David: Hey, everyone. Welcome to our series covering the Book of Hosea. Before we jump in, we wanted to offer a quick word about the sensitive nature of this book.
Seth: Hosea's full of really intense imagery, um, and often pretty sexual imagery, so if you're listening with your family or with kids, you might wanna be a little careful.
David: Yeah. We're not gonna get crazy explicit, but you just might want to use discretion when, uh, diving into this book with us, but we're excited to preach Christ out of it and go through the Book of Hosea with you. Here we go.
Intro: [Instrumental music] Welcome to the Spoken Gospel Podcast. Spoken Gospel is a nonprofit dedicated to the idea that every part of the Bible, Old Testament and New, is about Jesus, and this podcast is our experiment to publicly test that belief. Every episode, hosts David Bowden and Seth Stewart work through a biblical text to see how it helps us see and savor Jesus. Let's jump in. [Instrumental music]
David: Well, welcome everyone to the Spoken Gospel Podcast. Thank you for joining us. We are jumping into the first three chapters of Hosea today-
Seth: That's right
David: ... and we're going to be looking at the famous story of Hosea marrying a promiscuous woman, an adulterous woman, a woman of whoredom. Uh, we're gonna talk about that.
Seth: A what-have-you.
David: A what-have-you.
Seth: Um, and really the main point that you're gonna take away from this is that God is not only... is, one, willing to enter into an intimate relationship with people who would rather be intimate with anybody else, but that He's g- willing to go to extreme lengths to make people who are promiscuous and adulterous His own.
David: Yeah.
Seth: Uh, and He's gonna do that not with... primarily with... He's not gonna make them His own through anger-
David: Mm
Seth: ... but through alluring.
David: Right, wooing.
Seth: Wooing.
David: Yeah.
Seth: And God-
David: Being attractive to
Seth: ... being attractive to somebody who doesn't want it.
David: Yeah.
Seth: And I- I think that's kinda like the po- most powerful thing, the way that God pictures Himself.
David: Yeah.
Seth: Like, you have this woman who doesn't want anything to do with her husband, and the husband faithfully, long-sufferingly, costly-
David: Yeah, woos his wife back
Seth: ... woos his wife back.
David: Yep.
Seth: And that's the picture of God we get in Hosea 1 through 3.
David: It's gonna be beautiful. I'm excited to jump into it.
Seth: Yes. [clears throat]
David: So, um, in Hosea 1, we're introduced to-
Seth: Let's, let's pause.
David: Oh, yeah. Go ahead.
Seth: So then just, like, think about that. If you don't feel lovely-
David: Mm
Seth: ... you feel you have not measured up, if you feel like you can't... like, if God shouldn't love you-
David: Mm-hmm
Seth: ... it's-
David: This book is for you
Seth: ... this book is for you.
David: Yeah.
Seth: Like, it's, it's for you, and particularly if you've experienced sexual brokenness in your past.
David: Yes.
Seth: Like, there is a reason why there's such intense sexual metaphors used throughout Hosea, because Israel was sexually broken along with spiritually broken.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: Like, if you have experienced, are experiencing those things, this book is for you.
David: I'll take the prophetic other side to that coin.
Seth: Yes.
David: If you do not think that you are a harlot-
Seth: [laughs] Yeah
David: ... if you think that you and God are fine and that you've never done anything to offend God's love and jealous sensibilities towards you, and that, you know, you go to church, you do your things, God would never, you know, feel like I have undivided allegiances toward him, Hosea might be for you, too.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Because that is the situation that Israel has found herself in.
Seth: Israel doesn't believe she's a whore.
David: Right, and the whole point of H- of Hosea is to prove that she is. And so, like, first and foremost, we all need to be broken [laughs] by this book and see ourselves as harlots.
Seth: Yes.
David: Be- yeah.
Seth: Even if you've been a Christian for your whole life-
David: Yes
Seth: ... you... and, like, confessing daily with groups of people, like, I think there's so- we miss something of the character and nature and heart of God when we don't try to embody for ourselves, like, the category of whore- [laughs]
David: Mm-hmm
Seth: ... um, so that we can experience the category of God's lo- like, loving-
David: Yes
Seth: ... husbandly affection.
David: Right.
Seth: Like-
David: The, the, yeah, the dawn sh- you know, comes in brighter after the darkness.
Seth: Yes.
David: You know, we need to know how lost and broken and dark we were in, in order for God's love to shine out as, like, astounding and baffling as it is.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Yeah.
Seth: So that's why you should be into Hosea 1 to 3.
David: Definitely.
Seth: Uh, verse one kinda gives us Hosea's resume.
David: Yep.
Seth: And he lists a number of kings, and those kings, if you added up all their years, are 105 years-
David: Mm-hmm
Seth: ... between the first and the last one. So that doesn't mean Hosea was a, a prophet-
David: There from day one of the first kings to, to the last day of the last king
Seth: ... but he was part of the administration of all those kings, and this is during Israel's golden age.
David: Yep.
Seth: So Israel's at the height of her power, but also the height of her sexual promiscuity and her idolatry.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: And Hosea is speaking to all these different kings about the same message, calling Israel to repent before Assyria comes-
David: Right
Seth: ... and wipes them out.
David: Yeah, and through i- and hopefully, you guys have already listened to the introduction, uh, episode, but if not, to remind you that, uh, uh, Hosea is in the Northern Kingdom.
Seth: Yes.
David: Uh, Israel's been fractured into two kingdoms, the 10 tribes of the North. Uh, so whenever you read the, the words Israel, we're talking about the Northern Kingdom that is now under the threat of Assyria, and this is the one that has been plagued by idolatry from day one.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: But then you also have the Southern Kingdom, which is called Judah, um, and you'll come across that, and that's, like, the tribe of Judah.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: And an, uh, the other tribe, what's the other tribe [laughs] that was down there?
Seth: Benjamin.
David: Benjamin [laughs] with them, and that's where the temple was. That was Jerusalem.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: Um, and so, uh, another, another strange word you'll come up against, um, is Ephraim.
Seth: Oh, yeah.
David: Yeah, Israel in Hosea, i- in a lot of the minor prophets, is called Ephraim, and whenever you see Ephraim, that's also referring to the northern tribe of Israel, the northern part of Israel.
Seth: So-
David: So anyway
Seth: ... the first words, the prophecy of Hosea are this, verse two, "When the Lord spoke, uh, first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, 'Go take yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.'"
David: Yep.
Seth: So-
David: That's like a summary of the whole book
Seth: ... a good summary of the whole book. And so the most important thing to note there is the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: Primary sin is not sexual in nature-
David: No
Seth: ... although it is sexual often. The primary sin of the land is choosing to love other gods more than the Lord.
David: That's right.
Seth: It's the primary thing. And so the first thing is what does Hosea actually do here?
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: So a lot of the other prophets throughout the Bible will do these sign acts.
David: Yes.
Seth: They do things with their body or publicly.
David: Isaiah walked around naked for, like, years.
Seth: Uh, Ezekiel burns his own-
David: Beard
Seth: ... beard.
David: And hair.
Seth: Like, and so, like-
David: Yeah, laid on his side for, like, 400-something days. Yeah.
Seth: And they do this to incarnate or represent the spiritual state of the nation.
David: Mm-hmm. And, like, we're familiar with it. It's like performance art, you know-
Seth: Yep
David: ... nowadays. You know, it's like someone does, like, a Banksy art installation where they're, like, trying to make a statement through some really evocative piece of art in the middle of London.
Seth: Yeah. Yes.
David: Yeah.
Seth: You hear about that, like, monolith that appeared in the desert?
David: Yes.
Seth: Like, something like that.
David: Yeah, something like that.
Seth: I was, I was like, "I've never..." Like, what if there was a Christian Banksy, like, somebody, like, prophetically speaking to the nations through, like-
David: Yeah
Seth: ... secret art? Anyway.
David: There's, I think there's people doing that.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Yeah.
Seth: So that's, that's what he's doing.
David: Right.
Seth: And this, uh, prophetic act is to marry a woman of whoredom.
David: Yes.
Seth: So there's, like, a lot of scholarship on, like, who is the woman of whoredom.
David: Yeah, what does that mean?
Seth: Is she a prostitute?
David: Yeah, from one of the Baal, like, temple courts.
Seth: Is she just a regular prostitute?
David: Yep.
Seth: Is she, uh, just an adulterous woman?
David: Yeah, who has ha- Is that, like, who has had affairs in the past, you mean?
Seth: Yes. Yes, like, was married, had an affair.
David: Got divorced.
Seth: Husband divorced her.
David: Stuck with some kids now.
Seth: Yes.
David: Yeah.
Seth: Or is she just-
David: A, a, a known promiscuous woman.
Seth: Yeah.
David: It's like, oh, if you married her, she would totally cheat on you.
Seth: Yes.
David: Yeah. [laughs]
Seth: And then the other, there's other scholarship saying that this woman was just a normal, good woman-
David: Yes
Seth: ... and then who goes bad-
David: Later on
Seth: ... over the course of the Book of Hosea.
David: Right. Ultimately, it doesn't m... I, it matters.
Seth: It matters.
David: I don't wanna, I don't wanna say biblical facts don't matter. They absolutely matter, but the point of this book is not Hosea's story. [laughs] The point of the book is Israel's story.
Seth: And Hosea is ma- is, this marriage is supposed to be a representation-
David: Right
Seth: ... of that larger national story.
David: Yeah. Yes.
Seth: So however the details work out-
David: Yeah
Seth: ... is less important than what they represent and mean.
David: Right. S- for Seth and I, we'll give you our, how we read it. Um, take it with a grain of salt. Um, this is just how we'll refer to the story from now on probably.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And that is that this woman named Gomer, um, was most likely already married in the past.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: Cheated on her husband, had an adulterous affair, and was therefore correctly divorced-
Seth: Mm-hmm
David: ... you know, by that husband and left with some children from her adulterous affair.
Seth: And then Hosea comes and marries this woman and adopts her children as well.
David: Right. And you have to think about this. If that, if this was the situation, uh, I mean, that's a bad situation for a woman to be in. It would be a scandalous thing for Hosea to marry her.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: Um, and it would be-
Seth: So much so that-
David: ... an expensive thing.
Seth: Yes.
David: Yeah.
Seth: Yeah, of, all those reasons.
David: Yeah.
Seth: So much so that a lot of scholars today say that Hosea couldn't have married her.
David: God would've never asked him to do such a scandalous thing.
Seth: Right. Like, uh, no, I think he would have-
David: Yeah
Seth: ... to prove the point he's making, which is-
David: His love is scandalous. [laughs]
Seth: ... which is that Israel has committed such great spiritual adultery, it means that the personal life of Hosea needs to become intertwined with a woman of whoredom-
David: Yeah
Seth: ... along with her children.
David: Right.
Seth: I, I could also see it being an actual prostitute.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: Like, I don't, I don't think there's any reason why you couldn't read it that way. We're just not given enough information-
David: Yeah
Seth: ... besides the word whore-
David: Right
Seth: ... which has a whole range of meanings.
David: It's a big range of meanings.
Seth: Like, and this, like-
David: Yep
Seth: ... it just-
David: Like, like, yeah, like I said in the, in the introduction episode, uh, we're told that Israel whored after goat demons.
Seth: Yes.
David: They didn't have sex with goat demons. They weren't real. Like-
Seth: Right
David: ... you know, they weren't physical things. They were spiritual things. So it's just like, it, it has such a wide semantic range in the Old Testament-
Seth: Yeah
David: ... that, uh, it's, uh, we can't just say whore equals prostitute.
Seth: Yes.
David: Uh, but it, it could've been.
Seth: There could, there... We just don't have enough evidence to say.
David: We don't have enough evidence.
Seth: The point, though, is that there is a person-
David: Yep
Seth: ... who is, has been sexually adulterous-
David: Yes
Seth: ... and God has asked Hosea to marry her as a symbol of God's marriage to his own adulterous people.
David: Right. So, like, yeah, uh, I think Israel, if they were, if they were going to, uh, if they would have, like, publicly demonstrated what they thought their relationship with God looked like-
Seth: Mm-hmm
David: ... it would've maybe just been a marriage.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Like, a normal, good, white-picket-fence, nuclear-family marriage, you know? And it's like, "And we're cool with each other."
Seth: Yeah.
David: And he's like, "No, let me show you what our relationship's actually like. It's this scandalous relationship between a man of renown, you know, a prophet of God-
Seth: Yeah
David: ... who sits in the courts of kings, who goes and slums it with, uh, a whore."
Seth: Yes. [laughs]
David: "That's what I am. I am the God-"
Seth: Yeah.
David: "... the King of Kings, who I'm slumming it with a whore whenever I'm hanging out with Israel."
Seth: Yes. [laughs] I had my-
David:Which is so intense.
Seth: It's so intense. I like... In my mind, I picture it like Hosea going to a brothel-
David: Yes
Seth: ... finding a woman in a room with her children, and then bringing them out of the brothel.
David: Yeah.
Seth: That's kinda how I pic-
David: That's how I've always pictured it, too
Seth: ... uh, so I like... And I, there again, I'm, that's a little bit of imagination I'm using.
David: It is, yeah.
Seth: But the scandal of that-
David: Yes
Seth: ... is what you're meant to feel from this.
David: That's right.
Seth: Um, so immediately then, so that's what God's asked Hosea to do. He, uh, then also has children.
David: Yeah. Oh, hey, just-
Seth: Oh, sure
David: ... I'm just trying to add to the scandal a little bit.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Like, another biblical story that we're familiar with that kind of, like, hints at the scandal is think about Mary and Joseph, Jesus's m- mother.
Seth: Mm-hmm
David: ... right, where it's like- She finds out she's pregnant, and Joseph, even though he's a man of renown, wants to do it the right way, decides to divorce her quietly. Because, like, to be involved with an adulterous woman was just so full of shame, you know-
Seth: Yeah
David: ... that like-
Seth: Yeah
David: ... anyway, I was just like-
Seth: There's parallels between this story and, and the gospel story-
David: Yeah [laughs]
Seth: ... already.
David: Yeah.
Seth: So, um, yeah, it's a good-
David: Yeah
Seth: ... it's a good point.
David: It's very scandalous.
Seth: So, and then immediately they have children. So remember, he's adopted the whore's children.
David: Yes.
Seth: And now he's having biological children with Gomer, and each one of his children is now also a prophetic sign to the people of Israel.
David: Yeah, they, uh, yeah, God, God, God gives them some weird names. I, I, I, um, I, I had a, I had a Hebrew professor in my undergraduate, and he, he said that he would give us an A, an automatic A in our Minor Prophets class if we named any of our children these three names. [laughs]
Seth: [laughs]
David: Obviously, none of us did-
Seth: Obviously
David: ... once, once you hear their names.
Seth: Uh, so the first one requires the most explaining, so I'll come back to it.
David: Okay, yeah.
Seth: But the, the firstborn is called Jezreel.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: This, and, uh, and the second one is named No-Mercy.
David: Yes.
Seth: Because God says, "I will have no more mercy on the house of Israel to forgive them at all."
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: Um, "I will not save them." Uh, wait, I'll get that. So first, second child's named No-Mercy.
David: Lo- Lo-Ruhamah.
Seth: Ooh, I don't know the Hebrew.
David: Yeah.
Seth: And then the f- the final child's named Not-My-People.
David: Yeah.
Seth: And the reason-
David: Lo-Ammi
Seth: ... uh, the reason No- Not-My-People should feel scandalous in and of itself is that when God made his covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai, the way they sealed the covenant, the way that, like, their I dos in the marriage ceremony-
David: Mm-hmm
Seth: ... was, "I will be your God-
David: Yep
Seth: ... and you will be my people." And all the people said-
David: Yes. Amen
Seth: ... "Amen, you will be our God, and we will be your people."
David: Yep.
Seth: It's how the relationship with God started was with these words.
David: It's, "I now pronounce you husband and wife."
Seth: Yes.
David: And this is God saying, "I will not be your husband. You will not be my wife."
Seth: Yes.
David: Yes.
Seth: And then he, the second name is No-Mercy.
David: Yep.
Seth: Like, which is kind of like, I was... I think, like, there's a difference between being-
David: Merciless
Seth: ... yeah, merciless. Like, "I will be merciless to you."
David: Right.
Seth: "I will have... Like, I will give you what you're owed-
David: Yeah
Seth: ... is one thing."
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: Which makes sense.
David: Yeah.
Seth: "I will be merciless towards you"-
David: Right
Seth: ... is another. Really shocking. And then the name Jezreel-
David: Mm-hmm
Seth: ... kind of does all of that, but with like, Jezreel is a place.
David: Yeah, this, this just pulls on a bunch of historical threads for people. The be- and I know you'll go to the story, uh, but to, like, set up the evocative char- like, uh, kind of character, uh, it would be like saying, like, "I'll, I'll name you Pearl Harbor."
Seth: Yeah.
David: Yeah.
Seth: Something like that, yeah. So the story is actually a really important story to understanding the Book of Hosea in general. It's about Ahaz and, um, Jezebel.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: So they were s- pretty bad kings. Uh, I think the way that, um, the Book of Kings describes them in six- 16:31 says this, "Ahab," not Ahaz, "Ahab did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him as if it were a light thing to walk in the sins of Jeroboam"-
David: Oh my goodness
Seth: ... who up to that time was-
David: Was the worst
Seth: ... the worst of the worst because it was Jeroboam who erected the golden calves.
David: Both of them.
Seth: Both the golden calves. Like, he was, like, the worst possible king.
David: Yep. Every time up to that point, uh, whenever northern kings would be evil, it would say, "And they, they did evil like their father, Jeroboam."
Seth: He-
David: He was the paradigm until Ahab. [laughs]
Seth: And then he's so evil, it was a light thing for him to walk... He made evil look effortless.
David: Oh my gosh.
Seth: That's Ahab. And so Ahab and Jezebel, his wife, are responsible for setting up Baal worship-
David: Mm-hmm
Seth: ... in Israel. And if you wanna understand what, how gross that is, go, go listen to the-
David: Go back to the introduction podcast, the PG-13 episode.
Seth: Yeah. [laughs] It's pretty, maybe a little higher than PG-13. [laughs]
David: NC-17.
Seth: It's pretty intense. Um, and then you probably know the story of Ahab murdering a man, Naboth, for his vineyard.
David: Oh, right, yes.
Seth: That happens in the Valley of Jezreel, his vineyards in Jezreel.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: So you have this, like, you have a connection between evil kings and Jezreel, uh, where a king is just murdering a man for grapes.
David: Yep.
Seth: Senseless evil embodies his reign in this place called Jezreel. And when Elijah comes to him and rebukes him for this, he tells him that Ahab's kingdom will be destroyed in the Valley of Jezreel.
David: Right.
Seth: And then that happens.
David: Yes.
Seth: A, the King Jehu comes in and is running Ahab's army to the ground.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: And the final stronghold is in the city of Jezreel-
David: Mm-hmm
Seth: ... or in the Valley of Jezreel. And I don't know wh- I think Ahab has died by this point in the battle, or he's run away. I forget. Uh, oh, yeah, he dies, and he leaves the kingdom to his wife and his son.
David: Right.
Seth: His wife and his son flee to the city, and they're kinda cornered there. Jehu's army has surrounded them, and she's in this tall tower-
David: Mm-hmm
Seth: ... in the middle of the c- city. The men come, slaughter everybody, and then when they come up to the tower, you have this really weird narrative detail where Jezebel is putting on makeup and a wig.
David: Really strange.
Seth: Really strange narrative detail. And then they push her out the window.
David: Whoa.
Seth: Her blood, we're told, it spatters against the wall. Dogs eat her body.
David: Oh, which was another part of Elijah's prophecy.
Seth: Which was another part of Elijah's prophecy. [laughs] And they-
David: Mm
Seth: ... use her body as manure on the fields of Jezreel.
David: Goodness.
Seth: That is the story of Jezreel. It's this place of intense judgment against Israel's sins. And the reason why I bring up the thing about her dressing herself up is because the way that their story reads, you think Jezebel wants to go out with the dignity of a queen.
David: Mm.
Seth: She knows she's about to lo- to, to, um, to die.
David: Yeah.
Seth: So she's gonna go out with the dignity of a queen. But what's funny is as Jehu comes towards Jez- uh, Jezreel-
David: Mm-hmm
Seth: ... he says, "I'm doing this because of the whoring of-"Jezebel.
David: Right.
Seth: She's-
David: She's not a queen, she's a whore
Seth: ... she's dressing herself up like a whore.
David: Yeah.
Seth: So Je- [laughs] so that's Jezreel.
David: Mm.
Seth: So God is-
David: You are-
Seth: ... naming-
David: Yeah, he's saying, "I'm naming this first child of this adulterous woman and Hosea, I'm naming their first child, um, after a place where, um, somebody, a woman who's pretending she's a queen is killed like a whore."
Seth: Yes.
David: And that's kind of Israel. [laughs]
Seth: Yes. And he-
David: Not kind of
Seth: ... and he-
David: It's exactly
Seth: ... predicts that that will happen again-
David: Right
Seth: ... at the valley of Jezreel. And I, I think, like, it'll, it'll happen again.
David: Yeah.
Seth: That's gonna happen again to Israel.
David: Okay.
Seth: So the names of the children, so the marriage itself represents whoredom, Israel's spiritual adultery.
David: Yep.
Seth: The names of the children represent what will happen to Israel and how God will treat Israel.
David: Okay. So, okay, let me try to recap.
Seth: [laughs]
David: Not necessarily the, the, what Hosea did, but let me, let me try to... 'Cause I think we can... It's a very evocative metaphor, you know?
Seth: Yeah.
David: And I think it's, it, it inhabits our imagination really easily. Like, a man marrying an adulterous woman, having children with her, adopting her, you know, adulterous children-
Seth: Yeah
David: ... is, like, easier to connect with than a lot of things in the Bible. But the bigger and more important thing is what this metaphor represents-
Seth: Mm-hmm
David: ... which is the spiritual reality in Israel that God's trying to convince them of. And so what you're saying is, in the first chapter of Hosea, God is saying that being in a covenant relationship with Israel, being Israel's God is like being married to a whore.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: Right?
Seth: Yep.
David: Um, and so here's what's gonna happen. Um, I'm going to judge you like I did Jezebel.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: I'm gonna not have mercy on you, and you're not gonna be my wife anymore. You're not gonna be my people anymore.
Seth: Yeah. Another way you could say it, it's like his, um, his son is, uh, named Not My People.
David: Right.
Seth: So it's like you're, like, I think we said it in the last pod, like, the, it's a bastard son.
David: Yeah.
Seth: Like, you are, that's who you are to me now.
David: Yeah.
Seth: You're worth nothing to me.
David: Yes. Yep. Okay. That's a, that's a upper.
Seth: It's an upper.
David: [laughs]
Seth: And that's the beginning of Hosea's prophecy, and it really kind of forms, like, everything, like, the central metaphors for the whole thing. And then, for no reason whatsoever, verse 10, "Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people', it shall be said to them, 'Children of the living God.' And the children of Judah and the children of Israel," so the two divide- the divided nation, "will be gathered together, and they will appoint for themselves one head, and they shall go up from the land, for great, for great shall be the day of Jezreel."
David: What? [laughs]
Seth: So right after really starkly portraying this current spiritual condition of Israel, Hosea then says, "But all that will one day be reversed."
David: Yeah.
Seth: "Not my people will be called my people."
David: Yeah.
Seth: Um-
David: The Jez-
Seth: ... Jezreel-
David: Mm-hmm
Seth: ... the place of destruction, will be a place of-
David: Deliverance
Seth: ... deliverance and salvation. And you will receive mercy now, after you have received no mercy.
David: And, but there, there's... And we talked about this in the intro. There's no reason given for this.
Seth: There's no reason.
David: We're told why God is doing all this, why his judgment is coming. It's for their whoredom.
Seth: Yep.
David: We're told why God is divorcing them. We're never told why he's going to have mercy on them.
Seth: Yeah. And that's the way chapter one ends, with this great promise of mercy. It repeats some important things to know. There's verse 10, it repeats the promise God made to Abraham.
David: Right.
Seth: Uh, "Children shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered." That's from Abraham.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: "You are not my people" is the original covenant ceremony back on Mount Sinai. Children of the living God. Like, this is... God's eternal promises are not ending.
David: Nope.
Seth: So I think-
David: He reinvokes the whole covenant.
Seth: He does. And I think one way to say it is that-
David: Renews their vows
Seth: ... he renews their vows.
David: Yeah.
Seth: Yeah, he does. And one way to think about it, too, is, like, this current generation of Israel-
David: Mm-hmm
Seth: ... no mercy.
David: No mercy.
Seth: Not my people.
David: Right.
Seth: Um, you'll experience judgment on Jezreel. But God's eternal promises towards his people-
David: Yes
Seth: ... have not yet ended.
David: Right.
Seth: There's still coming a day when Jezreel will place, be a place of deliverance, and his people will be his people.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: We don't know when that day is yet.
David: Yeah. That is cool. Um, okay. A lot to think about there.
Seth: Yeah.
David: One, just, I'm kinda gonna work backwards [laughs] through the chapter here-
Seth: Mm-hmm
David: ... 'cause we're just on verse 10 right now. Um, uh, but, like, this idea of Jezreel becoming a place of salvation, like a place where whoredom is punished, becoming the valley from which deliverance springs just, like, reminds me of the cross-
Seth: Mm-hmm
David: ... from like a thematic category.
Seth: Yeah.
David: You know, it's like the place where judgment happens ends up being the place where the divided kingdom is restored.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: The one, the one king that a- appoint- is appointed over them-
Seth: Yeah
David: ... reigns.
Seth: Yes.
David: Like, that's what happened on the cross.
Seth: Yeah. Think about this, verse 11. "All the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head."
David: Right. No longer will there be two kings.
Seth: There'll be one king-
David: Yeah
Seth: ... who will do this.
David: Yeah.
Seth: Who is this king? We, he's not mentioned in the Old Testament.
David: Nope.
Seth: It's Jesus.
David: It's Jesus.
Seth: Jesus is the one king who goes to the valley of the cross-
David: Yep, of punishment
Seth: ... of punishment.
David: Where only whores belong.
Seth: He goes outside the city to the crucifixion, a place of shame, and turns something that used to condemn Israel-
David: Mm, mm
Seth: ... used to condemn Jesus, as a place of our salvation and deliverance.
David: Yeah.
Seth: That's, that's Jesus.
David: It's amazing. And then ach- and then achieves all the blessings of the covenant. Now-
Seth: We are his people
David: ... he has chil- yeah, we are his people, and w- he has children without number. How many Christians are there in the world since the, the resurrection of Jesus? We don't know.
Seth: Billions. [laughs]
David: Yeah, we don't know.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Children without number.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Like, the Abrahamic covenant-
Seth: Mm
David: ... has now rung true.
Seth: Yeah.
David: God has been fruitful and is multiplying his people across the face of the earth. Anyway.
Seth: Yeah. This-
David: That's cool.
Seth: It's really cool. And, um-
David: And I also think it's interesting too, like, um, how when we're adopted, you know, we're, like, we're given a new name.
Seth: Yes.
David: You know? Like-
Seth: Oh, oh, I'm so excited you wanna talk about that.
David: [laughs]
Seth: I was gonna talk about it later, but I- we can talk about it now. It'd be amazing.
David: Yeah, I'm just like... I mean, it's here that, you know, are there, is there, are there other renamings?
Seth: In chapter 2:21, um, it's, it kinda repeats the same idea. "And in that day I will answer," declares the Lord. "I will answer, the heavens and the earth will answer. And I will have mercy on no mercy."
David: Hmm.
Seth: "And I will say not, to not my people, you are my people. And he shall say, you are my God."
David: Yeah.
Seth: Uh, so the names are reversed.
David: Yes.
Seth: The names are reversed.
David: And yeah, and it's just like we, we have these names on us now, you know. Um, and like this gets picked up in the New Testament.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: You know, like-
Seth: Yeah
David: ... there's-
Seth: Revelation 2:17.
David: Yeah. Right. Yes.
Seth: Says, "I will also give you a white stone with a new name-
David: Right
Seth: ... written on it known only to the one who receives it."
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: And I thought about that verse a lot.
David: Hmm.
Seth: Why do you need a name that nobody else knows-
David: Hmm
Seth: ... except the Lord? Like, why do you need that?
David: Oh, man. I don't know.
Seth: I think because, and this is a little bit of imagination-
David: [laughs]
Seth: ... but because nobody else knows the names you call yourself in the dark before you go to bed.
David: Hmm.
Seth: Like, God knows you need a name that re- can, like, reverse everything you and other people say about you. And even God can say about you. And in Jesus, you get that reverse named.
David: Hmm.
Seth: Like, like that reverse name. You know, like, we all wanna be named by somebody, and we wanna know that what they're calling us is, like, our true self. I think that's why we love personality tests.
David: Totally.
Seth: Right? It's like-
David: I'm an INFJ.
Seth: I'm an INFJ. I'm an Enneagram nine. I'm a Ravenclaw. Like, I want that.
David: I've been given a na- a name.
Seth: I- people know me. I'm known-
David: I'm known
Seth: ... by this thing.
David: Hmm.
Seth: And then finally, one of the blessings of heaven is that we are given the name that perfectly matches who we are.
David: Hmm.
Seth: And I think for our whole lives, we're looking for that name. Who are we really?
David: Yeah.
Seth: What am I?
David: What does it mean to be David? [laughs]
Seth: What does it mean to be me?
David: Yeah.
Seth: And then one of the promise... And then we get all these names thrown on us, the names we call ourselves, the names-
David: Yep
Seth: ... people other call us.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: The-
David: Good and bad
Seth: ... the names that the Bible even will tell us of, of our own sin.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: And then God will one day give us a personal, intimate name that only He and I know, and it's the final name we'll ever need to hear.
David: Hmm. Yeah, it's so good. I also lo- like, Jesus, like, called people by name.
Seth: Yes.
David: You know, it's like a normal thing that Jes- like, Jesus would do. And it was like, for Mary at the tomb, she thought Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, was the gardener-
Seth: Mm-hmm
David: ... until he said, "Mary."
Seth: Yeah.
David: And then she said, "Oh, Rabbi."
Seth: Yeah.
David: "I know who you are now," you know. It's like there's something about God calling us by name that shakes something loose.
Seth: Or think about Peter.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: He was Simon before.
David: Yep.
Seth: Or Caiaphas.
David: Yep.
Seth: And he renames him.
David: Cephas.
Seth: Cephas.
David: Yeah.
Seth: Caiaphas was his Greek-
David: Yeah
Seth: ... Hebrew version.
David: Yeah.
Seth: Uh, he renames him. Why? Because Peter is who h- God had meant him to be.
David: Right.
Seth: Like, there's something really powerful about renaming.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And, and it happens all the way back in the Abrahamic Covenant.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: Like-
Seth: Abraham was renamed
David: ... he w- he was Abram, you know, father.
Seth: Oh, yeah.
David: You know, then he's like Abraham, father of many.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Yeah. It's like, I'm gonna tell you who... You thought you would be a dad, but did you know you'd be the dad of the whole world? You know? [laughs] You know, it's like-
Seth: Yeah, yeah.
David: Anyway, that's really cool. Yeah.
Seth: Yeah. There's-
David: The gospel takes who we were and who we think we are-
Seth: Mm
David: ... and makes us something new and tr- transforms our identity into something better.
Seth: And why? Because He loves us.
David: Because He loves us. There wa- no reason at all.
Seth: There's no reason given for why God will do this except that He loves us. [gentle music]
David: Okay, so we have met Gomer. Have we ever said her name yet?
Seth: I think we did.
David: Yeah, I think we did.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Yeah, so Gomer, uh, Hosea's wife. We've met, uh, her, their, their, the three children of their marriage, which-
Seth: The sign children
David: ... they're sign children. They're great names.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: You know, Jezreel, No-Mercy, and Not-My-People.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Uh, this, they just roll off the tongue, you know.
Seth: They really do.
David: Uh, they sounded better in Hebrew, or maybe-
Seth: They did sound better
David: ... they sound worse. I don't know.
Seth: [laughs]
David: But, um, anyway, but now we're gonna kind of, uh, we're, we're also gonna get introduced to her children of whoredom.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Right?
Seth: So remember, she, Hosea married Gomer-
David: Mm-hmm
Seth: ... and adopted the children that she had.
David: Yep.
Seth: And now the sign children, the children with the prophetic names about Israel's future-
David: Mm-hmm
Seth: ... we're now told that they speak to their stepbrothers and sisters and ste- speak to their mother.
David: Right.
Seth: So verse two, verse one, "Say to your brothers, 'You are my people,' and to your sisters, 'You have received mercy.' And plead with your mother. Plead because she is not wi- my wife, and I am not her husband."
David: Hmm.
Seth: So the idea is Hosea's children are now enacting the call to repentance of their prophet father.
David: Right.
Seth: Does that make sense?
David: Yes.
Seth: They're, they're an extension of his prophetic ministry, calling the children of whoredom and the wife of whoredom to return to their husbands.
David: Mm-hmm, which is what, which is what Hosea, in large, is doing for the people of Israel.
Seth: Yes.
David: He is the, the prophetic child-
Seth: Yes
David: ... speaking to the whorish children of Israel-
Seth: Mm-hmm
David: ... and the mother of Israel, Israel itself, corporate Israel-
Seth: Yes
David: ... saying, "Repent."
Seth: Yeah.
David: "Turn."
Seth: The, the, the, the, the metaphor is kinda stack on top of each other.
David: They do, yeah.
Seth: But the basic message is the same. It's God is calling His rebellious wife, His adulterous bride to come back and to be with Him-
David: Mm-hmm
Seth: ... and to be intimate with Him.
David: Right.
Seth: That's, that's the message.
David: Yeah, while, while at the same time, like, doubling down on the shocking message to Israel that they're actually being adulterous.
Seth: Yes.
David: Right?
Seth: Yes.
David: Like, she, she needs to repent because she is a whore. Like-
Seth: Yes
David: ... I think that's the thing that is also, like, like, people w- people don't repent when they don't think they're wrong.
Seth: Yeah, they think they're doing nothing wrong.
David: Right. And so, like, this whole thing, I think, is constantly trying to throw in their face like, "You're doing something wrong
Seth: Yep. And so the rest of this section is, it's a poem, or it's a, it's at least framed like a poem in your Bible. It has verses and stanzas and it's about the judgment that God will bring to people who have broken God's covenant.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: This is the place where Hosea is now repeating the curses from Deuteronomy and Leviticus.
David: Right.
Seth: In Deuteronomy and Leviticus, God lays out the law and the blessings that they will get if they obey the law, and all the curses that will happen if they don't ob- obey the law. And one of... Like, a really simple one was, like, your land won't produce the crops that it used to.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: And so-
David: The very thing that you were going to Baal to achieve
Seth: ... is not gonna happen anymore.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: And so the central metaphor for chapter two is, like, this barren wilderness. Israel will become-
David: Mm-hmm
Seth: ... a barren wilderness because of her adultery.
David: Yeah.
Seth: She's leaving the God of life and fertility for a false god of life and fertility, and they're gonna... It's gonna be proven to be false by the fact that Israel's desolate.
David: She goes into a place of infertility.
Seth: Yep.
David: Yeah.
Seth: So verse three, "I will strip her naked, and I'll make her as she was in the day she was born. I'll make her like a parched land and kill her with thirst."
David: Yeah.
Seth: Like, he's making Israel into the desolated wilderness that they're trying to avoid.
David: Yeah, I'll make her l- into a wilderness. Like, the wilder- And this is... I think this is important. Like, the wilderness is a really s- like, special, but not in, like, a good way [laughs] you know, necessarily, place in the Bible, in the Biblical story, you know? Like, the, the wilderness is this place of exclusion. It's the place outside the Promised Land.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: It's a way station.
Seth: Yeah.
David: It's not the place you're supposed to be.
Seth: Yes.
David: Um-
Seth: But paradoxically, it's also the place where God meets His people.
David: Yes.
Seth: So there's, like... I mean, verse cha- um, I'm skipping ahead a little bit, but 2:14, "Behold, I will allure her, I will woo her, I will seduce her [laughs] like, and bring her into the wilderness-
David: Right
Seth: ... and speak tenderly to her."
David: Yes.
Seth: Like, the wilderness is a place of judgment-
David: Yeah
Seth: ... but it's also where God meets His people.
David: Well, yeah, and I think the reason why the wilderness here is the place of God's allurement is because it's going back to utter dependence.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: He's like, "I'm gonna rip you out of your Baal context where you, you... I'm providing for you 'cause you're in the Promised Land, you know? Like, that's why your crops are succeeding, 'cause it's me giving it to you."
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: "You think it's Baal, you think it's these fertility gods that are giving it to you, but I'm gonna take you out and make it so you can depend on nothing but me-
Seth: Yeah
David: ... just like you did in the wilderness-
Seth: Mm-hmm
David: ... your ancestors-
Seth: Yeah
David: ... whenever they walked through the wilderness and I provided them with m- with manna and water, you know?"
Seth: Yeah.
David: Like, "I'm gonna do that for you again, and you will know that I am your God."
Seth: Let me, let me just read the whole passage about mercy, 'cause I think it's, it's saying exactly what you're saying. "I will allure her. I will bring her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her." So to think about that for a second.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: When God gave the commands on Mount Sinai, that was Him speaking in love.
David: Yes.
Seth: Him speaking tenderly to His bride. "And there I will give her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope." And if you remember, the Valley of Achor, that's actually in the Promised Land.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: That's where Achan steals one of the devoted things after the Battle of Jericho, and, like, this plague comes.
David: Yeah.
Seth: But it's also, "I will t- make that place of destruction into a door of hope."
David: Kinda like He does with Jezreel.
Seth: Same thing that He does with Jezreel. "And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth," so back when she was in Egypt, "as, uh," the same time when she came out of the land of Egypt. You're supposed to read the metaphor of the wilderness-
David: Mm-hmm
Seth: ... her historical reality of the wilderness, into what's happening right now.
David: Yeah, in the same way they, they, that God took them out of Egypt and their slavery there and, um, their familiarity with the idols of Egypt, the golden calves of Egypt, and stripped them of that and provided for them and brought them into the Promised Land. He's like, "I'm gonna do that for you again. I'm gonna take you out of the Promised Land that's now spoiled with idols, let you depend on me again before I bring you back in."
Seth: Yes.
David: Yeah.
Seth: Into a new Promised Land.
David: Yeah.
Seth: A new creation. Um, yeah, so that's, that's the, uh, that's the central metaphor for chapter two. And then verse seven, we have an interesting kind of, um, a- addition to this curse.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: He says, "So she's gonna pursue her lovers, but not overtake them. She shall seek them, but not find them. And then she shall say, 'I will go and return to my first husband because it was better for me then than now.'"
David: Yeah.
Seth: So a couple things to note. Uh, one, God is going to give them the opposite of the gospel.
David: Yep.
Seth: Uh, what is one of the promises of Jesus? "Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door will be opened for you." Like, "Ask and you will receive."
David: Yep.
Seth: Israel's told, "You won't get that."
David: Right. You're gonna look hard after your lovers. You're gonna run after them.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: But the harder you look, the less you'll find.
Seth: Yeah, the, the law of diminishing returns will rule your life. And what's really interesting, one of the capstone curses in Deuteronomy 28 is this: "The Lord will give you an anxious mind-
David: Mm
Seth: ... eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart."
David: Mm.
Seth: Like, the, the ultimate experience somebody c- uh, who's committing idolatry is gonna be an anxious mind, eyes weary with longer- longing, and a despairing heart.
David: Yeah.
Seth: And he's saying, "I'm gonna give that to you perpetually."
David: A bucket with a hole in it.
Seth: A bucket with a hole in it.
David: Yeah.
Seth: He's like, "There will never be enough for you."
David: Yeah.
Seth: "No matter how often you worship Baal, no matter how much sex you have with the cult prostitutes-
David: No matter how fertile your fields are-
Seth: It's-
David: ... you'll never be satisfied."
Seth: You'll never be satisfied. That's the curse.
David: Yeah, that is the curse, yeah. And yeah, and he, uh, a- and then he says, "And that will make it to where, um, the opposite of what you said in the wil- of what your ancestors said in the wilderness will now come true." 'Cause while they were with God in the wilderness, they were saying, "Oh, that we would've gone back to Egypt."
Seth: Yes, "'Cause it was better for me back in Egypt."
David: It was better in E- He's like, "No, now the opposite's gonna happen. You're gonna be like, 'Oh, that I was back in the wilderness with God.'" [laughs]
Seth: Yes. [laughs]
David: Which is just funny.
Seth: One of the commentators I was pointing out l- was like, was trying to make something a little more of this. I think it's enough to just say, like, he's reversing. It's like the, the, the experience of the curse is meant to bring them back to intimacy with the Lord. But he was saying, like, "This is a mercenary statement. I will go and return to my husband." Why? "'Cause it was better for me over there."
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: It's like a mercenary.
David: Oh.
Seth: And then it's only later that there's this intimate renewal of, like, affection.
David: Yeah.
Seth: I don't think you need that here.
David: Eh. No.
Seth: I think it's enough to say, like-What they used to say in the wilderness about Egypt-
David: Right
Seth: ... will now be said about God.
David: Right.
Seth: It's so beautiful.
David: Yeah, I don't think it needs to be mercenary like the prod- it reminds you of the prodigal son. It is exactly the language-
Seth: [laughs]
David: ... of the prodigal son. It's the sa- it's a quote.
Seth: Is it really?
David: Prodigal son is quoting this.
Seth: Oh, my goodness.
David: Well, at least-
Seth: Basically.
David: Basically.
Seth: [laughs]
David: It's, it's in my... I, I looked it up. It's, it's the same word except it doesn't use the word husband. Oh, so crazy. Yeah, the prodigal son when he's in the pigsty because he's squandered all his wealth, he says like, "I'm gonna go back and be a servant in my father's house because at least there even his servants eat better than I do."
Seth: Yes, it's better for me there than it is out.
David: Oh, that's so cool.
Seth: It's just... At least, at the very least, Jesus is using the same logic.
David: Right. Right.
Seth: There is like, there is a depth of the curse to which you will go-
David: Right
Seth: ... that'll make you long to be back with the Father.
David: Okay, so we're circling the drain on something.
Seth: Okay.
David: Okay. Uh, and I wanna, I wanna, I wanna point something else out w- when we get there. So we're s- we're saying like there's this anxious mind, this bucket with a hole in it.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: Um, this lack of contentment and satisfaction that comes to those who don't love God with their whole heart. To the spiritually adulterous comes anxiety, a lack of contentment, a lack of fulfillment-
Seth: And despair
David: ... and despair, right? Uh, again, that- that's doubled down, but it comes closer to home. It's not existential or economic, um, in verse 11, it's religious. He says, "And I will put an end to all her mirth," her joy, her, you know, celebrations. Uh, where? Where will he get rid of her mirth? Oh, at all her religious parties that she throws, at her feasts, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, all her appointed feasts.
Seth: Hmm.
David: These are the things that God commanded them to do in the Torah.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: And he says, "And, and those have turned into revelries." Like, and they-
Seth: Mm
David: ... it's syncretistic revelries where they're mixing Baal with worship to God, and they're becoming these like parties.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And they were supposed to be parties.
Seth: They were, and they were... but they were supposed to celebrate what God had given them.
David: Yes, exactly right.
Seth: And what's the next verse say? The... What does the whore wife say? "Look at these are my wages, which my lovers have given me."
David: Mm.
Seth: Not God, but the Baals-
David: Yeah
Seth: ... but all these other things. They are-
David: Right. Look at my, look at all my wheat and all my wine. Baal gave this to me.
Seth: And God's saying, "This feast is for me, don't you know that?"
David: Right. And so you can... So God says, "I'm gonna suck all the joy out of those celebrations to where you could throw the biggest party ever, and it's boring to you."
Seth: Mm.
David: "I'm gonna turn your religious observances into perpetual monotony."
Seth: Mm.
David: Uh, it's like, um, Narnia, uh-
Seth: It's awesome
David: ... in whi- The Li- Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, always winter but never Christmas. And it's just like... So I think what we're circling the drain on here is like a symptom of, of spiritual adultery as it's being punished-
Seth: Mm-hmm
David: ... is a sense of just like emptiness-
Seth: Yeah
David: ... and dread and like anxiety.
Seth: Yeah, like the-
David: And like-
Seth: "I will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, despairing heart."
David: Yeah. And I'm just like, I think so many of us can resonate with that.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And it's like, man, I just don't know what to do. I keep going to church, and it's empty.
Seth: Yeah. I was thinking the exact same thing. I'm like, oh yeah, how do I fix that? Like, well, I should just read my Bible more. Like, yeah, you probably should.
David: Yeah.
Seth: But that's not the, that's not the problem.
David: Right.
Seth: The problem is like you've divided your allegiances.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: You love something else alongside God.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: And it's giving you exactly what you want.
David: Yeah. And so what God's doing with that existential dread, with that anxiety, why did God put a hole in your bucket? It's so you might say-
Seth: Do you know that song?
David: ... what they said. There's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza.
Seth: My bucket, dear Liza.
David: Yes, I do.
Seth: I sing it all the time. My kids hate it.
David: Oh, I bet they do.
Seth: They-
David: "Dad."
Seth: That... It's a serious-
David: Yeah. But anyway.
Seth: Anyway. [laughs]
David: The very important point that I was trying to make is why does God allow us to be punished this way? Why does he allow us to experience-
Seth: Mm
David: ... anxiety? And like why does he put this hole in our bucket, dear Liza? It's so we might-
Seth: Tell me, dear Henry.
David: It's so we might say what we've been saying, "I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now."
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: Like, I'm missing something. I need to go back to God.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And so it's like, if you're experiencing a lack of satisfaction, no matter how much satisfaction you pursue, it's because you're ignoring the source of satisfaction itself, God.
Seth: Yeah. And what I love about the message of hope in this section is that God comes to the wilderness where you are.
David: Yeah.
Seth: The wilderness of anxiety and despair that you've created from yourself by your divided affections, that's where God comes to allure you.
David: Yeah.
Seth: That's where he comes to like meet you. He brings you into the wilderness so that that place of despair can turn into a place of hope.
David: That's right. Yep, and how does he do that? He comes to us, "Behold, the voice of one crying from the wilderness, 'Make straight the path of the Lord.'"
Seth: Mm.
David: The- these are some of the last words in our Protestant Bible that tee up the ministry of John the Baptist, who prepares the way for Jesus, who comes to the wilderness-
Seth: Yes
David: ... and proclaims, "Repent because I'm here now. Like, my kingdom is here. The groom is here."
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: Like, Jesus came to us. He didn't have us come to him.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Like, the groom came to us in the wilderness in our sin and bought us back.
Seth: Yeah. He, uh... Even like historically, Israel was still in exile.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: They'd come back to their home, but they were ruled by Rome.
David: Oh, yeah.
Seth: They were in the wilderness still.
David: It was a military state.
Seth: It w- And Hosea's prophecy had not yet come true.
David: They were still waiting on their husband to return.
Seth: So when Jesus comes out of the wilderness-
David: Mm-hmm
Seth: ... and goes to the jo- jo- banks of the Jordan, and John the Baptist is there talking about the wilderness.
David: Yeah, saying, saying, "I'm not the groom. I'm the best man."
Seth: Yeah.
David: "That's the groom."
Seth: That's the groom, and Jesus walks in.
David: [laughs]
Seth: It's this moment.
David: Yes.
Seth: God is calling his people back.
David: Speaking tenderly to them.
Seth: Speaking tenderly to them, and doing what? Healing the sick.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: Raising the dead. Going to prostitutes and tax collectors and sinners-
David: Yep
Seth: ... and calling them to repentance-
David: That's right
Seth: ... and bringing them into his kingdom. [gentle music]Okay, so we also have, uh, this next statement, verse 16, "And in that day when Jesus comes," declares the Lord, "you will call me my husband-
David: Mm
Seth: ... and you will no longer call me my Baal." So Baal could mean husband. It could mean master, Lord-
David: Lord
Seth: ... lowercase G gods.
David: Right.
Seth: Uh, but it was commonly used as the name for her husband too.
David: Mm.
Seth: But God will so thoroughly allure Israel to Himself that she'll forget there's another name husband besides the Lord.
David: Mm.
Seth: Like, when she thinks of husband, all she could think of will be Jesus.
David: Right.
Seth: That's the only way she'll be able to imagine Himself. And, like, what that does is... I think one of the commentators I was reading, like, it robs all the idols of their power.
David: Mm.
Seth: He's not saying the idols will disappear. There will always be idols.
David: Yeah.
Seth: But they will have no power.
David: They have no name.
Seth: They have no name. They have no allure anymore because-
David: What could... Yeah. Uh, it's like I remember when I was in India, walking around, and you'd see shrines to idols. I wouldn't know that idol's name, what it was for, what it's supposed to do. It didn't mean anything to me.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: I was like... I would just be like, "What's that?"
Seth: Yeah.
David: "Oh, it's an idol. Moving on."
Seth: Right.
David: Hadn't, it hadn't... It had, had nothing to offer 'cause it didn't have a name. You know? It had no power-
Seth: Yes
David: ... anyway.
Seth: No, it's a, it's a great point. And it's also that same kinda thinking that tricks people into idolatry in situation like this. Oh, it's just an idol. It doesn't have any power.
David: Hmm.
Seth: I'll just put it in my field anyway.
David: Right, right, right, right, right.
Seth: [laughs]
David: [laughs] Yeah.
Seth: Anyway, and then God says, "And I will make for them a covenant on that day, not with them, with the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the creeping things in the ground, and I will abolish the bow, the sword and war from the land-
David: Mm-hmm
Seth: ... and I'll make you lie down in safety."
David: Yeah.
Seth: This is new creation-
David: Right
Seth: ... imagery.
David: He's walking back through all the days of creation-
Seth: Yes
David: ... here. And if you remember from our introduction podcast, the, the, the, w- the beginning of this harlotry, spiritual adultery theme in the Bible goes all the way back to creation where man and woman were brought together as one flesh to cleave to one another only. Ooh, I just hit the table. [laughs]
Seth: Yeah.
David: I'm so excited. To clean to, to cleave to one another only, and that was a picture of how they were supposed to be with God. But as that relationship broke between man and God and broke between man and woman, so did creation. Creation broke.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And so God is saying, "As you and I come together, the whole world gets remade." [laughs] Like, we get to reenter into paradise, into Eden. A- and, and, like, that is... That's what, like, Jesus earns-
Seth: Jesus comes to do a new creation.
David: Yes.
Seth: Make a new creation.
David: Jesus comes, and He brings us... When Jesus comes out of heaven, as Revelation talks about it-
Seth: Yeah
David: ... um, He comes to us, and He presents us to Himself like a bride-
Seth: Mm-hmm
David: ... holy and spotless.
Seth: Revelation 19. Yeah.
David: And then He comes, and He says, "Behold, I make all things new."
Seth: Mm.
David: Like, as we come to Jesus and are unified with Him, the world gets remade around us. It's why repent and the kingdom of heaven is near go so closely together.
Seth: Yeah. It also reverses the curse that we just heard about.
David: Yes.
Seth: Israel's been made a wilderness.
David: Right.
Seth: And what's God doing? What's the wilderness full of? Wild animals.
David: Yeah. [laughs]
Seth: And so what's God doing? He's taking the destruction, the decreation, the chaos of Israel's life and putting Eden into it.
David: Yeah.
Seth: Just-
David: Turning destruction into domestication.
Seth: Yes.
David: Yeah.
Seth: Like, God... Like, that's what... And we're... And what is a, one of the first promise? One of, one of, one of the ways... Why am I saying the same thing-
David: I don't know
Seth: ... over and over again? [laughs] Jesus talks about making us new creations.
David: Right, right, right.
Seth: Not just the creation that will come on that day, uh, although that's true-
David: Mm
Seth: ... and that's when the beasts of the earth will be, like, made a covenant with, but we too are new creations. Our wildernesses are over in Christ. And then in verse 19, He says, "I will betroth you to me forever."
David: Mm.
Seth: "I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice and in steadfast love and in mercy."
David: [whooshes]
Seth: "And I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord." Um.
David: Oh.
Seth: I was thinking about, like, bride prices.
David: Yeah, yeah.
Seth: Like, really common in Israel's day to pay a b- a bride price. If you go to some... If you want the bride-
David: Right
Seth: ... you pay-
David: Which, which is gonna happen in chapter three
Seth: ... it's gonna happen in chapter three.
David: Yeah.
Seth: And it happens here too.
David: Yeah.
Seth: And the idea is, like, you have to pay something to the father of the bride, and-
David: Mm
Seth: ... that is what it costs to make a woman your wife.
David: Mm. So are you saying that, like, mercy, steadfast love, righteousness, are those the bride price?
Seth: That's, that's, that's what I'm wondering.
David: Mm.
Seth: I'm wondering if what Jesus pays in order to make us His people is like a down payment of righteousness, justice, steadfast love, mercy, and faithfulness.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: And I was just thinking about the ways in which Jesus is all those things.
David: Yeah.
Seth: He is steadfast love. He is faithfulness. He is mercy, and He is justice. And He pays the price for that. He, He, He gives that to us in His life and in His death-
David: Mm, mm
Seth: ... so that we can become His people. Um, I don't know if that's what we're meant to see there, or if it's just the character with which He comes to us. He doesn't come to us mercenarily or greedy to-
David: Right
Seth: ... get something from us.
David: Right.
Seth: He comes to us just because He steadfastly loves us.
David: Right.
Seth: He comes to us just because He's faithful to us. He comes to us just because He's merciful to us.
David: Yeah. And I think that's, like, what we see in this, like, m- in the only other narrative detail, uh, in Hosea, in chapter three. Like, Gomer has again been faithless.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Like, cheated on Hosea, and I, like, now he has to go buy her back again.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: Like, again, the details of the story are confusing, um, but it's actually not... Here, for here, here, it's not expensive.
Seth: Yeah.
David: It's actually not... It doesn't cost that much for him. Uh, it's humiliating, and it still costs.
Seth: Mm.
David: He buys her back to himself, but I think the point of the low cost here, it-
Seth: The low co- What are you talking about the low cost?
David: Oh, so the chapter three, verse, uh, two.
Seth: Oh, I will buy her for 15 shekels.
David: 15 shekels of silver and a homer of-
Seth: Yeah
David: ... whatever that is and barley.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Uh, it's like it's not nothing.
Seth: It's not nothing.
David: But it's actually, like, relatively inexpensive. Um, and the point of that is to show, like, how worthless she is. Like-She doesn't even co- she doesn't even cost that much to anybody
Seth: Yeah, she's not-
David: She's not worth a lot
Seth: ... Jose's not buying her, just to be clear.
David: Oh, right.
Seth: Like, Jose's not buying-
David: No
Seth: ... a wife. He's g-
David: Yeah
Seth: She's joined herself to another lover-
David: Yeah
Seth: ... and the lover says, "I won't let her go unless you pay me something."
David: Exactly. How, well, how, okay, how much is she worth to you? Ah, two bucks.
Seth: Right.
David: It's like, "Oh, really? Here you go."
Seth: Yeah [laughs] entirely.
David: Yeah.
Seth: So it's, it's, this, this, this ridiculous idol lover-
David: Yeah
Seth: ... is treating this woman as nothing, and Jose is willing to pay whatever it takes to bring her back.
David: Right.
Seth: That's the story about-
David: That's the story.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Yeah. But I think what's, what's amazing is that it's like w- we cost a lot for God to buy back, I think is what I'm, I'm getting at here.
Seth: Mm.
David: Is like w-
Seth: Yeah
David: ... it costs a lot to buy us back. How much? Like-
Seth: The price of his son
David: ... the price of the s- his son on the cross.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Um, yeah, that's the bride price.
Seth: Righteousness and mercy and justice. The fulfillment of righteousness-
David: Yes
Seth: ... and steadfast love and mercy and justice is what it takes to make a whore God's wife.
David: That's right.
Seth: And he's willing to pay it-
David: Mm-hmm
Seth: ... in his son.
David: Mm-hmm, yep. And so that's, I mean, so yeah, so that's what happens in chapter three.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: Um, he buys back his wife from this, um, idol adulterer.
Seth: Yes.
David: Um-
Seth: Yeah, w- w- chapter three, verse one. "Go again, love a woman who's loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods in the love of cakes of raisins." Cakes of raisins, nobody knows what that means so as far as I can tell.
David: Yeah, someone I, uh, one of the commentators I read said that it's like a really random, commonplace food that is just like-
Seth: Ah
David: ... they love, they love like, uh, what, what would be like a... I'm trying to think of, what are those little like rice puff-
Seth: Oh
David: ... wafers called or-
Seth: Like the wafer cookies?
David: No, it's like they come in like a sleeve.
Seth: Oh, yeah, the rice-
David: Rice cakes.
Seth: Yeah, rice cakes
David: You know? It's just like they love rice cakes more than me. [laughs]
Seth: They, they literally love anything more than me.
David: [laughs]
Seth: The, the story, though, we think is what happening is that it's Go- Ho- Hosea, God, Israel. [laughs]
David: Yeah.
Seth: Hosea has married an adulterous woman. They've been married for a period of time. She leaves, goes to s- to another man-
David: Mm-hmm
Seth: ... commits adultery to Hosea again.
David: Right
Seth: And then God commands Hosea to go and love her again.
David: Right
Seth: Make her his bride again.
David: Again.
Seth: Which-
David: Pay the price again
Seth: ... again. Like, again, a bride price twice now. Like-
David: Yeah
Seth: ... there's a ridiculous amount of affection going towards this woman who does not deserve it.
David: Yep.
Seth: Um, and so-
David: Yeah, and the reason he gives for why this should happen, why he sh- why he should do this, is because it's representative of the fact that God loves Israel. [laughs] Like what? Like...
Seth: Yeah, it would've-
David: Yeah
Seth: ... been an impressive story if Hosea went to Gomer and said, "This is what Go- like, it's like I still love you."
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: And then to say, "Man, this is what God's like. He loves-"
David: Yeah
Seth: ... "a whoring bride." It's kind of even amazing the order that it happens.
David: Mm.
Seth: God says, "I love Israel this much."
David: Yeah.
Seth: And Hosea, because of God's love for Israel this much, goes and marries somebody who doesn't deserve it. Like-
David: Right
Seth: ... it's kinda like a crazy like ordering of events here.
David: Mm.
Seth: It's not like Hosea is this great person-
David: Right
Seth: ... magnanimously saying, "This is what God is like, everybody."
David: Yeah.
Seth: It's God is so loving towards an adulterous people that it motivates Hosea to obedience-
David: Yeah
Seth: ... to marry a whore twice.
David: Right.
Seth: To pay a bride price twice. To stay married to her despite her adultery twice. It's profound.
David: Yeah.
Seth: The-
David: And yeah, and but their second marriage is not like the first.
Seth: It's not.
David: Yeah. It-
Seth: It's supposed to, it's a representation of Israel's continued adultery after their marriage on Mount Sinai.
David: Right.
Seth: And what happens, uh, verse three, I'll just read it. Um, "And I said to her, 'You must dwell as mine for many days.'" So this is Hosea talking to actual Gomer. "You shall not play the whore or belong to another man, so will I also be to you." Meaning, I won't sleep with you either.
David: Right. We're going into rehab.
Seth: Yeah, like no one's having sex with anybody for a little while. And then verse four said, "Because the children of Israel will dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. And then afterwards, the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king, and they shall come into fear of the Lord to his goodness in the latter days."
David: Right, yeah. Hosea and Gomer are going to remain abstinent for a little while-
Seth: Mm-hmm
David: ... as a, as a prophetic picture of the fact that God is going to force Israel into a spiritual abstinence.
Seth: Yes.
David: Like he's going to remove all the things that she's whored after.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: Like all the Baals, the household gods, even their, their, even the, the trappings of Jewish religion, ephods.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Like even the things that they use to worship him.
Seth: The feast, the new moon feast.
David: The feast, the new moon. The temple itself is going to be inaccessible to them for a period of time, like, like Gomer and Hosea-
Seth: Yeah
David: ... are gonna be abstinent.
Seth: Yeah, Hosea not having sex with his w- wife is representative of the fact that Assyria's gonna come take Israel into exile and make them either worship false gods or not worship them, but like take them away from God's presence.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: The intimacy is withheld from Gomer because God's intimacy with his people is gonna be withheld when Israel's into Assyria.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: That's the point that's being made here.
David: Yeah, and, and I think it's also like, I think we have to remember that, uh, Israel's worship of, of Baal was animated by their worship of Yahweh. And so what I mean by that is when you... It was, it was syncretistic, like they did both. I don't, they, I don't think Israel would've only worshiped Baal.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Right?
Seth: Right.
David: And so when you... Like, that would be, they would, that would be clearly adulterous.
Seth: Yeah.
David: If it... But it's like, no, no, no, Baal is under Yahweh, or however they wanted to spin it.
Seth: Yeah.
David: You know? But like when they are removed from access to Yahweh, they are cut off from the spiritual, and so they are no longer allowed to play the whore-
Seth: Mm-hmm
David: ... even with their false gods.
Seth: Yeah.
David: They are just now cut off. They are now spiritually abstinent.When they're removed from the land
Seth: Yeah.
David: And that's pictured in Hosea and Gomer's-
Seth: Right
David: ... abstinence.
Seth: Um, and that's how chapter three ends-
David: Yeah
Seth: ... with this, uh, promise of a lack of intimacy-
David: Yeah
Seth: ... between God and His people and then the promise that one day it will return.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: And that's... And again, the- there's no reason given for this message of hope.
David: Hope.
Seth: Afterwards, for no apparent reason, the children of Israel will return, and they will seek the Lord their God and David their king, and they shall come in to fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: There's a message of hope that intimacy will be restored when a son of David comes. [laughs] It's Jesus.
David: Yeah.
Seth: [laughs] It's like, "It's Jesus."
David: Yeah. Yeah, Jesus comes as the husband and the king-
Seth: Mm-hmm
David: ... right, to bring His people back out of this sexual abstinence or this, uh, spiritual abstinence-
Seth: Mm-hmm
David: ... where they can now be intimate with God again. They can have... They can know their husband, you know. And I think, I think it's really interesting that 1 Corinthians, um, links sexual abstinent- abstinence with pursuit of God.
Seth: Oh, yeah, like a husband and wife abstain for a little while for prayer.
David: Right.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Yeah, it's like don't, don't... Stop having sex altogether, but, you know, you might wanna fast from sex for a little while just to commit yourselves to prayer.
Seth: Mm.
David: Because it's like there's this analog-
Seth: Mm-hmm
David: ... that, like, the, the... what we, what we search for and often get in good sexual intimacy between husband and wife is an, is a lesser, a shadow, like, an analog of-
Seth: Mm
David: ... what intimacy with God is. Like, it's better.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Like, and, and it feels weird to talk about-
Seth: Yeah. But I mean-
David: ... intimacy with God like sex.
Seth: I mean, Paul does it in Ephesians 5.
David: Mm.
Seth: This is the classic-
David: Yeah
Seth: ... classic passage about marriage that we talk about all the time. I'm gonna pull it up while I keep talking. But, um, he says, "The way in which Christ died for the church-"
David: Mm-hmm
Seth: ... is the way that husbands are supposed to treat their wives."
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: And then he says, uh, he says this. Um, "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, to make her holy. And in the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies." Have I missed the verse that I wanna say? Um, oh, here it is. It's the very end. All of this is, uh, "For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother-
David: Mm
Seth: ... and be united to his wife," so he's talking about sex, "and the two will become one flesh." He's talking about sex.
David: Yes.
Seth: "This sex-
David: This sex
Seth: ... is a profound mystery, but I'm talking about Christ and the church."
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: Which has blown my mind every time I, like, really think about it, 'cause I... Oh, like, marriage, husband and wife coming together, this is a picture of Christ and the church.
David: Totally, right.
Seth: When man and woman love each other well.
David: Yeah.
Seth: I mean, what is the ultimate expression of love-
David: Yeah
Seth: ... or a ex- a expression of love-
David: Right
Seth: ... is sex, and he's saying sex is fundamentally a theological act-
David: Right
Seth: ... in which you act out the intimacy God wants to have with His people.
David: Right.
Seth: And [laughs]-
David: Yeah, I mean, and the Bible, the Bible uses this to talk about us being one in Christ.
Seth: Yes, united with Christ, in Christ. Like-
David: Yes
Seth: ... yeah.
David: Like, and, and, and so, like, uh, we don't wanna over-sexualize things-
Seth: No
David: ... but, like, the, the Bible's doing this connection.
Seth: But I do wanna sacralize sex a little bit more.
David: There you go. Yes.
Seth: Like, I mean, like-
David: Right
Seth: ... sex is so, like, taboo in so many ways, and it's a private thing, you know?
David: Yeah. Yeah.
Seth: Like, we should talk about it that way, but we don't think about sex as sacred-
David: Right
Seth: ... because we're so used to pushing it to the side.
David: Yes.
Seth: God has none of those, like, qualms or hangups.
David: And Hosea just forces you to deal with this.
Seth: Yes.
David: Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah, and it's just... it is interesting too, that, like, what will heaven be like? It will be like moving into our h- new house with our husband. It's, it's our marriage. It's our wedding day.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And what will eternity be like? Our honeymoon.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: You know? Like, that's how the Bible ends-
Seth: Yeah
David: ... is with a honeymoon with our husband.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Anyway, that's crazy.
Seth: No, no, I'm like-
David: Yeah
Seth: ... I'm, I'm just, like, trying to, like, process that still.
David: It's a lo- it's a lot. Yeah.
Seth: So why did that matter to, like, somebody right now, to me right now, to you right now? Um...
David: Oh, man. Well, I mean, one... Uh, there's so many things going through my head right now. One is, again, I'm just trying to grapple with this fact of how much God loves me.
Seth: Right.
David: Right? And, like, and then I'm also trying to grapple with the fact that, like, I probably have h- uh, too high of opinion of myself, that He loves me because, like, I'm, I'm-
Seth: I'm a good guy
David: ... I'm a good guy.
Seth: Yeah.
David: He wants to love me.
Seth: I work hard. I do stuff.
David: Right. It's like, no-
Seth: Make YouTube videos
David: ... I'm a whore.
Seth: [laughs]
David: And He loves me s-
Seth: Yeah
David: ... and He lo- He loves me, and He's jealous for me. So I'm, like, still thinking about all that. Um, but then, like, there is just such great hope and joy bound up in this message that Jesus is our husband that, like, wants to satisfy us forever, that wants to, like, to, to steal me away and lure me away-
Seth: Mm
David: ... from the existential dread and anxious mind and bucket with a hole-
Seth: Yeah
David: ... that my whole life experiences. [laughs] And, like, in Him, there's fullness of joy, and at His right hand are pleasures forevermore. Like, I don't know.
Seth: Mm. Yeah.
David: I think it matters to me right now because I need hope every second. I need that hope every second-
Seth: Mm
David: ... to allow my heart to be allured away from so many things that I wanna love every day and trust every day, even a little bit.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And to, like, throw myself back on the love of m- my ultimate husband, Jesus, I mean, my ultimate love, my ultimate partner.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Like, you know.
Seth: Have we ever talked about the, uh, the rose on the podcast?
David: We have. Yeah.
Seth: We have. I think it bears repeating.
David: Yeah, it's fine. Yeah.
Seth: Uh, it's like there's, um, at least in... Oh, uh, my church never did this, but-
David: Old pur- purity culture
Seth: ... old purity culture churches, uh, and I think maybe it was a Snickers bar when I was a kid.
David: Oh, sure. Yeah.
Seth: Uh, and the idea is, like, you're having a purity talk at church, and somebody holds up a rosePreacher makes a big deal out of this gorgeous rose. "How beautiful is it? Here, I want you to have it."
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: And then he'd pass it to the next person. "Pass it along." And he keeps talking, and he keeps talking. And by the ti- And he's talking about purity and remaining abstinent and making sure that you're faithful to saving yourself for your spouse or whatever else. And the rose gets back up on stage, and, like, it's been handled by 100 people, right? And he, like... It's falling over. It's cracked. It's falling apart. There's no petals left on it.
David: Yeah.
Seth: And he, and he... The big emotional punch of the sermon is, "See this rose? Who would want a rose like this? This is why you save yourself for marriage."
David: Mm.
Seth: And I remember one preacher just saying, seeing this happening, and it was like, "Jesus wants the rose."
David: Yes.
Seth: "Jesus wants the rose."
David: Jesus loves that rose.
Seth: That's the message of the Book of Hosea, is like, there is no amount of having been handled that God won't pursue you for.
David: Mm.
Seth: Jesus wants the rose.
David: Yeah.
Seth: And I mean, we started with, like, if, like, you're experiencing sexual brokenness, if you have that in your past, that is not a barrier to God's love for you.
David: Yeah, God wants you. He's jealous for you.
Seth: There's no... Yeah.
David: He desires you. God wants the rose.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Yeah.
Seth: That's good. [laughs] Such a good moment.
David: That's good. Okay, that's Hosea 1 to 3.
Seth: Yeah. Next week, we'll be in Hosea chapter 4 and on. Hosea kinda takes a turn in the next few chapters.
David: The n- All the narrative stuff goes away.
Seth: We don't have a lot of narrative details. We have this really powerful imagery, but the rest is just essentially oracles-
David: Yeah
Seth: ... sermons that Hosea gives throughout his lifetime to different people and places. Um, so we're just gonna take a big chunk of those next week and work our way through them.
David: Yep. So thank you guys for joining us, and we will see you next week. [outro music]
Outro: Thank you for listening to the Spoken Gospel podcast. Spoken Gospel is a nonprofit that gives all its resources, like this podcast, away for free because of supporters like you. To help Spoken Gospel in our mission to speak the gospel out of every corner of Scripture and view all our free resources, visit spokengospel.com. [outro music]
