“A Gomer-Like People” – FBC Morning Light (7/1/2024)

Well, a good Monday morning to you and the first day of July. So here we are starting the second half of 2024 today. I hope the first half has been good for you, that the Lord has blessed and worked in your life and provided for you and met your needs and so forth.

Also hope you had a good weekend and were able to gather with God's people yesterday. Well, today in our Bible reading plan, we're reading Hosea chapters one through four. And, you know, the book of Hosea begins really with a rather, you know, challenging to our mind beginning really, you know, the prophet Hosea is called upon by the Lord to take a wife to himself, whom the Lord tells Hosea is going to end up being a harlot, a prostitute.

And he said, you know, she's going to cheat on you. She's going to go after other lovers and so forth. Now, that's a pretty tall order to fill. Nevertheless, Hosea does so, but he does so because God's call is purposeful.

Hosea and Gomer as a Picture of Spiritual Adultery

Hosea's marriage to Gomer, the prostitute, is to serve as a living object lesson, if you will, to the people of God, to those who claim to be the people of God. And because, here's the thing, because just as Gomer was unfaithful to her husband Hosea, the message is to God's people, you have been unfaithful to me.

So the Lord speaks in the book of Hosea of betrothing his people to himself as a husband betroths a wife to himself. But he says, you have been an adulterous people. So in chapter two, you know, after the calling in chapter one, and Hosea does what he's told to do, he takes this woman, marries her, and she's going to end up being unfaithful to him.

And then in chapter two, the Lord says, here's the message, here's the point of it all. He says in verse two, bring charges against your mother, bring charges, for she is not my wife. So what Hosea would do with Gomer, his unfaithful wife, the Lord is saying, this is what you are to do to my unfaithful spouse, to Israel.

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. And he repeats this refrain of Israel's adultery in several verses to follow.

And verse five says, their mother has played the harlot. She who conceived them has behaved shamefully. For she said, I will go after my lovers who will give me my bread and my water. Who are the lovers after which Israel goes?

It's the false gods. It's the idols that they are serving, the gods of the surrounding nations. These are her lovers, and she's going to them, looking to them, thinking that these false gods have provided the bread, the food that they have needed as a nation.

In verses eight and nine, the Lord says, for she did not know, my wife, Israel, she did not know that I gave her grain, new wine and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they turned around and prepared for Baal.

So the point here is that Israel has been unfaithful to God as a harlotrous, promiscuous wife would be unfaithful to her husband. And the point of all this is that those who claim to be God's people, if we claim to be a follower of Christ, and therefore the people of God, but then we turn around and serve and worship some other so-called God, and the possibilities are quite extensive, right?

The God can be money, it can be stuff, it can be sports, it can be sex, it can be our career, our work, our position, our body, spending an ordinate amount of time trying to chisel the perfect body, it can be our body, it can be any number of things.

And the message of Hosea to God's people is simply this. If you claim to be a follower of God, but in reality you are serving and worshiping some other so-called God, then you're guilty of spiritual adultery.

Hosea's Call to Repentance and Return to the Lord

Now, the blessed message of Hosea is that this is a call to repentance. This is a call to recognize that spiritual adultery, and even God's chastening in it, to recognize this and then repent of that unfaithfulness and return to him.

The Lord says, I'm going to bring chastening, punishment upon my adulterous wife, these adulterous people, spiritually unfaithful people. I'm going to bring chastening upon them, and he speaks of that as an alluring of the wife back to himself.

So, although the Lord chastens severely his adulterous people or their unfaithfulness, he does so not because he's cruel and vindictive, but he does so as a means of grace to bring his people to repentance and the forsaking of those false gods, those other lovers, and to return in fidelity and chastity to him.

Examining Our Hearts for Rival Gods

Oh, let's examine our hearts and examine our lives and ask ourselves the hard question, are there other gods that have vied for my affection and my loyalty that have taken me away from Christ? Our Father and our God challenge us with this question today, and may we answer it honestly, we pray in Jesus' name and for his sake.

Amen.

All right, listen, have a good rest of your Monday, month of July. Get off to a great start, and God bless.