Hosea 2 AN AWFUL FALL This chapter begins with a pathetic picture of Hosea pleading with the children of Gomer to stop being a harlot and to change her ways immediately. One wonders what happened to the children who were put in such a position by their ungodly mother. Hosea accepted the two who were children of adultery by opening his heart and arms to them. He called Lo-Ammi, Ammi, which means "mine." He called Lo-Ruhamah, Ruhamah, which means "pitied." The children were not at fault of course but they were the channel Hosea had to their mother. He begged them to tell their mother to give up the terrible lifestyle she had chosen or there would be serious consequences that would come.
This was a visible lesson to Israel to repent and come back to the Lord. God is referred to as "Lord" in the book of Hosea as the attribute of God that appeals most to the message of Israel as the wayward wife. Hosea is speaking for the Lord calling for His people to repent, change and return to Him. He was wanting and willing to receive His people and start all over again with them as His own loved ones. If they did, He was faithful and would be merciful toward them. If they chose not to repent and return to the Lord, there would be severe judgment and they would be disowned. He would make the way very hard for them and they would lose everything, even the respect of the evil nations around them. The false gods they had chosen to follow so their way would be easy would not be able to deliver them.
However, Israel chose perverted religion and the way of life suited to idolatry. The false religions of Baal and Ashtoreth had the appeal of idols to look at and sensual and licentious practices in the name of religion that satisfied the lusts of the flesh. They could "feel good" about themselves and what they were doing. This practice continues today in the name of religion. People want to "feel good" and "feel the love" instead of worshipping God and honoring Him. They want the comfort of a "feel good religion" and the excitement of an emotional "high" that can come from loud music, clapping and dancing to tunes that happen to have some religious words attached to the tunes.
The Jews themselves have designed a form of religion of their own that is apart from God and His word. The Talmud has become an important part of their tradition with all of its "dos and don'ts." These worthless practices and traditions to suit their own will, came into effect during the four hundred dark years when there was no word from the Lord. When our Lord Jesus Christ came, it was those who practiced those man-made traditions who were so opposed to the Lord and His teaching of the word of God without the additions of men.
The prosperous times in which the first message of Hosea came had made them think that wealth and material possessions were the evidence of their success and all was well with them. That same mind-set is in the world today in almost all societies and cultures. People have not been willing to accept the fact that everything we have comes from the benevolent hand of God. We have been given all things to use for God's honor and to meet our own legitimate needs. When we get to the place where think we deserve all of this, we are in danger of losing everything.
Israel had become so idolatrous that they believed the idols had given them what they claimed was their own. People still credit luck, skill, good management, hard work, smart thinking and good contacts with other people as the reason for their success rather than the grace of God. They do not even consider that "the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance." In ways similar to those of idolatrous Israel, people today mix the worship of the creature and Creator, idolatry and Christianity. It was a concern of the apostle Paul that unbelievers and believers might become yoked together. Righteousness and unrighteousness, light and dark, Christ and Belial, believers with unbelievers, the temple of God with idols should never be joined in any way, and yet it is being done all over as a means of "showing love and acceptance" without truth and grace.
Hosea warned Israel through the illustration of the terrible choices of his wife, of the "I wills" of coming punishment in contrast to the "I wills" of divine grace. Disasters of nature, the devastation of war and the destruction of the nation as an identifiable people would come if there was not repentance and restoration to the Lord. The Assyrian empire was just beyond the horizon to the north ready to come and disperse them among the nations so they would soon lose their identity. Very few Jews today can claim a tribal identity because of the choices made at that time. Israel had made a covenant with God, but broke that by spiritual harlotry when the people began to worship calves. But then we need to ask ourselves, "What do we kiss?" Is it business success, power, financial gain, comfort, intellectual skill, pleasure or even patriotism?
Israel is warned of the awful consequences of failure and departure in the first part of this chapter. Yet, in spite of the rejection of the Lord by the people of Israel in Hosea's day, God is not finished with them. The Lord will take them to a "desert place" in the future where they will have nothing or no one but the Lord to connect with. The "time of Jacob's trouble" will be a terrible time for them, but will open a door of hope even in the "valley of Achor (Troubles)." At the end of the tribulation all the luxuries of urban living and the sinfulness associated with it will be abandoned. They will find the wonderful "I wills" of God's grace will be extended to them and what they had hoped for, but ignored so long will be there coming from the hand of God who will be like a "husband" to them.
The nation will be bound to Him in righteousness, justice, love and faithfulness. A new beginning for Israel in the future will take place when in compassion, our Lord takes His unfaithful earthly people back to the close, intimate and personal relationship like that of a husband and wife that He had intended when He chose them out of the nations because He "loved them."
There is a lesson for us today in that it is possible for us to know all about God without really knowing Him. Ritual without reality is evidence of this. Satisfaction with forms without fellowship is evidence of this. Right words spoken and right songs sung as a practice without the affection of our hearts is evidence of knowing about God but not knowing Him. In these days of prosperity, we too can show all the same characteristics of religious practice and hypocrisy that Israel showed, and at the same time be far away from God in heart, soul and spirit.