God’s Purpose in Punishment | Sunday, June 2, 2024

Good morning, Cross Connection! You guys can have a seat. You'll notice it's a little light this morning; that's because about a quarter of our church is up at Hery Creek for a camping trip. Pastor Mark and Pastor Nick are leading a service right now with those who are camping. They are going to be going through the same text that we're going to be going through this morning.

So, it’s a little bit light, which means you guys get to pick the good donuts after the service! Would you take out your Bibles this morning? If you don't have a Bible, you can raise your hand, and one of the ushers will bring you one. We are in the Old Testament, which is the first two-thirds of the Bible.

Can you believe it's June 2nd? We are now into the summer! For three of my four kids, they had their last day of school this past week, and they are very, very happy. I'm actually kind of happy too, looking forward to the summer. This summer, we are studying through the Old Testament book of Hosea. If you turn to about the middle of your Bible, you're probably in the big book of Psalms. If you turn to the right from there, you will pass into the prophets, which is a passage of Scripture that many people find very interesting.

We are in the prophet Hosea. You will see Isaiah and Jeremiah; keep turning to the right. If you hit Daniel, you're almost there. Hosea is the first prophet after Daniel in a section of Scripture called the Minor Prophets. There are the Major Prophets and the Minor Prophets, and they are generally given those titles because the Minor Prophets are a little less wordy or maybe they just say things a little more to the point. Isaiah can meander a little bit; I mean, it took him 66 chapters to say what he wanted to say.

So, Hosea is where we are at, and this is a very fascinating passage of Scripture known as the prophets of the Old Testament. I've been looking forward to getting into the text of some of the prophets for a while, but you kind of need a little bit of understanding of the book of Deuteronomy, which we started studying through here at Cross Connection Church in 2020, and a little bit of the history of Israel to understand what these prophets were writing about.

As I was reading through Hosea 1 and 2 this week and preparing for this message, I saw all the crazy things that were going on during Hosea's time. Knowing the time in which he lived in history, I was reminded of an old Chinese proverb that I heard many years ago: "Better to be a dog in times of tranquility than a human in times of..."

Chaos surrounded Hosea as he lived during tumultuous times. There is a saying often ascribed as a Chinese curse, though its origin is uncertain: "May you live in interesting times." If one wanted to curse someone, this would be the phrase to use. Sometimes, when we look around at what is happening in our world, it can certainly feel like we are living in interesting and chaotic times.

I was reminded of this as I thought about the great novel by Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities. It begins with the famous lines: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness. It was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity. It was the season of light, it was the season of darkness. It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair." These words seem to capture the essence of the interesting and chaotic times in which we live, and certainly reflect the circumstances of Hosea's life.

Hosea lived during the 8th century BC, specifically in the 700s BC. We know a lot about the history of that region during this time because the Assyrian Empire rose to prominence. Notable figures from this period include Tiglath-Pileser, Sargon II, and others with unusual names. The reason we are familiar with these names is that they were diligent in chronicling their histories. Excavations in what is now modern-day Iraq, particularly in areas like Mosul, have revealed the ruins of Nineveh, as well as the ruins of Babylon near Baghdad.

In these areas, archaeologists have discovered countless clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform writing. From these artifacts, we can piece together much of the history of that specific time, not only from the Assyrians but also from the Canaanites and the Jewish people. It was a very eventful century, characterized by both great light and great darkness. It was a challenging period marked by chaos and certainly interesting times, and Hosea found himself immersed in this tumultuous environment.

In the middle of all of that, Hosea lived among the people of Israel, who resided in what is called the Northern Kingdom. The nation of Israel was split by a civil war around 960 BC, and about 200 years after that is when Hosea comes along. He lived among the people in the north, which was the more wealthy part of the nation of Israel. This wealth was due to the fertile area they inhabited, specifically the Jezreel Valley. You can still visit this valley today, and because of its fertility, the region accumulated a lot of wealth.

The Northern Kingdom was generally referred to as Israel or Ephraim, as Ephraim was the largest of the tribes in that northern portion of the nation. Hosea was probably from the tribe of Ephraim and may have lived in or near the city of Samaria, the capital of that region for the northern ten tribes. He witnessed the events unfold as the Assyrians came in from the east and north, destroying what we know today as Syria and Lebanon, along with all the major ancient cities in that region. Their ultimate goal was to make their way south to Egypt, where they intended to confront the next largest empire of the day.

The land that lay between Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt was the entire nation of Israel, and the first to be assaulted would be the northern tribes. Hosea lived in the midst of this turmoil and saw everything come to pass. Ultimately, his nation and his people would be completely decimated and consumed by the Assyrians in 722 BC. He was sent by God during this time to preach to the people of Israel.

What is amazing is that if you look at secular history from that period, you will see names like Tiglath-Pileser, Sargon II, and Shalmaneser. Historians often highlight their military prowess and their ability to build various tools for warfare, including the great iron chariots that made their armies formidable. They were indeed a phenomenal force. However, as Christians, we believe in an unseen realm. We understand that the manifestations of evil, wickedness, and war in this world are often reflections of deeper spiritual realities.

Things that are happening in another realm, in the spiritual realm, are often hidden from our view. In Isaiah chapter 10, we are given some spiritual insight into what was happening behind the scenes. Why did the Assyrians rise up in the way they did? According to Scripture, they did so because they were to be a tool of judgment in the hand of God, bringing judgment upon His people, the northern ten tribes, and also chastising the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin. God says through the prophet Isaiah that when He would be done using them as a rod of correction, they would also cease to be a great power, which is exactly what happened.

It is a fascinating thing to consider. By seeing behind the veil, we are able to recognize that there are spiritual things happening in a different dimension that we are not aware of in this world. However, we see the manifestations of these spiritual realities in our own lives. Hosea was in the midst of this; he lived through the tumult and chaos of the interesting times of the eighth century. God called him to speak a word to a sinful people who had walked away from Him.

The message that Hosea had is the same message that many of the prophets in the Old Testament conveyed. It is the message we find as we read through Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Obadiah, Habakkuk, and Hosea, among others. It is a message of repentance. God was calling His people to turn back to Him, to return from their wickedness and sin. He promised them that if they would turn, they would receive blessing and goodness. However, if they continued along their current path, they would find themselves in dire straits, experiencing destruction and exile.

Like many of the prophets, God called Hosea not only to minister and speak to the people through his words and writings but also to be a sign in his actual life. God called Hosea to be a sign to the people in a really strange and interesting way. If you were with us last week as we opened Hosea chapter 1, you know a little bit of the strange story. When Hosea was probably a young man, before he was married, God called him to marry a woman who would be unfaithful to him. There is some question among commentators as to whether she had already been living a life of unfaithfulness as a harlot or if she would become that. Many commentators agree that it seems Hosea was called by God to marry a woman who was already living in a harlot-type lifestyle.

God prepared Hosea for the fact that this woman would be unfaithful to him. You might wonder why God would call him to do such a strange, weird, and shocking thing. As I shared last week, God sometimes calls His prophets to do shocking things to awaken His people. The people had become, as the Scriptures sometimes describe, dull of hearing, hard of heart, stiff-necked, and stubborn. I know none of us could ever be accused of being stubborn and stiff-necked, but the children of Israel in the eighth century BC certainly were, and they had been for centuries.

After the children of Israel entered the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua, they began to do evil in the sight of the Lord. They continued in a perpetual state of wickedness, walking away from God and giving themselves over to all kinds of false gods in worship. The Bible equates this idolatry to a form of adultery because the children of Israel had entered into a covenant with God.

Today, the only place in our culture where we generally use the word "covenant" is in the context of marriage. Covenant was a well-known term 2,800 years ago among the children of Israel, though it is not as well understood today. They entered into a covenant relationship, a binding marital relationship, in a sense, with God at Mount Sinai under Moses after they had come out of Egypt, as described in the book of Exodus. They reaffirmed or renewed their vows, much like you might have done at some point in time.

In Deuteronomy, which we studied back in 2020 just before they entered the Promised Land, they declared their intended faithfulness. Just like you, if you are married today, declared your intent to be faithful to your spouse as long as you both shall live, they said, "I do," when asked by the minister if they would do so. In Exodus chapter 24, they twice declared, "Everything that you have said, we will do. I do, and we will be obedient."

However, very quickly, they walked away from that commitment. They broke their covenant, and we see this pattern time and time again in the history of the children of Israel in the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. The prophets were called by God to go in and call the people back to faithfulness, back to their relationship with Him. But the people were so stiff-necked, so stubborn and hard-hearted, that God sometimes had to work in shocking ways to shake them up and get their attention. That’s exactly what God is doing through Hosea.

In this passage, God is calling the children of Israel back to faithfulness in the relationship they had with Him. Hosea was going to be a visible sign in his life and in the marriage that God called him to have with a woman named Gomer. He was going to marry a woman who was a harlot, and she was ultimately going to be unfaithful. She had already been unfaithful to him. Not only was he and his marriage going to be a sign, but he and his family were going to be a sign as well. He and Gomer had three children, and we were introduced to them last week.

Their first child was a son named Jezreel. The valley that is very fertile in the northern part of the nation of Israel, both then and now, is called the Jezreel Valley. This valley had been their dependence, their trust, and their hope. God said that this thing they had trusted in for their wealth and provision was actually going to be their undoing and destruction. His first son was named Jezreel because God said they were going to be destroyed there in the valley of Jezreel.

Then they had a second child, a daughter, and God instructed Hosea to name her Lo-Ruhamah, which means "no mercy." Through this child, God was conveying to the children of Israel that He, who chose and redeemed them from Egypt, was now no longer going to be merciful to them. There would be no mercy.

Next, they had a third child, a son, and God instructed him to name this child Lo-Ammi, which means "not my people." Those who were once the people of God were no longer going to be His people. They were not going to receive mercy any longer; they were going to be judged in the valley of Jezreel. This is exactly what happened in 722 BC. God was revealing to the children of Israel through Hosea and his family this dark and somber message.

Fortunately, in the midst of that, as we looked at last week in chapter 1, there is still a small bright spot. In the last verses of chapter 1, as God is declaring this very heavy, dark message to the children of Israel through Hosea and his family, He gives a small glimmer of hope. Hosea, like many of the prophets, is able to see through the darkness of this destruction to a time of regathering and restoration on the other side of it. After this time of punishment, there is going to come a redeemed people. God is going to gather His people back. This is one of the important things to look for in the prophets, as many of the prophetic passages of the Old Testament contain this theme.

The Testament speaks about judgment and destruction that was coming as a result of people's sin. This punishment takes the form of a passive punishment from God, where He allows them to reap the consequences of their foolish and sinful actions. However, many of the prophets are able to see that, on the other side of this judgment, God is going to bring about a great time of redemption. This is one of the key things to look for in the prophets.

We see this in the last chapter, or the last verses, of Hosea chapter 1. Last week, God's prophets spoke of His coming judgment, but they also looked beyond that to a future restoration. What you begin to see is that God's punishment, which often raises concerns about the Old Testament God being vengeful and punishing, is not arbitrarily given. It is not simply because He is in a bad mood; there is a purpose to God's punishment. He is actually working in and through it for a reason, which can sometimes be hard for us to comprehend and understand until we have our own families.

When you have kids, you recognize that if you punish them, it should be for a reason. Hopefully, you discipline your children. I was certainly subjected to punishment when I was growing up, and if you are a parent, you exercise punishment with your kids. You discipline them to disciple them, training them for righteousness. The reason behind the punishment is crucial; it should not be arbitrary or because you are having a bad day. If that is the case, you should repent now.

There must be a reason behind the punishment, and we see that in the text as we will explore today. We are in Hosea chapter 2, and as we step into this chapter, it is necessary to give a little bit of a preface about this passage and other prophetic passages. Many of the prophets, including Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, were also poets. They wrote in a very distinct form of poetry known as Hebrew poetry, as they were Hebrews.

Their poetry is distinct and different from Western poetry. Generally speaking, we in the West enjoy rhyming words. However, Hebrew poetry from 2800 years ago did not rely on rhyming words; instead, it rhymed thoughts through a technique called parallelism.

Go through the wisdom literature of the children of Israel, books like Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, and the Psalms. When you get into the prophets—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and so forth—you find all of this parallelism, which is rich with symbolism that is hard to understand. This is especially true if you've ever read some of the prophetic texts of the Bible. For instance, if you've read passages like Ezekiel or maybe some of you have read the book of Revelation, have any of you ever read the book of Revelation and been a little bit confused? To be honest, yes, there is some weird language in there. There’s a lot of parallelism and symbolic language that is difficult to understand, which means we should approach these passages with some humility.

I'm always a little concerned when I read a commentator who says, "This means this" with real clarity, as if it is exactly what it means. With a lot of these passages, it's hard to say that. Now, that's not to say you can't do that; most of the time, you can when you allow Scripture to interpret Scripture. When there is a very clear passage of Scripture that gives you an understanding of what a symbol means, you can apply it in other passages of Scripture and piece those things together.

However, what I have discovered in reading and studying these passages for 25 years is that you will read a passage of Hebrew poetry and maybe have some sort of sense of, "I think it might mean this." I think that's the best way to approach it: "I think it might mean this" or "this seems to mean this." Then, I'll go and read, say, five commentators. After reading five commentators, you have eight different opinions on what it means, and you find yourself wondering what is going on in this passage.

This is because some of these things can be challenging. It is one of the distinct realities of reading Hebrew poetry that you have to try to piece these things together to interpret what’s going on. We should maintain humility when we come to these passages. It’s not unusual to find that there are differences of opinion about what these things mean. We should seek to interpret Scripture with Scripture.

One of my favorite rules of interpretation for passages like this is to seek the plain meaning of the text. It has been said, "When the plain sense makes sense, seek no other sense." I think that’s a helpful thing to consider. It is dangerous to emphatically declare, "This means this," when looking at some of these passages. Instead, it might be better to say, "I think the best explanation of this passage is this," and to maintain that humility in our interpretations.

Humility is important. With all that in mind, let’s look at Hosea chapter 2, verse 2. The section of Scripture we are in today doesn't begin with verse 1, which can be confusing. Verse 1 probably fits better with the previous section of chapter 1. This brings up another important point to consider: the chapters and verses in your Bible were added at least a thousand years after the canon of Scripture was compiled. They were added so that I or other ministers on a Sunday morning could say, "Turn in your Bibles to Hosea chapter 2," and we could all basically be in the same place pretty quickly. However, sometimes the divisions are not the best.

We begin today in Hosea 2:2 with this poetic, addictive language. Hosea is writing poetry, and I believe he is inspired by God to do so. He says, "Bring charges against your mother; bring charges, for she is not my wife." This is really the Lord speaking in this instance in poetic language. He continues, "Bring charges because she is not my wife, nor am I her husband. Let her put away the harlotries out from her sight and her adulteries from between her breasts, lest I strip her naked and expose her as in the day when she was born. I will make her like a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst."

These words seem to be Hosea's poetic interpretation of what God is saying to His covenanted people who have broken the covenant that God made with them through their idolatry. By their idolatry, they committed adultery; they harlot themselves out to false gods and broke the covenant—the relationship they had made with God. They made that covenant when they said, "Everything that you have said, we will do and be obedient," in Exodus. They reaffirmed or renewed their vows in Deuteronomy, and now they have turned away from the Lord. They have rejected their covenant for centuries. For centuries, God has been calling out to them through His prophet, saying, "Return to me, return to me."

Like a husband who has been brokenhearted because his wife has committed adultery, God is saying, "Return back to me." However, during Hosea's day in the 8th century BC, the sad reality is that God's patience with His wayward people has run thin, and He is now preparing to put them away. The book of Jeremiah talks about a bill of divorcement that is about to be issued to the people of Israel.

Yet, because He is gracious and because He is revealed in the Scriptures to be slow to anger, He provides, as He has done dozens of times before, a merciful call to repentance. He is seeking that His people would turn to Him before they are put away. So, He says, "Let her put away the adulterous idolatry from her midst." If she does not, He says, "I’m going to make her vulnerable. I’m going to strip her naked, and I’m going to leave her vulnerable for her enemies to come in and destroy." That is the poetic sense of what is being said in these opening verses. God says, "I am going to strip you naked and leave you vulnerable so that you will be open and ready for destruction."

We read this, and I think many people read passages like this where God says, "I’m going to strip you and make you vulnerable to your enemies," and they go, "Gosh, how could God do this?" It seems so heavy. It raises the question: If God loves His people and has said, "I’ve loved you with an everlasting love," how could a loving God exile His people in this manner? When you read verse three, I can understand why you would ask that question. Why would God do this if He really loves these people?

It only makes sense when you read it in the context of verse two. When you consider that He is exhibiting His mercy as He says, "This is what’s going to happen if you do not return." The call still is this: If you will return, you will not experience this destruction or this vulnerability. He is mercifully reminding them of the inevitability of their destruction if they do not turn to Him in faith and repentance. As He calls out to them, effectively He says, "Destruction is coming, but it can be stopped. It can be averted. If you would turn and repent, then you will not go through these things. You will not experience these things."

As I was thinking about this this week, this "if-then" nature of this, I was reminded of something that happened in my life a number of years ago when my wife and I and our family lived in another house on the east end of town. One morning, we went out to our car and were getting the kids in the car to take them to school. As we were there, a police helicopter was flying and circling around about a half mile from our house. We were kind of watching this police helicopter, and we heard all these sirens. Then we heard the loudspeaker from the police helicopter. Any of you guys ever heard that? Sometimes we hear that here in Escondido, right? The loudspeaker officer in the helicopter said something like this: "Jose Gonzalez, come out with your hands up, or we will release the dog, and he will find you and bite you." I will never forget that. He will find you and bite.

It is like seared in my mind: "He will find you and bite you." I think I've had nightmares with those words in it since that time. He will find you and bite you. When you hear that, you think, "Man, these sick and sadistic police officers are going to unleash this dog, and he will find you and bite you."

But there is mercy in their statement, is there not? Listen, turn yourself in. Come out with your hands up, and we will arrest you. We're taking you to jail. But if you don't come out with your hands up and surrender yourself, then we're going to release the dog, and he will find you and bite you. Then we will take you with dog bite wounds all over you.

So, there is mercy even in that call. God is basically saying that you are going to be bitten by sin; judgment is coming. What is more loving and merciful than letting someone experience the inevitable consequences of their own sinfulness with no warning? The absolute expression of hatred would be indifference, saying, "Yeah, you get what you deserve; I ain't saying nothing."

But God, in His love, calls out to His wayward people who are headed toward destruction. The inevitable consequence of their sin is going to be destruction by the hand of the Assyrians. God says, "I'm calling out to you; return to me and repent." God reveals what will come; He tells them what is going to happen so that His people might repent, return to Him, and be redeemed.

I think it's good to be reminded. Point number one, if you're taking notes this morning: the Bible is called Revelation because it reveals God's nature, will, and ways. It reveals God's nature. What is God like? There are certain aspects of the nature of God that I think we all love. For instance, God is love, or to say God is good, or to say God is merciful, gracious, patient, and longsuffering. All of those things are wonderful. I think you would agree those are the wonderful and good things about the nature of God. Amen.

But it is also true to say that God is holy. He is completely separate from sin; He cannot look upon sin. Because of sin, God is just and will bring about...

Punishment for sin is an aspect of God's nature. The Bible is called Revelation because it reveals God's nature—who He is and what He is really like. It also reveals His will. His will is that we would walk in relationship with Him, but the only way to do that is to walk in righteousness before Him.

We know His nature: He is good, loving, patient, peaceful, gracious, and just. His will is that we would walk in relationship with Him and experience His love and goodness. However, to do so, we must walk in what is right. If we do not, the text is clear: God's ways declare that He will by no means clear the guilty. The Bible is revelation; it reveals what God is like, what His nature is, what His will is, and what His ways are. He is very clear about this. He wants us to know who He is and how we ought to relate to Him and approach Him.

During the same period of time that the prophet Hosea wrote, another prophet named Micah also wrote. In Micah chapter 6, he writes a very beautiful verse: "He has shown you, O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." I love the way that Micah boils it down to these three things. God has shown you what is good and what He requires of you: to do justly. Simply put, do what is right before Him.

How do I know what is right before Him? In a few ways. First, He has written upon your heart a conscience that excuses or accuses you of what is right or wrong. This is the most fundamental level of what we would call natural law or conscience. God has given us this hard-written law upon our hearts.

Second, He has also given us the revelation of Scripture so that we might do justly and do what is right. He also says, "I want you to love mercy." Now, I don't know about you, but sometimes I flip-flop these. Sometimes I love justice. Maybe you have seen those videos on social media we call "Swift Justice," where someone does something stupid or illegal and, boom, they get slammed immediately. You think, "Yes! I'm not the only sadistic one here." It's like when someone goes flying past you on the freeway and cuts you off.

They're swerving in and out, and then all of a sudden, you see the lights turn on and go after you. You're like, "Yes, yes! Goodness gracious, I love it! I love justice! Amen! I love mercy!" When I'm the guy who cuts somebody off, I'll confess that just a couple of weeks ago, I was driving maybe a little faster than I should on the freeway. It was the flow of traffic; I was on the 15 going north, cruising a little faster, and I saw those red lights in my rearview mirror. I prayed a prayer: "Oh Lord, please give me mercy." He pulled over somebody else, and I was very grateful.

Then I love justice. I was like, "Yes, get that guy! He deserved it!" He has shown you, O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you: to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk in humility.

It's interesting here on the first Sunday of June, in what is now referred to as Pride Month, to be reminded that we should actually walk in humility. The very last verse of Hosea, which turns out to be a thematic verse we'll get to in the coming weeks, says this: "Who is wise? Let him understand these things. Who is prudent? Let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in the ways of the Lord, but transgressors stumble in them."

As Hosea wraps up this message for his people, he asks, "Who's the wise and prudent one?" It's the one who puts into practice the things that God calls us to do that are right, because righteousness exalts a nation, and sin brings shame to any people. God's nature is holy; His desire is righteousness, and His will and His ways will judge sin.

Hosea's poetic prediction continues in verse 4. God says, "I will not have mercy on her children." Remember, Hosea's second child, a daughter, was named Lo-Ruhamah, which means "no mercy." He says, "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.'"

My water, my wool, my linen, my oil, and my drink—if Israel continues in their adulterous idolatry, God says, "I will no longer have mercy upon them." Even though it is His nature to be merciful, He states that He is choosing to no longer give them mercy. The reason He is no longer giving them mercy is revealed in verse 5, which provides a glimpse into the sin that invited God to remove His mercy from them.

What were they doing? Yes, they were engaged in idolatry, but it wasn't just that they were offering sacrifices to the false gods of the people around them. They were worshiping those false gods as though those deities had been God to them, providing their provisions and blessings. The fundamental flaw of idolatry is that it fails to acknowledge and recognize the true source of our blessings. Here they were, ascribing to Baal—one of the chief deities of the Canaanite peoples—all the things that God had given to them. They were blessing Baal for all the things that God had blessed them with.

This is reminiscent of what happened with the children of Israel at Mount Sinai with the golden calf. If you read through the book of Exodus, you will find that the children of Israel made for themselves a golden idol that they bowed down to, declaring, "This is the god that brought us out of Egypt," when it was God, the one true God, who had just delivered them from Egypt.

I was trying last week to figure out the right way to illustrate what this would be like, and it's hard to summarize. One of the things that came to my mind is that it would be sick and twisted, inviting disgust, if you were to see someone lay a bouquet of flowers on the grave of Adolf Hitler. You would say that this is just twisted; it would invite rightful disgust. However, this situation is different. It is more than that.

In what way? It would be as if you, knowing that your spouse longed for and wanted something—perhaps something very expensive—worked very hard to provide it for them, only to have them attribute that provision to someone else entirely.

Get this one thing for your spouse, and then you give this one thing to your spouse. You see your spouse giving passionate, affectionate thanks and gratitude to someone else for that one thing. The anger that you would have and the jealousy that you would feel would be a right response.

Most of the time, we think of jealousy as a vice, and in many respects, it is. However, there is a way in which jealousy is the right response in that instance. God says of Himself, "I am a jealous God." Jealous for what? Jealous for your right affection. He is the one who made you; He is the one who blessed you. He is the one who gives you life and breath and all that you have, and He is jealous for your affection.

Point number two, if you're taking notes: God desires and deserves our proper reverence and worship. Paul the Apostle, in the New Testament book of Romans, chapter 1, says, "Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, neither were they thankful. But they became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became as fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image like corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things." This is idolatry. It is saying, "Yes, I know that there is a God that ought to be worshiped, but instead, I'm going to worship the creature over the Creator."

God was jealous for His people's affection, and He was rightly jealous. Therefore, in Hosea, chapter 2, verse 6, it says, "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.'" She did not know that I gave her the new wine, the oil, or multiplied silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.

I think passages like this are easily misunderstood. God promises here in this verse to make Israel's life and path painful. He said, "I'm going to put thorns."

Around your path, God sets up obstacles so that your path is painful to walk through. You might read this and think, "Gosh, God, that seems kind of cruel. You're going to make life hard for them?" God responds, "Yes, what I'm doing is basically setting up obstacles between them and their sin. I'm setting up obstacles between them and their idolatry so that hopefully they'll realize things were a lot better for them when they were with Me."

It's similar to what you may have experienced with a wayward child. If your child continued to engage in behaviors that you knew would lead to their own pain and destruction, you might have made their life really small. You grounded them, took away all their privileges, and they no longer had the keys to the car or the rights to their phone. You made their life more difficult, didn't you? Why? Because you hate them? They might say, "You're so mean to me! You make my life pitiful and painful." But your whole intent is to keep them from destruction.

Here, God is setting a hedge around them so that life becomes painful, hoping they will return to Him and say, "Things were a lot better when we served and followed God." God is judging them to try to turn them back to Himself. Although it's a hard point for us to reconcile, we realize the truth of this: all of God's judgments are good.

This is a difficult concept for us to accept. The book of Hebrews, chapter 12, states that God's judgments don't seem good in the moment. Many of you were chastised as children and punished. I remember quite distinctly the wooden spoon. Were there any other wooden spoon recipients here? My wife and I were laughing about this recently. A few weeks ago, we were in South Carolina, and we took an Uber from the airport. While sitting there, we heard a kid in the turn lane next to us who was just not having a good day—screaming and crying. We looked over and saw the kid, and then we noticed the mom's hand from the front seat holding a wooden spoon. I was triggered! I had cold sweats for a moment; it brought back memories. I'm not kidding; it was hilarious, and we were cracking up.

Chastisement seems good in the moment, but all of God's judgments are good because they serve a purpose. It's not that He is just arbitrarily in a bad mood and looking for someone to smite. Some people think that this is how God is, but that is not what is revealed in the text. If you actually read what the text says in Psalm 119:39, it states, "Turn away my sin, my reproach which I dread, for your judgments, your punishments, are good," says the psalmist. The psalmist recognizes in Psalm 119 that it is God's judgments that help turn him away from his sin.

In verse 62 of Psalm 119, the psalmist declares, "I will rise and give thanks to you because of your righteous judgments." In verse 75, he acknowledges, "I know, O Lord, that your judgments are right and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. Let, I pray, your merciful kindness be my comfort according to your word, to the word of your servant. Let your tender mercies come to me that I may live, for your law is my delight." Understood in their proper context, we see that all of God's judgments are good.

Hosea continues in verse 9, addressing the people of Israel's idolatry. Because they had harloted themselves out to false gods like Baal, we read, "Therefore, I will return and take away my grain in its time and my new wine in its season." They had said to Baal, the false god, "You've given us all these things," and God responds, "Okay, fine, I will take these away from you. I will take back my wool and my linen given to cover your nakedness. Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall deliver her from my hand."

God continues, "I will also cause her mirth, her joy, her laughter to cease, her feast days, her new moons, her Sabbaths, all her appointed feasts. 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 find and eat them. I will punish her for the days of Baal, for the balls that she burned incense to. She decked herself with earrings and jewelry and went after her lovers, but me she forgot," says the Lord.

We look at this and we see all...

These judgments that God promises to the children of Israel may seem cruel and harsh to some. However, point number four is that the purpose of God's punishment is purification. He is seeking to bring His people back to Him. They are walking in a way that will inevitably lead to their destruction, and He is saying, "I am going to set up all of these obstacles before you, and I will bring about all these judgments upon you so that you might return to Me."

The purpose of God's punishment is indeed purification. Through all of this, why is He doing this? Look at verse 14: "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, draw her back. I will bring her into the wilderness and speak comfort to her. I will give her her vineyards from there and the valley of Aor 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."

It shall be in that day, says the Lord, that you will call Me "My husband" and no longer call Me "My master" or "My Baal." For I will take away 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, a new covenant 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; I will take away war to make them lie down safely.

I will betroth you to Me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness, justice, lovingkindness, and mercy. I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord. 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 oil; they shall answer Jezreel.

Jezreel is the name of Hosea's firstborn child and the name of the valley that would be their destruction. He says that in a future day, they shall answer Jezreel. What does that mean? Here, Hosea is looking beyond the judgment that God is going to bring because of Israel's sin. He is looking beyond that to a future kingdom, to a future covenant where God is going to restore the people and bring them back. He will give them new wine and oil, blessing them with peace. There will no longer be a sword.

He is looking beyond all of this, which begs the question: When is this going to happen? Well, verse 23 states, "Then I will sow her for..."

Myself in the earth, there is a play on words here that’s not clear in English. The name Jezreel means "Yahweh plants." The Lord says, "You will call me Jezreel; the Lord will plant you once again." We see this same theme come up in verse two: "Then I will sow her; I will Jezreel her for myself in the earth."

I'm going to replant you after you've been uprooted and exiled from the land. I will bring you back and replant you for myself in the earth. I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy. Then I will say to those who are not my people, "You are my people," and they shall say, "You are my God."

What is this? This is the overturning of the judgment that is spoken through Hosea's family in chapter one. He says Jezreel is going to be your place of destruction; you’re going to be uprooted and exiled from the land. But I’m going to bring you back and plant you. You who had not received mercy, Lo-Ruhamah, I’m going to give you mercy. You who were called not my people, Lo-Ammi, I’m going to call you once again my people, and you will call me my God.

We have the undoing of the judgment here. Hosea is able to see beyond the judgment, understanding that the purpose of that punishment is purification. God is seeking to redeem a remnant unto Himself. He sees through that to the other side and says there’s going to be a new covenant.

This should bring something to your mind. I’m going to replant you and gather you once again to be my people and give you my mercy. When will these things come to pass? I think the answer comes in the New Testament.

In the New Testament, the Apostle Peter quotes this exact passage of Scripture in 1 Peter chapter 2 when he says, "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light."

You who once were not a people, Lo-Ammi, but now are the people of God; you who once had not obtained mercy, Lo-Ruhamah, but now have obtained mercy. You see the ultimate fulfillment of what Hosea is seeing here: a time of redemption under a new covenant where God will gather His people and replant them in a time of peace and bounty.

Bless and pour out His grace upon them and His mercy, which ultimately is only fulfilled in the New Covenant through Christ.

Point number five, and I'll close: only in Christ does the full purpose of God's punishment bring the fullness of His purification. God says to the people of Israel, who had departed from Him time and time again in idolatry, "I want to return you back to Myself and give you mercy once again, make you My people once again." Ultimately, these things are fulfilled in the New Covenant through Jesus Christ. All the promises of God in Jesus are yes and amen to the glory of God through us.

Now, the ultimate fulfillment of the day of peace that Hosea sees here, when there is total righteousness and no more war, where the bow and the sword are put away, is still looking far out into the future to the point where God's fullness of His kingdom comes. But now, in Christ Jesus, we can be redeemed, receive His mercy, and be made a people once again. Only in Christ Jesus do these things come to pass.

Now, what is our place in this? After we are redeemed from our sinfulness, from the darkness of this world, and given His mercy, we are made to be the people of God. That's what you are as a Christian—the church. You are the body of Christ; you are the people of God.

What are we then to do? You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own special people. For what purpose? So that you would declare the praises, proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light.

What is the call that God has given to you? What is the commission that He has given to you now that He has redeemed you and made you a people who were not His people, and given you mercy who had not obtained mercy? Now, what has He called you to do? He wants you to proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light. That's the call.

When He redeems you out of your idolatry and your wickedness, He shines His light in and through you so that you would declare it to all people. Oh, that we would do that! Because listen, I think it's important for us to be reminded once again: our hope is not in anything in this world; our hope is ultimately only in Christ Jesus. It's only in Christ Jesus.

That we experience the fullness of His purifying grace and work. Our hope is not in this world, and as we continue through 2024, and everybody gets real excited about the hope that we have in political candidates, I want to remind you that our ultimate hope is only in Jesus Christ. Oh, that we would be reminded to proclaim the praises of Him who calls us out of darkness into His marvelous light. That is what your friends, neighbors, and co-workers truly need: the grace of God's redeeming power. Amen.

Would you stand with me as we close in prayer? Father God, I thank You for this poetic passage of Scripture. It may be a challenge to piece it together and understand what is going on and what it all means, but ultimately, Lord, what You reveal in this passage is that there are judgments that come from You, punishments that come from You, but there is a reason for them. You are seeking to restore and redeem unto Yourself a people set apart for good works.

Lord, I pray that we would be that people. We who were not a people have been redeemed to be a people. We who had not obtained mercy have obtained mercy in You. Help us to proclaim the praises of You who called us out of darkness and into Your marvelous light. Lead us today and this week to people who need to hear that good news of Your grace—the good news of Your grace that has redeemed us, the good news of Your grace that has set us apart to be Your people once again.

We rejoice in You and thank You for Your grace. It is in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.