Beyond Sunday
Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the Podcast that takes you deeper into the Word of God throughout your week, with your Host Pastor Lee Day.
It's Time to Inspire, Uplift, and dig deeper. Beyond Sunday starts now!
Beyond Sunday
Redeeming Love: Hosea's Pursuit of the Unfaithful
The love story between Hosea and his unfaithful wife Gomer stands as one of Scripture's most powerful metaphors for God's relentless pursuit of His people. This ancient prophet's marriage reveals profound truths about divine love that still transform lives today.
When God commanded Hosea to "Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress," He was illustrating His own heart toward wayward Israel—and by extension, toward us. Hosea had already rescued Gomer from a life of sexual sin, offering her dignity and a fresh start. Yet she abandoned him, returning to her former lifestyle until those who used her for pleasure eventually sold her into slavery. Despite this devastating rejection, God tells Hosea not just to retrieve her but to love her again.
What makes this story especially powerful is that Hosea doesn't merely invite Gomer to return—he pays the redemption price: "fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley." This beautifully foreshadows Christ's sacrifice for us. While we were still sinners, Jesus paid the ultimate price not with currency but with His blood. This episode explores how we often mirror Gomer's experience, taking God's grace for granted and returning to old patterns when we become spiritually complacent.
Pastor Jim vulnerably shares his own story of walking away from ministry and feeling disqualified by his mistakes. Like Aaron who built the golden calf yet became Israel's first high priest, Jim discovered that God's grace is bigger than our failures. When we're carrying what Jim calls a "backpack of shame," God's Word reminds us that "if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself" (2 Timothy 2:13).
Where might God be calling you to step back into obedience? What ministry, relationship, or divine assignment have you abandoned out of fear or unworthiness? Remember, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow—not because of your efforts, but because of His unfailing love. Join us as we explore the depths of redemption through the incredible story of Hosea and Gomer.
Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the podcast that takes you deeper into the Word of God throughout your week with your hosts, pastors Lee and Jim. It's time to inspire, uplift and dig deeper. Beyond Sunday starts now.
Speaker 2:Hey, good morning everybody. Welcome to Beyond Sunday. Another episode here in the studio. As always, I'm with Pastor Jim at the table. I'm Pastor Lee and we pastor the church in Virginia Christ. Family Outreach Pastor Jim. Good day to you, my brother. How are you? Family Outreach, pastor Jim. Good day to you, my brother.
Speaker 1:How are you Blessed and ready to go? We're going to be in the Old Testament back-to-back weeks. How about that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, brother, I'm really excited. Today we're going to be digging into the book of Hosea and it's going to be in the third chapter, and really we see that God is using the life of Hosea to show us, in New Testament time, right now, the love that God has for us and the price that Jesus Christ paid for us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the thing about this story is this is just one of many, many stories that we can relate to redemption and being bought with a price and forgiveness, and it's exciting to read this story specifically, but I'm also excited to be able to touch on a couple of different other ones that we find throughout all the scripture as well.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah. So we're not going to get, obviously, through the whole book today, but I encourage you, this is something that, when you've got time, you've got some quiet time to just sit down, pray, that the Holy Spirit would give you understanding. My friends, open up the word of God and read the book of Hosea. It is so refreshing. I know the other morning I was getting into it myself, pastor Jim, and it was just like watering my soul. It was so good just to be reminded of the love that God has for us through this story. So let's jump right into it.
Speaker 2:If you've got your Bibles, let's go ahead and get them cracked open to Hosea, chapter 3, 3, verse 1 is where we're going to begin today. And Hosea 3, verse 1 says this and the Lord said to me Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though, they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins. Pastor Jim, the story of Hosea and his wife represents, as we mentioned earlier, just how much God loves his people. Amen.
Speaker 2:We've got Hosea's wife, who is going to be an unfaithful bride to him, but God told Hosea to go get her and to do something he said go love her. It's a representation of Israel being unfaithful to God and how God does not give up on His people and how he loves them and how he wants the best for them at all times, even when they're not acting right. So we, the church Scripture, says that we are the bride of Christ and that there are times in our lives where, yes, unfortunately, we are disobedient and we become unfaithful to God. But, praise God, he's always there, loving us through it, even through our disobedience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I take this story very, very personal. You know, I've got my own story, my own testimony, like all of us do, and mine is this feeling of I blew it, but I was able to find God's grace just waiting for me, and that is how we're going to learn about GOMAR. And so, if you stay with us as we continue on to the podcast and you've ever felt like your mistakes have put you on God's bench, I just want you to stick with us for this one, because I'm excited to get into my own testimony that I can relate with as it pertains to Hosea, chapter three.
Speaker 2:Yeah, hosea loved his wife. There's no doubt about that. The brother had to. You know what I mean when you get into the story and, friends, if you haven't read it yet, a lot of this of what we're going through today is going to make sense after you go read the full book of Hosea. It's only a few chapters, but no doubt Hosea loved his wife. He wanted to give her a brand new life, right?
Speaker 2:So here Hosea is. He's pulling her out of a life of sexual sin and he's offering her the absolute best that he could to her. So Gomer, his wife Gomer, she had never experienced this kind of love before Up until now. Here's the deal about this lady named Gomer. Up until now, everybody was just using this woman for their own personal gain. It's a really sad story for her up until this point of where she meets Hosea and she falls back into her old lifestyle, Pastor Jim. She falls back into her old lifestyle of personal sin and pleasure.
Speaker 2:But I personally believe and this is just what I feel and you can kick in here in a minute, pastor Jim, tell me what you think but I personally believe that the reason Gomer, the reason she falls backwards, is because she did not value her current relationship with Hosea.
Speaker 2:You know they're married, they're husband and wife. He's got her, he's plucked her out of the literal trenches of filth and she's not valuing this relationship that she has with her husband now. So, because she's not valuing it, she is lured back into her old pleasure. And she went backwards to the old pleasure because she didn't treasure, she didn't invest in the current pleasures with the life of Hosea. And I just want to say, before I hand it over to you, pastor Jim, how easy that can happen to Christians today. If we're not careful, we can go backwards. If we are not invested in our current relationship with God, in walking with Jesus Christ, remaining in step with the Holy Spirit, if we're not careful, we will go backwards by not investing into that relationship which, by the way, that relationship is meant to carry us forwards.
Speaker 1:I believe the term is taking it for granted. Yeah, and you see that all throughout the text, especially with Israel. When they got taken out of Egypt, what'd they do? They took it for granted, you know, and so oftentimes in the text we're constantly reminded of how Israel misses it. They're delivered, they're forgiven, they miss it Right back into the old sin. The same thing, and it all comes down to taking it for granted what God is doing in and through their lives.
Speaker 2:Yeah, how many times do we in life as Christians, we get a really good run, and what I mean by that is you know we'll go days or weeks without falling to that sin that trips us up. You know whether it be an attitude, behaviors, addictions, how we respond to people. We'll go days or weeks We'll have this really good run and then bam, you know we fall to it again, we slip up, we become disobedient.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think. Well at least I know for me is when it's revealed to you that you're being disobedient. In that moment you realize, oh man, I messed up, and we begin to rely on the strength of God, we begin to rely on his grace, and then again, just like the Israelites, you get complacent with okay, I'm in this, I'm in this, and you take the eyes off of God, you put them back on you, you feel like you're doing something and then, all of a sudden, when you do that, it's when you trip up and fall. And then you're reminded again. The Holy Spirit will quicken in you, you're messing up, and then it's like, and we forget that we need to rely on God every single day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and rather than there be this condemnation that pushes us away from growing in God, like because we just feel like we're unworthy, or maybe we're reminded that we're unworthy because here we are slipping up in the trenches of sin again, we need to use that time as a true opportunity to have a real heart of repentance and instead of it push us away from God because, you know, we just feel like trash, we feel like filth or dirt. We need to be reminded that our Redeemer is loving us and accepting us and even in the moment where we may be walking in disobedience, he is right there. Right there, loving us. I know this whole point with Gomer. Other men used Gomer until she had nothing left. Because Hosea comes and gets her right, he's going to pay the price for her. He gets her and he loves her and then for a while she's loving him, but she goes away from him because she is lured and tempted back out to that old lifestyle. So the Bible teaches us right that when she goes back out there, pastor Jim, and she's with these other men, she's left her husband Hosea. She's back out there, pastor Jim, and she's with these other men. She's left her husband Hosea. She's back out there with these other men. These other men use her, literally use her until she got nothing left to give. They've taken all they can take from her. And then what they do is the Bible lets us know, brother that once they use her and they've taken everything that she's got to offer them, they then go and sell her into slavery.
Speaker 2:I mean, think about how crazy this is that Sister Gomer has allowed herself to get to this point, to where she has been redeemed. She's been literally bought and purchased by Hosea to become his wife, and he gives her this life of freedom and sanctification and righteousness and purity, if you will, because she doesn't have to go have sexual sin with these men any longer. She doesn't have to do that. But it's like she finds herself going back into the pig pen, she finds herself going back into the slop, she finds herself going back into the situation that made her dirty to begin with, that Hosea had purchased her and cleansed her from. And so this is the beautiful parallel that we see with Hosea and Gomer, and God and Christ and us as his people, right?
Speaker 2:So imagine when Gomer goes back. Imagine how hurt his feelings must have been. He loved her, he rescued her, he redeemed her, even when she wasn't worthy of it, from the life of sinful behavior. And he did all this because God tells him to. And then she leaves him and she goes back to do it all over again. And yet now in the scripture we see that God is telling Hosea to forgive her again and also to pay again whatever it takes to purchase her out of slavery so she can come home with him again. Right, and what a beautiful picture of that is of what God has done for us, pastor Jim, that even though we're unworthy, god gave us his only begotten son, jesus Christ, for us, that Jesus laid down his life for us so that we could be saved, so that when Lee Day or Jim Archambault messes up again, it's like Jesus is just standing there saying come back home, boys, come back home. I've loved you the entire time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and in verse 2, it talks about this price that he bought her back from. It says in verse 2, so I bought her for 15 shekels of silver and a homer and a lethic of barley. And you know, I think it's wild that you look at this story and God is telling Hosea to go love a woman who's been unfaithful, who's been chasing other people, other lovers, and he doesn't say go woo her back. God says I want you to go pay for her, I want you to redeem her at a cost.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's this picture of God's love for Israel. It's this picture of God's love for us, as we keep running away and we choose idols over what he's done for us and, honestly, when we chase things like pride and fear or self-doubt instead of God, all that's messy. But we're getting this beautiful picture here of God not quitting on us and, as you talked about, being bought back with a price, not just wooed in like, hey, listen to what I have for you. What can I offer you? It's not about all that, it's what I paid for you. What can I offer you? It's not about all that, it's what I paid for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what I love about the piece that you're bringing up right now, hosea's not out there trying to woo Gomer. It's like God is showing us in relationship. Okay, it's time to get down to business. I'm not here to woo you. Here's light, here's darkness. Choose one. Here's truth and here's what the world offers. Choose one. And I think oftentimes as a people in flesh and this was Gomer's problem this is why she went backwards. We like to get wooed. Yeah, I mean, the truth is we like to get wooed.
Speaker 2:There's been people that I know personally that have left church not just our church, but other churches because they didn't get wooed by the pastor or the pastor's wife or the leadership. You know what I mean. I mean you know you kind of chuckle at it, man, but it's truth. It's unfortunate truth. Like they come in and rather than want to be an equal part of the body of Christ, rather than want to be an equal part of what's going on in ministry, they want to be wooed and it's like no, no, no, that's not how this works here. You could come in and you could be an equal part of the family, but, pastor Jim, you've known me long enough. I don't even set myself up and I'm the pastor there and I understand that I'm just a person.
Speaker 2:I'm the pastor there and I understand that I'm just a person. I'm just a servant of Jesus Christ that God is currently using and everything that I have down here is on loan. It's just on loan. So no, the Bible says revere no man. But yet in flesh people want to be wooed and I understand it is a completely natural feeling and desire to want to be wooed. And I understand it is a completely natural feeling and desire to want to be wooed. I mean, who doesn't want to be felt like they're important? I get it, but we have to be very careful to make sure that who we are and the benefits of who we are come through Christ. And it's because Christ is lifting us up, it's because Christ is loving us, it's because Christ is blessing us and we're not looking around with an expectation of the people in the church to be doing the wooing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, this story really hits home for me. I told you in the beginning I was going to talk a little bit about my own testimony and the way I feel like Israel sometimes, where I'm redeemed, I'm walking with the Lord. And then, over time, I walked away from ministry and I felt like I failed God in a lot of ways. I messed up in ways that made me think there's no way that he can use me right now and I carried this heavy backpack Some would call it a backpack of shame. You know what I mean. But God didn't give up on me. Lamentations 3, actually in this time, was becoming my lifeline. The Bible says in Lamentations 3 that His steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end and they are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness speaking of God, and every day God was, like Jim, my mercy's, fresh. Let's try this again. It wasn't about me being perfect, it was about his faithful love.
Speaker 1:And I want to talk to you just a minute about Aaron. You know, I know that you've heard my testimony, but in Exodus 32, the Israelites are at Mount Sinai, fresh out of leaving Egypt, and they're impatient, and Moses is up the mountain with God and the people come to Aaron and they're like, hey, we want a God that we can see. And Aaron, he folds right, just like I fell. I was doing ministry and I folded up and I did the same thing where, like Aaron, he folds and he collects all of the gold and all of the jewelry and he makes this golden calf and they start worshiping it and they start calling it the God that saved him.
Speaker 1:And this is straight-up idolatry. It's huge betrayal and if anyone deserved to be benched, it was Aaron. When I read this story, if anyone deserved to be benched it was Aaron. And the crazy part is God still chose Aaron to be the first high priest. So this guy who built an idol, he gets to wear holy garments and serve in God's presence. Amen, why? Because God's grace is bigger than our failures. The Bible says if anyone's in Christ, he's a new creation. That's right. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. See, aaron's past didn't disqualify him, and neither did mine.
Speaker 2:You know, 2 Timothy, chapter 2, verse 13,. Pastor Jim says if we are faithless, he God, he remains faithful. And then it says this for he cannot deny himself. You know what I mean. So just think about how beautiful that is in relation to your testimony, in relation to my testimony, into relation of Gomer's testimony and Hosea's testimony. Even when we find ourselves at times to be faithless, god still remains faithful, amen. And the reason he does remain faithful, you know, he's not out there smiting us, he's not out there flicking us off the face of the earth. The reason God still remains faithful is because it says at the end of 2 Timothy, 2.13,. For God cannot deny himself. So because God is faithful, right, because God is faithful, he is always going to fulfill his plan. So you know what, even if Gomer would have left again, right, just like we see Israel time and time again leaving, just like we ourselves, all of us have this flesh suit and time and time again, we'll end up needing to seek repentance. You know, because of what we've done, god is just loving us every single time. Why does God love us every single time, even when we fail? Because that's who God is. He's faithful, he will always remain faithful.
Speaker 2:So I'd like to give the listeners something to think about here. This is just something that I've been chewing on this morning, prior to even coming into studio to do this is that even when we sin as God's people and we're disobedient to what God tells us to do, even though through our disobedience we have rejected God and let me just say that's exactly what that is. When God says, don't do it and you go do it, that's a rejection of God. You know, when we know better and we still go do it, that is a rejection of God. It's a rejection of His Word, his truth, it's a rejection of His authority. It's a rejection of the call that he wants for our lives. It's a rejection of His sanctification and consecration for our lives. It is total rejection, right? So, even through our disobedience, even through our rejection, in that moment, can I just say this we cannot even fathom the height or depth of God's love that, even in that rejection, god still loves us, in that moment of rejection, yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know, when I came back to ministry I didn't feel worthy. And even now, sometimes I'm hearing that voice oh, you're not enough, you're not enough. But God's Word always drowns it out. When I get into His Word I realize, nope, the Lord is merciful, the Lord is gracious, he's slow to anger, he abounds in steadfast love and the Word is what gets me out and jars me loose of that feeling of not feeling worthy. And as far as the East is to the West, he says he removes our transgression from us.
Speaker 1:We talked about that yesterday in the office and you know it's not poetry, it's not like you read the word and you're just reading a good story. It's a promise from God most high. God took my mistakes and he takes your mistakes and he throws them so far away that they're gone. He did the same thing for Aaron, he did the same thing for me and I know that he can do the same thing for you, if he's not already done it for you. Yeah, I mean, have you ever felt like your mistakes have put you out of the game? Yeah, maybe you walked away from your calling. I know that was true for me. Maybe you've hurt somebody, maybe you just feel like you're stuck in this perpetual cycle of guilt. Here's the truth. God's not looking for perfection, he's looking for obedience, like we find Hosea doing right here. God told him to buy back his spouse, and he did it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no matter how low we go and this may be hard for someone who's struggling with the sin of self-righteousness to understand and agree with but this is truth no matter how low we go, the love of God goes with us. Amen. Now, I'm not saying that he agrees where I'm at, I'm not saying that he agrees when we go that low, but his love goes with us. Why and this is good word, friends? Because 2 Timothy 2.13 says that God remains faithful even when we are faithless, for God cannot deny himself Amen. So, even in the lowest trench that you may feel like you're in right now, friends, can I just say that the love of God is right there. He may not love what you're doing, but he still loves you, and that's huge, because the love of God always pursues us.
Speaker 1:Here's a question that you want. Where's God calling you to step back into through obedience? Is it a ministry that you left? Is it a relationship that you need to mend? Is it a step of faith that you've been dodging? This is what Isaiah 1 tells us. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Amen. The truth is, god's grace can make you new. Just like he did for Hosea's wife, just like he did for Aaron, just like he did for me, hosea paid a price to redeem Gomer. It was 15 shekels and some barley. But guess what? God paid a higher price for us. It was his son, jesus, and that's how much he loves us.
Speaker 2:Amen. And no matter how far we run, that love will always be right there with us. Amen, father, we thank you for this episode. We thank you, father, that you are in control of all things. We thank you for your son, jesus Christ. For you, father, god so loved the world that you gave your only begotten Son that whosoever shall believe in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. And if you're out there listening right now and you are not currently walking with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, can I just lead you in a prayer? If you could just talk to the Lord right now, just you and God and repeat a prayer like this Lord Jesus, I am a sinner and I ask you, lord, to forgive me of my sins. I recognize, jesus, that you died on the cross so that I could be saved, and I ask you now to come into my life, forgive me of my sins and save my soul In Jesus Christ's name and blood. Amen. God bless you.
