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The Bible Breakdown
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The Bible Breakdown
Hosea 03: The Scandal of Grace
The Scandal of Grace takes us into the heart-wrenching story found in Hosea chapter 3, where divine love meets human brokenness in the most unexpected way. Pastor Brandon guides us through this five-verse narrative that packs an emotional punch far beyond its brevity.
At its core, this episode explores the shocking command God gives to Hosea: "Go love your wife again, even though she commits adultery with another lover." We witness the prophet literally purchasing back his own wife who had returned to prostitution, bartering with silver, barley, and wine. This painfully raw transaction mirrors God's relentless pursuit of us when we've strayed into spiritual unfaithfulness.
What makes this story so powerful is how it confronts our modern sensibilities about love and worthiness. Through Hosea's redemption of Gomer, we see a vivid picture of Christ's redemption of us—paying the ultimate price for those who belong to Him but have sold themselves into bondage to sin. Pastor Brandon powerfully reminds us: "You can never sin enough for God to stop loving you."
The episode also explores the rehabilitation process required after redemption. Just as Gomer needed a period of abstinence to break destructive cycles, sometimes our spiritual restoration requires seasons of healing before full restoration. This mirrors Israel's prophesied time without kings before their ultimate return to God.
Whether you're feeling distant from God, trapped in patterns of sin, or wondering if you've gone too far to be forgiven, this episode offers a transformative message of hope. God's reckless love means you're just one prayer away from beginning your journey back home. Subscribe now to continue exploring God's Word one chapter at a time, and join our Facebook community to dig deeper into these life-changing truths.
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The More We Dig. The More We Find.
Well, everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon. The goal here is we experience God's Word one chapter at a time. Today is Hosea, chapter 3, and today's title is the Scandal of Grace. The Scandal of Grace. This is definitely one of those where you want to get your popcorn. It is five verses, but it is five powerful verses and we're going to get into all this together. So, if you have your Bible, get it open with me. Hosea, chapter three while you're doing that, make sure you take just a moment and like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast, make sure you are commenting on the YouTube channel and make sure you're going to the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook. There's an amazing group of people doing a wonderful job and, as always, the more we dig, the more we find. Well, once again, as you are getting your Bibles open with me to Hosea, chapter three, don't forget. The overall title of Hosea is God's Reckless Love. And even though Hosea lived in the Northern Kingdom, while they're in the process of just getting more and more, evil and darkness is just covering the whole place, hosea lived in the northern kingdom, while they're in the process of just getting more and more evil and darkness is just covering the whole place. Hosea stands as a light in this dark place and he's saying don't forget how much God loves us. And he's using God is using this metaphor through Hosea, because in chapter one we learned that God told Hosea hey, listen, I want you to go and I want you to marry a prostitute. Her name is Gomer. Make an honest woman of her. You know you're going to have three kids, you're going to call them all these sad names and we're going to watch what happens. This is going to be a metaphor, illustration, rather, of what the nation of Israel does to me, and so he does. And then chapter two was all about how even though you know I have tried to do is what Hosea did? You guys have turned your back on me, but I'm never going to stop loving you. Well, now in chapter three, we're going to see what happens. So here we go, hosea, chapter three get your popcorn ready. Here we go.
Speaker 1:The soap opera of the old Testament, verse one, says this Then the Lord Yahweh said to me go and love your wife again, even though she commits adultery with another lover. This will illustrate that the Lord still loves Israel, even though the people have turned to other gods and love to worship them. So I bought her for 15 pieces of silver, five bushels of barley and a measure of wine. Then I said to her you must live in my house for many days and stop your prostitution. During this time you will not have sexual relations with anyone, not even with me. This shows that israel will go a long time without a king or a prince and without sacrifices, sacred pillars, priests or even idols. Afterward, the people will return and devote themselves to the lord and their god and to davis descendants, their king, and in the last days they will tremble in all of the lord and of his goodness. Wow. So there's a couple of things there that is just absolutely brutal.
Speaker 1:So what we can assume with this is Hosea brought Gomer into his house and they had family, and at some point, for one reason or another, she left him. She went back to her old ways. Now we have no idea why this is. Maybe it's because just there was a hold on her, because of, maybe, some sexual brokenness, and she didn't feel like she was worthy of what had happened. Who knows right. But all we know is she went back into her life of prostitution and so God said go get her, don't give up on her. And this is going to illustrate that the Lord still loves the nation of Israel, even though they have turned to other gods. And and this is going to illustrate that the Lord still loves the nation of Israel even though they have turned to other gods. And so this this is what's so heartbreaking.
Speaker 1:It says in verse two so I bought her back. So, in other words, she had sold herself back into prostitution and she now had a pimp. She worked somewhere now where the someone owned her and he had to go barter for his own wife. Can you imagine how insulting, how demeaning, how terrible that must've been for both of them? He had to go and he had to negotiate for his wife. He had to pay 15 pieces of silver, five bushels of barley and some wine. Can you imagine having to barter for your spouse? How horrible that would be. Your spouse is priceless. This is the mother of your children. And you're having to say I will pay you a certain amount of money if you can give me my wife back. And then look what it says after that.
Speaker 1:It says. And then I took her home and I told her you can't have sex with anybody, not even me. Like he shouldn't be having to say that you know what I mean. He having to say that you know what I mean. He shouldn't be having to say, hey, listen, can you not shack up with anybody right now? Like that should go without saying. But she's so broken that he's having to tell her that because otherwise he's not so sure what she's going to do. And he said that is going to symbolize that for a season Israel will be without a king, but they're going to come back again. God's going to restore the relationship. I mean, that's horrible. That is such a terrible thing. But if you remember, god is saying this will illustrate what it's like with the nation of Israel and with God.
Speaker 1:And if we're honest, this illustrates some of our lives sometimes, in that sometimes for a thousand reasons, we will walk away from our relationship with God. We'll get back into our old sinful habits, back into our old bondages, until all of a sudden, these strongholds in our life, they run us. We don't have control over ourselves. And you know what Jesus did? He went and bartered for his own creation. He said I will die in their place. Can you imagine how insulting If you think of it like that. Why should I have to die to redeem something that already belongs to me? Well, because of the position they put themselves in. Okay, I'll do it. And he says, okay, please don't go prostitute yourselves again. In other words, what he would say to us please stay free. But how many times do we walk back again? But the amazing thing is, no matter how many times we do this, he comes back to us again and he redeems us again and redeems us again.
Speaker 1:That's why we're calling this chapter the reckless love of God. Because here's the thing you can never sin enough for God to stop loving you. The Bible says in the book of Proverbs. It says, though the righteous may fall seven times, they get back up again. You know why? Because God is always picking you back up again. You can never go too far.
Speaker 1:Maybe you're listening to this podcast and you feel like you've gone too far. Feel like you've done too much. You've gone too far. I feel like you've done too much. You've seen too much. Too much water has gone under the bridge. There's no way that God would love you. Can I tell you. He's never going to stop, because the love of God is reckless. If he was willing to die on the cross and rise again for you, is there anything else he won't do? Is there anything greater than that? Of course not. That's how much he loves you.
Speaker 1:So our application point today is think about how much the Lord loves you and think about everything that owns you right now.
Speaker 1:If anything does other than him, he died to buy you back from that. So you're one prayer away from starting the process of walking in freedom, and that prayer simply is Jesus, save me and watch what he'll do. Let's pray right now. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you, god, for the reckless love of God and how you love us the way you do. Let's pray right now, god, thank you so much for today. Thank you, god, for the reckless love of God and how you love us the way you do. I pray you open our eyes to see your love more every day. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen and remember God's word says in Hezekiah that's not a book of the Bible. Hosea 6, verse 6,. I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices, and I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings. My prayer is that you have a rich and sincere relationship with God. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Hosea, chapter four.
