Psalm   95: 1, 3										Rev. S. de Marie
Psalm   94: 1, 5, 6
Psalm 106: 17, 19, 21, 23						Reading:		Hosea 1
Psalm 106: 22, 24										Rom. 11: 1-7
Psalm 130: 4								Text:			Hosea 1

Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
How far does God's faithfulness reach. How far does His patience go? It seems that the church, as God's people, is always challenging and testing the Lord.
We see that with Israel, in Egypt, in the desert and in Canaan. They always put the Lord to the test by rebellion and ingratitude. Under the judges and the kings, Israel adulterously follow the idols of the Gentiles. Thereby God's judgements come, but again and again God in His mercy and faithfulness preserves the majority of His people.
Even after Christ's work of redemption, there is again a lot of self-will and unholy behaviour in the church. How God is thereby tested! God's Word warns against this with examples from the Old Testament! What about the church in the Netherlands in say the last 100 years?
What a deformation and secularization! Unprecedentedly wholesale.  How will God respond to this? And what about us?
I may proclaim God's Word to you from Hosea 1 with the theme:

God's judgement on the unfaithfulness of the people of His love
1. The reason for God's judgement portrayed (vs. 1, 2)
2. The execution of God's judgement proclaimed (vs. 3-9)
3. Salvation in God's judgement promised(vs. 10-12)

1. Congregation, Hosea is prophet in the last years of Jeroboam II, He is, as great-grandson of Jehu, king over the ten tribes. It is then a time of prosperity. Trade is flourishing, the yields of the land are good. Military is also under control. But what about their relationship with God? Did they listen to the prophets who spoke God's Word? Have they become faithful again in His service?
No, unfortunately there is no sign of reformation in sight. Service to the golden calves of Dan and Bethel continues. Yes, they still use the name of the Lord. There is still religion. But in their own way, which conflicts with God's Word.
In addition, society is full of injustice, oppression, unholiness, and violations of the law. The prophet Amos denounced all this and spoke God's Word about it. But even on His preaching of God's punishment and judgment there was no repentance. Does God's patience now run out? Or is it infinite?
Well congregation, that becomes clear in our text. God is now going to urgently let His people know that His patience is running out. Before he can speak, Hosea must portray in his own life the terrible infidelity of God's people. God uses him as an object for instruction. Perhaps then Israel will understand and repent.
Hosea is given an extraordinary and very difficult assignment. He must marry a frivolous girl, Gomer. “A wife of harlotry,” it says. Is that a woman who has already committed adultery, or is she a woman who flirts with others and shows behaviour toward adultery? What ever the case, Hosea knows what kind of wife the Lord wants him to marry and thus what kind of marriage he should enter into.
What a terrible commission for the believing Hosea! To get for himself a frivolous woman, one who will not remain faithful to him. How can the Lord ask this of him? This goes completely against everyone's conscience. He will also have to have intercourse with her, for the LORD says she will also have children of harlotry. Bastard children. You would say this is an impossible task. Yet the LORD wills it.
The prophet will have to experience in his own life how hard and shameful it is to be married with an unfaithful wife. And it should be noticed by others. So that they will say: Look what a disgrace, that prophet's marriage! He pretends to be so pious, but behold, what a joke.
Hosea obediently does what the LORD asks of him. That is special.
The Lord does not consult with him, it is a command: Go! The LORD does explain why: 
for the land has committed great harlotry by departing away from the LORD.
Hosea accepts that the Lord asks this of him. There is no evidence in him of resistance or opposition. He is to portray the pain inflicted upon God by His own people. He must also portray what a loving patience the LORD shows to His people in spite of everything! But above all, it will become clear how horribly Israel is acting.
What then is the fornication of Israel? That is, the people of God's love commit fornication with strange gods. They is unfaithful to their God, the one true God. They run away with the idols of the world, which control their thoughts and their actions. They do so even while God has saved His people from destruction, giving them His loving care, showing His patience, and still granting prosperity.
God made His covenant of love with Israel at Horeb, as He has not done with any other nation. They are the only ones who know His laws. They are the only ones who can feel safe with their God and receive His blessing if they are faithful. In everything God shows His love and faithfulness, but they are unfaithful to Him in everything.
This is evident from their false worship with the golden calves, with which they insult God. Nor do they fulfil the requirements of God's covenant law. They commit adultery with pagan idols, and worship them. Their heart goes out not to the LORD, but to the world.
In God's eyes, it is fornication that Israel shows in ordinary life and in religious life. No, they have not officially renounced Him, they still call upon His name, they still offer Him sacrifices. But in fact they deceive God, as an adulterous wife deceives her husband. Now that is what Hosea must portray in his marriage to Gomer. He should suffer greatly. But it is only a faint reflection of what God is undergoing on the part of His unfaithful people.
for the land has committed great harlotry by departing away from the LORD.
Hosea will have to deliver that message to any Israelite who would confront him about his unhappy marriage to Gomer. Then he will answer: Shameful is your fornication with the LORD, with your faithful Covenant God. 
Congregation, it does not state the people, but the land departs from the Lord.
Our text reflects God's relationship with His people. It is a love affair, in which fidelity must reign. Just like in marriage. This marriage covenant has been entered into by the Lord with them, but He now also asks of His people fidelity to Him and love to Him. That fidelity, that love may not be shared with another, just as it is in marriage.  This is how the Lord begins his law: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Do not bow down to them and do not serve them. God is a jealous God.
Congregation, the Bible also teaches us to view our relationship with Christ in the same way, as in Ephesians 5. That too is a marriage relationship. In this he gives us as a congregation his redeeming and nurturing love. But in doing so He asks of us to follow and obey Him as our Head. Does our heart go out to Christ and God the Father? Our text teaches us how God views living in sin without repentance. And also how He judges that life. We can use God's name, and go to church, but if we don't honour and serve the Lord according to His covenant word, and instead join the world, God considers this as "great harlotry." Then you provoke Him to wrath.
Congregation, let us never think that this is not happening to us. Whoredom starts small. If you don't focus your attention on the Lord and His Word but are mostly concerned with the affairs of the world, there is a danger that you will shut God out of your life, that's where it starts. If you then invent and do things that the Word of God forbids, and you will not repent of them, you commit adultery, great harlotry with the God who shows you His love.
Even if you do not love the Lord from the heart, but only in form, you run the same risk. The Lord asks of us our whole heart. He therefore asks for daily repentance.
Congregation, at the same time God, by means of Hosea's marriage, portrays how patient He is. How much love He still shows when His people are not faithful to Him.
But God is also a jealous God. He is merciful and patient and willing to forgive, but He does not hold the guilty innocent either.
We see that in the second point.

2. God's judgment on the unfaithfulness of the people of His love. 1. The reason for God's judgment portrayed; 2. The execution of God's judgment proclaimed (vs. 3-9).
Verse 3 says:
Hosea went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; and she conceived and bare him a son.
Hosea obediently marries Gomer. She has a son from him. Then the Lord speaks to Hosea:
Name him Jezreel
Jezreel means “God sows”, but also: “God scatters”. The second meaning involves judgement. God's scattering of the people happens when He removes the royal house, and let the ten tribes perish. That is, then, scattered among the Gentiles.
Jezreel. God scatters. It is the place where Ahab had his palace. At the command of the LORD, Jehu killed the house, the family of Ahab. Jehu went far in that. He, and he slew also the king of Judah, Ahaziah, whose mother was the daughter of Ahab. And with them also all Baal servants. So Jehu shed a lot of blood there. Yet Jehu was not punished for this; he even got God's approval for that, see 2 Kings 10:30. The LORD even says there that it corresponded with all that was in His heart.
Now the LORD says to Hosea that his son must be called Jezreel
... for in a little while, and I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu. And bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.
The question may be asked, what then has Jehu done wrong and why should his posterity pay for it? So much so that even kingship is ended. How should we reconcile that with God's justice? There are several explanations regarding this. The most plausible explanation is this: Jehu was indeed zealous with much blood on his hands. Yet this does not receive God's disapproval and deserves no punishment in itself. But it remains that for the rest Jehu did not live according to God's own heart in everything. 2 Kings 10 says of it, He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam 1, for he also kept the calf service in Dan and Bethel.
So Jehu was obedient to God in killing Ahab's family and the Baal priests. But he didn't do it out of love for God! It was for self-interest! He wanted to become king and remain king. That is why he allowed false self-willed religion to exist in the ten-tribe kingdom. In this way he could keep his empire together.
In this he disobeyed and made Israel to sin. And his seed, his house, followed Jehu in like-manner. And so under Jeroboam II even the Baals were served again! So there is the blood-guilt of Jezreel. For it is self-willed bloodshed, not to serve the Lord. The fornication under Ahab continued, and the house of Jehu is also to blame for this.
Congregation, this explanation fits the message of Hosea's marriage to Gomer. Israel, God's covenant people, live in fornication with Baal and through worldly practices. Jehu and his descendants are partly responsible for this. God's judgement now comes on that.
God’s judgement is also against the people. The bow of Israel shall be broken in the valley of Jezreel. This valley is near the place of the same name. There the king of Assyria will soon also completely defeat the armies of Israel.
So the boy has a name with a message of doom for Israel. Whenever his name is called, the bystanders will hear of the impending judgement of God. The judgement of the scattering of ruin and exile, with the call to repent. Will they listen?
After the birth of Jezreel, two more daughters are born to Hosea's family. It does not say that Gomer bears them to Hosea, as it is written about Jezreel.
Probably these are bastard children, children of whoredoms, as God willed. That indicates that Israel's children will no longer be God's children, now that Israel breaks the covenant.
The first daughter is called Lo-Ruhamah. That means "no mercy".  The LORD Himself gives the interpretation of it:
...for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away.
He will send them into captivity.
The patience of the Lord is exhausted. For centuries He has had compassion on a disobedient, resisting and adulterous people, but that will soon end. The meaning of Lo-Ruhamah is even more serious than that of Jezreel. No more compassion.
But Judah will be spared, verse 7. God will yet have compassion on Judah. Judah had not yet sunk as low as Israel. Judah could still count on God's gracious deliverance from hostile armies. They should notice that too. Because that will not happen through human violence, but through divine intervention. We may think of the deliverance of Sennacherib under King Hezekiah without a spear or bow. Now, that divine assistance Israel has forfeited. Unless…. unless it would still repent.
This girl also walks around with a name that gives food for thought. Would the people notice the astonishing significance, and think about it, and then repent?
Later a second daughter is born. It must be named Lo-Ammi. That means: Not my people. That's an even harsher judgment.  It cannot get any heavier. “Not my people”: that is, God now for His part breaks the covenant, which was broken by Israel's adultery. God's patience is now really at an end. The LORD makes it even clearer by adding:
I will not be your God.
Congregation, that is the worst thing that can happen to the church: it is then no longer: God with us, but: God will no longer be there for us. The Lord removes his hands from his people. He rejects them. The church is then no longer “the Lord's”. literally it says: I will no longer be “I am” to you. I will no longer be Yahweh to you.
That harks back to the beginning of the covenant with Israel; To Moses, God made himself as Yahweh. Do you still remember, young people? Moses should to say to the Israelites, I Am, I Am Who I Am, I will be there, Yahweh has sent me to you. Now Israel is told by God: I am no longer with you. I won't be there for you anymore. You are no longer my people and I am no longer your God.
Congregation, that is the deep seriousness of permanent apostasy from the living God in the church. That the LORD, after a long time of patience, withdraws. That apostasy begins with joining the world and letting go of God's Word. That then goes from bad to worse. We see that all around us, do we not? The Lord warns against it, in his whole Word.
Yes, also much in the New Testament. Just think of the warning of the Lord Jesus in Rev, 2 about the church of Ephesus that has left its first love. Leaving the first love of marriage is a sign of infidelity by fornicating with the world. If this church does not repent, Christ will take the candlestick from it. What is left of Ephesus and of the other seven churches? Let us take God's Word from Hosea to heart.
It also applies firmly to our hearts: is it completely devoted to the Lord?
Does it show in our use of time, in the instruction of faith of our children, in our heartfelt love to serve the Lord together in the church? If not, if there is lukewarmness, half-hardheartedness, ogling at the world or selfishness, then let us repent while we still can! As long as there is the presence of grace.

3. God's judgment on the unfaithfulness of the people of His love. 1. The reason for God's judgment portrayed; 2. The execution of God's judgment proclaimed;
3. Salvation in God's judgment promised(vs. 10-12)

Hosea's terrible marriage to Gomer, and the names of the children that bear the stamp of that marriage, are still signs of God's love and patience. Their purpose is that the people of God's love would still repent. It is a crushing judgment that God is making heard through it. But at the same time, God Himself, thereby also reveals what is in His heart. He still wants to save the people of His love. That is what He wants to achieve with His warning message.
If there is no repentance, it means that God will no longer be there for His people. But is this the end of everything? Did not God make lasting promises to Abraham? Yes, God continues with Judah, but is there no future at all for the rest of His people?
Now congregation, verses 10-12 give the answer to that question. It starts with the word 'Yet'. That is the "yet" of God's grace, of God's electing grace, of His electing pleasure, right through the sinfulness of men.
Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, that cannot be measured or numbered.
Yes, they will even be called sons of the living God again.
Along with the Judeans, the Israelites will again be God's people. Under one Head. Everything will then be restored: the day of Jezreel will be great, they know themselves together 'people of God' and 'life of His mercy.'
Congregation, what a wonderful change this is! It seems the opposite of the preceding verses. They spoke of God's disgust and condemnation of Israel. Now we hear of God's mercy, of His peace and blessing. How is this possible? Yes, we know that God is merciful, but He is also immutable, right? How do the Israelites deserve that He takes them again as His people?
Well congregation, let us first establish that God's love for His people is always undeserved. This also applies to us. Even if we want to follow His Word obediently, we cannot lay claim to God's mercy.
Nor is it the case that God condones sins. No, He gave His own Son for our sins to bear His wrath over them. And only those who believe in Him may be assured of God's love. So that is part of a path of true faith and genuine repentance.
The "yet" of verse 10 is not a whim of God, no capriciousness. No, it points to God's faithfulness to His promises, faithfulness that rests on His electing good pleasure. He once gave miraculous promises to Abraham about his descendants and He will fulfil them even now that Israel is falling away from Him en masse. He Himself will then see to it that there will be a remnant among Israel, a remnant that will nevertheless remain faithful or that will still come to repentance. That can be a very small remnant, which is saved, where the others are lost. But from that remnant God will build and increase His church according to His promises and in His faithfulness.
Romans 11 reminds us that God already spoke about this to Elijah in the time of Ahab. When Elijah cried out that the children of Israel have:
... torn down Thy altars, they have killed Thy prophets with the sword, I alone am left, and they seek to take my life.
Then God answers:
Yet I have reserved seven thousand men in all Israel. all whose knees have not bowed to Baal.
Well congregation, thus the Lord continues with a remnant of His people. That comes from the election of His grace. Thus we read in verses 10-12 that in that way God gathers together all those whom He gives a living faith. Thus all Israel shall be redeemed, yea, also by adding believers from among the Gentiles, Rom. 11:26. In this way His church over the centuries will even be allowed to grow into the multitude that no one can number.
Verses 10-12 testify to the unfathomable love and faithfulness of God. But that is no reason for being worry-free. As if the Lord's threatening, that He will leave the church, changes again into His compassion for that same church. No, there will always be apostasy, whereby many members who have the sign of the covenant will also be lost. Entire denominations will disappear.
Yet the Lord continues. He always leaves a remainder for Himself. No matter how small it will be. And wherever it can be found on Earth.  God keeps his promises. He is faithful in curse over apostasy and blessing over obedience.
Therefore, congregation, look at the church in this way today.
The church has the promise of Christ Himself that it will not be overpowered by the gates of hell. Christ therefore continues to gather a church to Himself. He gathers together all that God gives Him. That may give you peace and confidence.
At the same time, the Lord continues to ask you to serve Him truthfully, in love to Him, with an undivided heart. Not to deceive Him by adultery with the world. Christ continues to purify and sift His church on this very point. See in this your responsibility, personally, in your family and towards each other.
Congregation, then it is your task to make people have strayed jealous. Especially those who bear the sign of the covenant, but broke the covenant adulterously. Call them back, as Hosea had to call God's people back.
That may seem very difficult to us, but look at what Hosea had to produce thereby with his marriage. And above all, see how infinitely great God's love is in His Son. There is still the presence of grace: time for repentance. That grace also means that Christ gave His blood on the cross precisely for sinners, tax collectors and harlots.

Amen