Hosea Loved God More Than Himself
The Prophet Hosea saw the idolatry, coveting, and sexual promisquity going on in Israel at that time, and fearing for his people cried out to God for His mercy!
God saw Hosea's heart was pure before Him, so asked him to live out prophetically through his own personal pain the Heart of God for His adulterous wife Israel.
Hosea must have been surprized after hearing what God was asking him to do, marry a prostitute by the name of Gomer. Gomer represented Israel who had gone astray by whoring after other gods. This was a strange request, but Hosea obeyed God none the less. It wasn't long after their marriage and the birth of their first child, a son, whom God named Jezreel; that Gomer true to her nature went a whoring and managed to concieve two more children during this time casting doubt on who was their father. This must have been very hard on a man like Hosea, and very embarassing to say the least. Hosea was forced to rebuke his wife for her adulterous ways when this became public, and in so doing God spoke to the house of Judah,
"Rebuke your mother, ( Israel ) rebuke her, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adulterous look from her face, and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts otherwise I will strip her naked and make her as bare as on the day she was born."
Hosea empowered by God to love his wife despite her immorality, wept openly when she left him, and her three young children after Hosea' s public rebuke to the house of Israel. His heart was desperately and truly broken. Rumors run rampant, many suspecting Gomer's children were conceived in sin. Gomer was probably more than glad to leave being tied down with a bunch of kids didn't particularly excite her as an attractive life style. People were eager to report any gossip they heard about Gomer, how she sought after men who would buy her luxuries she could ill afford. Hosea's wounds went deep, and every night his pillow became saturated with his many tears for his wife, his children, and for Israel.
Gomer went into a world filled with corruption and violence, lying, and stealing, and the worship of other gods were the norm. She thought it was a lot more fun, and certainly more lucrative. She didn't give a thought to those she left behind, having hardened her heart to their cries, she went seeking her own happiness at their expense.
Read what God said to Israel Hosea 2:2-23
Many of us in the church today are AWAKENING to this fact that, this same spirit of self gratification has permeated into the body of Christ. We would have to be blind not to see the damaging long term effects this selfish lifestyle of ours is having on Jesus Holy Name, the body of Christ, and on the next generation.
Everyone is being affected by this new culture called "divorce and remarriage". This covenant breaking lifestyle has not only become apparent in the last 40 years , but it is now being flaunted even in our churches. Where is our fear of the Lord!!!
Covenant breaking is Satan's scheme he designed to destroy the image of God's faithfulness not only to our to our children, but to the world. The church has lost the true understanding of what God's Covenant of love is all about. Hosea said God's people would be destroyed for lack of knowledge. The church I'm sorry to say has lost the understanding of faithfulness in the sight of unfaithfulness. This kind of love is not natural, it is supernatural. You really need God' heart to walk in this kind of love today.
True love is an action not a feeling, it means laying down your selffish desires, so that you can live for others, this kind of love produces miracles.
We need to know that God is able to reconcile and restore whole families back to himself once we repent of our wicked ways, and humble ourselves before Him. Many who say they love Jesus are really enemies to the cross of Christ they say "No, I don't wont pick up this cross it is too heavy, this way is too narrow and too hard. It requires long suffering, and the cost is too great. "I can't do it" they say. Of course you can't do it, you need God's help to do it!
I believe that many are not willing to go the distance required of them in their marriages today because they see themselves as grasshoppers having lost their faith in a powerful God, they don't seem to understand that when they accepted Christ as their Saviour they entered into a Blood Covenant arrangement with the Lord God Almighty not the mail man down the street.
In desperation we need to cry out to the Lord for His mercy! We are like dumb sheep who have gone astray, we've hardened our hearts to God's way of doing things because of our stinky thinking and have adopted the ways of the world instead.
Father, forgive us for we don't know what we are doing any more, especially about Your image of faithfulness to our children! We have messed around with Your laws, and have moved Your boundery stones. Did we think You wouldn't noticed?
Teach us again about Your Eternal Covenant ways!!!
Gomer found sin fun for a while, but she soon found there was a heavy price to pay for separating herself from God's eternal ways. The price was spirital dealth to her body, mind, soul and spirit. If we are wise we will acknowledge our wrong doing, and turn away from this sinful practice before God has to come and deal with us corporately like He did with Israel.
God's will freely forgive us once we genuinely repent, because He is faithful even to those who are unfaithful. His blood is strong enough to wash us clean and restore us back into right standing with Him again, so we can begin anew. That's His nature, His very character, but He will not be mocked, His love is devastating, it will bring us to our knees.
Repentance is the only way back. As Gentiles we are free to receive this new and better covenant that the God of Abraham made for all mankind, because it came through the blood of His Son, Yeshua the final sacrificial lamb. It was never meant for the Hebrews only. Anyone who calls on the name of "Yeshua/Jesus", will be saved and grafted in with the Hebrews as God's chosen people.
All they have to do is humble themselves in gratitude for God's unfailing covenant of love, which is nothing like man's and accept His promise that He will never leave us or forsake us. We belong to Him eternally. This promise made first to Israel, now because of Yeshua belongs to us all.
