Divine Love and Redemption: Unveiling Hosea's Profound Lessons from Hosea part 4 / S3E24

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What if a love story was less about romance and more about redemption? Join us as we unravel the profound narrative of Hosea and Gomer, a tale that transcends time to reveal the depths of divine love, forgiveness, and unwavering faithfulness. Through the lenses of personal reflection and scriptural exploration, we explore how Hosea's tumultuous marriage serves as a vivid metaphor for God’s relationship with Israel. Despite the shadows of betrayal and human frailty, this story promises hope, illustrating that grace is always within reach, no matter the circumstances.

In our discussion, we spotlight the enduring themes of repentance and restoration, emphasizing their relevance not only to the ancient Israelites but to all of us today. Listen in as we highlight the lessons Hosea's life offers about the consequences of straying and the boundless possibilities of returning to righteousness. With insights that resonate across generations, this episode reinforces the universal values of love and redemption, assuring every listener that God’s embrace is open, regardless of past transgressions. Whether you're revisiting the story or discovering it anew, prepare to be inspired by the timeless truths that Hosea imparts.

My website is https://www.godslovingsacrifice.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Well, here we are again for Hosea 4.
As you can see, my voice isstill a little off.
I'm still struggling with flu,pneumonia, all the stuff that's
hit me this month, but I'm stillhere to let's talk about Hosea
and let's bring the book ofHosea all together.

(00:24):
Hosea 14, 1 through 2, says OIsrael, return to the Lord, your
God, for you have stumbledbecause of your iniquity.
Take words with you and returnto the Lord.
I will heal their backsliding.
I will love them freely.

(00:44):
The Lord, I will heal theirbacksliding.
I will love them freely, for myanger has turned away from him.
You know, god calls the Israelsto repent and promise to heal
and restore them, and that's theway he is with all of us.
He desires a relationship withus and he invites us to return
to him when we've fallen away.
What exactly did Hosea teachabout?

(01:13):
Well, one of the things hetaught about was repentance and
the fact that God is alwayswilling to forgive and restore
those to him who have fallenaway.
It assures us that, no matterour past, we can always come
back and, through prayer,reading his word, worship and
obedience, that we can stayfaithful to God.

(01:36):
Some other scriptures that tellus that is, joel 2, 12 through
13.
Now, therefore, says the Lordturn to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping andwith mourning.
So rent your heart and not yourgarments.
Return to the Lord, your God,for he is gracious and merciful.

(01:58):
John 4, 8 says draw near to Godand he will draw near to you.
Jeremiah 29, 11 8 says drawnear to God and he will draw
near to you.
Jeremiah 29, 11 through 12 saysfor I know the thoughts that I
think towards you, says the Lordthoughts of peace, not of evil,
to give you future and a hope.
Then you will call upon me andgo and pray to me and I will

(02:23):
listen to you.
So God is faithful.
God will restore us.
But let's look at what else wemay have learned from Hosea.
Have you ever had someone thatyou loved, who you really loved,

(02:54):
who let you down and hurt you?
Imagine loving them so muchthat, no matter what they did,
you could not stop caring aboutthem.
The story of Hosea shows a lovelike that, one that never gives
up.
It represents how God loveshumanity, even when we fail or
turn away from him.
Hosea's marriage to Gomer, awoman unfaithful to him, serves

(03:16):
as a metaphor for God'srelationship with Israel.
Despite Israel's spiritualunfaithfulness through idolatry
and sin, god remained faithfuland continued to love his people
.
God's love is steadfast andunconditional, even when we fail
.
This should encourage us totrust in his grace and strive

(03:40):
for faithfulness in ourrelationship with him.
Hosea 3.1 says the Lord said tome go show your love to your
wife again, though she is lovedby another man and isn't
adulterous.
Love her as the Lord loves theIsraelites, though they turn to
other gods, and love the sacredraisin cakes.

(04:02):
And love the sacred raisincakes.
Hosea 2, 19-20 said I willbetroth you to me forever.
I will betroth you inrighteousness, in justice, in
love, in compassion.
I will betroth you infaithfulness and you will
acknowledge the Lord.

(04:23):
And of course there's Romans 8,38 that says For I am convinced
that neither death nor life,neither angels nor demons,
neither present nor future norany powers will be able to
separate us from the love of God, who is in Jesus Christ, our
Lord.
You know, hosea also shows thepain of betrayal and the depth

(04:48):
of forgiveness.
Have you ever been betrayed bysomeone close to you?
I know I was Felt absolutelyhorrible and though I've
forgiven them and we've talkedit out and I understand all the
sides to it to this day.

(05:10):
Every once in a while therewill just be this ache in my
heart because of what happened.
Hosea experienced his wife'sbetrayal because she was
unfaithful, but despite his pain, he chose to forgive and
restore her.

(05:31):
This is a picture of God'sforgiveness no matter how far
we've fallen, there is always,always redemption.
Forgiveness, even though it'sreally hard, reflects the
character of God.
We are called to forgive others, as God has forgiven us.

(05:54):
Hosea 1.2 says when the Lordbegan to speak through Hosea,
the Lord said to him Go andmarry a promiscuous woman and
have children with her, for,like an adulterous wife, this
land is guilty of unfaithfulnessto the Lord.
And when he went back to gether, he had to pay 15 shackles

(06:15):
of silver and about a homer ofbarley for her.
Matthew 18, 21 through 22,.
I really like this question.
It's when Peter came to Jesusand said Lord, how many times
shall I give my brother orsister who sins against me?

(06:36):
Up to seven times.
Jesus answered I tell you, notseven times, but 77 times, but
77 times.
Ephesians 4.32 says Be kind andcompassionate to one another,

(07:02):
forgiving each other, just as inChrist.
God forgave you.
But then again in Hosea, welearn the consequences of sin.
You ever made a bad decisionand the outcome was like oh, I
don't even want to talk about it.
Well, the Bible calls these baddecisions sin.
In Hosea, the people,unfaithfulness led to painful

(07:25):
consequences, but the storyshows that that change is
possible when we turn back towhat is right.
Our actions have consequencesand that's funny.
I'm talking about this becauseI had lunch with my
granddaughter and her boyfriendand we were talking about kids

(07:45):
and raising kids and I said youknow, they talk about all this
gentle parenting and all thisother stuff, but what we're not
doing is showing our kids thattheir actions have consequences.
One of the examples we used wasa child brings you a bunch of

(08:06):
flowers and you look at him andsay, oh, those were so beautiful
, thank you so much, that was sonice.
Then the child purposely breakssomething in the house.
Well, now, gentle parentingwould have you say, oh, now,
that's okay.
I understand you were havingemotions.
No, it's not okay, you brokesomething and there are

(08:30):
consequences.
And that's what God does doeswith us.
There are consequences to ouractions and we need to recognize
the seriousness of sin and thatshould motivate us to repent
and turn back to God.
Hosea 4, 1 through 2 says thereis no faithfulness, no love, no

(08:55):
acknowledgement of God in theland.
There's only cursing, lying,murdering, stealing and adultery
.
They will break all bounds andbloodshed follows bloodshed.
That is the consequences ofyour action.
Hosea 8.7 says they sow thewind and reap the whirlwind.

(09:15):
The stalk has no head, itproduced no flower.
The stalk has no head, itproduced no flower.
And Romans 6.23 says speak ofconsequences, For the wages of
sin is death, but the gift ofGod is eternal life in Christ

(09:36):
Jesus, our Lord.
And you know, we have to payattention to what we do and we
pay attention to ourconsequences.
Proverbs 14, 12 says there is away that appears to be right,
but in the end it leads to death.
And these are the things thatwe learned from Hosea.
Seems funny that there was somuch to learn in this one little

(10:04):
book.
In the Bible we also learned theimportance of repentance.
Repentance involves a change ofheart and a change in behavior.
You need to seek God'sforgiveness and restoration.
Hosea 6 1 says come, let usreturn to the Lord.

(10:26):
He has torn us to pieces, buthe will heal us.
He has injured us, but he willbind up our wounds.
Hosea 14, 1 and 2 says returnIsrael to the Lord.
Your sins have been yourdownfall, take words with you
and return to the Lord.
So the other thing that welearned is God's desire over

(10:50):
intimacy.
One of the problems that theIsraelites had is they started
in all these rituals, is theystarted in all these rituals and
they were just so involved intheir rituals, which were not of
God.
God desires intimacy, notrituals.

(11:11):
He wants the love, he wants therepentance of us.
But Israel was not doing that.
But along with that was thepower of redemption.
And just like Hosea purchasedGomer back, though she was

(11:36):
unfaithful, he purchased herback.
Just as Jesus Christ purchasedus back Even though we were
unfaithful, even though wedidn't live the way he wants us
to, he loved us and he redeemedus.

(11:58):
What Hosea is is a call tofaithfulness, loyalty, trust.
These are important in arelationship I was telling my
granddaughter and her boyfriendtoday.
This weekend they came to helptake care of me while I've been
sick and I thank them so much.
And I'm going to stop righthere and thank you all for your

(12:20):
prayers and everything that youhave sent for me and held up for
me uh, while I have been sickthis last um 20 days and it's
still going but I was tellingthem that jim, my husband, who's
away, no matter what we sent toeach other if it was a card, if

(12:44):
it was a letter, if it was agift, whatever, it was on the
very corner of the page T-R Love, trust and respect.
We felt that if we had that inour marriage then we would

(13:11):
always make it, and that's whatGod wants.
He wants us to be faithful.
Faithfulness to God should be apriority in our lives.
We should be influencing othersby our choices, by the way we
live, the way we look at thehope and the restoration that
Jesus Christ offers us.

(13:34):
You know the Israelites didn'tpay a lot of attention to
Hosea's life and what went on.
This was a story for futurepeople.
At some point the Israelitesdid finally come back to God.

(13:57):
But this story of Hosea to meis so rich in love, in
forgiveness, in repentance, infaithfulness and in restoration.
All of that is found in thestory of Hosea.

(14:18):
All of that is found in thestory of Hosea.
The story of Hosea isultimately about love,
forgiveness and hope the thingsthat we all need.
It shows that even when lifegets messy, there's a way back,
and that way is through God'sunconditional love and grace.
Whether or not you believe inGod, these things are for all

(14:43):
humanity.
God is there.
God's willing to take you in,no matter where you fall into,
no matter where you've come from.
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