#1230 Hosea 2 Marriage Counseling

 

Say to your brethren, ‘My people,’

And to your sisters, ‘Mercy is shown.’

God’s Unfaithful People

2 “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;

3 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.

4 “I will not have mercy on her children,

For they are the children of harlotry.

5 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.’

6 “Therefore, behold,

I will hedge up your way with thorns,

And wall her in,

So that she cannot find her paths.

7 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.’

8 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.

9 “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.

10 Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers,

And no one shall deliver her from My hand.

11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease,

Her feast days,

Her New Moons,

Her Sabbaths—

All her appointed feasts.

12 “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.

13 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.

God’s Mercy on His People

14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,

Will bring her into the wilderness,

And speak comfort to her.

15 I will give her 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.

16 “And it shall be, in that day,”

Says the Lord,

“That you will call Me ‘My Husband,’

And no longer call Me ‘My Master,’

17 For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals,

And they shall be remembered by their name no more.

18 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.

19 “I will betroth you to Me forever;

Yes, I will betroth you to Me

In righteousness and justice,

In lovingkindness and mercy;

20 I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness,

And you shall know the Lord.

21 “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.

22 The earth shall answer

With grain,

With new wine,

And with oil;

They shall answer Jezreel.

23 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 NKJV

Hosea 2

My people... Mercy is shown - This seems to start where we left off in the last chapter, with the promise to a preserved remnant of a future kingdom. Note that Israel, in this case the northern 10 tribes, also referred to by the largest tribe Ephraim, can be seen as joined back to Judah in Ezekiel 37. This points to a much future Millennial Kingdom led by Christ. 

15 The word of the Lord came to me: 16 “Son of man, take a stick and write on it, ‘For Judah, and the people of Israel associated with him’; then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph (the stick of Ephraim) and all the house of Israel associated with him.’ 17 And join them one to another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand. 18 And when your people say to you, ‘Will you not tell us what you mean by these?’ 19 say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am about to take the stick of Joseph (that is in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with him. And I will join with it the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, that they may be one in my hand. 20 When the sticks on which you write are in your hand before their eyes, 21 then say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land. 22 And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms. 23 They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. Ezekiel 37: 15-23

Bring charges against your mother - There is a dual reality here, that of Gomer to which Hosea is married and now putting away from himself, and the children of Jacob, to which God is bringing charge against Israel, as both a nation and individuals. 

31It has also been said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, brings adultery upon her. And he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery. 33Again, you have heard that it was said to the ancients, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill your vows to the Lord.’… Hosea 2: 31-33

For she is not My wife - This is a matter of fact statement, though we make vows, though we say, "forsaking all others", her actions make her not a wife of real. God does not promote a lesser sort of marriage, one of lip service, nor does he lower the bar for another kind of marriage, and so we will see the way narrowing throughout the book of Hosea.

…7You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you: 8‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. 9They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’ ”… Matthew 15: 7-9

6-13 I will hedge up your way with thorns - Often the things we sell ourselves to become our enemies. I have chased the bottle and been left hacking up blood, needles and overdose. Sometimes people chase what they call an easy dollar and end up in jail or some don't even realize its value and so lose their integrity without a blush or thought. Whom the Lord loveth He chaseneth though, and His discipline may seem hard, but it is always better than eternal damnation.

The disappointments we meet with in seeking for satisfaction from the creature, should, if nothing else will do it, drive us to the Creator. When men forget, or consider not that their comforts come from God, he will often in mercy take them away, to bring them to think upon their folly and danger. Sin and mirth can never hold long together; but if men will not take away sin from their mirth, God will take away mirth from their sin. And if men destroy God's word and ordinances, it is just with him to destroy their vines and fig-trees. This shall be the ruin of their mirth. Taking away the solemn seasons and the sabbaths will not do it, they will readily part with them, and think it no loss; but He will take away their sensual pleasures. Days of sinful mirth must be visited with days of mourning. - Matthew Henry

And she did not know - Israel and Gomer attributed their good things to the wrong god, the Baals, and Baal is a generic name for Lord or God, as to the pagans there are many gods, so there were many Baals, but the true God is not to be added to that number, for all the rest are created things, and things of the imagination.

2 Kings 17

14-23 And speak comfort to her - She will see the end of wickedness, and the hopelessness of folly will cause her pause. She will despair of unworthiness, yet God will woo her, comfort her.

And the Valley of Achor - Means "Valley of Trouble", yet He will make it a door of hope. If He will change this place then their judgment will not go on forever. He still intends to keep His covenant with Abraham.

…23They took the things from inside the tent, brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites, and spread them out before the LORD. 24Then Joshua, together with all Israel, took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the cloak, the bar of gold, his sons and daughters, his oxen and donkeys and sheep, his tent, and everything else he owned, and brought them to the Valley of Achor. 25“Why have you brought this trouble upon us?” said Joshua. “Today the LORD will bring trouble upon you!” And all Israel stoned him to death. Then they stoned the others and burned their bodies.… Joshua 7: 23-25

And they shall say, You are my God - He makes it possible for them to be righteous, He redeems His remnant, makes peace between them and the earth that has fallen under them. 

…5Righteousness will be the belt around His hips, and faithfulness the sash around His waist. 6The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat; the calf and young lion and fatling will be together, and a little child will lead them. 7The cow will graze with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.… Isaiah 11: 5-7

…25I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. 26I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances.… Ezekiel 36: 25-27