Bible Recap Week 35

This week, we dive into Hosea and discover a powerful picture of God’s heart.

Sin breaks the heart of God, but it doesn’t extinguish the love of God.

Hosea shows us that God’s judgment comes from a broken heart—not an angry one. His holiness and His love are never separated.

In Hosea 11, God remembers Israel like a parent remembers teaching their child to walk. And then He asks:

“How can I give you up?” — Hosea 11:8

How powerful is that?

Join us for Episode 35 as Pastor Eric explores the relentless love of a God who is both holy and compassionate.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 1:09

Spending time in the morning with you like this. So let's get started. On today's podcast, I want to do something a little bit different than we've done on uh on all the other ones. I want to give a complete summary of our reading from the book of Hosea this uh this past week. That's where I am in my reading. And frankly, I don't even remember if I am up to date or a little ahead or where I am in the uh Bible recap reading. But um for the podcast this uh for for this week that that we're doing, I I've always been fascinated by the book of Hosea. Um and I think the just the miraculous way that uh God tells Hosea to uh marry Gomer and then they have children, and then she leaves him and becomes a prostitute, and God tells her him to go, you know, buy her back. And it's just quite a uh a drama that um has always just I don't know, just kind of made my mind go, what? Um, but uh but Hosea is a fascinating book, and so I thought it might be good to just uh recap for I don't know, 15 minutes or so, regular time on um on the book of Hosea. So let's dive right into that. Um Hosea, if I were to summarize Hosea, it is Hosea shows that that sin breaks the heart of God, but it doesn't extinguish the love of God. Just like when when a when your child, if if you have a child and they they do something that breaks your heart, it doesn't it doesn't mean that you don't love them anymore. Um and so I think that's for me that's the overarching theme of Hosea, that no matter no matter where um the the Israelites or the nation of Israel is um at this point, their sin is breaking the heart of God, but God's eye is not off of them, his face is not turned towards them, um, it their sin does not extinguish the love of God. Uh, God tells Hosea in the first three chapters we're talking now. Uh God tells Hosea to marry Gomer, a woman who will be unfaithful to him. Their marriage becomes this living picture of what man's relationship is with God, or in this case, God's relationship with Israel. Israel belongs to God, but continually runs after other gods. Hosea introduces one of the Bible's uh strongest descriptions of sin, and that is spiritual adultery. So when we look at sin, we can, you know, oh, you know, it's we kind of wink at it, or depending on what kind of sin it is, we measure it in the greatness of how we think sin measures up. But Hosea introduces this idea that in his in his writing that any sin is spiritual adultery. And the shock of Hosea isn't that God isn't detached from Israel's rebellion, God is personally wounded by the spiritual adultery. Um, God is wounded by our sin. And then comes this remarkable moment in uh Hosea chapter three, where Gomer has apparently fallen so far into prostitution and leaving her family that Hosea has to go and buy her back, and that's the gospel before we ever get to the New Testament. Hallelujah. The one who has been betrayed pays the price to redeem the one who betrayed him. As we move further into Hosea chapters four through eight, we we look at a different type of um spiritual adultery, and that is the adultery of uh false gods, or in in Israel's case, uh Baal. Israel believes Baal and its political alliances will bring uh will provide prosperity and security, uh protection, success. Israel believes that that um all of the alliances with these other countries, because they worship Baal, they will also give to them what God wants to give to them. And God essentially says to Israel, you have forgotten where all of those things came from. All of the things that you're wanting your political alliances to give you, all of the things that you believe that this God of theirs, Baal, will give you. I have given you those things. And and Hosea, Hosea uh chapter four says, verse six says, My people are destroyed for their lack of knowledge. And this isn't this isn't talking about, you know, they didn't graduate from you know eighth grade or whatever. They they simply, this was not an intellectual knowledge. Israel has forgotten God. That's where Hosea becomes like this old testament writer and and transfers into 2026. Now, granted, we're not probably worshiped to tempt, we're not tempted to worship like Baal, but we still look to other things for what God wants to give us. Um so so in this season of of our life, Lisa and my life, we're we're constantly looking at what life would be like if if we if and when um the Lord allows us to retire. And so what what so we're looking at not we we never have the discussion about retirement that says, you know, honey, God's just gonna take care of us. Now we believe that, but you know what our discussions are? How much do I need in order for us to be taken care of? What how much money will bring us security? And we can very easily fall into that same trap, thinking that thinking that our portfolio will bring security. Uh let's take another one. Um, people long for significance. What is it that brings significance? A relationship with God. What does what does idolatry teach us in our world? Achievements bring significance. Um we want a matter in our world, we want approval in our world. What gives us our approval that we long for in this world, which can be gone in a day? God gives us, God gives us our approval. It doesn't matter what what your boss thinks of you, it doesn't matter what other people think of you, it doesn't matter what um even uh you've been told by people in your past. The only approval that matters is when you stand before God at the end of your life and he says, Well done, good and faithful servant, welcome home. That's the approval that I want more than anything. Um we look to politics and we think we think whoever lives in the White House or whoever's serving in Congress, that's that's what's gonna make this nation a great country. Uh and politics doesn't politics doesn't save us. Um a temporary pleasure doesn't satisfy us. I mean, oh it's it's nice to get a new pair of shoes and and and they look all clean and you walk in them and they're comfortable, and oh my goodness. But it doesn't last that that pair of shoes wears wears down. Um so idols change throughout history. Um, the idols that we have today may not even be an issue in you know in 10 years, but but the human heart doesn't change. And the human heart, there's something about the human heart that says, I'm going to pursue all of these things, whatever these things are. And if if you ever stop and just go back, what you're really pursuing is everything that God can give you. Wow, what a thought. Hosea chapter 9 through 11 kind of moves us into a different section, and that is um God's judgment comes out of a broken heart, not an angry heart. Um, and somebody say, you know, if you're listening to this to your car and nobody's nobody's listening, just give a shout out to like a big amen. God's judgment comes from a broken heart, not an angry heart. Hosea refuses to separate God's holiness from God's love. Israel's sin has consequences, and there's judgment that's gonna come. But then we reach one of the most emotionally uh powerful passages in in Hosea, uh Hosea chapter 11, verse 1. When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. God remembers teaching Israel to walk, carrying them, uh caring for them, working with them when they were just coming through, uh uh being delivered out of Egypt, yet they walked away. And then God says in Hosea 11:8, How can I give you up? Uh Israel or Ephraim, how can I give you up? I remember what it was like when I carried you. How can I give you up? That's extraordinary. God's judgment isn't the cold anger of someone who doesn't care. God's judgment is the grief of someone who loves so deeply. Hosea reveals a God whose holiness says, sin matters, but whose love says, How can I I can't give you up. I because you've sinned, I'm not gonna turn my back on you. I because I love you so much. We're we're in this too deep, brothers and sisters. One of Hosea's most important verses is found in chapter six, verse six. And he says, For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice the knowledge of God rather than burn offerings. Israel, even though they were worshipping other gods, and even though they had forgotten about who God is, Israel continued practicing their religion. Isn't that interesting? They continued going to church, but their hearts were far from God. And Jesus later quotes this verse God isn't impressed by the religious activity disconnected from relationship, right? Even Jesus said, it's it's it's God desires your love, not sacrifice. We can attend church, um, I can preach sermons, uh, we can sing all these great songs that we sing, we can we can give money, we can serve on boards, uh, we can serve on teams, we can go to small groups, we can know all the Christian language, like you know, I'll bless you and all those kind of things. I'll pray for you. And then we can still have hearts that have drifted. And and so the question Hosea is asking isn't simply, are you religious? It's do you know God? Do you have a relationship with God? The final word in Hosea is uh in chapter 14, after all the warnings and judgment, Hosea ends with uh a really a beautiful invitation. He says, Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God. And then comes God's response return, O Israel, uh, to the Lord your God. And God says, I will heal their apostasy, I will love them freely. That's where that's where I want to land this summary uh in our podcast today. Hosea begins with a pro broken marriage and ends with a God who promises healing. Israel has wandered, Israel has betrayed him, Israel deserves judgment, and God still says, come home, return. Hosea isn't uh primarily the the story of Hosea and Gomer, it's uh it's really the story of of God and us. Because we wander and we attach our hearts to things that cannot save us. We receive God's gifts and sometimes we forget about the God who gave them. And yet standing over this entire book that we've been reading this week is this astonishing picture of the love of God. He confronts us because he is holy, he disciplines us because our our sin hurts him, it destroys him, um, or destroys us, it grieves him. Um and he pursues us because he wants us back. Um maybe that's the message of Hosea in one sentence, you know? God loves us too much to pretend that our wandering doesn't matter, and he loves us too much to stop calling us home. Bless you. I look forward every week to walking in the water with you. You can find more information about water at www.water. And you can listen to the weekly message.