God called off the beasts, birds and creeping things from robbing her. These creatures are symbolic of war, famine and pestilence that God allows for people who stray from Him.

“I will betroth you to Me forever; yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and mercy; I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord.” Hosea 2:19-20

God wanted to be close with His bride so He made a way for her to be righteous, fair, loving, kind, merciful and faithful. He helped her to see her sin for what it was... ugly. He gifted her with the will to acknowledge and repent of sin. He gave her a new heart with an appetite to be holy and pure as the Lord is holy and pure.

“It shall come to pass in that day that I will answer, says the Lord; I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth. The earth shall answer with grain, with new wine, and with oil; they shall answer Jezreel. Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth, and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; then I will say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people!’ and they shall say, ‘You are my God!’” Hosea 2:21-23

The Lord speaks to earth to bring forth abundant provisions for her. He identifies himself with her and she with Him. A work of God’s grace in her life has made her a new creation.

“Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans.’” Hosea 3:1

In Hosea 2, the Lord prophesied to Hosea what would come about for Israel due to His careful husbandry of her, but it had not happened yet. So, in Hosea 3, the Lord instructs Hosea to pursue Gomer just as He, God, pursued Israel.

“So I bought her for myself for 15 shekels of silver, and 1 ½ homers of barley. And I said to her, ‘You shall stay with me many days; you shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man—so, too, will I be toward you. For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim. Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days.” Hosea 3:2-5

So, here, Gomer is redeemed by Hosea. He pays the price to get her back. He hems her in so that she cannot wander from him. In due season, her heart turns and becomes for him.

“Hear the Word of the Lord, you children of Israel, for the Lord brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land: there is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. By swearing and lying, killing, and stealing and committing adultery, they break all restraint, with bloodshed upon bloodshed. Therefore the land will mourn; and everyone who dwells there will waste away with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air; even the fish of the sea will be taken away.” Hosea 4:1-3

God’s bride had departed from Him both by her worship of other gods and by her ungodlike behavior. She swore oaths that she did not keep. She lied, killed, stole, defiled her body sexually, and broke all restraints. This is why God took away her material blessings.

“Now let no man contend, or rebuke another; for your people are like those who contend with the priest. Therefore you shall stumble in the day; the prophet also shall stumble with you in the night; and I will destroy your mother. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. The more they increased, the more they sinned against Me; I will change their glory into shame. They eat up the sin of My people; they set their heart on their iniquity. And it shall be: like people, like priest. So I will punish them for their ways and reward them for their deeds. For they shall eat, but not have enough; they shall commit harlotry, but not increase, because they have ceased obeying the Lord.” Hosea 4:4-10

They contended with the priests who were trying to help them. They rejected the knowledge and law of God. Thus, God was going to forget them. Their glory would turn to shame. Their faulty coping mechanisms would not help them. They needed to return to God.

“Harlotry, wine, and new wine enslave the heart. My people ask counsel from their wooden idols, and their staff informs them. For the spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray, and they have played the harlot against their God. They offer sacrifices on the mountaintops, and burn incense on the hills, under oaks, poplars, and terebinths, because their shade is good. Therefore your daughters commit harlotry, and your brides commit adultery.” Hosea 4:11-13

Sin enslaved their hearts to god that were no gods. Sin took them up mountains and through forests. It demanded much of them but yielded only trouble.

Preacher Adrian Rogers once said, “Sin will take you further than you want to go, it’ll take you longer than you want to stay, and it will cost you more than you want to pay.”

Hosea 1-4 is relevant for us believers today. Revelation 18 describes the behavior a harlot people during the end times. This harlot symbolizes God’s people who have joined themselves to the world. They justify the world’s rebellion against God by twisting God’s Word to mean what they want it to say. They bring to Scripture a preconceived idea of what it should it say and explain it that way, rather than looking to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit to reveal its meaning to them. Scripture interprets Scripture so cross-referencing verses with other verses is important. Reading a text out of context is a pretext – putting one’s own spin on it. The Bible points to Jesus as God’s Messiah. Where do you see Jesus in the text?

In Revelation 18, Babylon the Great is symbolic of the world’s rebellious and self-gratifying ways, not a literal city. Christ calls His followers to separate from her to avoid sharing in her plagues. Merchants lament Babylon’s downfall because they grew rich by doing business with her. As Jesus overthrew the tables of the money-changers in Jerusalem’s temple, He will overthrow the denominations and organizations who use His Name to defraud people.

Babylon is a place of sexual immorality. Such behavior is a sign that something is wrong with one’s relationship with God. When we abide in Christ, we don’t sin.

Babylon is “drunk with the blood of the saints.” Though she pretends to be Christ’s Church she destroys those who speak God’s Word accurately and live by it. She is okay with people giving a nod to the Word of God, but she hates saints. Disciples conform their lives to the Word of God. They love God with all their being. No one, no thing is placed higher in their lives than God.

Revelation 18, like Hosea 1-4, warns against the disastrous outcomes of spiritual adultery.

What is the great commandment? It is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. When we are filled with love for God, we do what is best for ourselves, for our family and for our neighbors.