SERIES: Major Profit from Minor Prophets
The Prophet and the Prostitute
SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus
Note: This series, done in the summer of 1999, involved one sermon each on the Twelve Minor Prophets. Obviously, since these books are of varying lengths, from one chapter to fourteen chapters, these sermons are focused on the key message of each prophet, rather than a detailed examination of their words.
Introduction: Today we are beginning a new sermon series on the Minor Prophets–one Sunday for each of the twelve prophets for the next three months. This is an unusual way for us at First Free to study Bible books. We generally go chapter by chapter or even paragraph by paragraph, and several of these books have as many as fourteen chapters. How in the world can we present their message in 35 minutes? Well, it won’t be easy, but frankly, I think there is something to be gained this way that might not even be gained through a more detailed study. Sometimes there is value in looking at the forest rather than the trees. In fact, I think it would be profitable to preach through every book of the Bible in one sermon each. I know several pastors who have done so, including Ray Stedman whose sermon title for Hosea I stole. But for now, we’re going to tackle just the minor prophets.
Background of the Minor Prophets
The first question that might arise in your mind is, “Why are they called ‘minor prophets’?” The fact is, it was just a convenient way to distinguish them from the longer OT prophetic books like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, who are called “major prophets.” “Minor” has nothing to do with their message, for these faithful proclaimers of divine truth deliver some of the most powerful and profound messages found anywhere within the pages of Scripture. I believe if we come to these books with open and teachable minds, we will find “major profit from these minor prophets.”
The twelve books clustered together at the end of the Old Testament record the messages of prophets who ministered to God’s people from the period of about 800 years before Christ to about 400 years before Christ. Some of them preached to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, some to the Southern Kingdom, some to the Jewish exiles after the Babylonian captivity, and some even to pagan empires.
Let me share a very brief history of Israel so we’re all on the same page when talking about the two kingdoms of Israel Judah, and the exile. We’ll use a simple timeline to help us. The Jews had their origin about 2100 years before Christ when God called Abraham out of idol worship and promised to start a new nation from him that would bless the whole human race.
Following the time of the great patriarchs–Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph–the Israelites found themselves in slavery in Egypt for about 400 years. Then God raised up Moses to lead them out of Egypt. Their miraculous Exodus from Egypt was soon marred, however, by widespread unbelief, and for nearly 40 years God caused His people to wander through the desert. Finally, He allowed Joshua to lead them across the Jordan to conquer the land God had promised to Abraham about 700 years earlier.
For almost 300 years Israel was governed as a theocracy, with God ruling through a series of judges, but the people begged for a king like the other nations had. Finally, God relented and gave them a king, who turned out to be a willful and ungodly leader. King Saul was followed by David who, though far from perfect, was nevertheless a man after God’s own heart. David, in turn, was followed by his son, Solomon. Each of these three kings reigned about 40 years.
In 931 B.C., shortly after Solomon’s death, a civil war occurred and the twelve tribes of Israel split into two nations–ten tribes called the Kingdom of Israel and two tribes called the Kingdom of Judah. For 200 years Israel went its own way, violating every moral principle God gave them and worshiping idols with abandon. Finally, God had enough, and in 722 B. C. He allowed the Assyrians to destroy the Kingdom of Israel, and the people were taken into captivity. They became known as the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.
The two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, known as the Kingdom of Judah, remained for another 200 years, until about the year 600 B.C., because they had a few kings who followed after the Lord, and apostasy was not nearly as widespread as in the Kingdom of Israel. But eventually they, too, abandoned the Lord, and King Nebuchadnezzar of the Babylonians was allowed to destroy Jerusalem and take them into captivity because of their sin. Following 70 years in Babylon, a remnant was allowed to return to the Promised Land, rebuild the temple, and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. The OT closes with the prophet Malachi about 400 years before Christ.
Hosea, the first of the Minor Prophets (not chronologically, but in the order of the books), was principally a preacher to the Kingdom of Israel, the northern ten tribes, though he also addressed a few of his prophecies to the Kingdom of Judah. Hosea lived about two centuries after Solomon and had a very long ministry—at least 40 years, perhaps as long as 60. You will notice in the opening verse that he preached during the reigns of four different kings of Judah and six different kings of Israel, though the only king of Israel mentioned is Jeroboam.
The conditions in Israel at the time of Hosea were not unlike our own. The economy was good, the military was strong, people were living it up, and they didn’t have much time for God. Among the sins he denounces are religious hypocrisy, social injustice, rebellion, violence, oppression, ostentatious luxury, moral and spiritual degeneracy, selfish arrogance, apostasy, and idolatry. I think Hosea would feel right at home in the U.S. in our day.
The uniqueness of Hosea’s message
If there is anything unique about Hosea’s message (most of the other prophets denounced the same sins), it is the attention he gives to the sin of spiritual adultery. God had made a covenant with His people back at Mt. Sinai shortly after the Exodus from Egypt. In that covenant He promised to be faithful to them and demanded that they worship Him alone and obey His commandments. Unparalleled blessings were promised as a result. But God also promised unparalleled judgment if they refused.
Hosea’s role as a prophet was to expose the nation’s unfaithfulness to that covenant. He employed the analogy of marriage and adultery to explain the seriousness of Israel’s sin. Their covenantal relationship with God was tantamount to a marriage, and their idolatry was like adultery. How so? The Israelites had gotten involved in the worship of Baal, the Canaanite god of storm and fertility, in an effort to promote agricultural and human fertility. It’s not that they were interested in abandoning Jehovah God; rather they just wanted to cover all their bases. They still believed in God, but just in case Baal had some influence over crops and children, they would pay him their respects. This development is not unlike a Christian who carries a rabbit’s foot in his pocket or checks out his horoscope from time to time—kind of a backup insurance policy. But to God it is evidence of spiritual adultery. He is either Lord of all or He is not Lord at all.
Another serious issue in Baal worship was its allowance for, and even encouragement of, sexual promiscuity. The Israelites knew God required sexual purity and expected men and women to be faithful to their spouses. How old-fashioned! How unrealistic! Baal-worship, on the other hand, was more up-to-date and allowed them to be religious and still have their normal human “needs” met. But God saw this as not just physical adultery, which it clearly was, but also as further evidence of spiritual adultery.
The major themes of Hosea can be summarized in three words: sin, judgment, and restoration. The prophet conveys these themes through five different cycles, beginning in chapters 1, 2, 4, 6, and 11. Each time he denounces the people for their sin and promises God’s judgment. But each time he also makes it clear that God will not abandon His people totally. His purposes in judgment are disciplinaryand are designed to turn Israel back to God. That did not happen in Hosea’s day. It has not yet happened in our day. But Hosea promises that it will happen someday.
The uniqueness of Hosea’s marriage (1:2-9; 3:1-5)
I have mentioned already that the unique aspect of Hosea’s message is his emphasis upon the sin of spiritual adultery. What is also unique is the way in which that message is conveyed. God employs an incredible object lesson–both to convince the prophet of the truth of his message and to drive it home to the hearts of his listeners. He orders Hosea to marry a woman whom God knows, and even announces in advance, will prove unfaithful to him. Let’s begin in chapter 1, verse 2:
“When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him, “Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the LORD.” {3} So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
{4} Then the LORD said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. {5} In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.”
{6} Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the LORD said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer show love to the house of Israel, that I should at all forgive them. {7} Yet I will show love to the house of Judah; and I will save them–not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but by the LORD their God.”
{8} After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. {9} Then the LORD said, “Call him Lo-Ammi, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”
I wish we knew more about this man Hosea, but let’s use our imagination a bit to fill in the gaps. Being single, he no doubt longed for companionship and friendship. In fact, I suspect he was quite excited when God broke the news that it was time to marry. But then he heard words that were almost too shocking to assimilate: “Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife.” Can God be serious?
There are, not surprisingly, those who think this whole story is an allegory, but it doesn’t read like one to me. It reads like a true story, with details that a writer would not put in an allegory. Still, assuming that it is a factual account, it is not easy to determine whether Gomer was a prostitute before Hosea married her, or became one afterward, for the language can be read either way. The arguments are rather involved and quite technical, but I will simply say that the latter makes more sense to me. God predicts that she will become unfaithful, but she was probably not such a person when Hosea met her.
At any rate, Hosea and Gomer become the parents of three children. God Himself names them, and the names are part of the object lesson. The first child is a son, who is to be called “Jezreel,” a name of shame in Israel. If you remember the story of Elijah and King Ahab, the town of Jezreel played an important part. Ahab stole a vineyard from his neighbor, a godly man named Naboth, and under the wicked influence of his wife Jezebel, he had Naboth murdered.
God sent Elijah to tell Ahab, “This is what the Lord says: In the place where dogs licked up Naboth’s blood, dogs will lick up your blood—yes, even yours!” Furthermore, God told him, “Dogs will devour Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.” It wasn’t long before the prophecy came true for Ahab, as he died at the battle for Ramoth-Gilead, but Jezebel survived for 20 more years. I’m sure that often during that time she laughed at God and said to herself, “Well, I guess the dogs lost their scent.”[i]
But eventually one of Ahab’s generals named Jehu ascended to the throne, and he set out to exterminate the house of Ahab so none of Ahab’s family would be a threat to his rule. He came to Jezreel where Jezebel kept a palace. Jehu told the servants to throw her out of a window. “So they threw her down, and some of her blood spattered the wall and the horses as they trampled her underfoot.” After supper Jehu ordered her buried, but the dogs had already eaten everything except her skull, her feet, and her hands. It all happened just as Elijah predicted.
With that as background, how would you like to be asked to name your child “Jezreel”? But God had a reason. He was warning His people through this child’s name that the same judgment Ahab’s family experienced at Jezreel would come upon the whole nation if they did not repent.
Not long after Jezreel’s birth, Gomer became pregnant again. This time the child was a daughter, and this time God named the child Lo-Ruhamah, which means, “not to be pitied, unloved.” That’s a tough handle for a child to carry, but once again God was teaching the people through an object lesson. He was saying, in effect, that He would no longer have pity on the Northern Kingdom if they continued in their stubborn rebellion. He would no longer show them the kind of love and compassion they were used to.
Then after Lo-Ruhamah was weaned, Gomer bore a third child, another son. God named him Lo-Ammi, meaning, “you are not my people and I am not your God.” Every time these three children went out to play, every time they were introduced in the marketplace, their names would catch people’s attention, and Hosea would have an opportunity to explain the coming judgment of the Lord. Time and again he warned them that God’s patience was wearing thin.
As you read through the words of Hosea, however, one thing becomes clear. In between the frequent denunciations of sin and the awful predictions of judgment, are hints that better days are coming. For example, in the first chapter, after naming the three children, God says to Hosea in verse 10:
{10} “Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ {11} The people of Judah and the people of Israel will be reunited, and they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.”
(2:1) “”Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.'”
Look also at chapter 2, verses 14-15. Following a warning of judgment, the Lord says,
“”Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. {15} There I will give her back her vineyards and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.”
I love that phrase, “I will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.” Do you remember what happened in the Valley of Achor? Seven hundred years earlier, when Joshua led the Israelites across the Jordan River, their first great victory was the destruction of the Canaanite city of Jericho. God told them that first city in the Promised Land was like a tithe; it belonged to the Lord, and the people were to keep none of the spoils for themselves. But a man named Achan took a beautiful Babylonian robe, 200 shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold, and he hid them under his tent.
As a result, God’s judgment came upon the army of Israel and they were routed by the much smaller city of Ai. When the sin was discovered, Joshua ordered that Achan and his family be stoned and that his cattle and his tent and the stuff he had stolen all be burned in the Valley of Achor. But now Hosea promises that someday that place of shame and death will become a door of hope.
I suppose all of us have Valleys of Achor in our lives–places or times or events in which we failed miserably, violated God’s expressed will, and perhaps brought shame on ourselves or on others. What we need to remember is that God is able and willing to turn those places or times or events into doors of hope. If we will repent and confess and seek His face, He can and will restore the years the locusts have eaten.
Chapter two ends by referring to Lo-Ruhamah and Lo-Ammi again: “I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’” So, while Hosea predicts further apostasy and harsh judgment, he also predicts eventual repentance and restoration.
But what happens to Gomer? After the birth of her third child, Gomer begins to fulfill the sad prediction God made when He first told Hosea to marry her. She becomes an adulteress, perhaps worse. She may have become the property of a pimp. What a heartbreak it must have been to the young preacher with three little children as he heard the whispers that began to circulate about his wife and about what was going on while he was away on itinerant ministry.[ii]
One day Hosea arrives home from a preaching trip to find a note from Gomer. She’s tired of being a preacher’s wife. She’s tired of the responsibilities of raising three little rug rats. She has decided that she got married too young and never really had the opportunity to explore her full potential. She needs freedom. The Nazareth Association for Gals, NAG for short, has convinced her that she would experience greater fulfillment if she would find a more fulfilling career than being a housewife. And, oh yes, she’s met someone she can communicate with. It’s a platonic relationship, of course, but this guy understands her in a way Hosea never did.
It’s not long before Gomer is partying and bar hopping. When her heartthrob drops her, she finds another, and then another. The wild nightlife causes her to lose her job, and before she knows what’s happened, she’s become a streetwalker, working for a slimy guy who abuses her and lives off her earnings. For all practical purposes she’s a slave in the meat market.
Meanwhile Hosea’s preaching takes on a new urgency. He still warns of God’s coming judgment, but now he speaks with tears because he understands as never before how rejected God feels when His people go a-whoring after other gods. Then the Lord speaks again to Hosea, and, if possible, this message is even more stunning than the first one. Here is the story in his own words from chapter 3:
“The LORD said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”
{2} So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. {3} Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you.”
Imagine the prophet’s frame of mind as he goes out searching for his wife. There must be a jumble of different emotions in his heart–anger, embarrassment, shame, and yes, love. After passing out dozens of photographs in the seediest part of town, unsure people will even recognize her in her present condition, Hosea receives a tip and is pointed in the direction of a run-down flat, where he gingerly knocks on the door. A burly, unkempt character comes to the door, demanding, “What do you want?” Hosea asks, “Are you the man who is living with Gomer, daughter of Diblaim?” The man says, “What business is it of yours?” And Hosea says, “Well, I am Hosea, her husband.” A tense moment undoubtedly follows. Then Hosea breaks the ice: “What will it take to get my wife back?” The man responds, “She’s trash, but if you want her back, it’ll cost you dearly–fifteen shekels of silver and a month’s worth of food.”
He eagerly pays it. I like the insight of Ray Stedman: “Now you may say, ‘That’s a foolish thing for a man to do!’ But who can explain the madness of love? Love exists apart from reason and has its own reasons. Love does not act according to logic. Love acts according to its own nature.”[iii]
Hosea has his wife back, but not at any price. He says to her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you.” This is so true to God’s character. His grace and forgiveness are immeasurable, but always He says to those He forgives, “Go and sin no more.” The notion that forgiveness is a license to sin is a violation of everything God stands for.
Just as the unfaithfulness of Hosea’s wife portrays Israel’s rejection of the Lord, so the recovery of his wayward wife pictures the Lord’s love for and restoration of unfaithful Israel when she repents. In fact, look at the very next verse, verse 4: “For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or idol. {5} Afterward the Israelites will return….” Of course, they did return to the Promised land after the Babylonian captivity, but what is remarkable about this prophecy is that it is, in some respects, being fulfilled even during our lifetime.
For 2600 years the Jews have been without a king, and for 1900 years they were without a land, a government, or a temple for sacrifices. Then in the 20th century God brought them back to the Promised Land, and in 1948 they became a nation once again. But the rest of verse 5 has not been fulfilled yet: “Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the LORD and to his blessings in the last days.” There will come a time, yet in the future, when God’s chosen people will repent and He will restore them. But in the meantime, God reminds the people through the prophet that their spiritual adultery will have grave consequences. They cannot turn their backs on Him again and again with impunity.
Now what I would like for us to ask ourselves today as we conclude this study is this:
What lessons should we learn from this ancient prophet?
Are there things about Israel’s stubbornness and rebellion and spiritual adultery that parallel what we see in the church today or in our nation today? Look at chapter 4:
“Hear the word of the LORD, you Israelites, because the LORD has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: “There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. {2} There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
That sounds eerily like what we see in our country today. And the next statement is, “Because of this the land mourns, and all who live in it waste away.” Everyone is trying to figure out how Littleton could occur, how Atlanta could happen, and Jonesboro and Paducah? (These were all recent mass shootings). The answer is right here: “There is no acknowledgment of God in the land.” Worse could happen in the future.
In verse 7 there is a special indictment of the clergy that is worthy of note:
“The more the priests increased, the more they sinned against me; they exchanged their Glory for something disgraceful. {8} They feed on the sins of my people and relish their wickedness. {9} And it will be: Like people, like priests. I will punish both of them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.”
I must say that the general state of the clergy in our country is disgraceful. It is shocking how small a minority are teaching God’s Word or even know how. It is shocking how the breakdown in biblical morality is being led and encouraged by leading mainline clergy. Hardly a week goes by when we do not see clergymen arguing for the right to abortion, marrying homosexuals, supporting the gambling industry, demanding total separation of church and state. What we largely see today is, indeed, as Hosea puts it, “Like people, like priests.” The clergy are not leading the blind but following them, and God will punish both.
So sad is the spiritual state of the land that Hosea says in 8:11-12, “Though Ephraim built many altars for sin offerings, these have become altars for sinning.” Isn’t it amazing that houses of worship, built to honor God, can actually become altars for sinning? I don’t think this means that wicked orgies are necessarily taking place in Cathedrals and churches. I suspect Hosea instead has in mind that rites and rituals have taken the place of worship in spirit and truth, and religion has become a hindrance rather than a help to knowing God. It would be difficult to deny that as a fact in many of our churches. (Note added in 2024: It is not unusual today to see churches advertising themselves as “affirming congregations,” meaning they celebrate the homosexual lifestyle).
In chapter 8 and verse 7 we find a well-known phrase that further describes the sins of Israel, as well as our own: “They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.” What does that mean? As you read through the chapter, it is evident that God is saying something very similar to Galatians 6: “Do not be deceived, God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”
There are several principles obvious in this analogy of reaping and sowing. You will reap what you sow. If a farmer sows corn, he’s not going to reap beans, but corn. You also reap after you sow. A lot of people would change their behavior if the consequences showed up immediately, but they rarely do. Third, you reap more than you sow. A bushel of seed corn yields tons of field corn. And this is what Hosea is getting at. You sow the wind, perhaps just a little adultery, for example, but you reap the whirlwind, including loss of reputation, a broken home, devastated children, loss of ministry, physical disease, emotional instability, and more.
One other lesson that has so much application to our day is found in chapter 12, verse 7-8: “The merchant uses dishonest scales; he loves to defraud. Ephraim boasts, ‘I am very rich; I have become wealthy. With all my wealth they will not find in me any iniquity or sin.” I think there is an attitude that comes with great wealth, namely that one is above the rules. Wealth opens options for sin that the average person can’t afford. I also see here the fact that the test of prosperity is more difficult than the test of adversity. Many people who walked in dependence upon God when they were poor or ill or unemployed, decide they don’t need God when things are going well. But God’s response to our independence and self-sufficiency is found in the next verse when He says, “I will make you live in tents again.” There is no amount of wealth that protects a person from the judgment of God.
There is one final lesson I would like to point out. While the judgments of God are clear and profound all through the prophecy of Hosea, we find the voice of God continually calling His people to repentance. I love chapter 11:
“”When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. {2} But the more I called Israel, the further they went from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images. {3} It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them. {4} I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them.”
And again in the final chapter,
“Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God. Your sins have been your downfall! {2} Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to him: “Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips.”
Friends, that is the attitude God is seeking. I think there are many spiritual adulterers in the church today. They may not have idols in their homes, but they often treat their homes as idols. They may not practice sacred prostitution as Israel did, but they dally with sexual sin on the side; at the very least they are not scandalized by it. Listen to the final challenge of Hosea’s prophecy, verse 9 of chapter 14: “Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them. The ways of the LORD are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.”
We desperately need to listen to the message of Hosea: Spiritual adultery will lead to certain judgment, but God is open to the cry of the repentant. God says, in effect, “When you tire of all your running and wandering and heartbreak, I’ll be there to draw you to myself again. I sent my one and only son to die on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin. Put your faith in Him and be saved.”
DATE: June 6, 1999
Tags:
Background of Minor Prophets
Spiritual adultery
Sin
Judgment
Restoration
Hope
[i] R. G. Lee, “Payday Someday,” a sermon he preached over 1000 times. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9FnDYpIQm4&ab_channel=DavidShook
[ii] Ray Stedman, “Hosea,” sermon preached on March 6, 1966 at Peninsula Bible Church. The title of this sermon was borrowed from Stedman.
[iii] Ibid.