Scripture: Hosea 1:1-11; 3:1-5

Hosea: A Fierce Faithfulness


I'd like to begin with two dog stories.

The first is a dog legend. We were recently in Gettysburg, and there, among the thousands of monuments to generals and regiments and war heroes there is one monument that commemorates the faithfulness of a dog. The dog was named Sally May. She was a regimental mascot and she earned a statue for herself by staying by the wounded members of her regiment for three days without food or water. A model of faithfulness.

Now let me tell you a story about our dog, Celeste. Celeste is not at all like Sally May. Not long ago we were visiting my sister's house in Essex. We took Celeste along. At one point Celeste escaped -- that is something she is good at -- and ran over into a neighbor's back yard. I headed out after her. I called her, I cajoled her, I pleaded with her. Finally I chased her. Do you think she paid me any attention? When I called I was lucky if she even glanced up before bounding off in the other direction. Whenever Celeste faces a choice between a stranger and me, between an animal and me, between ANYTHING and me its a no brainer for her. No matter that I have raised her from young puppyhood. No matter that I feed her. I am just no competition for the excitement of someone or something new.

On this occasion I finally stormed back to the house in frustration and yelled to Carol -- "She's gone, and as far as I'm concerned, good riddance. Maybe she'll find some other family to plague." I am not proud of this reaction, and I have repented, but it was heartfelt at the time.

Now there are two very simple points about our relationship with God I want to make from these two stories.

1. First, we are much more like Celeste than like Sally May. This is rather obvious to most of us. And If any of you think that you are like Sally Mae you can tune out of the rest of the sermon. You don't need it.
   
   
2. Second, God is not at all like me. And for this, of course, you should be very thankful -- but the point is this: The way God responds to his wayward children contrasts sharply with how I responded to my wayward dog. I was quite willing to let Celeste go in my anger at her faithlessness. I turned my back on her. But God's faithfulness is not like that. God shows his faithfulness not just by remaining true to those who are FAITHFUL, but by fiercely and relentlessly loving those who are UNFAITHFUL. He is faithful to the faithless.
   
   

Today we'll be looking at the book of Hosea offers a vivid parable of the faithfulness of God in response to His faithless children.

Read passage -- Hosea 1:1-11; 3:1-5

The story is very simple:

1. God tells Hosea to marry a woman he knows will be unfaithful. He's a good, obedient prophet so he does what God tells him to. He marries a woman named Gomer.

2. Hosea and Gomer have kids. Not surprising. These things happen. What's strange is their names. First a son, named Jezreel after a bloody battle-- sort of like naming a child Massacre. Then call their daughter unloved, and their youngest son is named "not my people." Imagine their humiliation on the first day of school.

3. Is it any surprise that the marriage breaks up? We aren't given any details, but apparently Gomer finds life with her prophet husband and strange named children just too confining -- not quite exciting enough. So she runs off to find men who aren't quite so stuffy. When we next meet up with her she's a prostitute and a slave.

4. God tells Hosea to find Gomer, to go and love her again in spite of her unfaithfulness. So he buys her out of slavery and takes her back.

Now here's my problem with this story:

This whole story is meant to be an illustration of God's relationship with his people. That's obvious. So why would God set up a completely dysfunctional family as an illustration? This family makes most of our family situations look fantastic. This is not the sort of family we like to think about on mother's day. A religious fanatic father; a dead-beat mother; and three kids with really strange names. Why wouldn't God have chosen a picture perfect family -- a father knows best sort of family? Why would he create a family in crisis?

Here's why: Because true faithfulness can only be known by how it responds to unfaithfulness.

The test of faithfulness is not good relationships, but bad ones; the measure of faithfulness is not when all is going well, but when everything is falling apart.

It's nothing special to be faithful in a great marriage -- but how will you respond if your husband or wife betrays you?

It's not difficult being a faithful elder when things are going well in the church -- but how will I respond if the church was torn by division? It's easy to be pastor when all of you are nice to me -- but what will it be like if some of you decide you don't want me around any more?

So God uses the dysfunctional family of Hosea and Gomer to show us the characteristics of God's faithfulness -- and its those characteristics that I want to outline today.


1. God shows his faithfulness by tirelessly pursuing those he loves.

I suspect this is not the way we normally think about God's faithfulness. We tend to think of God like an old grandma sitting faithfully in her rocking chair, waiting to welcome her wayward children back for milk and cookies.

God does not sit back passively waiting for us to return to him. When God faces unfaithfulness he shows HIS faithfulness by fiercely and relentlessly pursuing those he loves.

Notice that this is very different from the way that I responded to Celeste. When Celeste ran off and was unwilling to acknowledge me, I was quite happy to just let her go. On other occasions I have actually said only half joking, "Oh, let her go and play in the traffic, the foolish dog."

But Hosea does not act this way with Gomer -- He does not wait for her to return. He seeks her out, and he buys her back. All the initiative is with him.

And that is exactly how it is with God and us.

You may try to run, but you will not be able to escape the fierce faithfulness of God. There's an old Paul Simon song, used to get lots of air time in the 70's, called "50 ways to leave your lover." It doesn't work with God. You can't sneak away from him, you can't escape from him, no restraining order can keep him away. He does not obey anti-stalking ordinances. He knows where you live.

You can try to ignore him, but all you'll get is misery -- You see, God not only shows his faithfulness by fiercely pursuing us --


2. God also shows his faithfulness by making us miserable in our unfaithfulness.

Again, this clashes directly with how we normally think of the faithfulness of God. We confuse faithfulness with indulgence.

Now if I wanted to be "faithful" to Celeste, in the way that we would like God to faithful to us here is what I would do. I would buy some good steaks and hotdogs. And each time Celeste ran away, I would go out on my porch and I would lure her back, saying, "Oh you naughty, naughty puppy -- you just come back to your faithful master and I'll give you a treat. I understand, you just need some freedom -- some space to express yourself. But when your ready you just come back to me and I'll take good care of you."

We want God to do nice things for us, while leaving us free to do what we like.

But this is not the kind of faithfulness God shows. He shows His faithfulness by making us miserable when we run from him and seek after lesser things. He shows his faithfulness by frustrating our attempts to find happiness elsewhere.

Look at ch. 2:6
Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way. She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them.

and on to verse 9:
I will take away my grain when it ripens, and my new wine when it is ready. I will take back my wool and my linen, intended to cover her nakedness. So now I will expose her lewdness before the eyes of her lovers; no one will take her out of my hands.

and so on. . .

Is God being cruel here? NO! The judgment of God and the discipline of God on his people is not cruelty -- it is an outpouring of his mercy and love. He knows that apart from him we can never find real joy.

All of this misery has only one purpose -- to drive us back to him.

5:14-15 -- And they WILL seek my face -- in their misery, they will earnestly seek me.

Are you feeling miserable these days-- stop and listen -- God may be trying to tell you that your heart is attached to things that can never really satisfy you.

You see, God pursues us in our unfaithfulness, and God makes us miserable in our unfaithfulness for one reason alone --

3. -- to win us back into relationship with him. This is the sole object of God's faithfulness -- to re-establish a love relationship with him.

Now I suspect that our normal way of thinking about God is sort of the way we think about our dentist. We are a little afraid of our dentist, especially just before a visit. And we want to keep him happy. So we brush and floss -- especially just before a check-up. And when we have a toothache we go running to him for help.

But we don't expect to have much of a relationship with our dentist. He is there to keep us in line and to take care of problems when they arise.

And we tend to approach God the same way, thinking we can keep him happy with some occasional brushing and flossing. We imagine that we can buy him off with superficial acknowledgement -- that we can be faithful with our tongues, faithful on Sundays, but allow our hearts to continue to wander.

But God will not settle for superficial acknowledgment. His faithfulness demands pure and undiluted faithfulness on our part. He wants nothing less than a marriage relationship with us -- a relationship of full commitment.

The people of Israel imagined that they could set things right with God through a quick check-up. But God desires relationship rather than ritual, God desires relationship rather than the keeping of a set of rules.

And that is why he pursues us with such fierce faithfulness.