Let us turn to Hosea chapter 2. Hosea chapter 2, verses 14 to 23, which is the end of the chapter. Hosea 4, 14 and following, let us listen attentively to the word of God. Therefore, behold, I will lure her, and will bring her into the wilderness to speak comfort to her.
I will give her her vineyards from there, and the valley of Accor as a door of hope. She shall sing there as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt. And it shall be in that day, says the Lord, that you will call me my husband, and no longer call me my master.
For I will take from her mouth the names of Baals, and they shall be remembered by their name no more. In that day I will make a covenant for them. With the beasts of the field, with the birds of the air, with the creeping things of the ground, both of bow and sword of battle, I will shatter from the earth to make them lie down safely.
I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness and justice, in loving kindness and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord.
It shall come to pass in that day that I will answer, says the Lord, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth, and the earth shall answer with grain, with new wine, and with oil, that they shall answer Jezreel. And then I will sow her for myself in the earth, and I will have mercy on her who have not obtained mercy. And then I will say to those who are not my people, You are my people.
And they shall say, You are my God. Let us pray. With these wonderful words of encouragement, God, we read here already early on, although after much probably consternation to the listeners of hearing judgments and warning and the like, we here have in these many verses much comfort and hope of God’s mercy upon a wayward church, God.
As you have been merciful to us individually, so you have been merciful to your people collectively. Our Lord and Savior, may this be a lesson for us, an encouragement that we should always flee and cling to you, God, and never cling to our sins, nor look to our past, but look to the future, in which you give these promises to us even here and now, and ultimately when Christ Jesus shall return with a new heaven and a new earth. Come quickly, Lord Jesus, we pray.
Amen. After warnings to them and upon them of divine divorce, chapter 1, of coming punishment, chapter 2, our Heavenly Father does not leave his people in despair. It may seem that way initially at times, of course, but as the prophet progresses in his ministry here, we find much light in the midst of darkening judgment.
But this mercy of the Lord upon the Old Testament church is not immediate. His people have to go through the terrors of the exile first, as the rest of the book will describe. But those who listen with hearts of faith and hope in our Lord and Savior will persevere.
God’s promises in these verses are comfort to them, as well as to us as well, who silently await upon him. From our perspective, we see the fulfillment when they return from exile, and doubly so in our own lifetime. With the coming of Christ in the flesh, we have a new covenant compared to the old forms with more spiritual power.
This truth is reflected in the Old Testament imageries in this verse, and these verses here at the latter part here, verses 19 in particular, but also a little bit in the former parts as well. A number of things, in fact, spoken and described of the greatness of God’s loving kindness towards his people. And various metaphors that are, I hope, encouraging to us, because they are being fulfilled even here and now.
God’s Alluring Mercy
So the first point, God’s alluring mercy, verses 14 to 15. Therefore, behold, I will allure her and will bring her into the wilderness. Right? The deliverance is from whom? How do we get to the point in this text and understand that it’s all about God? God is the great initiator.
Because it says, therefore, behold, I, who is I? It is I, God Almighty. I will allure her. It is God who is the active agent here.
It is not, oh, my people will repent and flee to me. That’s not the picture here at all. What we have up to this point is, they are fleeing from me.
They are wanting nothing to do with me. They want these bales. They have their own feast days, their own new moons.
I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lover, and I shall never shun her from my sight. Verse 10, they are unrepentant at this time, that is, in mass. So we see in this verse, we read in this text of divine initiative.
I, only I, the Lord, living God, will allure and bring my people back to me, is what he is saying here. Divine initiative comes from Him, the Lord of the covenant, the God of hosts. Salvation is, in other words, from the Alpha Omega, from the beginning to the end, from eternity past to eternity future.
It is all of our Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who brings us our salvation and deliverance. If the creator of heaven and earth did nothing, Israel, indeed all of us, would still be in our own sins, humiliated and judged, hardened in our hearts. Now what’s interesting in this description here of divine initiative, I will allure her.
That’s great. God’s going to call Israel back to himself, draw them to him. Wait, into the desert, into the wilderness? Well, that’s an odd place to… Is this supposed to be somewhere like Eden? A great lush forest or something? Why a wilderness or a desert? It speaks to her.
Well, it’s probably because of Israel’s dependence upon her blessings. She was bragging, remember? Look at the things I had, they come from Baal. The wine, the grain, these things and their season and the wool, these things come from my lovers, she says.
That’s certainly not the case at all. So what we have in this imagery is God’s taking them to a place where they have no prosperity, they have no hope of goodness upon them and blessing, but all the blessings, of course, will come from him. I will give her vineyards from there.
From where? In the wilderness. They will know and see fully that all the goodness comes from me and not from their own hand or from the false gods or from their neighbors. That’s the point here.
They will see the barrenness, but God will give them the fruit by the power of his breath. Speaking of comfort, the comfort, of course, of physical health and well-being, but more importantly, comfort of spiritual prosperity, that they have come back to the Lord, their God, and she shall sing there as in the days of her youth, a picture of vitality and frankly, regeneration. The word regeneration isn’t used here nor at the end when he says, They shall be my people and I will be their God, but clearly regeneration must be in mind because God will not take back anybody who is unrepentant.
They must be repentant. Repentance must be there. A hatred towards sin.
Their own sin, not other people’s sin, although you ought to have that too in a proper proportion, of course, but their own personal sin, to cry out to God for mercy. Here, the emphasis is more collectively and especially upon God Almighty delivering and protecting his people, speaking words of comfort and hope to them, seen in this valley of blessing that turns into her vineyards. She will have vineyards from this wilderness, from God himself.
I will give it to her. In the valley of Achor, which is where Achan was stoned, remember? Achan was asking for it and having the false idols there. So, in other words, he’s taking the place of judgment and turning it into, what? A door of hope.
Verse 15, in the middle there. A place of mercy and justice. As only God can turn wickedness into goodness and glory.
Transform the effects of it in his providence and his grace. The turnabout will be so drastic and so amazing, it’s as though she’s young again. And she shall sing there in the days of her youth as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.
That was the greatest moment in the history of the Jewish people at the time. The great redemption to be brought out of the house of bondage. Generations of bondage and wickedness about them.
And God, of course, over and over again refers to that in the Old Testament as them pointing back to that. The Holy Spirit will point back to that saying, I am the same God who brought you out of that bondage and I’m here right now. Don’t forget that.
So it’s a generational call, a covenantal call, and a call of mercy that God is with them. He has the power and this is their common history. And so they’re rejoicing in God’s mercy is the picture here.
God’s Betrothing Mercy
Again, a young vitality that can only come by the power of regeneration from the Holy Spirit himself. God’s betrothing mercy, verses 16 to 20. And in that day, and it shall be in that day, says the Lord, that you will call me my husband and no longer call me my master.
In that day, again, used three times here in these verses, verses 16, 18, and 21. That’s the future era. Beyond this book, about 700 or so, 680s and whatever, we don’t know exactly that time frame.
To the future, beyond them going into captivity, when they come back from the captivity, it points to that, which itself is pointing to the great release and redemption of all God’s people when Christ Jesus returns. Well, in their case, comes the first time in the New Testament era. It’s a picture of the New Testament era, ultimately.
We are in the last days. And we covered that on Wednesday night, of course. And here I won’t go into too much detail.
I’ll cover a few more verses a little later about it. But it will be a great time of renewal and mercy from the Lord God Almighty. And in that day, then, over and over again here, elsewhere in Isaiah, and, of course, in the New Testament, it’s a description, over and over again, of the great blessings that come from Jesus Christ coming in the flesh, living for His people, ascending on high, and ruling over all men, redemption full and free, accomplished.
It hadn’t been accomplished yet here and there at this time. It’s not just enough that God says, well, I’ll just cover your sins because I say so. He’s a just God.
It must have divine satisfaction. There must be a man who represents all mankind, who dies for them, and that’s Jesus Christ, the God-man. So there is a significant difference in that sense.
It hadn’t happened historically yet. So from that perspective, it is in that day, it’s in the future, when He comes and delivers His people, ultimately, by His own life and His death. But in describing this future age, partly there, their return from the land of captivity, but ultimately when Christ Jesus returns, and therefore this whole New Testament era, we have here two or three things.
First, husband. Description is a blessing of this time period. Calling God the husband and not the master.
Verses 16 and 17, right? You will call me my husband and no longer call me my master. Well, this is interesting. It’s a play on words.
You’ve got to know a little bit of Hebrew. You already know it if you know the word Baal. That’s a transliteration right out of the Hebrew letters.
It’s a transformation of a powerful change in the relationship. The God’s people stop worshipping Baals and false gods, or worshipping the true God with false idols. Both seem to be going on here.
For I will take it from her mouth the names of the Baals, and they shall be remembered by their name no more. They’ll be forgotten. There’ll be great transformation here.
A picture, again, of regeneration, of leaving the sinful masters as they submitted to, that is, these Baals. But what’s going on here? What is the idea here of these Baals, these words? What we don’t realize in the English is, my master is my Baal, Bali. Now, husband is a different word here in Hebrew.
I won’t give it to you. But husband can also be Baal. Because, like Sarah, called him Lord or Master.
So there’s a change in words, right? No longer will it be Baal as master or Baal as husband. So husband-master, basically. But husband-husband, a proper husband, a one who loves you and takes care of you, even in the desert.
That’s the beautiful description we have here of this betrothal that God will have with his people, that is, when Christ Jesus returns. Today, when converted, we throw away our old life, and no longer do we have the Baals in our own mouth, the old ways of speaking, the old ways of living, the old ways of thinking. Although we struggle with it, of course, to be sure, in this description here of the change, again, collectively, of the body of Christ, to cast away all their idols, to take purity of God more seriously in their worship and their life.
It is described in very bold relief. It doesn’t deny, of course, that they’re going to struggle still. It’s obviously there in the New Testament.
We have loads of verses that tell us, you’re sinning, you’re still sinning, you’re still struggling, and we need God’s grace and mercy upon us. Yes, this is true. But at the end of the day, this describes a fundamental change in their hearts.
That’s the picture of regeneration, of being born again, of having new thoughts that were never there, new desires that were never in existence before. This is the picture here in so many ways of describing it. Now, the second description of prosperity and mercy upon them here is the covenant, verse 18.
In that day I will make a covenant of them, or for them, with the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the creeping things. The bow and sword of battle I will shatter, and to make them lie down safely. These last parts of these verses, or even the end parts, may echo another prophet, if you recall, Isaiah.
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. Verse 10 of Isaiah. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, who shall stand as a banner to the people, for the Gentiles shall seek him, and his resting place shall be glorious.
Now that probably rings a bell as well. And we know that is referenced, this Isaiah chapter, in the New Testament. But what is it in verse 10? And in that day.
Christ is what? The root of Jesse. He is a banner for his people. I preached on that, I don’t know, a few months ago.
References to that passage. There in Isaiah, and we see similar language here, of animals being brought into peace. The idea of peace is more explicit there at the end.
Oh, and sword of battle I will what? Shatter from the earth. The instruments of destruction and conflict will be gone, i.e. peace. Another way of describing peace.
And that is what you have there in Isaiah. The wolf shall also dwell with the lamb. A picture of a golden age, it looks like.
A wonderful age. A beautiful age. Just the New Testament age to come.
In that day. That phrase is used three times in these verses. And there in Isaiah, which we know clearly points to Jesus.
He is in that day. We are in that day now until Christ returns a second time. But it’s not a golden age as we know.
Elsewhere in Isaiah it talks about the sinner shall live a hundred years. How are you going to have sinners in heaven? Because it’s a picture of the age now. Where it almost looks like two ages.
The New Heaven and the New Earth is one peak. And the New Testament era is another peak. It looks like one for the prophets of the Old Testament.
It’s all wonderful from their perspective. But when we live in the midst of it, we see, oh, it’s two. It’s Christ the first coming.
The second coming in that day. It’s the whole time period. And so all the prophecies look wonderful and marvelous.
Like a golden age, as we talked about in eschatology on Wednesday night. But when you go into the details, you find out, well, the golden age isn’t exactly that golden, is it? But compared relatively to the Old Testament era. And especially the paganism that was all over the world.
We forget. Western civilization is an anomaly, really. Even though we’ve been around for about 15,000, 2000, depending on when you start Western civilization, especially Christian, right? 300s, 400s, or 500s, when we start having more influence in the West and the like.
Thousands of years. If the Earth is 6,000 or 10,000 years, this is only one, 2,000 years at the most. It’s a minority.
And it’s only a minority of geographical space as well. In terms of civilization and Christianity. And so, this picture of God making a covenant with the creation, and even to subvert and undermine war and the like, is a picture of God controlling providence for the sake of his people.
And giving them prosperity, especially, of course, spiritual prosperity. The New Covenant is so much better than the Old Covenant, is the idea here. Note that this is not a contrast of the covenant of works with the covenant of grace, but rather the relative contrast of the Old Covenant, or Old Testament, and the New Covenant, New Testament.
Specifically the Mosaic, versus what we have today. And God is saying, I’m going to be with my people. So this is hyperbolic imagery to paint a sharp contrast compared to what they have back then.
And so, this heavenly picture, I already mentioned the two mountaintops, brings us then to the third point, verse 20. The third blessing in this second point. Betrothed forever.
I will betroth, verse 19 and 20, I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness and justice and loving kindness and mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness.
Says it three times. Sympathetic, obviously. Listen, things are going to change.
I’m going to betroth you forever. Now, Israel is already described as being married to God. I mean, that’s the opening part of Mosiah.
That you’re being unfaithful to your God. This is like we had a divorce here. This is terrible.
Right? And so, if we look at it, however, from a redemptive historic viewpoint, which is to say, development of the covenant of grace as applied to God’s people to teach them lessons of the future of the coming of Jesus Christ. It’s the Mosaic covenant in particular. The unique part of the covenant of grace as applied in the dispensation of the law in the Old Testament.
Where God planted them in the land and gave them a temple and all these things. That is broken and to be faded away. And God will marry them, as it were, anew.
And a better relationship with no longer using these outward forms to teach them these things. But to have a greater awareness of the Spirit as we have in the New Testament church. That’s the description.
That’s the contrast. They’re not saved. We’re saved.
No, a thousand times no. And so, this language here suggests a new marriage intimating a new covenant. Because, obviously, marriage is what? A covenant.
We know they understood marriage as a covenant back then. They actually used that word in the verses, as we know. And the prophets themselves.
So, when he talks about patrolling, he’s talking about a covenant. And I would argue that covenant would be the new covenant. Not the new covenant of grace versus the covenant of works.
But the newer manifestation of the older covenant of grace. Giving to them a more dark form. A more obscure understanding of the future.
To a greater illumination we have in the New Testament. The New Testament, which is another word for covenant. Versus the Old Covenant or Old Testament.
That’s the difference. More power. More mercy.
More of the Spirit. And the emphasis here, of course, is I will betroth you forever. And it will be done in righteousness and justice and loving kindness.
And in mercy and the like. And you’ll betroth to me in faithfulness. As opposed to the unfaithfulness you’ve exercised over and over again in the Mosaic Covenants.
And so, what we have here probably. I’m not going to be dogmatic about it. In this description here.
In righteousness and justice and loving kindness and mercy. Are but Old Testament ways to talk about justification. And sanctification.
And other benefits of redemption. In righteousness and justice, we clearly talk about the law of God. And if that’s going to be established, that will be established in our lives by justification.
That is, the declarative righteousness of the law courts of heaven. That God says, you are mine. I have given you Christ’s righteousness.
And he has taken your wickedness upon him. It has been imputed to him. And his has been imputed to you.
You have imputed righteousness from Christ Jesus by faith and faith alone. Not by good works. But also sanctification and loving kindness and mercy.
We are called to work out and to live a life of obedience before God Almighty. And we can by his spirit within us. But that is never the grounds, the reason why we go to heaven.
So, these things here are wonderful things. Of one continuous thought of mercy piled upon mercy. They have broken righteousness.
They have been unjust. They have been unkind. And they have not been merciful.
But God will have all these things and be all these things to and upon and through them. Through us, brothers and sisters. Because he’s not speaking to Jews as Jews, but to Jews as the Old Testament church.
And we are the New Testament church, but we’re all one church. These are comforting words. Because left to our own devices, we’ve been like Israel of old.
With Baal, our master, upon our lips. But our Savior is greater and changed our hearts. He does not ask for permission, but changed our hearts so that we want to be changed.
So that even now we know him as our Lord and Savior. And thus we see, I will betroth you. All this has been so far what? I will, I will, I will, I will.
That is what God’s promise is to his people and to you. He allured you into his redemption. He gave you vineyards of blessing upon your soul.
He has and will take from your mouth the name of the Baals. And yes, he has betrothed you. And he has betrothed you in faithfulness.
I will betroth you to me, what? In faithfulness. You have broken it. Chapter 1. And I’m going to call you a me.
Not my people. But now I’m going to change it in the future such that you will be my people. Verse 23.
And you will be faithful to me. You will not break the covenant. This is the doctrine of the preservation of the saints.
Now we talk about the perseverance of the saints because historically it was a debate. Well, if you’re a Calvinist, why bother doing good works? And the Dutch Calvinist said, that’s crazy. We persevere.
This is one of the blessings. But we persevere because God preserves us. Because of this promise.
Verse 20 is a promise for you, brothers and sisters. You realize that? It’s not just to the Old Testament Jews, but to the Jews as believers in the Messiah to come. And you are the spiritual Jews who believe in the Messiah who has already come.
I will betroth you. I have betrothed you, we can say today, for it has been fulfilled to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.
There’s that knowledge. Right? I said one of the themes in Hosea was knowledge or the lack of knowledge, ignorance. My people perish for a lack of knowledge.
Specifically what? Saving knowledge. That’s the emphasis here. Not, well, I know the Lord.
I’ve heard about this guy or this wonderful person. This deity or something. But in the intimate sense, believing and trusting and relying upon him.
That’s what he’s referring to. And this leads us to the last closing verses of this very encouraging chapter. It ends here.
If you think about it, given how much heinousness and gross violations of God’s first table. We haven’t gotten to the violation of the second table. They’re there in Hosea, but the emphasis is on the first table.
God’s Loving Mercy
God’s loving mercy. Verses 21 through 23. It shall come to pass in that day that I will answer, says the Lord.
And I will answer the heavens and they shall answer the earth. And the earth shall answer with grain. It’s kind of a reverberating back and forth description here.
And we see again, in that day. The third time. These verses are the same as the end of chapter 1 and the beginning of 2. In which we read that God will, what? And the children of Israel shall stand together and appointed, and they shall come out of the land.
Oh, great will be the day of Jezreel. There’s a reference to a day. And say to my people, your brother, my people, and to my sister, mercy is shown.
He picks it up here again in verse 23 in particular. The same theme and the same description here. That day is a day of, of course, Paul and our day as well.
Right, so verse 23. I’ve kind of skipped over a little bit here. I’ll come back.
Tells us that you are my people. I will no longer say my people, but you are my people. Ami.
No longer ami, but me. So, there you will become my people instead of lo ami. I made a mistake earlier.
Lo is not. Lo ami will now become ami. Paul picks that up in Romans.
I went over that last time. So this is more evidence again that these verses refer to the time of Paul and of Peter. And our time, in fact.
Because Paul’s argument there in Romans 9 is, you know, God’s bringing in the Gentiles. Not just the Jews who are saved. The Gentiles are lo ami.
Without or not having God as their God and they are his people. We are not your people. We are not a people.
We’re basically nobody’s. Worse than that, in fact. Of course, enemies of God.
And Paul quotes Hosea right there. How can you quote Hosea if this prophecy is not about what Paul’s talking about? Is Paul just confused? Of course not. So Hosea there at the end of chapter 1. And here at the end of chapter 2. The same words.
Lo ami, ami. It’s talking about the same time period. The New Testament era.
So that goes back to what? In that day. In that day. In that day is the day of lo ami has now become ami.
My people. That’s today. So there’s your eschatological argument.
In a nutshell, brothers and sisters. So, it’s a beautiful picture. These are beautiful words and descriptions and marvelous things about us today, brothers and sisters.
We were not a people. We were hopeless and without hope in the world. As we read in Ephesians 2. And we were not betrothed but hated God.
But he will betroth us in faithfulness and we will be called his people. God speaks of creation. Verses 21 to 22.
There. He speaks to, not of, but to creation. I will answer, says the Lord.
I will answer the heavens and shall answer the earth and the earth shall answer. So it’s like this back and forth which results in what? With grain, with new wine, with oil and the like. That is, God will move things in creation to bless his people.
It was the grain and the wine, right? And the wool and the like. We read in 2 where they were prosperous and they said the bales have given us this prosperity. And we’re reading God’s like, no, I’m going to give you this prosperity.
I’m going to bless you. Now, it’s not ultimately about grain and new wine and oil as though God only cares about the bodies of his people. But he cares more especially about their souls.
He uses over and over again, as you can recall, in the Old Testament, the carnal or the earthly way of speaking of blessings often to describe what? Spiritual blessings. These are just pictures and pointers to the soul of the matter. Our spirit.
Our regeneration. Our refreshing. And our sanctification and our justification and our adoption and the like.
And the fruits of the Spirit. These are what the pictures of these blessings are ultimately about. Now, certainly God gives us material greatness and he has, and this is a good thing.
But let us not lose sight from the language itself because we know what he’s ultimately pointing to. Because, well, they’re fulfilled in the New Testament. Paul says so.
So God plants his tree here. It’s interesting. Verse 23, we have yet a different metaphor.
Before the beginning, of course, he’s a woman who’s been unfaithful. God says, I will betroth you to me. I’ll make a covenant of the earth itself to be a blessing upon you.
And you will be my people. That’s another description, another way of talking about regeneration. But here he says, I will sow them for myself and the earth.
And I will have mercy upon her. This sowing, of course, perhaps echoes the idea of the vineyard we read elsewhere and the prophets that we are the vineyard of God and we are the branches. He is the vine is another description as well.
The metaphors go back and forth to emphasize certain particular spiritual points. Because that’s what they are. They’re just pictures, word pictures.
But here God plants his tree, his church, when and where he wills. Then I will sow her for myself in the earth. He created us.
He betrothed us. He planted us. While we were in our trespasses and sins, while we were without hope in the world, brothers and sisters, while we were not his people, he said to us, raising us from the dead, you are my people.
And we responded, you are. Amen. Let us pray.
Our Lord and Savior, gracious God above, it is a marvel to behold this wonderful language of old, especially in the context of wickedness, but in our own wickedness as we reflect upon our own lives, where we were. Our God, help us, we pray with your spirit, to be humbled with this truth, but also to be excited to know that you have betrothed us in faithfulness. Because it is you, from first to last, that will sustain us.
It is you who has chosen us, not we who have chosen you, to be your people. And it is a blessing that we can say, you are my God. May these covenants and promises, Lord, be impressed so greatly upon our hearts, that we have great assurance and hope and strength to carry on through this week, we pray.
By the blood of our Lord and Savior, fulfill the everlasting covenant for us. Amen.