How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together. - Hosea 11:8
A couple months ago I searched up the word unrequited love on the internet, and I found it interesting: “Unrequited love refers to feelings of romantic affection or desire that are not reciprocated or returned by the other person". In simpler terms, it's when you have romantic feelings for someone who does not feel the same way about you. This situation can be emotionally challenging and often involves one person experiencing longing, sadness, or frustration due to the unreturned feelings.”
Ever felt like that before?
Well friends, all throughout the Bible this theme reigns supreme. From the sin of Adam and Eve, to the very fall of Jerusalem. From the Exodus, to the time where Jesus Christ was betrayed. It seems like over and over again, God’s unrequited love has been trodden upon, given away for ransom, and soon enough, used as a law to force people to obey! We find all three of these themes in the Book of Hosea.
Hosea, I could tell you, is one of the most underrated minor prophets in the Bible to me. Hosea, which means salvation in Hebrew, begins his prophesying journey during the reign of Jeroboam II around the time of 760-720 BC . His prophecy is particularly for the northern kingdom of Israel where outwardly everything seemed to be doing well!
They seemed to have everything in abundance: food, fortune, you name it! But on the inside, there was a decline in morality and spiritual awareness of the one and only true God. But in order to understand this, we need to look in their past.
In1 Kings 12, we see a scared prospective King Jeroboam II. In times past he had a “wanted dead or alive” sign written above his name, as King Solomon wanted his life after the prophecy Ahijah gave from God. The prophecy was that Jeroboam would be given 10 tribes and that one would be left to the house of David, also known as Solomon's descendants. So of course Solomon was furious and placed a large “yoke” (or burden) as you’d see in 1 Kings 12:4. Let's read what what it says:
"Thy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make thou the grievous service of thy father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve thee."
Since then, Jeroboam fled from Solomon.
Fast forwarding many years later, King Solomon has passed and Rehoboam is king of BOTH Israel and Judah. Keep in mind that I said BOTH. Jeroboam then came before Rehoboam, asking:
“make thou the grievous service of thy father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve thee” (1 Kings 12:4)
See, in this chapter, Rehoboam thinks he has two choices, when he only has one: let Jeroboam serve.
However, Rehoboam had the AUDACITY to choose the latter choice in verse 14 by the counsel of the young men, which was to make the “yoke” or burden weigh more on Jeroboam. Verses 14 &15 state:
“And spake unto them after the counsel of the young man, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke: my father also chastised you with whips, but i will chastise you with scorpions. Wherefore the king hearkened not unto the people; for the cause was from the Lord."
Scorpions? Rehoboam seemed to really want to give it to Jeroboam. As a result of Rehoboam's decision, the prophecy came about. Jeroboam II eventually ruled over the remaining ten tribes as a result of Israel breaking from the ruling of Rehoboam because of his decision in 1 Kings 12:14-15
However, like many kings in the Books of Kings, righteousness does not ALWAYS endure. Later on in that very same chapter, Jeroboam, like Aaron during the time of the exodus, brought the people of Israel to serve idolatry in the form of two golden calves rather than the God that placed him on the very throne he occupied.
Hosea, was then taken to prophesy to this sin sick nation of the northern kingdom.
In chapter one of Hosea, God instructs him to marry a harlot, or in today's terminology a prostitute. Imagine that! God instructing his PROPHET to marry a prostitute? I could only imagine the questions running through Hosea’s head!
How could a prostitute be a faithful mother? Can she raise our children?
Why marry someone who WILL NOT SOLELY LOVE ME?
Here’s a trivia question for you : What does a woman/wife/bride signify in the bible?
A Church, A Group of People, A remnant.
1 Corinthians 6:15-16 that:
“Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. What? know ye not that he which is joined to a harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.”
Therefore, if we consider ourselves members of Christ, as we all are, then engaging our bodies in union with a harlot—or any immoral person—in any way that contradicts the very essence of being part of Christ's body, is wrong. This is precisely the deeper lesson God wanted to convey to Hosea through his command to marry Gomer. In this analogy, Israel, symbolized by Gomer, proved unfaithful to God (or Hosea), departing from their original and true devotion. Instead, they engaged in spiritual promiscuity, entangling themselves in numerous sins and alliances. Friends, It is unfortunately sad to say, but we too, being God's bride, are all over the place prostituting ourselves with the indulgences of this world.
To name a few of Israel’s shortcomings:
They had forsaken God and worshiped foreign gods like the two golden calves that we spoke about in 1 Kings 12
There was swearing, lying, killing, and stealing running rampant (Chapter 4)
There was a lack of knowledge amongst the Land (Chapter 4). And what this meant was that these people had “forgotten the law” of God. They did not know him intricately in terms of obeying his law and surrendering their wants, desires, and will to him.
They ate up the sin, and literally! The Flagons of Wine spoken about in Hosea 3 meant pagan raisin cakes, which basically to place a picture in your mind is an alcoholic oatmeal raisin cookie.
Throughout Hosea, the evidence presented made it clear that they willfully refused to return to God like “a backsliding heifer” as Hosea writes. They kept on going back to that bottle of alcohol (that idol) that would get them drunk of sin. The stench was, of course, unbearable as we later learn that the verdict eventually came: soon enough all of Israel was to be dispersed into many lands, specifically, Assyria and Egypt are mentioned.
This reminds me of what Deuteronomy 31:18 says:
“And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods”
This adulterous betrayal of Israel deeply grieved God, and caused his wrath to fall upon them. Yet, Hosea’s message emphasizes that they will eventually be reunited to God, their first and only husband through repentance.
Can you believe that?
Although God’s people -- Both collective and individual-- chose to run around with other lovers (idols of this world), God still decides to restore Israel -- and us-- through repentance. He even states that he will buy back Israel from all of her lovers. The fact that God is willing to buy us back, despite the filthy rags that we are...what Grace! Lets continue to trust in him, knowing that just like Hosea's wife, he will, through fervent and sincere repentance, show us the true way that leads to eternity.
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