“I WANT YOU TO FEEL WHAT I FEEL”

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

“I WANT YOU TO FEEL WHAT I FEEL”

Letting people experience what you are doing…

So the next time when you say or a utter a word describing how you feel or how your day is the person you are talking to will understand.

Example…..Edgar

The Book of Hosea is one of the books of the Minor Prophets in the Old Testament of the Bible. Its name is taken from the prophet Hosea, who lived in the northern kingdom between 755 and 725 BC.

The book is divided into two parts.

- The first part (chaps. 1 - 3) tells the story of Hosea's marriage to an unfaithful wife. Hosea used this personal tragedy as a parable of the relationship between God and Israel.

- In the second part (chaps. 4 - 14) the theme of unfaithfulness is developed. The prophet rebukes corrupt leaders and priests and chastises the Israelites for their superstition and idolatry.

Hosea was the first biblical writer to use the imagery of marriage as an illustration of the relationship between God and his people.

Outline

1. Adulterous Wife and Faithfull husband

a. Introduction to the book 1:1

b. Marriage of Hosea to Gomer 1:2 -2:1

c. Application of Gomer’s Adultery 2:2-23

d. Restoration of Gomer to Hosea 3:1-5

Introduction to the book 1:1

Hosea 1

¹ The word of the LORD that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam son of Jehoash^[a] king of Israel:

Marriage of Hosea to Gomer 1:2 -2:1

Hosea’s Wife and Children

² When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the LORD.” ³ So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

Parallelism

GOD – Hosea (God wants Hosea to feel and experience how he feels)

Israel – Gomer

GOD/Hosea	Israel/Gomer/Us
Faithfull	a. Adulterous, b. prostitutes, c. sinners
a. God respects his covenant to His people despite of b. Hosea is a prophet who married Gomer despite of Gomers character	a. Israel forgets his covenant towards God b. Gomer knowingly even married still lives a life of prostitution

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 (which means “not loved”), for I will no longer show love to Israel, that I should at all forgive them. ⁷ Yet I will show love to Judah; and I will save them—not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but I, the LORD their God, will save them.”

⁸ After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. ⁹ Then the LORD said, “Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.^[b]

Now after this there were no more children in Hosea's household. and Gomer began to fulfill the sad prediction that God had made when he had told Hosea to marry her.

What a heartbreak it must have been to this young preacher as he heard the whispers that began to circulate about his wife and about what happened when he was away on preaching trips.

I guess, It makes Hosea realize and wonder how God feels..which makes him a better and effective prophet.

Other people: “ Hosea we love you and respect you but how can a holy man like you can love an adulterous woman like her?

Hosea: I am glad you asked that because I have a question for you: Because now I am beginning to wonder how a holy God like Him can love an adulterous nation like us.”

True to Israel as it true to each one of us..

PROSITUTE - abase, bastardize, canker, cheapen, corrupt,debauch, degrade, demean, demoralize, deprave,deteriorate, lessen, pervert, poison, profane, debase,

: to offer indiscriminately for sexual intercourse especially for money

: to devote to corrupt or unworthy purposes

Questions About Gomer and us: I see a GOMER on each and everyone of US…

- Have you ever prostituted your principles? Gibaligya, mapalit ba ang imong prinsipyo

- Have you ever misplaced your priorities?

- Have you ever compromised your convictions?

God sees us as Gomers when:

- He sees us turn against His word

- When we capitulate (To surrender under specified conditions) our values

- When we turn against our upbringing

- When we compromise our integrity and sacrifice our character

- When we lower our standards to accommodate others (its ok to lie white lie)

- When we have habits and addictions (to drugs, to gambling, smoking ...etc)

- When we have uncontrollable flesh or desires of the flesh

- When

- we are not good stewards over all our blessing (wasting God’s blessing and gifts)

If we say that we don’t have sin, we deceive ourselves ,and the truth is not in us !john 1:8

For we all have sinned and come short to the Glory of GOD

We are Gomers in a way because we are sinners, because one way or another we had turned our back against GOD.

AND EVERYTIME ISRAEL WORSHIP OTHER GODS..GOD HURTS

EVERYTIME GOMER GOES OUT AND PROSTITUES HERSELF HOSEA HURTS

AND EVERYTIME WE SIN, WE COMPROMISE OURSELVES…GOD HURTS

DO YOU KNOW HOW GOD FEELS?

AND COME INTO AN UNDERSTANDING WHY? WHY DOES HE GIVES US HIS UNDESERVING LOVE?

Application of Gomer’s Adultery 2:2-23

Hosea 2

Israel Punished and Restored

Jezreel –punishment of the house

² “Rebuke your mother, rebuke her,
for she is not my wife,
and I am not her husband.
Let her remove the adulterous look from her face
and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.
³ Otherwise I will strip her naked
and make her as bare as on the day she was born;
I will make her like a desert,
turn her into a parched land,
and slay her with thirst.

Lo-Ruhamah – not loved

⁴ I will not show my love to her children,
because they are the children of adultery.

⁵ Their mother has been unfaithful
and has conceived them in disgrace.
She said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.’ (DEPENDENCE ON FALLS gods)

⁶ Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes;
I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.
⁷ She will chase after her lovers but not catch them;
she will look for them but not find them.

A. Remember the 10 plagues of Egypt

1. Water turned to blood – Hapi egytptian God of the Nile (water bearer)

2. Frogs from the Nile – Heket – Ekket goddess of fertility, water, renewal (head of a frog)

3. Lice from the dust of the earth- Geb God of the Earth

4. Swarms and flies –Khepri – god of creation, rebirth – head of a fly

5. Death of cattle and livestock –Hathor-goddes of love and protection, cow symbol of holiness

6. Boils and sore – Isis Goddess of medicine and Peace

7. Hail rained down in form of fire – Nut- Egyptian goddess of the sky

8. Locusts sent from the sky – Seth God of storms and disorders

9. 3 days of complete darkness – Ra the sun god

10. Death of the first born – the pharaoh (considered also to be a god – firstborn descendants)

B. Gods of Canaanites

Baal – meaning master- god of fertility, crops -FAMINE

observation of the fertilizing effect of rains and streams upon the receptive and reproductive soil, Ba'al worship became identical with nature-worship

C. Modern day people

- gods:

o work

o money

o profession

o addcition to drugs or pornography

o barkada, drinking, gambling,

o self worth, being smart or genius etc..

o by being Good – works wont save you

we tend to go to our gods and depend on them…and in these verses The Lord GOD is telling the readers that HE will take this away from them. HE will block them.

Meaning…

- If Gomer depends on her lovers..HE will take way her lovers

- If Israel depends on Baal for their crops, livelihood..HE will give famine

- If you depend to much on money HE will show you that money is never the answer…

Then she will say,
‘I will go back to my husband as at first,
for then I was better off than now.’
⁸ She has not acknowledged that I was the one (went back without repentance, sample prodigal son)
who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil,
who lavished on her the silver and gold—
which they used for Baal.

⁹ “Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens,
and my new wine when it is ready.
I will take back my wool and my linen,
intended to cover her naked body.
¹⁰ So now I will expose her lewdness
before the eyes of her lovers;
no one will take her out of my hands.

Lo-Ammi – not my people

¹¹ I will stop all her celebrations:
her yearly festivals, her New Moons,
her Sabbath days—all her appointed festivals.
¹² I will ruin her vines and her fig trees,
which she said were her pay from her lovers; (HER FALSE SOURCE OF STABILITY)

I will make them a thicket,
and wild animals will devour them.
¹³ I will punish her for the days
she burned incense to the Baals;
she decked herself with rings and jewelry,
and went after her lovers,
but me she forgot,”
declares the LORD.

(PREFERRING FALSE GODS, NOT ACKNOWLEDGING THE GOD HIMSELF)

Verses 2-13 is the expression of How God feels and an expression of what He is going to Do to Israel…

God’s response

- Punishment of an adulterous people

- Punishment of an adulterous wife

- Punishment for sinners

I will beat you like a locust – weakens THE NATION

I will beat you like a lion – dismemberment - scatters THE NATION

I will take away my presence from you – without GOD is Chaos, CHAOTIC NATION

Why? To make them realize that THEY:

- Have Wronged God

- Have a Commitment to God that they did not fulfill

- Have Commitment to the marriage and the covenant

- Nobody, nothing can replace God

It takes as inexorable, unrelenting, severe, immense, monumental, gargantuan, magnanimous punishment for:

a. Israel to realize their mistake

b. Gomer to recognize her personal flaws

c. For us to realize God’ sovereignty, that we are wrong and HE is right

It takes as inexorable, unrelenting, severe, immense, monumental, gargantuan, magnanimous punishment for:

a. Israel to remember their God and see God

b. Gomer to realize how much Hosea loves her

c. How much God Loves you

Lets read on and see what happens after God expressed himself on how he felt towards Israel:

Hosea 14

Repentance

^{1 [a]}Return, 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.^[b]
3 Assyria cannot save us;
we will not mount warhorses.
We will never again say ‘Our gods’
to what our own hands have made,
for in you the fatherless find compassion.”

Restoration:

¹⁴ “Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the wilderness (place with no distractions)
and speak tenderly to her.
¹⁵ There I will give her back her vineyards,
and will make the Valley of Achor^[b] a door of hope.
There she will respond^[c] as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

¹⁶ “In that day,” declares the LORD,
“you will call me ‘my husband’;
you will no longer call me ‘my master.^[d]’
¹⁷ I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips;
no longer will their names be invoked.
¹⁸ In that day I will make a covenant for them
with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky
and the creatures that move along the ground.

Bow and sword and battle
I will abolish from the land,
so that all may lie down in safety.
¹⁹ I will betroth you to me forever;
I will betroth you in^[e] righteousness and justice,
in^[f] love and compassion.
²⁰ I will betroth you in^[g] faithfulness,
and you will acknowledge the LORD.

²¹ “In that day I will respond,”
declares the LORD—
“I will respond to the skies,
and they will respond to the earth;
²² and the earth will respond to the grain,
the new wine and the olive oil,
and they will respond to Jezreel.^[h]

²³ I will plant her for myself in the land;
I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.^[i]’
I will say to those called ‘Not my people,^[j]’ ‘You are my people’;
and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”

I say this Because, GOD LOVES YOU!!!

GOD loves each and every one of us…despite of

Hosea 14

⁹ Who is wise? Let them realize these things.
Who is discerning? Let them understand.
The ways of the LORD are right;
the righteous walk in them,
but the rebellious stumble in them.

DO YOU KNOW HOW GOD FEELS ABOUT YOU?

Restoration of Gomer to Hosea 3:1-5

Hosea 3 (let’s not forget Hosea and Gomer what happened to them)

Hosea’s Reconciliation With His Wife

¹ The LORD said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.” (the Lord loves me despite of what I did)

² So I bought her for fifteen shekels^[a] of silver and about a homer and a lethek^[b] 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 behave the same way toward you.”

As Hosea paid the price for Gomer as she was auctioned sold to be slaved…

So is The Lord GOD who paid the price for us by allowing his son to be crucified so that we will no longer be slaves to sin anymore…

Just try to imagine during you lowest moments GOD looks you in the eye and says these words….

GOD love to us (add despiteof..)

You may not know me, but I know everything about you. Psalm 139:1

I know when you sit down and when you rise up. Psalm 139:2

I am familiar with all your ways. Psalm 139:3

Even the very hairs on your head are numbered. Matthew 10:29-31

For you were made in my image. Genesis 1:27

In me you live and move and have your being. Acts 17:28

For you are my offspring. Acts 17:28

I knew you even before you were conceived. Jeremiah 1:4-5

I chose you when I planned creation. Ephesians 1:11-12

You were not a mistake, for all your days are written in my book. Psalm 139:15-16

I determined the exact time of your birth and where you would live. Acts 17:26

You are fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:14

I knit you together in your mother's womb. Psalm 139:13

And brought you forth on the day you were born. Psalm 71:6

I am not distant and angry, but am the complete expression of love. 1 John 4:16

I offer you more than your earthly father ever could. Matthew 7:11

For I am the perfect father. Matthew 5:48

Every good gift that you receive comes from my hand. James 1:17

For I am your provider and I meet all your needs. Matthew 6:31-33

Because I love you with an everlasting love. Jeremiah 31:3

My thoughts toward you are countless as the sand on the seashore. Psalms 139:17-18

I will never stop doing good to you. Jeremiah 32:40

For you are my treasured possession. Exodus 19:5

As a shepherd carries a lamb, I have carried you close to my heart. Isaiah 40:1

And nothing will ever separate you from my love again Romans 8:38-3

This is your story and my story isn't it? So many times we try to satisfy ourselves with the lying idols of self-importance or wealth or a good time.

Ours is the blindness that like Gomer's cannot distinguish between lust and love.

We try to run from God and drown our miseries in empty pleasures or drink or work or social life but as surely as we think we have escaped, as surely as we think we have run far enough, God touches our sleeve with his love saying (interpret in local language)

My child, my name and my nature are love and I must act according to what I am. When you tired of all your running and your wandering and your heartbreak, I'll be there to draw you to myself again."

That is the story of the Bible isn't it? At Bethlehem God entered the slave market where the whole human race was putting itself up for auction, prostituting itself and its humanity to a cheapened life. But on the cross the Lord Jesus paid the price, the full price for our freedom, and bought us back.

This is the story of God's love and God's heart

-- his loving desire to make of his people the full persons he intended them to be.

- his loving desire to make you the full persons he intended you be.

Do you now Know How God feels about you?

Do you know How God feels every time you turned your back against HM?

Do you know how it feels when you sinned against God?

Do you how God feels when he punishes you?

Do you NOW know how God feels when he restores you back?

Put your shoes in HiS, like what Hosea did…

Because

“GOD WANTS YOU TO FEEL WHAT HE FEELS”

Love of God is undeserving

Love of God is desperately needed

Love of God is correcting

Love of God is forgiving

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.