Forgotten, but Faithful - Hosea 2-3

1:46The scriptures are where we can turn to be trained, where we can turn to grow and learn and be made more like the Lord. And so we turn again to Hosea. Let's pray before we begin. Father, we pray that you'd help us study this Old Testament book. We pray that you'd help us understand your character. Help us understand your relentless and pursuing love for your people. Help us understand and grow. In Jesus' name, amen. Last week we started this book, and we started by looking at a place called Jezreel. And I decided to bring some real maps for you guys this time. So I'm going to put some maps up just so we can get an idea of what's going on at this time. We looked at some of the history, but first, all right, here's a map. Can you guys see that? All right, this is a, I'm going to zoom in. Don't worry. This is a map of the whole Assyrian Empire. And so you can see kind of in the bottom left-hand corner, that's the top of Africa. So there's Egypt down there.

2:58And then up towards the top, It says the Assyrian Empire, and it covered that whole kind of bubble of land, including tiny little Israel and Judah over on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Okay, and so zooming in on tiny little Israel and Judah. Israel and Judah used to be one nation under King Saul and King David and King Solomon, but then after that they split into the northern and southern kingdoms. In Amos, we looked a lot at two places called Bethel and Gilgal. You can see Bethel circled. I know it's very tiny, but you can see Bethel circled there at the very bottom of the northern kingdom.

3:40And then, if you look closer, and we're going to zoom in on the northern kingdom, see all of you squinting as hard as you can. If you're in the very back, there's also a map on the screen if you want to cheat and look behind you. But we're zooming in a little on the northern kingdom, so we're getting closer and closer, okay? And Bethel is there, circled still down at the bottom. And up, ignore the arrows, except that at the very top of those arrows, you can see the Jezreel Valley. It was this big plain, this big fertile area, and so therefore it's a place of a lot of battles, and that's what we were talking about last week. And towards the southern side of that Jezreel Valley, there's actually a city named Jezreel, and that's where Jezebel died, like we looked at last week. Okay, so Jezreel, remember, means God will sow, like, sow a seed. God will sow, scatter the seed. And I was also one of the names. Here's another picture of Jezreel, by the way. This is just a satellite map. I don't know if you guys can see that at all. But it shows that the Jezreel Valley is that green part. Everything around it's kind of craggly and mountainy in the northern kingdom. But then you just have this big, kind of arrowhead-shaped, giant, luscious valley. That's the Jezreel Valley. Okay?

4:58So, Jezreel. Last week, we looked in Hosea 1 about how first God told Hosea to go and get a wife of whoredom, to go and find a wife who was probably previously a prostitute or something like that, and to go and marry her because that's the same thing the Lord did with Israel when he made Israel his chosen bride, his chosen people. But then, chapter 1 moved on from that. I just mentioned that, and then what it moved on to were the three children that Hosea would have with Gomer, this woman. The three children were named Jezreel, no mercy, and not my people. Those are the names of the three children. And God told Hosea to name his children that because there was a specific prophecy that was tied to each one. And so the first child was named Jezreel because he's returning the blood of Jehu, like we looked at last week, on the kingdom. Of Israel, but also that that kingdom of Israel would be defeated in that valley of Jezreel, that green valley that we looked at. Okay, so that was the first prophecy. The second one is, the second child was a girl, I believe, and her name was no mercy. No mercy.

6:19Because the Lord would no longer have mercy on the northern kingdom of Israel. Because after they split into the southern kingdom and the northern kingdom, Israel, the northern kingdom, was pretty much perpetually wicked. They chased after all of these idols, and the Lord had been patient with them. He had even blessed them in spite of their wickedness. But now he's saying there's coming a time very soon, this is around 760 BC, there's coming a time very soon where this northern kingdom is going to be totally wiped out. Not just defeated a little bit, not just enslaved, but totally wiped out, gone, out of the land, overtaken by the Assyrian Empire. And of course, that happens 40 years later in 722 BC.

7:05So the Lord is not extending this mercy anymore. So he says, name your second child, no mercy. And then the third child, he says, name this child, not my people, because he's saying to the people of Israel who were his chosen people, he's saying, you right now are not my people. I am sending you away. You're away from this land. You are not my people. Okay, well, we're going to see. Today, how he's going to turn all of those names around again when he restores the nation of Israel. At the end of Amos, which we finished a few weeks ago, at the very end, he uprooted them from the land. It was around the same time. He said, I'm about to uproot you from the land, but there's going to be a day where I bring you back and plant you there forever. Uprooted for now, but planted forever. And we're going to see that same pattern over and over and over. We saw it last week. We saw it last week where God said, You know, I'm sending you away. You're not my people. No more mercy. You're done. You're out of this land. And yet, Hosea 1, verse 10, yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, you are not my people, it shall be said to them, children of the living God. And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head, and they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel. Okay, so he's saying, I'm going to gather you here. It's going to be the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. You're all going to be gathered here. Yes, there's no mercy right now, but there's going to be a day where I am going to have mercy on you again. Okay?

8:51We're all on the same page. All right. Hosea chapter 2. We're going to start in verse 2. The prophet says, plead with your mother, plead, or rebuke your mother, rebuke. For most of chapter two, he seems to be extending now, going back to this parable, this illustration of the fact that Hosea went and got a wife of prostitution. And he's saying that Israel is just like that. The Lord did that. And then Israel, rather than then being faithful to the Lord, Israel was unfaithful. And so in chapter two, it's a little confusing, but I think what's going on is that he's saying, plead with your mother. And the mother is the nation of Israel. And the children are individuals in Israel. Right? So get that in your head for just a second. The mother is the nation of Israel. The children are individuals in Israel. So verse 2 again: rebuke your mother, rebuke, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. That same language. She's not mine anymore.

10:11Rebuke. That she has put away her whoring from her face. That she put away her whoring from her face and her adultery from between her breasts. So he's saying this northern kingdom of Israel has played the harlot. Maybe she's got makeup or something or jewelry. Rion that's signifying her adultery, like a prostitute might in this day. And God is saying, tell the northern kingdom, tell your mother, tell this northern kingdom to put away the prostitution. They have played the harlot. Verse 3, lest I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst. So again, you get the picture that just like a husband might, when his wife plays, or when his wife is a prostitute, he might put her away, or in these times, they would publicly shame the woman who played the prostitute by stripping her in public and letting all the guys that she was with let them see her. God is saying, that's what I'm going to do to you, Israel. I'm going to strip you of all of your goods, and you're going to get out of this land. Make her like a wilderness, make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst. That's what the Lord is going to do to the northern kingdom. Verse 4. Upon her children also, I will have no mercy, because they are children of whoredom. For their mother has played the whore. She who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wood. Wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.

12:07Israel, even though God had put them in the land and blessed them so much and told them, Don't you forget what the Lord has done for you, like we read earlier. Don't forget. They have forgotten. And they've gone after these other lovers, and we're going to learn all about them in just a minute. And said that those lovers are the ones that give Israel, this northern kingdom, all of these things. Okay? Does anybody know what flax is?

12:38What do you make out of flax? James? Yeah, you make clothes. It's what we make linen out of. So, wool, so he says, I will go after my lovers who give me bread and water, so food and drink, right? Being provided for, who give me my wool and my flax, so you're to make your wool garments and your linen garments, my oil and my drink. All of these things, the northern kingdom is saying that her lovers are giving those things instead of the Lord.

13:13Okay? So what is the Lord going to do? He's going to kick them out of the land out of punishment, but also out of loving discipline. So look at verse 6. Therefore, I will hedge up her way with thorns. I will hedge up your way with thorns. And I will build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths. She shall pursue her lovers, but not overtake them. And she shall seek them, but shall not find them. Then she shall say, I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me than now. It was better for me then than now. Okay, so what the Lord is saying is, he's about to just, okay, back to the picture again, like a husband who had an unfaithful wife who put her away or something like that. Just like a man might want to block the way for her to get to her lovers or something to get to her vices. The Lord is saying, that's what I'm going to do to my people. Yes, I'm kicking them out of the land, but there's another purpose here. I'm putting up a hedge of thorns to keep her in, to keep her from going to her lovers. She shall pursue her lovers, but shall not overtake them. She shall seek them, but shall not find them. And so, when Israel, after they're wiped out and kicked out of their land, scattered, they're not going to be able to find their lovers.

14:56There are other gods that they're worshiping, the other nations that they're. turning to instead of the Lord. It's like there's a hedge of thorns. It's like God has blocked their way. It's actually a gracious thing, right? Because then she shall say, I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now. She left the Lord. God's people left the Lord for these other gods. And God was very clear that if Israel did that, they would be kicked out of the land. Well, God's saying, that's about to happen. No more mercy. You're about to be kicked out of the land. And when you do, you're going to realize, I should have never gone after those other gods. I should have never gone after those other idols. I should have just stayed faithful to the Lord this whole time.

15:50It was better for me then than now. And she's going to return someday to her husband. And so we have that same pattern again, uprooted for now, but someday replanted forever. This idea of, yes, Israel is going to be gone. But the Lord's going to use that. And someday Israel is going to see and return to the Lord. Right? Now look at verse 8. And she did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, who lavished on her silver and gold, which they used.

16:30For Baal, or we usually say Baal in English. So God is saying, I gave my people all of these things. I lavished. I was the one. The Lord was the one who provided for them in this promised land. God said, I gave her the grain. I gave her the wine. I gave her the oil. I lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal. You see what happened? You see that same picture again of the prostitute who had a faithful husband who heaped onto her riches.

17:09And she was able to adorn herself and then go use that for another husband or for another man. It's the same thing Israel has done. God had provided for them, and yet they used what God provided and sacrificed it to Baal, used it to worship Baal. You could really see the picture now, right? You could see why God turned to this picture, why God spoke to Hosea and said, Do this, because this is what the people of Israel have done. They've played the harlot. Verse 9, therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season, and I will take away my wool and my flax, which were to cover her nakedness. Now I will uncover her lewdness. That's the same picture we saw earlier. I will. Uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her out of my hand. I will put an end to all her mirth, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her appointed feasts. I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, These are my wages, which my lovers have given me. I will make them a forest, and the beast of the field shall devour them. So he's saying, If they're going to pretend like this is all from these other gods or these other nations, then I'm going to take them from them. And these luscious vines that I gave them, but they're saying Baal gave them, and they're using to worship Baal.

18:45If they're going to do that with those vineyards and luscious crops, then God is going to turn it into an unkept forest. It's not going to produce anymore. There's going to be beasts there. Verse 13, I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals, when she turned offerings, when she burned offerings to them, and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry, and went after her lovers and forgot me, declares the Lord. That's why Israel is being punished. Israel was made rich by the Lord, was provided for by the Lord, and then this rich nation turned around and used that to worship another God.

19:30Like an adulterer might put on rings and jewelries and then jewelry and go after other lovers and forget their husband. That's what Israel has done to the Lord. They've forgotten the Lord. We read in Deuteronomy chapter 8 at the beginning of tonight's service that God repeated over and over and over: Do not forget, do not forget. Remember what the Lord has done. Do not forget. And yet, this northern kingdom has completely forgotten the Lord. They forgot me, declares the Lord.

20:13But again, look what he says in verse 14. Therefore, behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards, and make the valley of Acor a door of hope. And there she shall answer, as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. So again, Israel has been hideously wicked and chased after the idols in the land, but the Lord said that even though all of that is true, and even though that means they're getting kicked out of their land, there's going to be a day where the Lord pursues Israel again like a lover.

21:00I will allure her. I will bring her into the wilderness. I will speak tenderly to her. God is going to have love towards her again, redeeming love towards Israel again. There I will give her her vineyard. He's going to give back these luscious vineyards. I will make the valley of Acor a door of hope. The valley of Acor. Does anybody remember where we hear about that in Scripture? It's in Joshua chapter 7. The valley of Acor is the valley of treble. That's what it means. And it was the place where, after they defeated Jericho and the people of God were feeling invincible because the Lord was on their side, they went and tried to capture AI or Ai, spelled AI.

21:50So they went to try and capture it, and they were defeated. And Joshua is just despairing. He can't believe they were defeated. And God says, get up. It's not because God was defeated. It's because somebody was lying. God had told them not to take any plunder from Jericho. And yet somebody did. And they weren't coming forward and admitting it. And so they cast lots. Do you remember this story? They cast lots to find out exactly who it was that took this stuff. And the lot, God guided the lot to first land on the tribe of Judah. And then it landed on one of the clans in Jerusalem. Judah, and then it landed on one of the heads of household in Judah, and then it landed on a man.

22:40And that man had taken a cloak that he liked, and I think some silver and some gold, and he hid it from the people, and he lied to them. And that man was killed in the valley of Acor, the valley of trouble. And so it's a place that reminds Israel of disobedience, I think. It's a place that reminds them of trouble. And God is saying, I am going to make the valley of Acor a door of hope.

23:07When you're restored, Israel. Yes, you're being put away now, but when you're restored, there's going to be this hope. I'm going to speak tenderly to you. And there she shall answer, as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. So they're going to be restored with the blessings that the Lord had given them, but they're also going to be restored in that they remember the Lord. They're not going to go back to Baal. They're not going to go back to these other gods. Okay?

23:40Let's keep going. Verse 16. In that day, declares the Lord, you will call me my husband, and no longer will you call me my Baal. How offensive is that? He's saying, in that day, you'll call me my husband again. Verse 17, for I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth. And they shall be remembered by name no more. And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow and the sword and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. I think he's talking about when Israel is restored and all of those blessings that we see elsewhere in Scripture about the animals and the peacetime and things like that. I think God's saying, I'm going to make a covenant with the land that they're going to provide for you with the animals and the creeping things. There's not going to be any war. They're going to be safe back. Verse 19, and I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy.

24:54I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord. So, right now, in their history, they have forgotten the Lord. But when the Lord restores them, they're going to know the Lord. And I think that's the purpose of this whole thing: that God, yes, God beforehand said, if you stop following me, if you forget me, I'm going to wipe you out. I'm going to get you out of the land. But now the big surprise is, even though the Lord has done that, he's saying, but someday. I'm going to restore you.

25:34Someday you'll be my spouse again in righteousness and in justice. She's not going to be a harlot anymore. She's going to be righteous. She's not going to be unjust anymore. She's going to be just. There's going to be steadfast love and mercy towards Israel. There's going to be faithfulness. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord. It's going to be a faithful union again. Verse 21. And in that day, I will answer, declares the Lord. I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth, and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel.

26:18What's going on there? It seems like he's implying some kind of thing where the people have called out for more oil or something. And figuratively, the oil has called out for more olives or more grain. And so the grain and olive plants have called out to the earth to produce more. And the earth has called out to the rain. And the rain has called out to the sky. You see the pattern? And so God is saying, there's coming a day where I'm finally going to answer. I'm going to answer, declares the Lord. I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth, and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel.

26:59They shall answer. Answer, God will sow. Verse 23, and I will sow her for myself in the land. 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. So I think in a context, what he's saying is, is yes, Israel is wiped out. He said, no mercy. He said, not my people. But God is saying, someday, when I bring them back, I am going to have mercy. I am going to call them my people. I am going to sow them in the land. And they are going to say, you are my God. This full restoration.

27:51We're going to do chapter 3, too, but chapter 3 is short. So look at chapter 3, verse 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. The last part's kind of a surprise, right? It seems like the cakes of raisins were used maybe in some of the idol worship as part of the ceremony or something like that, or it might have been an aphrodisiac or something like that. So he's saying, Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress. So it seems like, kind of reading between the lines, it seems like after Gomer had the three children with Hosea, that maybe years later, maybe right after, we don't know, it seems like she left and became an adulteress again, and maybe even got put into slavery because of that. Okay, so God says, go and love a woman who's 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. So he's saying, just like I love Israel, even though they have loved other gods, I want you to go and marry this woman who's become an adulteress. Verse 2. So, this is Hosea speaking. So, I bought her for 15 shekels of silver and a homer and a lethic of barley. And so, he actually went and paid a price for Gomer, if we're filling in the blanks here, that she maybe had, as a prostitute, then got sold into slavery. And so, Hosea had to go buy her with money, had to go buy her so that she could come back and live with him.

29:45Verse 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. You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore or belong to any man. So will I also be to you. For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods.

30:21So he says to Gomer, after he buys her out of that slave market, you need to come and live, and you're not going to have relations with anyone. And it seems to be including Hosea himself. You're going to come and live and not have relations with any man. And what that's symbolizing is that God, as he sends Israel away, Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. So for a long time, Israel is going to be scattered. They're not going to have a king.

31:02They're not going to have the places of worship for idols or for the Lord. They're not going to have any of these things. They're going to be gone. Afterward, verse 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 or in the last days. So he says that just like Hosea goes and buys Gomer back to come and live in his house, not have relations with anybody for many days, God is saying, that's what I'm going to do for Israel. Yes, they've been unfaithful. Yes, I'm kicking them out of the land, and they're going to dwell for a long, long time with no king, no priests, none of that.

31:56But someday afterward, in the last days, I'm going to bring Israel back. The children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king, and they shall come and fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days. They're going to come and actually seek the Lord. They're going to have a heart that seeks the Lord and David their king. Most Christians take that as a reference to the Messiah, the new David or something, or at least the Davidic line, or even a resurrected David himself. But they're going to seek this king in the last days. They're going to seek the Lord in his last days, and they're going to be restored.

32:43So, did you see the pattern I was talking about? At the end of Amos, he says, and this is, remember, Amos is a contemporary of Hosea, and he's got the same message to Israel: that I'm kicking you out, I'm uprooting you from this land, but I'm going to replant you. Forever. I'm going to restore you someday. Well, we saw in chapter one in Hosea that God is saying, Yes, right now I am having no more mercy on you. You're not my people right now. But there is going to be a day where you're gathered back again and you're restored. And now in chapter two of Hosea, he says, Rebuke your mother.

33:23She has gone after all of these idols. She has pretended like these Baals are the ones that are providing for her. Baal was a Phoenician God. Have you guys heard this story before? He was a Phoenician God, and there's all this mythology surrounding him. He apparently defeated the God of the sea. And so, and he was responsible for bringing rain onto the land so that the land was fertile. And so that, and then he was also the God of fertility because of that. And so, when the northern kingdom of Israel looked at this, and remember, Ahab and Jezebel, Jezebel tried to stamp out the worship of the true God because she wanted everybody to worship Baal. And in the stories that we read about, we see that Elijah is like the anti-Baal. He's the one that the Lord is using to show, you know, you think Baal is in charge of the rain. Well, I'm going to turn the rain off for a few years. And then when Elijah says it's coming back, it's going to come back.

34:30You think Baal is the God who's in charge of thunder? Well, let's have a competition. Let's set up two altars, and I'll send lightning down the mine and set it on fire. You think Baal is the God of crops and fertility? Well, Elijah is going to give the word, and I'm going to cause a drought that's not going to end until I say so. Baal is resoundingly defeated. This is about 100 years before Hosea's time. And yet, they've returned to that 100 years later. They've returned to that other husband.

35:08And the Lord says, no more mercy. But he's doing this to set a hedge between Israel and her lovers. Because when Israel is scattered, they're going to realize, well, I had it better all along when I worshiped the Lord. They're going to realize when God allows them to come back and be restored, that the Lord is the faithful one, and they're going to be faithful to him. They're not even going to remember the names of Baal anymore.

35:39God is going to speak tenderly to Israel, restore her to a time when it was like when she first came out of Egypt and she worshiped the Lord alone. God will buy Israel back, restore her, and bring her back and forgive her. Give her. That is the story of Hosea and Gomer. Now, that story, Hosea and Gomer, is usually all we think of when we think of the book of Hosea. And it kind of ends in chapter 3. And Hosea is going to keep going. And we have a lot more prophecy in the book of Hosea.

36:21But this story is such an amazing story, right? Because it teaches us so much about the Lord. God says to Hosea, you go and get this wife, and it's going to be a picture of my relations with Israel, that though they are unfaithful, though they are prostituting towards these other idols, though they have forsaken the Lord, God is saying, I'm still going to be faithful. Though they've forgotten me, I'm still going to be faithful to them. And though I'm wiping them out just like I said I would and scattering them all over the earth, I'm going to restore them someday.

37:00I think if we look at Israel's sin, by way of application, if we look at Israel's sins, what were their sins at the root of it? You know, I think Israel is betraying the Lord. You know, there's this relationship that they have betrayed and gone after someone else, something fake. There is misplaced gratitude. Israel has pretended. Like these fake gods are the ones that gave them what they needed, their food and their drink and their clothing.

37:38When it was really God, they weren't thankful. And one author said they also had spiritual amnesia, right? They forgot. Just like God said not to do over and over and over in Deuteronomy 8, he said, Don't forget, don't forget, this was me. Lest you get in the land when I bless you with all these riches, and you say, This was my hand that did all this, and you forget the Lord. God is saying, Don't forget, don't forget, and they forgot. So I think if we're applying this by avoiding Israel's sin, then I think we need to remember not to forget all that the Lord has done for us.

38:17You know, maybe that could look like as we interact with people in the world and we see people of questionable character or something like that, and all of a sudden we get puffed up in our heart and we think, you know, we're good and they are not. Something like that. That's totally opposite of all the ideas we studied in Romans this morning, right? We are not good. That's the point. We've been granted this righteousness. How can we forget? We can't forget. We need to remember the Lord. We need to remember what He's given us. He's provided everything for our whole life. He's the one we should be giving thanks to. Okay, not the government, not fake God, certainly not. Not our own hands. It's the Lord who's given us everything we need in life, in our physical life, but also for salvation.

39:14As we consider this passage about what it teaches us about the Lord's love for his people, I think it should astound us, just as it would astound you if you saw Hosea. I mean, picture this: a guy who everybody sees what his wife has done. People know she's descended so far to be in the slave market. People see her and say, Wasn't that Hosea's wife? And yet, Hosea goes and redeems her, buys her out of that, loves the unlovable, forgives her, restores her. You know, how astounding is that picture? And God is saying, That's what I'm doing to Israel. They have become unlovable as they worship all these idols. And yet, God is saying, I'm not going to stop loving them.

40:15One author said, I like this because it was all ours. In chapter three, we see God's relentless love, God's redeeming love, God's restricting love, and God's restoring love. So, We see his relentless love in verse 1. That even though Israel has acted so wickedly, God is relentless in his love. He's not going to give up. He's going to go out and find Israel and restore her. God has redeeming love. He's going to go and pay the price for her.

40:51God pays the price for his people. Restricting love, God disciplines his people and keeps them away from the sins of betrayal, keeps them away from the places where they shouldn't be going. God's discipline and God's restoring love, that just like God restores Israel, that's part of his character. He restores, he forgives. As we close, I want you to turn to Romans chapter 5. This is one of my favorite passages because it just reminds me to have hope in the Lord. That this is his character. He is the same God that relentlessly pursued his people in the Old Testament. That even when they were at the height of wickedness, didn't say, you're going to be abandoned forever. You're going to be replaced with a different people of God. Even at the height of wickedness, he said, yes, you're going away for a very long time, but someday I'm going to restore you.

42:09That same God, Romans 5, verse 6. For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

42:58Now, I love that passage because it makes such a clear case that we have nothing to fear. Because while we were still enemies, while we still hated God, God took the first step to die on our behalf. God took the first step to send Christ so that we could be justified by his blood. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And so now that that's true, now we certainly have nothing to fear. Because if while we were still enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. If he's already done the hard part of turning us from enemies into his friend, now certainly he's not going to abandon us and stop being faithful to us. He's already shown us that he has this character forever, that he is the one who relentlessly pursues the unlovable and redeems them, reconciles them to himself, and then is faithful to them forever. That's God's character. We see it displayed in his relationship with Israel, and we see it displayed in his relationship to us, that we're the unlovable ones who have been pursued, reconciled to God, and will be saved forever.

44:20We can depend on the Lord's faithfulness. One more note to Gentiles, which all of us are, as far as I know. I think that Romans 11, if we're putting this into a New Testament picture, I think that Romans chapter 9 applies that same idea that God takes people who are not his people and makes them into his people. Romans 9 and Peter, in two different places, they quote the passage that we studied in Hosea today. They quote it and say, you see, God takes the people. Takes people that aren't his people and makes them his people. And that's what God has done for us. We weren't God's people and he made us his people. But then in Romans 11, Paul cautions believers and says that even though that's true, even though that right now Israel has been pushed out and we have been brought in, and we have been, that we who are not God's people have been brought in and made God's people, that that shouldn't be a source of arrogance to us because someday, and I think he's echoing these same prophecies from Hosea and Amos, someday the Lord is going to restore them. He's consigned all to disobedience that he might have mercy on all. And so as Gentiles, we're not going to say, ah, yeah, wicked Jews, and be arrogant towards them and say, we are God's people now.

45:55Instead, Paul says, have a humble attitude. They're going to be grafted back in, and we'll rejoice in that day. But right now, they're out. But until then, we can trust that the Lord will be faithful to them, that he hasn't forgotten them, and that he will restore them. So let's pray. Father, we're grateful that you're a God who relentlessly loves even the unlovable. You're a God who has redeeming love that pays the price. Like Hosea did, that pays the price so that we can be restored in our relationship to you.

46:39We thank you, God, that you're a God who has this reconciling love towards us personally. That even while we were enemies and unlovable, you paid the price so that we could be reconciled to you. Help us, Father, to marvel at that love, that astounding, amazing, relentless love, love beyond degree. Help us marvel and help us rest in that, knowing that if we've already been reconciled, if when we were enemies, unlovable, you still chose to love us and reconcile us to yourself, then we can rest, knowing that you'll be faithful forever.

47:34We don't need to worry because we know we're forgiven, because we've trusted in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. So, Father, we thank you for your great love towards Israel. We thank you for your great love towards us. Help us copy you and love others. Help us tell others about your great love. Love and help us rest knowing that you are always the faithful husband. In Jesus' name, amen.