LOVE REGRETTED
WHAT IS LOVE?
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.” Hosea 1:2
JEZREEL - A REMINDER OF BROKENNESS AND CONSEQUENCES
LO-RUHAMAH - “NOT LOVED”
LO-AMMI - “NOT MY PEOPLE”
SIN IS NOT JUST BREAKING RULES
SIN IS BREAKING RELATIONSHIPS
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.” Hosea 2:5b
She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold which they used for Baal. Hosea 2:8
LOVE REGRETTED OFTEN BEGINS WITH FORGETTING
FORGETTING WHO SUSTAINED US
FORGETTING WHO FORGAVE US
FORGETTING WHO STAYED WHEN OTHERS DIDN’T
“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.
So now I will expose her lewdness before the eyes of her lovers; no one will take her out of my hands. I will stop all her celebrations: her yearly festivals, her New Moons, her Sabbath days—all her appointed feasts. I will ruin her vines and her fig trees, which she said were her pay from her lovers; I will make them a thicket, and wild animals will devour them. 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. Hosea 2:9–13
“Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. Hosea 2:14
I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord. Hosea 2:19–20
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.” So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. Hosea 3:1–2
THIS IS THE GOSPEL BEFORE THE GOSPEL
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR US:
GOD’S LOVE IS HONEST
GOD’S LOVE IS PERSISTENT
GOD’S LOVE IS RESTORATIVE
THE QUESTION IS: ARE YOU WILLING TO RETURN?