The Power of Love (Hosea 3) - Harvest Kuala Lumpur

Resourced by Eric Weiner

Love is a powerful thing. We all want to be loved. And we’ll even do crazy things in the name of love.

But the reality is that love is never as clean and easy as we want it to be. It never comes without cuts and scars. Because love exists within relationship and relationships are messy. They’re give and take.

When my wife Sarah and I were preparing for marriage, we wanted to invite other people to speak into our lives. People who knew us; who were older, more mature, and could speak godly wisdom into us as we prepared for life together.

I had a mentor at the time who was just so honest. I remember he specifically approached Sarah to tell her, “You know, one day Eric’s going to hurt you.” He didn’t say that to scare her. He wasn’t asking her to reconsider anything. It was just a matter of fact. Like, don’t be naive to that. If it hasn’t happened yet in your young love, it’s coming. It’s going to happen a lot.

Love is painful. It’s messy. It makes us vulnerable. And it’s also difficult to define. Like what is love? Is it a feeling? An emotion? An attitude? And what is it that gives love so much power over us?

One summer I studied abroad in southeast China, and it was such an eye-opening experience for me because it was the first time I had ever been somewhere where the name of Jesus was largely unknown.

That summer, I would often go with friends to this coffee shop. And I’ll never forget it, in the coffee shop was this quote about love that had no context. No frame of reference. It was just there on a random wall in a random coffee shop. Let me put it on the screen for you. It said this:

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Sometimes while we were sitting there drinking coffee, I would almost feel discontent if I didn’t bring it up. I’d point at the wall and ask my friends, “Have you ever seen that before? What do you think about that?” They’d often say, “It’s so beautiful.”

It is so beautiful! But I want to give you your own moment to look at the coffee shop wall – if you will. What do you think about that?

I’ve been slowly trying to nurture this understanding of love inside my heart, and I gotta be honest with you – the more I stare this love in the face, the more I see it lacking in myself.

It’s a beautiful picture of love. It’s a love that says I will assume the best about you. I will expose myself to the worst you have to offer and still draw near. I will want good for you even when you don’t want good for yourself. Even when you give up on me, I will not quit on you.

See, we’re afraid people won’t love us as we are. Or we tell ourselves that we shouldn’t have to change who we are to be loved. But the Bible teaches that while God approaches us as we are, His love doesn’t allow us to stay as we are. God’s love changes us.

Now, as we get into the book of Hosea, God is frustrated. And for good reason. See, the Bible offers many ways to help us understand our relationship with the Lord. God is our Creator. He’s our King. Our Shepherd. Our Father. But in the book of Hosea, God says, “I am your husband.”

God has an exclusive love relationship with Israel. But at this point, His love is being tested because his bride has been unfaithful.

So God has a message for his bride. He says, “Hosea, I want your life to be a testimony of my redeeming love. So go ahead, marry a wife. But know that you’re going to be unequally yoked. Because that’s the condition of your entire community. It’s NOT going to be pretty. And I want you to do this Hosea because I want my people to see what kind of relationship I have with them.”

See, God is using the picture of an adulterous wife to explain Israel’s spiritual condition. They have turned to other gods. They’re serving them and depending on them in a way that is only meant for the Lord. God’s saying, “They’re cheating on me.”

So in Hosea, God is asking a question that maybe we thought He would never ask: Should I quit on my people? Should I leave them?

Would God do that? Does that not go against his love? We’re allowed to walk away from God, but he can’t walk away from us.

I’ve heard so many people say God doesn’t care about – fill in the blank. God doesn’t care. God doesn’t care how I spend my time or what I spend my money on. He doesn’t care what I do, when I do it, or how I do it. God loves me. That’s all that matters. He’ll take me as I am.

But if you were to put those same conditions on any other relationship it would not bear the fruit of intimacy and love. Listen, I can’t even watch a TV show without my wife asking, “Why did you watch that without me?” I can’t even eat a piece of chocolate without my kids being summoned from all corners of the home to ask for some.

God’s love is not a blank check for you to live however you want. When you become a Christian – when you welcome God into your life he wants access to all the rooms in the house. When you enter into a relationship with the Lord you put everything on the table. He has a rightful claim to every area of your life. It’s vulnerable. It’s all out in the open. And he will make beautiful every area of your life.

God will come towards us as is, but he won’t leave us as is.

During the ministry of Hosea, things are bad. One lie of the enemy is that you can enjoy anything in secret. But what you practice in secret will eventually come out in the light. For better or worse. Israel has been unfaithful for so long that they’ve actually walked out on God. So here’s what He does about it:

[CHAPTER 3]: And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.”

2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. 3 And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.”

4 For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. 5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.

God uses the wreckage of Hosea’s marriage to teach us about his unfailing love. Let’s press in.

God’s love is patient.

Things started off so well. Hosea and Gomer got married. They started a family together. They had children. But Hosea’s wife gave in to desire and James tells us when desire conceives it gives birth to sin. And sin opens us up to all kinds of destruction and heartache.

If you’ve ever been up close and personal with someone whose life was spiralling out of control, then you understand how painful this is. It’s often the people closest to us who inflict the most harm.

In this case, Hosea’s wife has been running from one man to the next, and now she’s with another lover. But here we find her at a point where the relationship has run its course. She has become nothing more than a piece of property.

We’re not told all the details why, but this guy wants to sell her and the asking price is low. Her situation is about as ugly and humiliating as it gets.

But don’t miss God’s larger point. He wants sinners to recognize their own fallen condition. A life of sin always promises to fill you with joy on the front end, but leaves you empty and joyless on the back end.

Sin is progressive. It’s destructive. It’s painful. It harms ourselves and those we love. And it’s a rejection of God. To sin is to willfully choose to put our trust in something or someone other than God. It effectively says to God this way of life is better than anything you have to offer.

See, you don’t exist in a state of neutrality. We’re either moving toward God or away from him and stepping into sin is always stepping away from God. The longer you endure in sin, the further away you get.

But look at this, God says in v. 1, “Go again, Hosea…IOW – I want you to be a physical display of my patient love.”

To be patient means to show resolve amidst a difficult situation. While others get irritated or overwhelmed, you remain steady. You become a stabilizing force for good amidst trial.

In verse 1 the Lord says, “Hosea, I want you to love your wife like I love mine.” So he says, “Go again…because every time you sin that’s what I do with you. I go again. And again. And again.

Now, God’s not saying don’t have standards. God says, “Be holy as I am holy.” God has standards.

And we all have our limits. At some point, our love runs out. At some point, the other person’s needs exceed our capacity to give. What then God?

Even for Hosea, he could argue, that what his wife has done gives him grounds for divorce. God, your word says I have legal grounds to take her to court. She has no defense. I can impose punishments on her.

But see, God says, “Yes, you are permitted to take her to court. But you’re not required. And you know, you’re also permitted to show her radical love and Hosea, because I want you to display my love, I’m calling you to lay aside the offenses. We’ll deal with those, but right now I want you to embrace the higher ethic of love.

When God looks at his cheating wife caught in the act, He aches for her. He desires so much more for her, which is why he moves toward her because he knows his love has the power to heal. Instead of condemning her he says, let’s rekindle our love. Let’s start again.

God’s love is patient. It’s long-suffering. His love plays the long game. And notice:

God’s love restores.

In verse 2 Hosea purchases his wife. He’s committed to her. But there’s still more to the equation. That doesn’t solve all their marital problems.

It doesn’t take away the pain and it doesn’t restore trust. She might do it again because she’s broken and sinful. She’s been bought but she hasn’t been cleansed. Hosea’s been kind, but she hasn’t changed.

I’m a child of the 90s. I don’t know if this phenomenon was going on in other parts of the world, but growing up in the 90s Beanie Babies were a big deal. These cute stuffed animals. As these toys were coming out, some marketing genius convinced people that they should collect them because they were going to be worth something someday.

When I was a kid McDonald’s had a line of Beanie Babies you could get with a Happy Meal. So my parents bought Happy Meals for me and my siblings until we each had a complete set. The catch was that these were collectors items and for them to be worth something you had to keep them in mint condition.

Well, fast forward 25-odd years or so and my kids actually found my collection of beanie babies all still in their original packaging in a closet at my parents’ house. And so when my kids took them out and started playing with them for the first time I felt two things at once: (1) they’re getting a childhood experience I did not have and (2) these things are now worthless.

They’ve been taken out of the bag. They’ve been defiled by the dirty fingers of small children. You can put them back in the bag, but you can’t restore their value.

Our sin leads us to believe we’ve been taken out of the bag; that we’ve lost our value and that the only path left for us is one of shame. But God purchases us because he knows what we’re worth and he knows how to recover our value. He purchases us listen – not to get back the same thing. Israel can’t stay as they are. For God to dwell with us he needs to purify us. He purchases us to restore us.

And that’s exactly what we see happening: [3] – And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.”[4] For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods.

There’s a lot that’s happening there. God wants to have a life with his bride. Not the woman who’s trapped in bondage to sin, but the woman who has journeyed down the path of restoration. In context, Hosea is talking about Israel’s exile, and God is saying that their removal from the land is going to have restorative purposes. Renewal is coming.

So the Lord continues this metaphor by saying that just as Hosea’s wife will abstain from all sexual activity for a time – not even with her husband – so will Israel abstain from religious activity for a time – both legitimate and illegitimate. And the purpose is restoration.

The road ahead is going to be painful and costly. But that’s the way of love. Love is work. And there’s a lot to be done. But in the midst of that labor God is saying, I need you to know that our relationship is solid. It’s not in doubt. We’re good.

You need to understand this so you can let the work of restoration run its course. We need to shore up your identity so that you can do the heavy lifting of rooting out lies that gave birth to sin.

What the Lord is saying to us is that he wants to rebuild our lives together. You’ve been purchased by the blood of Jesus. You’re no longer a captive to sin. You belong to the Lord, and he wants you to find your identity in him alone. You’re secure. You can draw near. Now let the gospel have its full effect in your life.

You’ve been living in these lies of fear and shame for too long. You’ve been acting under the belief that if people knew the depths of your heart they wouldn’t love you. And so you hide parts of yourself to gain the approval you’re so desperate for. But the Lord is saying, when you were long gone and dead in your sin, I moved toward you. When you were stuck in slavery I came and bought you back. You’re mine, and I want a new kind of relationship with you.

So open yourself up more to God’s restorative work. Ask the Spirit of God to show you any impure ways within you. Allow him to show you any part of your life where you have not submitted to the Lord’s ways. Let him heal you by the power of his redeeming love. You’re not a slave, but the Lord’s beloved. You need to learn to walk in that.

If you look – the end of verse 3 says “…so will I also be to you.” What he’s saying is that by the end of this restorative work, you will be beautiful.

You won’t just be a helpless slave that has been transferred from one master to another. God’s love restores your dignity. His perfect love has the power to break strongholds and to free you to walk in new life.

Listen, if someone commits an extraordinary act of kindness toward you, it doesn’t produce intimacy. You feel indebted to them. You feel like you owe them. If someone pays for your meal, you might say, “I’ll cover you next time.” But if you had been abandoned on the road and left for dead and someone came to your aid, provided you food and shelter, and nursed you back to life you’d say, “How could I ever repay you?”

God’s restorative love is an incredible act of kindness, but by the end of it, he doesn’t want you to feel indebted to him. He wants you to be free to love him with your whole heart. He says you will be mine, but he also says, and I will be yours. God wants that level of intimacy.

God’s love never fails.

Can we put back up the quote from the coffee shop wall (from 1 Cor. 13)? I just want you to look this love in the face again. This is a picture of God’s love for you in Christ. Can you love like that?

Only if you’ve first been loved like that yourself.

[5] Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.

Hosea is telling us about a future day when a king from the line of David will rule over the land and the people will come in fear to the Lord. What he’s talking about is a day when people have the Spirit of God at work in their hearts, bringing them from death to life through repentance and faith in Jesus. They come to the Lord because His Spirit is at work in them, cleansing them from every impurity and presenting them as beautiful in Christ.

Church, the message of the gospel is that God responds to sinners with his patient, restorative, unfailing love. When did God come to pay for his runaway bride? Not when his people were in the dark days of exile, but when we were utterly lost in our sin. God paid the price for us on the Cross. Jesus didn’t invoke punishments on us, though he had the legal right to do so. No, he absorbed the cost himself. He applied the higher ethic of love.

He covered our sin by the power of his redeeming love, and He gave us his standing as right before God. He put on us his clothes of truth, faith, peace, righteousness, and love. He empowered us with His Spirit that does the work of changing us at the deepest levels of our hearts. And he freed us to be instruments in his hands to make his love known to the ends of the earth.

I want to invite the band to come back up and they’re going to lead us to sing of God’s great invitation. He’s saying stop running to other lovers. Stop trusting in other gods. But run into the loving arms of the Father.

Listen, his invitation is for you to come to Him. But know that the one who is calling you to draw near is the same God who draws near to you. You have broken relationship with him, but he has chosen to love you with his patient love. And He will walk with you down the path of restoration. He will fill you with His Spirit so that you can walk in the truth and so that you can experience freedom in Christ.

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