When we look at the book of Hosea, we are hit with many different things, but one main area we see is God indeed is a God of divine love, and he is faithful to call out the failure of those who are called by his name. We learn many things from this book to apply it to a New Testament context. One such area is disobedience. Christians often ignore this, but it is serious when God’s people abandon Him and His commands by walking after the gods of this world. Serious matters bring about serious repercussions. The main teaching point in the book of Hosea is how the Lord dealt with the unfaithful people and his provision to bring them to repentance. Ancient Israel was attracted by wealth and by materialistic things. The false religious belief that surrounded them was incorporated into their worship – which was not proper. So, the prophet Hosea had a responsibility from God, and that was to warn the people of the gravity of what they were doing and how their transgression required repentance.
It was not enough to presume on God’s grace. God is Holy, and God certainly deals with his people’s transgressions. God will deal with all sin and unfaithfulness. Equally true is that God will not leave His children nor forsake them. Instead, God in and through His perfect attributes will call his elect to return to their first love, thus bringing sweet repentance from spiritual infidelity. So with this, let us focus on Hosea, starting at chapter one.
Hosea 1:2–3 When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.” So, he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. (ESV)
To keep it short, the Lord is speaking through his prophet and declaring that the people are offspring to an adulterous woman Israel. Though they profess to belong to God, they might as well have been born of a harlot, precisely the way the Kingdom of Israel was acting. Therefore, God looked down upon them and drew their attention to an unspeakable activity found within a brothel. What would cause such strong language? Well, a study into the historical context of Israel at this time would show that they had fallen away from God. They were wrapped up in their perverse ideologies. They were blinded. They were walking in ways that were not acceptable to a Holy God. So much, God looked at them as if they were not even his people. How could the perfect God have union with the prostitute? He cannot, so we understand this was a visual display for the people to see how filthy they were in His presence. How does this happen? It is pretty simple. Since I intend to deal specifically with pastors, let us compare old to the new.
Today pastors sell themselves out when a man desires reputation and fame. When a pastor allows ease or improper gain, they are selling out. When a man allows the pollution of doctrine to enter unchecked, they are selling out (Meaning, they know it is incorrect – but the benefits outweigh the faithfulness). When pastors are led away by the desire for wealth and seek the praise of men to go to their brains, they are selling out. When a pastor refuses to surrender themselves to the Word of the Lord for the sake of appeasing a civil magistrate, they are selling out. No different than ancient Israel and her religious leaders. Just a different setting, but the pride and sin still the same. Regardless of it is the people, the priests or the prophets, being unfaithful is not acceptable. So we can see how quickly and even in our context today how so many clergies and even people filling pews can become products of a sell-out – thinking they have a relationship with God but do not.
Let us now look at chapter 2, verses one through five.
Hosea 2:1–5 Say to your brothers, “You are my people,” and to your sisters, “You have received mercy.” “Plead with your mother, plead for she is not my wife and I am not her husband that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts; lest I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst. Upon her children also I will have no mercy, because they are children of whoredom. For their mother has played the whore; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.(ESV)
Here, we are brought into an example of how a husband would feel against his wife. The Lord uses this imagery to bring it to their immediate attention. Again the context: God is speaking to the Kingdom of Israel. It’s not simply just a shock and awe from the translators; it is an actual rebuke; a call, and a display for Israel to see their transgressions so that they would return to their God. In verse two, there is a plea to the mother or Israel regarding her children to put off what is happening. The word whoredom is from the word fornication. It could be both physical and spiritual. This is precisely the issue of Israel’s idolatry, her service to other gods, her flip-flopping and cheating on God and most certainly not being loyal to Yahweh. And then verse three, there is more imagery that is for many readers shocking. God is saying that he would “strip her naked” and “make her as the day she was born.” This is an expression of punishment and shame. In the ancient Israel context, those caught in adultery were put to death by being stoned, which is precisely what was taking place in John chapter 8:1-11. But this is not how the prophet declares the punishment for his people caught in spiritual infidelity? No, the judgment is being brought out to the desert. We imagine a dry, barren place of great thirst. More examples of open shame because their blessings have been removed but also promise of restoration.
The point I am making is that she will be left in shame because of the severity of the people’s sin. This is important because Israel had prosperity, they had privileges, they had honour, and because of what was taking place spiritually; which is their hearts being far from God, He now puts them to open shame. May I say, Canada too had privilege, prosperity and honour – but I digress. In His love, God brings discipline to bring about repentance, so the strong rebuke is a word of love. Though God is love, he is also Holy, Just and Righteous. Israel’s desire to go after false gods and find ease with temporary benefits could not be overlooked. What will be done? God will shut their way, and calamity awaits. Now I’m just going to come out and say it; poke the Hornets’ nest as it were. In Canada, church buildings are filled with illegitimate children because their pastors have played the spiritual prostitute and have been in bed with the worldly system. Being a pastor is the under-shepherd of God’s flock – not the nice guy of the neighbourhood. He is called to be the protector of Christ’s bride.
Sadly, if such men took care of their wives as they do the church – we would call them unfit. The reality is many pastors are consumed with the temptation of fame and pride of intellect. They are boasting in reputation, seeking money above duty and have played the whore with the Word for so long – they do not protect the church but hinder it, abuse it and blame others.
What is worse is that Scripture is unequivocally clear they are in sin, but we no longer see it. Even though church traditions, creeds, and confessions make it clear that the church is never to allow secularism and the civil magistrate to interfere or command a child of Christ on how they are to follow Scripture, these pastors are allowing it – and the congregations are embracing it. These so-called pastors have committed the highest form of treason by giving over Christ’s flock to Caesar’s control. So, what is God going to do? We know he loves his bride, and we know his grace is sufficient for every hour and every need, but I think what we have seen in the last two years is the clear public display that God is indeed calling the church in Canada to repent. As Hosea 1:2-3 says, she has been stripped naked as the day she was born. This is a clear indication of the shame upon every pastor and congregation who locked their doors, mandated restrictions for Christ’s children to come corporately and worship him (in which He has commanded by his holy Word). The institution we call church is left in her shame as truckers and union leaders, and simple everyday citizens speak loudly of the injustices across the land. Her guilt is evident when men who belong to coalitions write articles showing they have been spiritually neutered and have no spiritual backbone. They only bark at those trying to remain faithful and mock those who attempt to keep the flock away from the ravenous wolves we call government. Indeed, if Hosea was to speak today the very words he spoke over Israel, we could say yes, this word is for the church in Canada.
So are we done? Is it all over? Do we throw it all away and feel defeated that it is a useless battle? No. Remember what it says in Hosea 2:14-15
Hosea 2:14–15 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. (ESV)
Though God deals righteously with sin, there are obvious consequences that follow. We must remember the character of God. God is long-suffering and patient, merciful and full of grace (Ex 34:6-7). He doesn’t forsake his church (Heb 13:5). Nor leads his church into absolute judgment. Through faith, we are saved, by grace, in Christ (Eph 2:8-9, Rom 6:23), and God’s gifts are irrevocable (Rom 11:29). Still, he will discipline and bring back His people through repentance and in Christ provide reconciliation. Though the church today is dry and parched like that of the adulteress and her child being out in the wilderness, there can be revival and streams of grace flowing freely, filling each life and giving strength and fortitude to stand the harshness of the day. We see from verse 15 that there would be a restoration for Israel and thus those unfaithful today. Lastly,
Hosea 2:21–23 “And in that day, I will answer, declares the LORD, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth, and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel, and I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’.and he shall say, ‘You are my God.'” (ESV)
What a glorious promise that God will hear his people, and not only will He hear them, he will answer them. His answers will come in the blessings of mercy and grace for people who have wandered away into all sorts of sins and act as if they are not his people; they will be reminded and shown that they are his people. They shall give praise and glory to their God. Still, most churches in Canada need to do something for this to happen. It must start with the pastors, then trickle down – and that is to corporately and publicly repent for going wayward. For finding comfort in the arms of a harlot. For being lured away by the prostitute of the secular society and by committing spiritual infidelity. It will require running to Christ for cleansing (1 John 1:9) to make public repentance that she was wrong. To be truthful that she turned her back on her beloved bridegroom but is now come back.
I am grateful for the faithful remnant that is serving here in Canada. I am thankful for those who walk in such a way as not deliberately stain their robe of salvation. I am grateful for those we call Billy, even if they are not known – as they have more desire to please Christ and protect his flock amid tremendous pressure. Though the days seem dark and the (faithful) church in Canada seems to be disappearing quickly, God has kept a faithful remnant which I believe will be the spark that ignites the revival we all have been praying for these past couple of years.
In His Grace, P/Steve
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