Door of Hope
November 1, 1998
Hosea 2:14-20

Introduction:

A. Hosea means "Salvation" and comes from the same root word as Joshua. We don’t know anything about him apart from his book.

1. Hosea’s marriage: Gomer the prostitute
2. Hosea’s children: Jezreel - "God Scatters;" Lo-Ruhamah - "Not Pittied;" Lo-Ammi - "Not my people"

B. Prophet to the North: Israel, Ephraim

1. Years of idolatry... no good kings... experiencing a season of prosperity
2. Hosea prophecies during their declining years (755 to about 710 BC)

C. This chapter puts two words together in a combination we are not used to seeing. When a person has a tough time in life, they may say they have hope in spite of all they are going through. They may say that in the midst of their trouble they got hope from the Scripture. Here the Lord tells us that it is the trouble itself that brings a person to hope.
D. God was breaking the heart of the messenger before the messenger would preach about the holiness of God. Imagine, the local itinerate preacher marrying a prostitute. She cleans up her life... partially. Later after 3 children, she leaves him for her old life-style. As it is with sin, she goes back into it with abandon and begins to waist away. Hosea is broken, angry, torn... he then gets this message from the Lord. This is a love story of a very human kind.

I. The Valley of Achor

A. The history of Achor

1. Achan and the Babylonian garment, silver and a wedge of gold
2. Isaiah 65:10 it will be a resting place for herds to those who seek the Lord
3. Hosea: it is a Door of Hope

B. The troubling of Gomer

1. Hosea’s feeling about Gomer used as a symbol of God’s feelings about Israel

a. God’s complaint (2-5)
b. Gomer’s materialism (5b)

2. God’s judgment against her (6.7a)

B. The Door of Hope

1. For Gomer: (7b-8)
2. For Israel
3. For the Prodigal Son (Luke 15: 17 "When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against")

II. Some Observations

A. The Lord suffers over our sin

1. No more powerful image is there than Hosea suffering over his unfaithful wife
2. Is. 53: 3 "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not."

B. The Lord punishes for sin (verse 9-11)
C. The Lord loves the sinner

1. Even the punishment is designed to bring the sinner to repentance
2. Brought into a "wilderness" -- i.e. no distractions, no more temptation

D. The Lord seeks to restore the sinner

1. "I will allure her..." i.e. it won’t be by her own initiative
2. "I will... speak comfort to her heart"
3. "I will give her vineyards from there" i.e. supply her needs in the midst of the wilderness
4. The function of the law and grace
5. Imagine for a moment, the Hosea buying back his wife, taking her into his house, cleaning her up and buying her the best clothing. Then as he walks out into the streets the people of the community reveal their nature by how they speak of her. How do you speak of the Bride of Christ? Do you call unclean that which God has called cleansed. The Accuser of the Brethren, has convinced some of the cleansed of God they are still dirty. He has even enlisted some of the Body of Christ to do his work of accusing against others for whom Christ died.

• Gal. 3: 23 Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.

Communion

Unity in the cross.
Unity in the Body of Christ
Unity in the Blood of Christ because of His great love.