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Sermons

September 23, 2018

Spiritual Adultery & the Faithfulness of God

Steven Lee (North Campus) | Hosea 2:2-20

“Plead with your mother, plead—
    for she is not my wife,
    and I am not her husband—
that she put away her whoring from her face,
    and her adultery from between her breasts;
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.
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 wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
Therefore I will hedge up her 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 then than now.’
And she did not know
    that it was I who gave her
    the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and who lavished on her silver and gold,
    which they used for Baal.Hosea 2:2–8

“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 Achor 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.

“And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 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, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. 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. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.”Hosea 2:14–20

Introduction

Is it possible to overstate the seriousness of idolatry? We live in a world where idolatry is minimized, and forgiveness for self-centeredness is unnecessary. We don’t bow to statues and carvings, but we worship money, sex, power, fame, success, comfort, security, and control. The chief idol of our day has become the self. We want ourselves to the happy at any costs, and if you suggest otherwise, how dare you deny me my happiness. We have replaced God with ourselves, so that we are the standard by which we judge ourselves and others.

So is it possible to overstate the seriousness of idolatry? Answer: No. The book of Hosea shows us that idolatry is more serious and severe than we may think. The Bible tells us that idolatry—finding our joy in something or someone other than Jesus—is as heinous as committing adultery against one’s spouse.

We still instinctively believe that adultery is sinful, not only because it betrays a spouse, but because it attacks the intimate one flesh union reserved for marriage. In Hosea, God illustrates that idolatry is spiritual adultery.

Summary of Hosea

Hosea, a prophet of God, is told by God to marry an immoral woman and to have children with her. Then Hosea is to name them ominous names that foreshadow God’s judgment he will bring on the people of Israel. He names them Jezreel (a place of violence; like naming a child Hiroshima, 9/11, or Sandy Hook), No Mercy (because God “will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all”) and Not My People (because “you are not my people and I am not your God”).

The story of Hosea is a lived-out prophecy or prophetic “speech-act” where his life is a illustration to Israel of their moral corruption and idolatry.

Main Point: This book is about how God’s faithful love wins back his wayward people. Hosea strikes a somber note of warning for spiritual adultery so that we feel the offense of spiritual adultery against God, and shows us how God woos back his wayward people with his faithful and long-suffering love.

Hosea breaks down as follows: Chapters 1–3 are about Hosea’s marriage to Gomer, and 4–14 are prophetic judgments and promises of redemption. This morning I want to look at two main sections:

  • Spiritual adultery and judgment (vv. 2–8)
  • Faithful, wooing love of God (vv. 14–20) 

Section 1: Spiritual Adultery & Judgment (Hosea 2:2–8) 

What are the results of spiritual adultery?

  • A broken relationship with God (vv. 2–3)
  • Judgment and punishment (vv. 4–5)
  • Divine discipline (vv. 6–8)

A Broken Relationship (Hosea 2:2)

“Plead with your mother, plead—for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband—that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts.”

To understand this living prophecy, we first need to understand the characters. Hosea represents God. Gomer represents the nation of Israel, and their children represent the people of Israel. So here we have a call to the children (e.g., people of Israel) to reject their mother’s idolatry (their nation) lest they become like her.

God is issues the judgment “she is not my wife” and “I am not her husband.” God disassociates himself from Israel. The covenant is broken between God and Israel because of their sin. The language used—not my wife, not her husband—is divorce-like language, and God has every right as the innocent party.

In the second half of verse 2, this suggests the putting off of cosmetics, jewelry, or trinkets that characterized cultic temple prostitutes or a promiscuous woman in that time. The message is that Israel is to abandon their former ways of idolatry.

“… 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.”—Hosea 2:3

God is promising judgment, shame, and humiliation for their idolatry. Israel will be humiliated through being abandoned to foreign nations that will dominate them.

Judgment & Punishment (Hosea 2:4–5)

“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 wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’” 

Why will God have no mercy upon Israel and their descendants? Because they have gone after other lovers. This is at the heart of Israel’s sin: idolatry. Israel has prostituted themselves before Baal and neighboring nations like Assyria and Egypt rather than trust in the Lord their God. The language is that of God disowning his people: “They are children of whoredom.” They do not know who God is anymore and have no right to call upon him.

Israel has gone after Baal, the god of fertility, in order to obtain blessing, much like an adulterous or promiscuous woman has gone after other lovers and sought out material prosperity. The leaders of Israel are like a wayward wife—rebellious and fully embracing their shameful ways. They trust in other lovers for their needs.

It should be obvious, but I should make this explicit. Hosea is not mainly about how women are more prone to adultery, idolatry, or unfaithfulness. Not at all. Hosea is a living illustration to show that we—God’s chosen people—are the ones who are prone towards spiritual adultery. This isn’t a gender-specific accusation—this is universal warning to everyone.

Divine Discipline (Hosea 2:6–7)

“Therefore I will hedge up her 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 then than now.’”

Yet even in this section of judgment for spiritual adultery, God shows gracious discipline to his wayward people. I “hedge up her way” and “build a wall” so that she cannot go astray. This is gracious discipline. I will prevent her from going astray so that she will come back to me. This is more than just judgment, but it is grace. God is going cause Israel’s pursuit of idolatry to be fruitless so that they will turn back to him. 

“And she did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal.”—Hosea 2:8

God says “I gave you all those good things!” Grain that you used to fill your stomach? I gave it to you! And you praised Baal. Wine that you drank heartily? I gave it to you and you praised Baal. Baal was the god of fertility—so they attributed good harvests and plenty as coming from Baal and not God.

Verse 8 is the one of the clearest pictures we have of idolatry. We don’t just take something else and value it more than God, but we take the very gifts of God and worship them and attribute them to someone else.

This is like a husband, while away on a business trip, who sends his wife an envelope. Inside the envelope is $300 and a note that reads “Go get something nice for yourself just because. Love you.” So the wife takes the money and gets a manicure, a pedicure, some new earrings, and a new outfit. And instead of waiting for her husband to return she goes to another lover—using her husband’s gifts—to give herself over to this other lover.

What are the results of spiritual adultery?

  • A broken relationship with God (vv. 2–3)
  • Judgment and punishment (vv. 4–5)
  • Discipline (vv. 6–8)

Application

This warning is to awaken us to the idolatry that can lie dormant in our own hearts. Here a few questions (from David Powlison’s “31 X-Ray Questions” found in How People Change) that unearth idolatrous hearts that are prone to go astray: 

  1. Where do you find refuge, safety, comfort, and escape?
  2. What do you trust? Do you functionally rest in the Lord?
  3. Whose performance matters to you?
  4. Whom must you please? Whose opinion counts? From whom do you desire approval or fear rejection?
  5. What do you desperately hope will last in your life? What can't you live without?
  6. How do you define success or failure in any particular situation?
  7. What makes you feel rich, secure, and prosperous?
  8. What do you really want out of life?
  9. In what do you place your trust or set your hopes? What do you consistently turn to or regularly seek?
  10. When do you say, "If only..."?

Idolatry is serious and deadly, but subtle like carbon monoxide—scentless, invisible, and nearly undetectable—that will kill you. Hosea calls us to beware the idolatry of our hearts.

Section 2: Faithful, Wooing Love of God (Hosea 2:14–20)

Now we turn our attention to God’s tender wooing back of his wayward wife. God’s judgment and anger is not prolonged, but relents, and God’s faithfulness and steadfast love can’t help but overcome his punishment.

What are the results of God’s faithful, wooing love?

  • Tenderness and hope (vv. 14–15)
  • Covenant reestablished (vv. 16–18)
  • Divine love in action (vv. 19–20)

Tenderness & Hope (Hosea 2:14–15)

“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 Achor 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.”  

Earlier in 2:3 God issued the judgment that “I will make her a wilderness,” but now he will allure her and bring her into the wilderness. The wilderness signifies a place of punishment (40 years of wilderness wandering), but also a place of encountering God, and a place where they had childlike dependence on God. God is calling Israel back to trust and depend on him. 

The Valley of Achor (or Valley of Trouble) is found in Joshua 7. It is the story of Israel, at the cusp of the Promised Land, where Achan is stoned and burned by all the people for taking some devoted things and disobeyed God. The point is that God is going to make the place of judgment and disobedience a door of hope.

Covenant Reestablished

“And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more.”—Hosea 2:16–17

The Hebrew word for “My Baal” is also “my master, derived from the same root word, and could mean “lord” or “husband.” So referring to one’s husband could sound like Baal. This syncretism—merging different religions and beliefs—was rampant in Hosea’s day.

The point here is that repentant Israel would refrain from even using a more neutral term so as to not recall their former idolatry. God promises he will remove the names of false gods from Israel’s mouth—meaning that they will be so devoted to God that they won’t say their names or remember them any longer. 

“And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety.”—Hosea 2:18

God will give them peace and safety from nature (e.g., beasts and birds) and from war and battle (e.g., abolish the bow, sword). Instead of being out in the wilderness, exposed to the danger of wild animals, the covenant pictures a people that lies down in safety. With God’s protection, Israel is protected from wild beasts and hostile nations surrounding them. 

Divine Love in Action

“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. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD.”—Hosea 2:19–20

God is going to reestablish his relationship with Israel. Where Israel severed her relationship because of unfaithfulness, and God comes back and says, “I will betroth you to me forever.” God will betroth Israel in “righteousness, justice, steadfast love, mercy and faithfulness.” These are wedding vows that God is renewing towards his people Israel. After declaring “not my wife” and “not her husband,” God comes back to declare the terms of this new covenant: righteousness and justice, steadfast love and mercy, and faithfulness.

There is also an allusion to payment of a bridal gifts or bride price. God gives righteousness, justice, steadfast love, mercy, and faithfulness in order to obtain his bride, and to guarantee the success of this unbreakable union. And the stunning reality that we know from the rest of the Bible is that God gives us people his righteousness so that they can enter into covenant with him.

Notice in this section God’s divine love in action. He is the decisive change agent in this marriage (vv. 14–20).

  • I will allure her
  • I will bring her into the wilderness
  • I will speak tenderly to her
  • I will give her vineyards
  • I will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope
  • I will remove the Baals from her mouth
  • I will make for them a covenant
  • I will abolish the bow
  • I will make you lie down in safety
  • I will betroth you to me forever
  • I will betroth you to me in righteousness, justice, steadfast love, and mercy
  • I will betroth you to me in faithfulness

God takes the prerogative to pour out his faithful love to transform his people, to what end? So that they should know the Lord. God pours out love so that his people would again return, and know God. That is the fundamental antidote to our idolatry and spiritual adultery, to know God in all of his glory, to know his love, to know his holiness, and to know his patience with you to woo you back to himself. 

Application

We already looked at the warning to guard ourselves from spiritual adultery and idolatry. But the way we do that is to find our joy, delight, and our satisfaction in God. Behold the wondrous love of God that forgives. He brings back his adulterous spouse—not to lord it over her, not to make her pay, not to shame her with guilt—but to lavish undeserved love upon her. This is what God does for you. We are Gomer in this story. We are the adulterous people, the wandering, and the idolatrous that are so easily led astray. And God—in his great love—has redeemed us out of the pit of destruction to pour out love. He gives us his righteousness, pours out his justice upon his Son Jesus, extends to us steadfast love and mercy, and commits himself with everlasting faithfulness.

If you don’t know Jesus this morning, he is calling you with my voice to come. Stop trying to satisfy your longings with idols. Your money, sex, drugs, success, power, and fame will disappoint. They are lousy lovers that will leave you destitute and disappointed. After the money runs out, so will your joy. After the climax of sex, you’re left feeling unclean. After obtaining success, you’ll feel just as empty. After obtaining power, you will see you’re powerless to get happiness. After the fame dries up, you will be alone. Only Jesus can satisfy our deepest and greatest longings. O that you would come to him this morning. Don’t delay; the hour of salvation is now!

For those in hard marriages, you don’t have God-like power to do all the “I will” statements to transform your spouse. You can’t hedge them in and bring them back with divine power. You are not final hope for your marriage. But we also need to be reminded, adultery does not need to be the final word in a marriage. Pornography does not need to the final straw. Even abuse, hard-heartedness, and great unfaithfulness does not need to be the final word in a marriage.

When two sinners humble themselves before God—both with empty hands, both as guilty parties, both as sinners who have contributed to a broken marriage—and seek to cleave to the faithful love of God revealed in Christ, there can be hope for every hopeless and hard marriage. 

As we look at the nuances of divorce, our orientation ought not to be “do I have an out of this marriage?” Instead we are to see the stunning display of the love of God to rectify even the most broken of relationships, because God did it when he saved you and me. Don’t look for your way out, but be on the look out for God.

What man calls irreparably broken can be gloriously fixed by the Handyman of Heaven. God salvages what appears hopeless and makes it brand new. The ashes of a marriage—without any smoking ember—God can birth beauty out of the ruins. But only with both spouses recognize they are Gomer, and they desperately need the cleansing and redeeming love of God to fix all that is broken. Oh let us come and know the Lord our God and experience the depth of his love. 

Closing

The miracle of the gospel is that God did everything to make his church—comprised of spiritual adulterers—a pure and spotless bride. Hear the words of Revelation 19:6–8.

“Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure.”

God reestablishes his covenant with his people: Hear how Jeremiah describes this new covenant:

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”—Jeremiah 31:31–34

An adulterous people has become—through cleansing and purifying work of Jesus—a pure and spotless bride. And as those who have been rescued, let us glory in our Redeemer, who crushed the power of sin and death, our only Savior before the holy Judge, the Lamb who is our righteousness.