Apply Within

Bob Davis: A lot of times, that's why your preaching is a little bit shaky. You're telling somebody, "You ought to," but there's no heart in it. Paul tells us we can teach the Bible where people will believe it, or we can teach it where people won't be interested in it at all. How do you talk about the Lord? How do you tell people about hell? When you talk to people, how do you share? Is there any heart with it from the experiences of your own pain and suffering and stupidity?

Guest (Male): Welcome to Apply Within, a verse-by-verse study of the word of God with Pastor Bob Davis of North County Chapel. We invite you to join with us as we, by the power of God's Holy Spirit, apply His word within our own hearts as we study line upon line, precept upon precept, verse by verse through the Bible. Join with us as we study through the Old Testament book of Hosea. Here's Pastor Bob.

Bob Davis: Hosea, are you there? Chapter 3. Let's talk about what we remember before we do chapter 3. Hosea was commanded by God to go and marry a prostitute. He did, and they had three children. Remember we talked about that? That was in the physical. We learned that was what was going on in the spiritual lives of the Israelites.

This girl went back into prostitution after a while. There's better money there. It looks like Hosea was typical ministry, didn't have a whole lot, so she went back into prostitution for more money and stuff like that. He went back and got her, and she went back in again. It looks like this time she sold herself into some form of slavery.

Maybe she became a temple prostitute, which means she was owned then by the priests that were there. Maybe she just hooked herself up with one of the pimps and the guys that ran the houses of prostitution. Somehow she got herself owned by someone else besides her husband.

Now we're going to talk about that. Chapter 3 begins this way: "Then said the Lord to me," Hosea speaking, "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."

Hosea's wife is now back in prostitution. Somehow she has gotten herself in debt there, so she is owned by whoever she's working for or working with. God commands Hosea to go get her and bring her back home. Hosea is going to have to purchase her because she is now owned by somebody.

We're not given details how that happened, but she chose to do it that way. Now he's going to have to go spend money on this woman. She went back into prostitution, and he is commanded by God to go back and get her. Notice the command. The command is not just, "Go get your wife and bring her back."

The command is, "Go take her back and love her anyway." Do you see that? Let's read it again. "Then the Lord said to me, go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend." You go get her and bring her back and you love her just as much as ever. That's the command. How do you do that?

How on earth do you do that? How does he feel right now? You talk to others whose spouse, either the husband or the wife, has gone and had an affair or joined themselves up with someone else. You talk to that woman or that man and you say, "How do you feel about it?"

They will explain to you in pretty good terms that it's not that great of a feeling, that it's something that is difficult to get over. Some of them cannot get over it, period. It can't be done as far as they're concerned. It's going to take a miracle from God.

Here's Hosea, this prophet of God who loves the Lord. God says, "Go get this woman and buy her back and love her." How did he feel about that? You just have to simply stop and go, "How would I feel?" That's how he felt, just like that. But he did it anyway. Why?

Because it's what God wanted him to do. It was God's will. How do you feel sometimes when you need to do something that's God's will? Many times your emotions are scattered. Maybe you feel angry, maybe you feel cheated, maybe you feel ripped off, maybe you feel hurt. Who knows what you feel?

But what you do is what God says. We want to obey. When he brought her home, how comfortable was it in that house? Walking on eggshells? You can imagine that it might not have been the easiest thing Hosea's ever done. But notice, not only are you to go get her and love the woman, she's beloved of her friend.

That means she is now loved by someone else. She might be more interested in that someone else than she is in you. But I want you to go back and get her and love her anyway. Is God making it hard enough for Hosea? Yeah, do this. That would be real hard to do.

You'd probably like to wish her a five-car accident with no survivors because this isn't once or twice. She's just got a problem. This lady is messed up and everybody knows it. God says, "Well, I just want you to feel what I feel." Let me read it.

"She's an adulteress according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel." I want you to love her so you'll understand, the next time you preach, what I feel, because I love Israel. That's what she has done. She has sold herself to other lovers and she is more interested in them now than she is in me.

She doesn't love me anymore. She doesn't want me around. But I'll take her back and I want you to do that. "She looks to other gods," Israel does, "and loves flagons of wine." Really, in the original language, grapes. You and I would not say "flagons of wine." You and I, in American, would say cakes, or bread cakes of grapes, raisins.

That's what you would use. They made little cakes with raisins. Those were really tasty so that the gods could eat them. That was very common and the Israelites really got good at making those little raisin cakes so that the gods could eat them.

God says, "You need to love them, or you need to love that girl according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel. I want you to love her just like I love them. That will show everyone what they've done and what they're doing." Verse 2.

Before I go to verse 2, God says, "Love them the same way I continue to love Israel. Though she continues to be unfaithful and worship other gods, I continue to love her." Notice this: Israel will be punished. God will take her back as His own, but it's not going to be for a long time.

If you'd like to look through history, it hasn't happened yet. It will happen in the latter days. We'll see that in a moment. It hasn't happened yet. They're still really messed up. They're still floundering. They are still living in unbelief. Most of the Christians today in Israel are not Jewish; they are Arab.

Most of the Christians are Arab. Jews, many of them, probably the biggest majority right now, are atheists. They don't believe in any god. The Christians that are in the land are Arabs and they're persecuted mercilessly by the Jews and the Arabs because they're Christians.

When we were there and visited underground Christian churches in Israel, they have to hide to have their Bible studies. Of course, we think that land is free, but it's only free if you don't belong to the Lord. It's a mess over there. You can still see this stuff still going on. Punishment's coming for them, God says.

In verse 2, Hosea obeyed God's command. I'm telling you right now, he deserves a standing ovation to do that and to be willing to do what God said. His friends on the way ask, "Where are you going?" "I'm going to go get my wife back." "Man, she's a prostitute. I wouldn't have her. According to the law, you ought to have her killed."

"You've got a right to divorce her. Go ahead and divorce her and have them stone her to death." "No, God wants me to marry her again, take her back." "That's not the Lord. That goes against God's word. That goes against God's will." "No, this is what God wanted me to do. He wanted me to marry this girl again, take her back."

"So I bought her," he says. She's gotten herself into prostitution slavery somehow, so I had to buy her for 15 pieces of silver, for a homer of barley, and a half homer. Let's just say that in our language. That would be approximately 15 pieces of silver.

Take 15 pieces of silver and add 15 more pieces of silver to it, and you're looking at 30 pieces of silver. Quite a bit of money for poor Hosea. That's a price to pay for what you're getting. Everybody knows, and so do you even though we don't say it quite often, she is not worth the money.

Hosea knows that, God knows that, she knows that herself. For him to come back and pay that kind of money for this woman with no guarantee what was going to even happen next week, she wasn't worth the money. But he says, "So I bought her to me for approximately 30 pieces of silver."

I don't know what he felt, but I know what he did. It's a lesson for me. When God tells me, "Here's my word. Here's my direction for you," there's sometimes I honestly don't know how I feel about it. Sometimes you think, "If I do that, the pressure on me is going to be great. Can't I just do this instead?"

God will say, "No, this is the way. You do this. This is the good way." Remember Jeremiah? "I can't say that. If I say that, they'll throw me in jail." What did God say? "Just say it, Jeremiah." He said, "I can't. If I say that, you know they're going to get me." And what did God say? "Quit your whining. If you change one word, I'll get you."

That's a terrible place to be. If I tell you, you'll beat me up. If I don't, God will beat me up. That's a terrible feeling. You know how important feelings are to us. "Feelings, nothing more..." or is it peelings? I forget. That's us. "I just don't feel like this marriage is working out. I don't feel like fries today either."

"I don't really feel like tennis shoes, but I feel like chocolate cake." How about you? When the Mormons come to your door, they don't want to discuss doctrine. What do they ask you? "How do you feel about Joseph Smith? How do you feel about the planet Kolob?" "Well, here's what God said."

"No, but how do you feel? Do you get that burning in your bosom?" "Yeah, after radishes, I do." You guys probably can't get away with that, but they look at me thinking, "He's an old man, just leave him alone. We'll go to another house." You could take care of that burning in your bosom with Rolaids.

So I bought her for approximately 30 pieces of silver, and she was not worth it. Somehow she belonged to another. He bought her. Very clearly, this woman was not worth the price of a slave. That's what 30 pieces of silver is. But Hosea did it in obedience to God.

When he did, just verse 2 alone, you see our own redemption, don't you? That's what we see. We have also been purchased. Everyone that belongs to Jesus has been purchased. I've been purchased, and I can tell you right now, I was not worth it.

I have some bad news for you: You've been purchased if you're born again, and I'm telling you right now, you were not worth it. We all know that. You don't hear that a lot in church anymore. People don't really want to talk about the downside. Someone was telling me one of the doctors was reading a flyer and said, "How can you base a religion on such negative stuff?"

Because it says in there we're sinners. The Romans Road says, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." That's the truth. How can you base religion on such negativity? It's not a religion; it's a relationship. That's what it is.

Your sin can be washed away, it can be gone, but you've got to recognize first that we are sinners and need some help, need a Savior. Here, we have been redeemed. We have been bought with a price, you and I, and we are definitely not worth it. Why did God do it?

While we were yet sinners, Christ died for every one of us. Why did He do that? John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world." The Greek word "cosmos" doesn't mean the planets or the solar system, although that's how the word can be translated. It doesn't mean the trees and the flowers, although I'm sure God appreciates them; He made them.

It means mankind, people. Jesus died not to save the trees or the red squirrel. He died to shed His blood to save humankind. For God so loved the world. God cares about your car, your shoes, and your home. He cares about your wildlife, your animals, your menagerie that you have at home.

He cares about those. But understand, God did not die for the trees or the animals in the trees. He died for you and me. He redeemed us. We've been bought with a price. 1 Peter 1:18 and 19 says this: "Forasmuch as you know you were not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and gold, from your vain, empty, wasted conversation lifestyle received by tradition from your fathers; but you were bought with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."

It was quite a price to pay to get you, to get me, to get us. The blood of the living God, the death of His only Son. That's how much He loves you. I'm glad that Jesus did that, aren't you? Even though I know it wasn't a comfortable feeling. I know that because He said so.

He said in the garden before He fell down to pray, "Pray with me. My heart is breaking. I'm at the point of death." He was in such agony that He was at the point of death right now. This is hard for Him. He sweat as it were great drops of blood, which medical people tell us is possible if you're under such severe stress.

How did it feel to go to the cross? I doubt that He was going, "Let's go, hurry, come on, I can't wait. Me first!" I don't think so. I think that it was a difficult assignment. Yet He went joyfully and willingly, didn't He? God says to Hosea, "Go get her back because I want you to show the love that I have for Israel."

Hosea says, "I went and I purchased her back and brought her home." Look at verse 3: "I said to her, you shall abide for me many days. You shall not play the harlot, and you shall not be for another man. So will I also be for thee." He tells her, "Your prostitution days are over. You're to remain here with me."

God's going to say that to Israel in the future coming up. When they finally cry out to Him and they turn back, He's going to take them back as a nation. He's going to tell them, "Your running around days are over. You belong with me. It's over. You're mine."

Verse 4: "For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king and without a prince and without a sacrifice and without an image and without an ephod without teraphim." Teraphim are those little fake false gods that you can carry around and set up a little altar wherever you go.

Each time God put Israel out of the land in the past, He told them how long they would be gone. He says to Abraham the first time, "I'm going to give you this land. You're going to have lots of children. The nation's going to be huge. But your children are going to be taken out of this land for a little over 400 years. But don't worry, that'll be it and I'll bring them back."

Then they go to Egypt for just a little over 400 years, and then they went on into the wilderness for about 40 more years to get it all together so the older ones could die off that didn't believe. The next time that God took them out, God told Jeremiah, and Jeremiah put it in his book, that the children of Israel would go to Babylon. They would go for how long? 70 years.

Sure enough, Daniel was studying that and thought, "Right on, 70, we're about done. Okay, Lord, what's going to happen?" God says, "Yeah, they'll be headed back." Daniel never got to go home, but he prayed for them to go home.