Hosea 3:1-5 - The Latter Days

The late James Montgomery Boice called Hosea 3 the greatest chapter in the Bible. And while that may be a bit of an exaggeration, there’s a good reason why he said that. This little chapter is amazing.  Here’s an excerpt from the sermon I preached from this chapter:

“Now what has transpired thus far in Hosea? Well, God commanded Hosea to go take a wife from among the temple prostitutes, and to do so as an object lesson. Hosea’s marriage is to mirror God’s covenant relationship with Israel. God had called Abraham out of idolatry and promised to make him a people and to bless the world through his progeny.

And God has done that. God has kept his promises to Abraham’s offspring. Through Moses he redeemed them out of Egypt, made a covenant with them that had both conditional and unconditional aspects. He gave them a law to keep, and worship ordinances, and brought them into the land of promise. But they have been unfaithful to God and to the covenant. Institutionally they have abandoned God for the gods of the Canaanites around them, specifically Baal. They have broken the covenant of Moses and God has declared that the land into which he brought them will now spew them out.

And Gomer, the wife of harlotry that Hosea took to be his own, has been unfaithful to Hosea just like Israel has been unfaithful to God. Though Hosea had taken her out of a sinful life and called her to himself in faithfulness, though he had been perfectly faithful to her, she could not stop herself from falling back into her former lifestyle.

Gomer mirrors Israel in every way. Called out of idolatry she still finds herself constantly straying from God and going after other gods instead. Since she has been unfaithful, and broken covenant, God puts her away. The northern kingdom will go into captivity. God is done with them. We read this in chapters one and two.

But . . . although God is finished with this generation there is still a future hope of glory, a day of grace, for Israel. And that is what we are seeing promised once again in this amazing chapter. And once again we are going to see that this future hope, this day of grace, is pointing to the coming of Christ and his kingdom—the Church. That coming of Christ is the fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham, to Moses, and to David. And it is the hope of both Israel and the world.”

Below I’ve linked the audio recording of this sermon and I hope you’ll take the time to listen to it, because it’s a wonderful gospel passage. If the message fails to live up to that the fault would be mine, not the passage I tried to expound. So click below and take a listen and marvel at the grace of God.


Click here: Hosea 3:1-5 - The Latter Days


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