I thought today we would have a bit of a history lesson.  Theres a lot of confusion when it comes to mankind’s history with God.  Particularly when it comes to reading the law and the prophets.  What many of us call the Old Testament. 

People jump through so many hoops trying to explain God in the Old Testament, that it can leave you with a bunch of puzzle pieces, that really dont fit together, and fracture your image of God.  But the God in the Old Testament is no different than Jesus, who is God in the flesh, and is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  

All the verses we will look at today in the Old Testament are talking about israel and their history with God, and what God would do to pour out His life for them.  We want to keep in mind the law and the prophets are a shadow.  Israel’s history with God is meant to point to Gods history with all of mankind.  You can even say Israel depicts the first man Adam, and the last man Christ Jesus.  

Our history with God is a courtship.  The entirety of the scriptures from the law and the prophets, to the revelation of Jesus Christ, give a singular message, about God betrothing Himself to mankind from the beginning, and Him being steadfast in His pursuit of us, to be joined together with us for all eternity. 

Hos 2:14  Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.
Hos 2:15  And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
Hos 2:16  And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali.
Hos 2:17  For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.  

The book of Hosea begins with God telling the prophet Hosea to marry an adulterous woman named Gomer.  Gomer continues in her adulterous ways, even having children with other men, and finally completely forsakes Hosea, running off with another man, eventually selling herself into slavery.  Now through all that Hosea doesn’t forsake Gomer.  Hosea 3:1 says Hosea pursues her with the same love God pursues mankind with, and buys her back from slavery, gathering her to himself.  

The book of Hosea tells the story of God joining Himself to mankind when we played the harlot and went awhoring after other gods.  Hosea is a picture of God’s history with mankind.  It depicts God, who walks by us in our destruction, finding us sold into slavery, His heart is filled with so much love, He pours Himself out for us, decorating us in His life.  It shows that God never forsook us; He never denied the love He felt in His heart for us, even after we forsook Him. 

*** example of movie redeeming love *****.  

Baali means Lord and Master.  Ishi is an affectionate term that means husband.  God says through the prophet Hosea the day is coming when you will no longer call me Lord and Master, but you shall know me affectionately as your husband, and you will no longer call upon the name of other gods, because you will have no memory of them.  You will no longer know me as a taskmaster, but you will know me as the one who lays down my life for you.  

It’s one thing to know God as Lord and Master, it’s another thing to know Him as the one who lays down His life for you. Israel was knowing God more like a taskmaster because of their previous relationship with pharoah.  Israel was really stung by pharoah, and that sting darkened their understanding about God.  It tainted their view of God and His intentions towards them.  The same thing can happen in human relationships.  Many times when people experience trauma in relationships, they carry that hurt with them, and it shapes their relationships going forward.  Thats what we see happen with Gomer and Hosea.  

If you go back just before these verses it talks about the destruction that came upon Israel because she was a forgetful hearer.  Israel forgot the Lord her God.  She forgot God betrothed Himself to her, when He got down on bended knee, dedicating His life to her; promising to pour Himself out as a drink offering for her well being.  She went awhoring after other Gods.  She worshipped the works of her own hands.  She committed adultery on the Lord her God.  She fornicated with the strength contained in her flesh. She joined herself to a god that was no god at all.  She joined herself to something that didnt have life but only had a plague.  Her intimacy was with death, and that left her as a barren wasteland, bearing about in her body the fruit of death.  

So there’s israel.  There’s mankind.  All of us.  Barren and unfruitful in God’s life.  We’ve forsaken our God, and run off and joined ourselves to gods that are no gods at all.  That left us in slavery.  It left us clothed in thorns and thistles.  Thinking God abhors us in our affliction.  Just as Gomer with Hosea.  We heaped destruction on ourselves.  Just as the prodigal son.  

So God says I will drop water on your tongue.  I will remove the poison of asps from your tongue.  No longer will you think of me, as a task master, demanding you produce fruit, but I will come to you, and I will lay down my life for you, and you will know me as your husband.  

This isn’t the only place we see our history with God described this way.  Isaiah 54 tells the same story.  

Isa 54:1  Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.
Isa 54:2  Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;
Isa 54:3  For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.
Isa 54:4  Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.
Isa 54:5  For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.
Isa 54:6  For the LORD has called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.
Isa 54:7  For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.
Isa 54:8  In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.

Israel was supposed to be fruitful … meant to priests to the world, and through that the gentiles would come to God.   But, Israel didn’t know God … they went awhoring after other gods …. God says inspite of that He will fulfill His promise to make them fruitful.  He will bring in the gentiles through Jesus, the Son of David. But remember this is also a shadow pointing to mankind and God, and Him making us fruitful, even when we were barren …. 

Like a wife forsaken in her youth … when a women is in her youth its the time when she has children.  In Gen 18 when sarah hears she will be with child, she laughs and says shall i now have pleasure in my old age.  When Sarah hears she will be with child she says she’s long past the time of having children. 

Many times a woman can feel shame if she is unable to have children.  The world’s wisdom says a woman’s value is in how many children she can have.  Children are certainly a great blessing, but a woman’s value can never be defined by how many chidlren she can have.  Jesus says we arent given in marriage in the glorified earth, and women are still there.  

Just as a woman might feel less than, or grieved in her spirit if she is unable to bear children to her husband.  Mankind was grieved in our spirit.  Not only were we not bearing the fruit of Gods life, but another’s fruit was conceived in us.  We were like a woman forsaken in her youth … when it was the time we should be bearing fruit unto life.  The fruit of God’s life.  We were bearing all our fruit unto death.  We offered our bodies and our lives to the gods of this world.  We felt ashamed and confused, thinking God rejected us.  We saw the fruit of death manifesting in us.  We saw God refusing our union to other gods, and we concluded God was ashamed to call us His own and abandoned us because He wanted a divorce.  

For a small moment I have forsaken thee … In a little wrath I hid my face from you …

Forsaken … to let loose; set free, let go, free … definition number 2 is to restore, repair
Strongs .. to loosen, that is relinquish, permit - commit self, fortify, help, leave, refuse.  

Letting loose … picture what it looks like for God to let us loose in Hosea …

2c2) to deliver one to be taught, moulded 

to deliver as a matter of injunction, instruction, etc., 

 Define wrath …. Isaiah gives a good definition … it doesnt by necessity mean to be angry.  It means to hide your face, or to let someone loose to have what it is they are pining for.  The hiding of the face is in the sense of judging for something or against something.  Paul describes wrath in romans 2 as God rejecting the idea that mankind can be exalted unto life by worshipping the works of their own hands.  He says when they refused to be persuaded and worshipped the creature instead of the creator, God gave them over to the reprobate mind.  Meaning God let them loose to have what they wanted.  

Gave over in Roman’s 1. 2c2) to deliver one to be taught, moulded; to deliver as a matter of injunction, instruction, etc., 

Romans says the law works wrath ….. under the law Gods face was hidden behind the veil in the holiest place.  Hebrews tells us God’s face was hidden behind the veil to show us we could never partake with God in His life by our works. Paul says in romans the law was good. He says what shall we say then?  Was that which is good made death to us?  Certainly Not.  He goes on to say the law revealed that coveting life through the works of his hands was working death in him.  He said he would not have known he was joining himself to death, had the law not said thou shalt not covet.  Thats the law working wrath.  

Paul says in his letter to the Galatians the law was a schoolmaster.  He says it was a Tudor.  Teaching us that God has given us His life in Jesus.  God’s face being hidden behind the veil wasnt God rejecting us.  It was part of His everlasting kindness, to gather us to himself; to remove the poison of asps that is stinging us with death, from under our tongues.  Even though his face was hidden for a moment, it was part of his everlasting kindness to gather us to Himself.  

God didnt forsake mankind.  He didnt look at us, and reject us because we played the harlot.  He looked at us playing the harlot with death, and rejected our fornication with death…. He didnt reject our fornication out of some selfish petulance.  He wasnt angry wanting a divorce.  He was interceding in our lives to save us from our union to death.  The reason he rejected our union to death is because when he walked by us, even when we were in our blood; dead in sin, from the bite of the serpent, we were still beautiful to him.  God rejected our fornication with the works of our hands because it joined us together with death, and He wasnt willing to let us die.  God loves us with an everlasting love. It’s not a fickle kind of love that comes and goes based on our faithfulness to Him.  

Example of daughter bringing home man she’s dating to meet her father … the father can either bless the union or curse the union …. The father will hide his face … the hiding of the face means you refuse to give your blessing to the union.  It means you cannot bless the union.  Not only does it mean you refuse to bless the union, it means you are cursing it.  

It’s the same thing God did in the garden with Adam, when he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  When God puts Adam out of the garden to keep him from eating from the tree of life, while being joined together with sin and death, it’s God hiding his face.  It’s God refusing to bless Adam’s union to destruction.  For God to bless something means for Him to grant it eternal life. 

it’s not that God forsook us, it’s that God forsook us forsaking Him.  He refused to bless our fornication with the flesh.  When thou wast refused .. our fornication was refused.  The name of the false gods on our tongue is what God refused.   He was showing us He’s the only one who has life in Himself.  He was showing us He’s the only one who can make us fruitful.  

Isa 54:1  Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD. 

Singing not only because you will be delivered from your barrenness, but singing because you see God hadn’t abandoned you …

Barreness … a barren wasteland; that’s dry arid; looks like the absence of God; there’s no saturation of life.  Sing o barren … you who were made from the dust of the ground.  Your maker is your husband … the one possessing the life that brought you forth from dust of the ground.  

Sing ye that were barren … you shall not remember the reproach of your widowhood any more ….. A widow is someone whose husband is dead.  The reproach of widowhood here is we were made one flesh with death, through our fornication with the strength of the flesh.  

Sing o barren one … Rejoice all you who were joined together with death.  Your maker is your husband.   I have not abandoned you.  I have no desire for divorce.  I know you think I was rejecting you, when I hid my face, but I wasnt rejecting you.  I was rejecting your fornication with other gods, because they can only serve you with death.  

Sing o barren the one you knew as taskmaster, has layed down His life for you.  He is your husband.  The Lord of Heaven  and earth is His name.  He brought you forth from the dust of the ground in the beginning, and He will once again bring forth your life from barreness.  

Prayer

Hos 3:1  Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.