A letter to Israel and the Church today, which begins with the naming of three children in ways seemingly inconsistent with God’s person and presence, as God is angry, ends with God unwilling to give up on His children.
As Hosea begins God was angry; God could still be angry, but now God is not.
Even as this passage comes to its high point in verse 7, where God wonders if His people are going to permanently give up on God, this passage ends with us in unity before God. We are God’s people, and we are cared for.
As Hosea brought Gomer home repeatedly to care for her in ways consistent with their union, and because Hosea committed to do so, God is now preparing to do the same for His church at end of this book.
These words form the framework for that Family picture, that new vision, and this picture must not be taken lightly for the wonderful nature of this message speaks volumes.
Hosea is a challenging book to consider. It begins with a list of 44 sins listed out over just a few chapters. It is intense to read. Those sins are so terrible, and so egregious, that the church begins to wonder if God will ever offer us mercy. Will the list of sins ever stop…
Yet the book shifts and it ends on a high note with God’s unwillingness to let go us permanently. For God remembers.
We may have rejected his knowledge, we may have broken the commandments regularly, and we are accused of “no faithfulness, no love” (words from 4:1) but God does not stay mad forever. His wrath will not hold us forever. It is because of God’s unwillingness to stay mad forever that space is created for us to move forward as the church.
Move 1- we cannot remember
So, we come to chapter 11 which feels out of place after reading such a detailed account of those 44 sins that I mentioned before.
Imagine Hosea 11 like family photos that God can reflect upon hung in the home’s hallway. Their purpose is to help remember who we were previously. Each picture tells a story that God alone remembers in its entirety. We might know part of the story, but knows every detail, every facet, every motivation.
In this passage there is a perfect picture moment, a perfect history being retold if we will listen. It sounds something like this:
God knew the nation of Israel, and you and I, when we were children. Not children like I speak with during our children’s message or a Sunday School class, or even VBS that we led this summer, but God knew us as infants, as newborns. The implication of this image is that when we could not care for ourselves in any manner at all, God took steps to care for us.
God remembers His newborn children who do not remember the first time their Creator starred back at them in affection and laid the plans for our lives out.
God remembered his children walking with Him in the coolness of the garden in the evenings. God remembers how he taught them to walk, to speak so they could name the animals. God remembers how they professed love to each other as they did it to Him on those walks. God remembers teaching them to pray, to worship, and to give to Him. This is referenced in verses 3-4 as God taught Ephraim to walk.
Even in their sin, as they tasted the forbidden fruit from the center of the garden, He taught them about his grace and mercy, his long-suffering-ness. They would be gone from the garden forever but not gone from Him- Jesus would come. Even in their sins God was beginning a plan to bring them home.
This picture takes shape in verse 5—the reference to Egypt and the land of bondage and having Assyria rule over them.
Like Gomer with Hosea, God would bring them home when they went away. He adored them calling their father, Abram, to leave his land. King David protected the young nation from outside armies and before David, Moses taught them the rules to live by.
Down the hall they walk remembering with God…
The pictures of their history continue. Like I said, God protected them in Egypt when they were slaves to many things- some by choice and some by birth. He rescued them in ways they could not dream of, but in Him all things are dream-able. It was He who “led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love” (again verse 4). It was also He who lifted us to his cheek in a display of love. The point of this prolonged illustration is this:
While “[We] will not remember this, [God] will.”[1]
And this memory is the overall point the of chapter 11. A book that began with the horrible names of Hosea and Gomer’s children, and then detailed such great sins, ends with God remembering us.
God remembers when we cannot or when we will not. When we are stubborn and we forget the faithfulness of God, the Lord does not forget us.
Move 2- He remembers
How could God turn His back to us for all time? This is the question of verse 8? How could God hand his beloved children over when we deserve it? God looks at those memories that He has with and of us and God answers the question himself.
As the Body of Christ, we sin so frequently, as Hosea sternly reminds us, and deserve such condemnation and separation based only on those past sins. How could God forgive this behavior when it will happen repeatedly? How can God hold us together as the text indicates with “cords of love” when so many work to break those cords apart? The simple answer is in the text if we look.
God just does.
“How can I give you up? How could I hand you over? [God asks] ... My heart recoils within me; compassion grows warm and tender” (verse 8 NRSV). God could, but God does not.
“This is not the story of the “prodigal” son who, having struggled with his own bad choices, finally turns and comes home. This is the story of a prodigal God who- in anguish, heartbreak, and the fiercest love- comes seeking out [His] children who have strayed. The last picture [in our text] will be this one: God, like a lion, roars; the children come home.”[2] Perhaps the children finally realize how deeply God remembers them.
Those historical pictures lining the symbolic hallway remind God, and us, of how our relationship evolved with God, they now point to the final conclusion- we come home to our God who remembers us.
Move 3- Memory to Action
So, what does that mean to you? What does it mean to YOU personally, that God will not give up on you when we as the church give up on God and stop trusting in God so often?
Physical sins, sins of omission, sins of doubt in God, it does not matter, God will not give up on you.
In your minds, do not run too quickly to words affirming God’s mercy to you while you were dead in you sins and separated from God. Dwell with that feeling, with those emotions of acceptance and forgiveness, and that choice from God, for a moment. What does this mean to you that God remembers you; that God holds on tightly to you?
What does it mean that when you lived as Gomer lived, and choose to live consistently like this before?
The answer to that question should motivate all that you do as the Body of Christ. As we serve in this church, as we care for each other, as we practice being the church and are stewardly of what God has given us, those choices should all revolve around how God has been remembered and been faithful to you.
Conclusion
Think about Hosea for a bit in your lives as you leave this church service and venture back into the mission field.
But now, seeing that God cannot give up on you, he cannot turn away, what is God calling you toward in your life outside of this place? What does following God mean for you moving forward with this story framing your life?
DM
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