Spiritual Adultery
2/4/26 Bible Thought (Hosea 1)
Main Idea: God’s merciful nature should bring us hope and result in devotion.
Setting the Stage:
As we jump out of the historical setting of the Kings, we are going to take a look at one of the writing prophets—Hosea—whom God called during an especially dark time in the divided kingdom. The land was fraught with idolatrous worship as we saw at the end of 1 Kings. Ahab was the most wretched king of them all, and things weren’t going to get any better.
Remember, during that time, what characterized a righteous king versus an evil one was their respective faithfulness or faithlessness to Yahweh. Wicked kings fell prey to syncretism at best and absolute apostasy at worst. Into this mess steps a man by the name of Hosea.
A Look at the Text:
In Hosea 1, we are introduced to the prophet and his highly unusual family.
He is commanded to take for himself an unfaithful wife who will bear him children in like manner (Hos. 1:2). It’s not altogether clear what Gomer’s background was. However, it seems as if her faithlessness to Hosea is simply predicted here, and that he didn’t actually marry a prostitute.[1]
At different times, God would call certain prophets to become a living illustration of their message. Thus it was for Hosea. Hosea would marry a faithless woman who would abandon him, just as Israel had abandoned Yahweh.
God, in His grace, chose Israel to be His own. They were the apple of His eye. They were the object of His love, and yet they had abandoned Him for other lovers. They committed spiritual adultery again and again as they served Baal, Chemosh, Molech, and the rest.
The covenant people of God cheated on Him repeatedly. To this, prophetic names are given to Hosea’s (possibly) illegitimate children: Not my people and no mercy.
God promised destruction upon His people for their faithlessness just as He had forewarned (Deut. 28:36-37). However, that wasn’t the end of the story.
For the same God who brings judgment is a God of inexhaustible mercy. Though they forsook Him countless times, nevertheless, one day there was a promise that they would still be without number as originally promised to Abraham (Hos. 1:10; Gen. 22:17). Even more, those who were cast off would be called children of the living God (Hos. 1:10).
Bringing it Home:
What an awe-inspiring, humbling picture we see of God in this text today. He is a God who marries the promiscuous. He is a God who will adopt the undeserving. God’s people might have stood under His just judgment, but judgment was never going to be the end of the story, for God is in His very nature gracious and merciful.
Consider even for us the wondrous reality it is to be grafted into the people of God (Rom. 11:17) and called His children. That we, who were rebel sinners, are adopted into His family should never cease to amaze us. Though once children of wrath (Eph. 2:3), we are now called children of God! (1 Jn. 3:1).
That truth can never grow old to us. Likewise, we must respond to this gracious and kind God with hearts fully devoted to Him. If He has ransomed us in such great fashion, lavishing such mercy upon us so undeserved and free, how could we forsake Him for other lovers?
Challenge:
Do I ever lose sight of the fact that human rebellion actually breaks the heart of God? Paul reminds us not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God by the way we live (Eph. 4:30).
Let us then strive to live a God-pleasing life of whole-hearted devotion to the One who has made us His own.
[1] Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 1623.