Hos 1:6-9 | KingComments | STEP | Maybe Hosea has not been home regularly because of his work as a prophet. Practice shows that such a situation can tempt some women to seek their ‘happiness’ with other men. Marriage infidelity is not only found in cases where a man is swallowed up by his busy social activities. Also in marriages of busy pastors in Christianity, marital infidelity is unfortunately not an unknown sin. And certainly not only on the part of women. There is no reason to assume that Hosea has not been good for his wife. On the contrary, if his marriage should symbolically represent the relationship between God and His people, it is very likely that he has done everything to prove to her that he loves her very much. In spite of that, she becomes unfaithful to him. Many women have found reason in their husband’s behavior to become unfaithful to him. Although the behavior of men can sometimes be criticized a lot, it can never find any justification for a woman’s infidelity. She will therefore have to confess her act of infidelity as a sin. But the man will also have to confess his sins, in which his wife has found a reason to be unfaithful to him. In this way it is possible to work towards the restoration of the broken relationship. In the opposite case, the unfaithfulness of the man, of course, the same applies. More often there is not even a clear misbehavior on the side of the woman. Women whose husbands commit adultery generally feel guilty. They wonder in despair how they could have prevented it. But it is often the man who opens himself up to other women, even in spite of the fact that he has a good marriage relationship with his own wife. The cause of this lies in the lust of the man that he does not control. The Lord Jesus does not address the man for no reason, when He says: “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” ( ). He indicates in the following verse that this lust must be put to an end. Be radical. Turn away when you see something that can cause lust to arise. Out with that DVD, that book, throw away that stuff that contains things that pollute your mind. Don’t be tempted to visit pornographic sites on the Internet. Everything, even the most pernicious sin, is literally within reach these days: with a single movement of your finger, a push of the (mouse) button, you can see the world and all its attractiveness and perversion. If there is a temptation here for the reader, answer this temptation with the words of the Lord Jesus: “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY’” ( ). After a son, Hosea’s wife now has a daughter. This will certainly be meant to indicate that Israel consists of sons and daughters (cf. ). This child was conceived by Gomer in an extramarital relationship. Gomer has become unfaithful to Hosea. What it says in , that Gomer bore “him”, which refers to Hosea, a son, is not in this verse. Yet the child is attributed to Hosea. He gets the responsibility for it. The LORD commands him to give the child the name “Lo-ruhamah”, which means ’no compassion’. People have probably heard that Hosea’s wife has become unfaithful to him and that this child does not belong to Hosea. What will they have talked about, as happens in our time when something like this becomes known. Stories of unfaithfulness fill whole gossip magazines and how it is loved. These kinds of magazines are quite popular, which proves that people like to read them. But readers are blind to their own unfaithfulness. Those who like to hear or read such stories are morally numb and have no feeling for the sinfulness that is present in their own hearts. Talking about the sins of others is simply ‘delicious’. The talk will have gone through the city like wildfire and will have been intensified along the way. This is how it usually goes with the ‘passing on’ of such events. But Hosea can respond to that and say: ‘As my wife is, so are all of you!’ His preaching must touch consciences and place them in God’s light. They need to see that they are doing exactly the same things that they are accusing others of ( ), even if those accusations are sometimes justified. The same goes for the Pharisees who bring an adulteress to the Lord Jesus ( ). They want to see what He will do with this case. Certainly, she has committed adultery and the evidence is indisputable. She has been caught red-handed. If He condemns her, He cannot be the Savior. Then He is only a Law Enforcer and so are they. If He acquits her, then He cannot come from God, because then He does not do justice to God’s law. What does the Lord Jesus do? By asking a question he makes it clear that the sin of which they accuse the woman is present in their own hearts: “He who is without sin among you, let him [be the] first to throw a stone at her” ( ). When He has said this, they go away. “They [began] to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones” ( ). Look, that is what we also have to learn. How quickly we talk about the sins of others while forgetting how we ourselves are. It is not a matter of condoning sin, but of recognizing it in ourselves first of all. How many Christians watch dirty programs night after night or consciously look for porn on the internet, while easily saying something about the unfaithfulness of others? Hosea could have said: ‘Entering into this marriage has been the mistake of my life. Look, what a misery I have been through, what a disgrace for the children.’ He could also have blamed God, just like Adam: “The woman whom You gave [to be] with me” ( ). He doesn’t do that. When he writes these words, it is as if he looks back and says: ‘This is how God has led me.’ This view gives him the power to keep loving her and not become unfaithful himself. Even if she runs away from him, he remains faithful to her. She even comes back to him, as we will see in Hosea 3. In this way Hosea also experiences God’s faithfulness towards His people. Even though He has to reject Israel because of unfaithfulness, it is not forever. There will come a time when He will accept His people again. In this time, in which so much is being done from the point of view of feeling, it is good to also point out this attitude of Hosea. You sometimes hear: ‘We should break up, because I don’t feel anything for her anymore’, or: ‘We don’t feel anything for each other anymore.’ As if the absence of certain feelings could be a valid reason to dissolve a marriage. Who thinks of such a thing? It only comes from Satan’s quiver of lies. The command for men is: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her” ( ). It is clear, isn’t it? No more talk like ‘feel nothing for’ or ‘you should be in my shoes’. Just do it. The only strength for the best and most difficult marriage lies in the example of the Lord Jesus. He loves the church. He loves her when she is completely devoted to Him in the very beginning of her existence on earth. He also loves her now that she is so unfaithful to Him towards the end of her presence on earth. That love can be seen perfectly on the cross. There He died out of love for His church, His heavenly bride, to acquire her for Himself to be His wife forever. When Hosea hears the remarks about his unfaithful wife, he points to the name he had to give this child. This name is telling. Once again it must have sounded hard to his people’s ears and possibly they laughed again. But God will stop proving His compassion to them. If God withdraws His compassion, it is a terrible thing. He must, however, let Israel feel the effect if He no longer has compassion for them. A child without compassion is doomed to die or to become a monster. A human being or a people cannot do without compassion. For His people then, Israel, and for His people now, the church, compassion is the basis of their existence. If God can no longer prove His compassion, it means the end. For God it is a terrible thing that He has to act this way. David says of him: “Just as a father has compassion on [his] children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him” ( ). And has not Israel experienced such compassion recently? Only a few years ago, at the time of the reign of Joash, the father of Jeroboam, they experienced it: “But the LORD was gracious to them and had compassion on them and turned to them” ( ). And even more recently, under Jeroboam’s reign, the LORD saw “the affliction of Israel, [which was] very bitter; for there was neither bond nor free, nor was there any helper for Israel”. And then we read: “But He saved them” ( ). God makes Himself known as a God who takes care of people in need. This is how we also get to know God in the history of Job: “You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and [is] merciful” ( ). There is no greater encouragement to love and serve God than after we have experienced compassion. In Romans 12, Christians are addressed as people who know God’s mercy. In Romans 1-8 those mercies or compassions are broadly measured. In Romans 9-11 they are shown to Israel. It is not surprising, therefore, that Paul immediately follows this up by saying: “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, [which is] your spiritual service of worship” ( ). Because of all that God has done for us in Christ, He may expect us to serve Him with all that we are and have. It is a great ingratitude when we answer God’s compassion with unfaithfulness, doing our own will, and following our own lusts. If we consistently ignore His compassion, if we pretend that it means nothing, the moment will come when He can no longer make us feel His compassion. Soon that moment will come for Israel. It will happen that He will “forgive them”, which means that He no longer forgives them. His compassion is, in fact, most evident in the forgiveness He grants. When God no longer forgives, because there is no more repentance among His people, the people sink further and further into their sins. Then He has to execute the final judgment. This will happen when the ten tribes are deported out of their land. This is the judgment that awaits the people.