Marriage
What do you do when something of great value is hopelessly lost?
This week is a big week for me and my wife Alisha. On Wednesday, August 21st, we will celebrate our 25th wedding Anniversary!
Some of you know our story, but we met at Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN. I had transferred in as a junior and she was a freshman. We met within the first three weeks of school and the rest is history, as they say.
Over the next year and 11 months we would date, although it was rare that we ever went on an actual date. Because we were both living on campus it seemed like every day was date day. We did just about everything together. At that time I was working with a church in Lebanon, TN and nearly every Sunday and Wednesday she would go with me.
During the summer between her sophomore and junior year, we decided to get married. I had just started a job working with a church in Huntsville, AL. We got married in the Botanical Gardens. So… it was an outdoor wedding, in August, in Alabama, at 4pm! Yes… it was HOT! People who were there that day still talk about how hot it was. But we knew how much we were loved by all the people who were there that day to show their love and support in the Alabama heat!
25 years ago we made our vows. And over the past 25 years, we’ve had some ups and downs like every married couple does. We’ve had our good days and bad days. But thankfully, and by the amazing grace of God, we’ve stayed together and tried our best to build a life that honors God.
There are people who have been married much longer than we have. There are others who are just starting out. And still others who are somewhere in between.
Others enjoying the single life.
There are some who have felt or who are feeling the pain of a broken marriage or a broken relationship. And I want you to know you are loved.
I share all of this because marriage is one of the ways God talks about His relationship to His people. It’s one of the ways He illustrates what it means for Him to be our God and for us to be His people. He calls Himself the groom and He calls His church His bride.
And just like we are brokenhearted whenever a marriage is broken a part, God is brokenhearted whenever His relationship with His people is broken a part.
Hopelessly Lost
There are times in life when we lose some THING of great value. And when it becomes hopelessly lost it’s hard. Maybe it was a family heirloom. Or a treasured photo. Maybe it was a piece of jewelry. Or something else that was especially important to us.
When something of value is hopelessly lost, it’s sad. And we grieve. And we miss it.
But what do we do when some ONE who is of great value to us is hopelessly lost? Or when a relationship of great value is hopelessly lost?
And what happens when that someone who is hopelessly lost is actually us?
When we’re the one who has broken off our relationship with God?
Hosea’s Story
Hosea was a prophet in the Northern Kingdom of Israel after a time of great peace and prosperity in the land. In fact, it was the most prosperity the people had enjoyed since the days of Solomon. But here’s what’s interesting. That peace and prosperity did NOT lead the people closer to God. No, it led them away from God.
They became wealthy and self reliant. They turned to idol worship. They used and abused their neighbors. They had been on the receiving end of God’s good gifts but now they were far from God. They were lost. And not just lost, by all accounts they were hopelessly lost.
They were the ones who had been unfaithful to God over and over and over again.
God wanted them to see this, to understand this, to wake up and realize this.
So he chooses His prophet Hosea not just to communicate this to the people of Israel with his words, but to live this out in front of the people with his life.
Hosea’s life is about to become an illustration played out in front of Israel so they can see just how unfaithful they have been and just how faithful God has been and is to them.
Listen to what God instructs Hosea to do…
Hosea 1.2
2 When the Lord first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, “Go and marry a prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the Lord and worshiping other gods.”
God’s people are not just lost, they are hopelessly lost. God compares their turning away from Him and turning towards the worship of idols to prostitution!
Because of the threat of an Assyrian invasion, they are filled with fear instead of faith and they turn to other kings and kingdoms for help instead of their God who has delivered them time and again!
God compares his relationship to Israel to that of a marriage relationship where God is the husband and the people are His bride. Which, if you’re familiar with the story, this is exactly how God viewed His relationship with His people.
Wedding Vows
After bringing the people of Israel out of Egypt, God met them at Mount Sinai. And there God made a covenant promise with the people.
Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples on earth; for all the earth belongs to me. 6 And you will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation.’
Exodus 19.5-6
God fully commits Himself to His people.
And the people said, “I DO!”
And all the people responded together, “We will do everything the Lord has commanded.”
Exodus 19.8
But it’s been a long time since Mount Sinai. It’s been over 700 years! And during those 700 years Israel has turned away from God over and over and over again. Israel has broken their marriage vows. Israel has turned away from God and turned to other lovers.
This happened almost immediately while they were still at Mount Sinai and they decided to stop waiting on God and created a golden calf to worship at the foot of the mountain.
It happened again and again in the wilderness as they found every reason they could find to complain against God and turn away from God, begging to go back to Egypt.
Over the next 300 years they continued to forget God, turn away from God, even though God sent them a series of judges, men and women to remind them and lead them back to God.
Then, during the days of the early kings when Saul, David, and Solomon reigned, they would remember God and then run away from God again and again.
And that cycle has continued over the past 200 years leading up to this moment in the days of the prophet Hosea. Even though they have enjoyed peace and prosperity in the land, even though God has blessed them beyond measure, they are turning away from God once again!
Like a prostitute, they are giving themselves to other lovers. They are and have been unfaithful to God in every imaginable way. They said their, “I Dos” to God at Mt Sinai, but those vows have been broken over and over again.
They are not just lost, they are hopelessly lost.
Jezreel
So God tells Hosea, go and marry a prostitute. I want my people, my bride, Israel to see how they have acted like a prostitute by turning away from me, leaving me, to love everything else besides me.
3 So Hosea married Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she became pregnant and gave Hosea a son. 4 And the Lord said, “Name the child Jezreel, for I am about to punish King Jehu’s dynasty to avenge the murders he committed at Jezreel. In fact, I will bring an end to Israel’s independence. 5 I will break its military power in the Jezreel Valley.”
Jezreel was both the name of a place and it would be the name of Hosea and Gomer’s first born son. The name Jezreel means, “God plants.”
The place of Jezreel was the site of idol worship and a bloody battle where Jehu had murdered many people (2 Kings 9-10). It had been a place of bloodshed and death, but it would become a place of hope because God is a God who plants. Who brings life from death.
The firstborn son was named Jezreel, a name that reminded the people of their idolatrous past and death. But it was a name that carried a sense of hope, a reminder that God plants.
Not Loved
6 Soon Gomer became pregnant again and gave birth to a daughter. And the Lord said to Hosea, “Name your daughter Lo-ruhamah—‘Not loved’—for I will no longer show love to the people of Israel or forgive them. 7 But I will show love to the people of Judah. I will free them from their enemies—not with weapons and armies or horses and charioteers, but by my power as the Lord their God.”
I can’t imagine that anyone here would ever name their daughter, “Not Loved.” And I can only imagine how it pained Hosea to give his own daughter that name. But she was a walking, living, breathing reminder to the people that because they have acted as the prostitute, because they have turned away from His love toward the love, worship, and the arms of another lover, their new name is “Not Loved.” They had been loved by God.
But now, they are, “Not Loved.” And this is not so much a name that God has chosen for them as it is a name they have chosen for themselves.
God is only acknowledging the name and the identity they are presently living into as a people, as the prostitute.
The firstborn is called Jezreel, God Plants. The second born is called Lo-ruhamah, Not Loved.
And then comes the final blow. And this may have been the hardest thing for the people to hear.
Not My People
8 After Gomer had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she again became pregnant and gave birth to a second son. 9 And the Lord said, “Name him Lo-ammi—‘Not my people’—for Israel is not my people, and I am not their God.
The third child is called Lo-ammi, “Not my people.”
The identity of Israel since the Exodus, since they received the word of God for the people of God at Mount Sinai, since they exchanged their wedding vows and stepped together into a covenant promise where God would be their God and they would be His people, their entire identity has been wrapped up in being the people of God. The children of Israel. His treasured possession.
But now this third child, this walking, breathing, living son is named, “Not my people.”
They are hopelessly lost.
Doesn’t God have every right to divorce His people?
Doesn’t God have every right to walk away from this relationship? They have been unfaithful over and over and over and over again. These people aren’t just lost, they are hopelessly lost.
Their life, their marriage, their children are the illustration of Israel’s unfaithfulness, prostitution, and utter depravity.
This situation feels hopeless because these people are hopeless. They have broken their vows, their promises, their commitments and re-commitments to God again and again.
And you can judge them for that if you want. But before you do, maybe you should pause and ask the question…
Unfaithful?
How many times have you been unfaithful to God?
How many times have you cheated on Him?
Turned away from Him? Turned toward another?
How often have you betrayed His trust? Broken your vows to Him? Your covenant promise to Him?
Are you hopelessly lost?
While it’s good to ask those questions on an individual level, Hosea was written not to a person but to a people.
So maybe we should pause and ask, how many times as a church have WE been unfaithful? Have we cheated on God? Have we put our trust in another?
How many times have we trusted in our own abilities, our own resources, our own independence? How often have we acted in fear instead of faith?
How often have we been blinded by our own prosperity and forgotten who the Giver of every perfect gift comes from? Are we hopelessly lost?
Even though Gomer had been unfaithful to Hosea over and over again, God commanded Hosea to stay in relationship with Gomer.
Then the Lord 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.”
Hosea 3.1
And then God goes on to say…
“Oh, how can I give you up, Israel?
How can I let you go?
How can I destroy you like Admah
or demolish you like Zeboiim?
My heart is torn within me,
and my compassion overflows.
9 No, I will not unleash my fierce anger.
I will not completely destroy Israel,
for I am God and not a mere mortal.
I am the Holy One living among you,
and I will not come to destroy.
10 For someday the people will follow me.
I, the Lord, will roar like a lion.
And when I roar,
my people will return trembling from the west.
Hosea 11.8-10
God declares that His great compassion is greater than His anger, His love for us is greater than His wrath towards us. And one day, the Lord will roar like a Lion, calling all people to Himself.
And that day came about 700 years later when Jesus, the Lion of Judah, set foot on planet earth where He lived, and dwelled, and loved, and showed us what God is like.
That God has not and God will not give up on this marriage. God will not divorce His people. God will buy them back. He will buy back the prostitute. He will say I Do over and over and over again.
He is a jealous God, YES! But He is a faithful God. And He will and He has paid the ultimate price giving His life on the cross to buy us back.
New Life, You Are Loved, You Are My People
So that the valley of death and destruction will now be the place where God plants His people anew and cultivates new life within them.
So that now those who have been called, “NOT LOVED,” will know that they ARE LOVED by God. For God SO LOVED the world.
So that now those who have been called, “NOT MY PEOPLE,” will now know, “YOU ARE MY PEOPLE.” And they will reply, “YOU ARE OUR GOD.” And as they do they renew their marriage vows! (Hosea 2.22-23)
Why? How? Because…
In Christ you are never hopelessly lost, you are hope-fully FOUND!
Maybe today it’s time for you to renew your wedding vows with God again.
Maybe today it’s time for us to renew our wedding vows with God again.
To declare because of God’s great love revealed in Jesus at the cross, we are loved, we are God’s people, and we will be hopeful, we will be faithful, we are FOUND.
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