Grace Community Church of Caroline

Hi All,

I have been putting notes together from Hosea readings and sermon for another study.  Ernest touched on a few things today that made me feel that I should post this on the blog.

Sovereign Love
Hosea Ch 1 & 3
Story of God’s love for His people
Love Story:  About passionate/sacrificial love; a seeking love.  Jilted lover that won’t give up.  Wedding at the beginning (covenant love).

• Story of God’s Love initiated to sinners/so sinners can respond to love.
• Story of God’s judgment EXCEEDED only by His tender mercy.
• Story of God’s judgments to promote His people’s repentance.

Sovereign Love - a love from God that responds to sin in unique, distinct, particular ways so that it beckons and invites sinner to stop sinning and come to Him.Compares idolatry to spiritual adultery - wayward affection and heart of His people.  God uses marriage language to describe relationship and describe wayward nature of His people’s lives.

1. God requests Hosea to marry an adulterous wife, and have children whose names bear Israel’s sin. The marriage portrays Israel’s unfaithfulness to God and the names of the children symbolize God’s judgment.

2. The first son of Hosea, Jezreel, is named after massacre at Jezreel.  God says he will put an end to the kingdom of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. The prophecy for the destruction of Israel was fulfilled  when Assyria attacked and conquered Israel.

3. The second child (not Hosea’s) was a daughter’s named Lo-Ruhamah, translated as “No mercy”. The implication of this name is that God will not show mercy and compassion to Israel and will allow it to be destroyed.

4. The third child (not Hosea’s) was a son, named Lo-Ammi, meaning “Not my people”. Here God punishes Israel by redrawing his relationship with them.

Chapter 2:  The Lord’s Mercy on Israel - And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.  Hosea 3:1 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.” 2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. 3 And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.” 4 For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. 5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.

Is there more to God’s Love?
So I bought Her for 15 sheckles of silver.  (Love, relationship bought with a price)
Hosea was innocent, was not the offender, but He went, He paid the price.  (Gospel Message)

Hosea was to GO again and LOVE this woman.  Not just be at peace, but in marriage relationship.  United.
When we are sinned against we are called to go and reconcile.  God does this for us, when we sin against Him.  Grace is the power of cover sin, but also the power to overcome sin.(God’s inviting Love so that we may respond in love.)  God’s Love is Holy, Pure, Jealous.  God’s Love will tolerate no rivals. 

Song of Solomon 8:6-7 Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave.  Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord.
Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it

Gospel Message in Hosea Ch 1 & 3 

• Gomer (Us)
• Deserved no mercy.
• Not God’s people.
• Sinner

• Pursued by God
• Gomer (Us) recipient of Grace.
• Bought by a price
• Free gift of God’s love and mercy.

At the Cross Jesus Life as payment in full for our sins.  Though we are the  sinners, we contribute nothing to the ransom, cost of freedom.  Relationship restored.  Relationship of unity.  Fruitfulness.  Children of the Living God.  Jesus united us.  We are God’s people.  We are recipients of Mercy.   Fulfillment-God glorified, Jew and Gentile saved by God’s grace, fulfilling His plan - God’s plan of salvation for all people that he may have mercy on all. . (See Romans 11)   

Application Questions:  1.  What are our tendencies when we are sinned against?

2.  How does the application of Sovereign Love change the way we would respond?

3.  Can you discuss a time when you felt God’s mercy instead of judgment?

4.  Who can we most relate to, Gomer (the sinner), Hosea (the faithful spouse).

5.  In what way does God call us to respond like Hosea?