Divorcing Sin: A look at the Book of Hosea

I recently did a bible study on the Book of Hosea that brought all kinds of questions to my mind. Questions that I figure other people (specifically other women) have about this book in the Bible.

Hosea starts out with God's anger at his beloved Israel.

Just for some background, Israel had separated into two kingdoms during the time that Hosea wrote these words. the northern kingdom was referred to as Israel, keeping the name of the Nation and the southern kingdom had taken the name Judah. It is important to note that only Israel (the Northern Kingdom) was under the wrath of God at this time.

God does something interesting through Hosea. A man that He would call his prophet. He tells Hosea to marry an adulterous woman (a prostitute). So Hosea, obeying his God's commands, marries Gomer.

Gomer is very sexually promiscuous with other men throughout the marriage. She has 3 children with Hosea, one of which seems to be another man's child. The children have very odd and telling names that are in themselves prophecy of the Lord through Hosea.

At this very moment you are probably like why would God tell Hosea to marry a woman like that. It's because God was painting a picture of Israel that could be represented through Hosea's marriage.

Hosea saved Gomer from her life of sin via sexual immorality by marrying her. Yet she continued to be an adulterous and sexually immoral woman while married to Hosea. In the same way God had rescued Israel out Egypt and entered into a covenant agreement with them through the 10 Commandments, but Egypt kept sinning against God in the worse ways. They worshipped idols, they did not keep his commandments, they continuously looked to other nations and kingdoms to keep them protected and they attributed none of their worth to the Lord God of Israel. God likened it to an adulterous woman breaking the covenant of marriage. Not only that but breaking that covenant knowingly.

God used Hosea to prophesy to His people about his pain and sorrow for what would come.

One interesting thing I learned during this study is that Assyria was one of the nations that Israel had come to look to for safety and protection and that they would ultimately be their demise. Assyria would attack the nation and murder and plunder it's land. So the very thing that they had replaced their God with would be their ruin.

Is that a word? Is that not poetry in the alignment of God's story with man and his fall with sin.

The original sin, God tells Adam and Eve not to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil, yet they do it anyway. And that fruit, became their downfall. They would eat of that fruit because they wanted to know what God knows. They seemed to want to become like God. But what happens is they are banished from the protection of the Garden where they walked in fellowship with the all knowing and providing God. They would be left to work the land to yield food and sustenance for themselves. NO fruit or grains to simply pluck and eat.

So God tells Hosea to tell his people I do not know you and you do not know me. Just as a hurting husband would look at his bride who has committed adultery and not know who she is. Not understand how he could provide and love her and she still walks away and takes other lovers. Lovers who make her pay the price.

Israel knew that Assyria and Egypt were their enemy but offered them goods and trade in order to keep them at bay. They were trying to tame their enemy. But it was to no avail. An enemy is an enemy for a reason.

To his credit Hosea did everything God asked of him including going to pay the price to take his wife back after she had run away with one of her lovers. In Chapter 3 God somewhat alludes to Jesus. I see Jesus all over this, and this may be the most impactful chapter of the book besides the final chapter. In Chapter 3 of Hosea, God asked him to purchase his wife from her lovers. What readers can infer is that Hosea has to pay for his wife's freedom to someone similar to what we would call a pimp today. He brings her home and tells her she has to remain faithful as he would remain faithful to her.

I see the parallel of Christ redeeming our freedom from sin on the cross within this verse. That might be a stretch of the prophecy but when I read it, that just jumps out at me. That He would pay the price for her sin and take her back into his arms.

This is where the divorcing sin comes along. If you want to be in relation with God the Father and Jesus the Son, you have to divorce the ways of the world that are pulling you. You have to let them go. They bring nothing but trouble. Instead of God divorcing us for our iniquities, He continues to fight and pursue what is good for us. Even though a reader could open that book of the bible and read nothing but wrath, lodged within those words is the sorrow of the Lord. His love for his people makes him pain at the thought of having to come against them, having to punish them...discipline them. In his knowing that that's the only way they will submit to his will for Israel he pursues the justice behind his words.

God's word is truth. It can't be undone, because something that is true is a constant. This is part of the reason that God would not "divorce" Israel, because Israel is in a sacred covenant with him. He never turns from his word. As his words unravel through History we see the pursuit of prophecy catching up with what has already been said since the beginning. We see the prophecy of Hosea being fulfilled in Books that were written in the Bible hundreds of years later, we also see prophecy that is yet to come (but that's for another Blog).

In the final chapter of Hosea (14) God implores Israel to repent. Repentance can bring life. He even goes so far as to tell Israel what to say in their repentance (Hosea 14:2-3)

He's say once they repent that he will bring forth life to the land and to the people again. That he will heal their waywardness. In this series of metaphors and imagery God paints the picture of a restored Israel through their repentance.

Interestingly, repent simply means to turn away. So if they're turning away from sin, they're only other option is to turn toward righteousness. What is righteous? God is righteous. Turning away from sin turns them toward righteousness and life. So they are sick and dying and God is angry because they are choosing death over life that he is offering them. He ask them to turn away from it...divorce it...forget about it...

Divorcing sin is the only option.

Why?

Because it goes against the covenant that was set in the wilderness between Israel and God by way of the Ten Commandments.

Does Israel Divorce their sin (repent)?

Of course they do, but they sin again, and again, and again, and well you get the point. Israel is stuck in a cycle.

ENTER: Jesus Christ the Messiah who takes that sin and bares it all on the cross although he himself was blameless. You want to know what a hero looks like? Don't turn to those imaginary characters in made up universes, read about Jesus, the true living son of God.

Divorce your sin, because he bore it all for you to live. Sin is death. Let it go and live. Live and walk by faith. Live and honor God.

A Prayer:

Father God of Heaven,

I come to you praying for the person reading this who is struggling with sin. A sin that has them gripped so tightly. May they read the pages of Hosea and see something similar within themselves. A sin that was hard to grapple with, but God made a way to be freed from. May this reader know that you have provided an escape from sin. That if they really want to be free from it, they need only just to call on the name of Jesus and repent from their sin. May the reader struggling with sin who is also struggling to walk closer with you know that you're right their when they are really ready to submit to your will. To really let go of it all, and let God control. I pray for anyone reading this who wants to divorce their sin. May God open doors that leads to him and life.

In Jesus's mighty name I pray. Amen.