Plead With Your Mother (Hosea 2:2-13)
We come to another abrupt transition (cf. 1:10). Promise of reversal of children’s
names returns to the theme of an unfaithful wife. But is this section referring to
Gomer or Israel? We have anticipated the analogy, but now Hosea makes it
explicit that he is speaking to an unfaithful Israel.
Pray and Read Hosea 2:2-13 .
In Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë provides us with a picture of obsessive
idolatry. She graphically depicts sin’s inability to provide what we ultimately
seek.
As Heathcliff is dying he confesses, “My soul’s bliss kills my body, but does not
satisfy itself.”
He stopped eating and sleeping because he thought death would reunite him
with Catherine, his long lost love. Sin promises to satisfy our desires, but it only
leads to our destruction.
We repeatedly pursue idols that are incapable of satisfying our deepest longings.
In this section, Hosea calls us to…
Turn from the idols that promise satisfaction and return to the God who
graciously provides.
The Fruitless Pursuit of Idols (2-7)
Is Hosea asking his children to plead with Gomer ( Hos 2:2 a)? We’ve already
seen a hint that Hosea is speaking to Israel (1:10-2:1, “sisters”), but the divine
judgment that follows makes it clear ( Hos 2:3f ). God is calling upon the remnant
of genuine believers in Israel to plead with the nation to put away idolatry.
This section opens by warning about a divorce between God and Israel. The
divorce seems inevitable based upon her adultery. She has effectively ended the
marriage, but the pleading and the desire for faithfulness suggest the divorce has
not been finalized. They’ve met with their lawyers, but the paperwork is not
completed and signed.
Hos 2:2 b probably refers to jewelry associated with prostitution (cf. Hos 2:13 ; Jer
4:30 ; Song 1:13 ). She puts on the makeup and accessories of a prostitute.
If she refuses to repent of her lifestyle, God will remove his blessings, leaving her
naked and thirsty in a dry desert ( Hos 2:3 ). Not only will she be as helpless as the day she was born ( Ezek 16:4-5 ), she will be humiliated and ashamed by the
Assyrian exile.
God reiterates that he will have “no mercy on the house of Israel” because of
their whoredom ( Hos 1:6 ; 2:4 ). This verse links their conception with her
shameful actions. The children aren’t being condemned merely because of their
mother’s sins. They are called ‘children of whoredom’ because they have
embraced the same rebellion themselves. The sins of one generation are
compounded when the next generation continues in the same idolatry. On the
other hand, where faith and repentance are practiced, so the mercy and love of
God are restored.
Idolatry is not simply false worship, it also involves attributing God’s gifts to
someone else ( Hos 2:5 b). Israel credits her lovers as the source of her provision.
However, God is going to set up hedges of thorns and walls to prevent her from
finding satisfaction in her idolatry ( Hos 2:6 ). She will try to pursue other lovers,
but she will fail to find contentment ( Hos 2:7 ). In fact, it is that repeatedly
unsatisfying pursuit that will cause her to ponder returning to God (her first
husband).
But before we get our hopes up, we should consider her reasoning. She says,
“for it was better for me then than now.” She is still pursuing the gifts rather than
the Giver. She doesn’t say, “Because I know my first husband is the only one
who truly loves me.” She simply wants a better life. As soon as another lover
offers her something she doesn’t have—she’ll leave again.
This warning to God’s unfaithful bride follows the hope of the previous section
( Hos 1:10-2:1 ). Combined with the threat of being left to die with nothing, she
should have listened. But she only wanted more stuff.
It is a mercy that God has made us in such a way that sin can never ultimately
satisfy us. Sin may offer fleeting pleasures, but it always leaves us looking for
more.
Rather, we should look for the superior satisfaction that is only found in Christ!
We opened with God telling whoever would listen to him, to plead with the nation.
He knew their situation was desperate. Pleading might snap them out of their
absurd complacency.
› But they would have to remember something—God was their provider…
The Forgotten Provision of God (8-13)
God continues to provide for Israel even though she turns around and offers his
provision as gifts for Baal (Hos 2:8).
Imagine Hosea coming home from the grocery store with everything needed to
prepare a wonderful meal for his wife. She takes the food he bought, walks out
the back door, and prepares a feast for another man. Then she thanks that man
for providing it. We would think a marriage like that was over.
Israel believed that Baal controlled the fertility of the land—that he could
provide the rain, crops, herds, and prosperity they desired. So when Israel
received God’s gifts, she attributed them to Baal.
But, God continues to lavish his gifts upon an unfaithful people, who kept
offering those gifts to Baal.
Notice God’s response in Hosea 2:9-10. God promises to judge his bride, Israel,
by taking his gifts of food and clothing away from her. As she stands before her
lovers naked and ashamed, no one comes to rescue her. No one comes to her
aid! No one comforts her. Her lovers want nothing to do with her when she has
nothing to offer them. They were simply using her.
By withdrawing his provision, putting an end to her ability to celebrate her
syncretistic festivals ( Hos 2:11; Isa 1:13-14 ), God ensured that Israel experienced
Baal’s impotence. He hedged up her way with thorns…built walls against her
( Hos 2:6 )…took back his provisions ( Hos 2:9 )…uncovered her lewdness ( Hos
2:10 )…put an end to her feasts ( Hos 2:11 )…wasted her vines and fig trees ( Hos
2:12 )…and punished her ( Hos 2:13 )…all to mercifully bring the nation to the end
of their rope.
God did something similar in Amos. He gave Israel famine, drought, mildew,
and other afflictions—but the repeated refrain was, ‘yet you did not return to
me.’ These judgments were acts of mercy intended to bring them home.
God gave these “gifts” in order to bring his people to repentance. As Tim
Chester writes, “Famine and thirst are acts of divine love when their aim is to
bring us back to God.”
Until Israel sees that she is hanging by a thread, she will continue to run to her
lovers. And that is what she does over and over again. She continues to worship
Baal and collect wages as a prostitute leaving and forgetting her husband
altogether (2:13). Apart from God Israel is naked, alone, and ashamed.
Fertility cult practices were not all that different from modern rituals and secular
assumptions. It is just as false to remove God’s rule over nature as to treat
nature as divine. Nor have we matured beyond the idolization of sex and
success.
While the celebrations ( Hos 2:11 ) were syncretistic, the people observed them as
if they were living in obedience to Yahweh. Their apostasy still retained an
outward appearance of faithfulness. They carried on like nothing had changed,
but their hearts had grown cold and duplicitous.
The danger for us isn’t necessarily that we will stop coming to church and start
bowing down to a statue. We can continue singing hymns, attending worship,
taking communion, and saying the right things while quietly looking to money,
success, pleasure, relationships, or comfort to give us what only God can
provide.
Do you recognize yourself here? This is a picture of you and me. We are the
unfaithful people. We are the ones continually taking God’s gifts and offering
them to our idols. We take the resources and talents God has given us and use
them to promote our own success. When the gifts cease we search for them in
places where they do not exist (the world). Apart from God we are naked, alone,
and ashamed just like Gomer.
Conclusion
Idolatry isn’t merely loving bad things; it is taking God’s good gifts and looking to
something other than God to give us the joy, security, identity, or satisfaction that
only God can provide.
- The Fruitless Pursuit of Idols—is meant to snap us out of the insanity of
seeking satisfaction outside of God. - The Forgotten Provision of God—fills us w/ gratitude for his faithfulness.
The reason idols don’t satisfy is not merely that they are deficient; it is that we are
asking them to give us what God alone can give.
There is a stunning picture of the gospel in this passage. God’s gracious
provision is repeatedly squandered by his bride’s unfaithfulness. Donald Grey
Barnhouse notes that God’s provision doesn’t stop with grain, wine, and oil. God
provided trees and iron…which man fashioned into an axe, then chopped down a
tree and built a cross. Then man formed the nails with which he hammered Christ
to the cross. As the Son of God hung upon that cursed tree—naked and
alienated from everyone—He took upon himself the sins of those who despised
and rejected him.
Only Christ can provide the superior satisfaction that we seek. In Christ, God has
graciously provided the satisfaction we have spent our lives seeking everywhere