Scandal: Better Than I Deserve

Have you ever found yourself saying, “I deserve better than this?” Why do you think that?

What do you deserve?

That’s an interesting question, but certainly needs a context to adequately answer it. If I didn’t study at all for a test, then I deserve an “F”. If I worked very hard and put in my 40 hours at work, then I deserve my paycheck. The question needs a context: School, Job, Hobby, Relationship, etc. Each context results in a different answer.

What about the greater context of life? Or how would you answer it regarding eternity? What do you deserve then?

The Bible clearly spells out the context and the answer to this question for us. We are all sinners and deserve hell. That’s what we deserve. We’ve been given the gift of life, but we have squandered it with sin. Sin is real and it corrupts everything about us. We deserve death, we deserve hell, we don’t deserve grace.

Thankfully God doesn’t make His decisions according to what we deserve or not. His plan is far bigger than us, and His ways are far higher than our ways. He painted a vivid picture for us about how He operates in the story of Hosea and Gomer.

It’s been a couple of weeks so let’s review. God told Hosea to marry a woman who would be unfaithful to him. Hosea married Gomer. They had a child together, then Gomer had two more kids. God told them to name the kids Jezereel – judgment is coming, Lo-ruhama – No mercy, and Lo-ammi – Not my people. Those are not fun names.

Hosea continues to love Gomer and be a dad to his kids. As a prophet, his life and his misery is a picture of God’s relationship with the unfaithful nation of Israel. Hosea’s steadfastness and broken heart is a picture of God’s love for His rebellious people. Gomer’s unfaithfulness is a picture of the unfaithfulness of Israel, and ultimately all sinners (you and me included).

Unfaithfulness, sin, will result in judgement. Staying on the road of sin will never result in mercy. When your life is characterized by sin, you are not God’s people.

BUT, even in your rebellion God is patient, loving, and kind; he offers forgiveness and reconciliation to all who repent and believe in Him.

Chapter 3 picks up the final chapter of Hosea and Gomer’s drama. After Hosea and Gomer married, she was unfaithful to him several times while they began their family. After the third child was born, Gomer left Hosea to pursue her promiscuous ways. Soon she became a prostitute, and ultimately a sex slave.

This is where chapter 3 picks up. Gomer is at rock bottom. She no longer has her freedom. She is enslaved and being sold to the highest bidder. She has become an object, no longer seen as a person.

Now pause here for a moment. What feelings do you have regarding this story? Do you pity Gomer or do you feel that she is getting what she deserves? What thoughts do you have about Hosea? How must he have felt to hear that his wife, whom he never divorced, is being sold as a sex slave?

Have you ever been rejected? Have you ever lost a best friend or a boy/girlfriend? It’s very hard. Some people never recover fully from betrayal or rejection. It’s heart wrenching.

The Command 

Now God speaks to Hosea again, “Hosea, go buy back your wife and love her, even though she has loved many lovers.”

If I am Hosea I’d be thinking this is crazy. I’ve done my part. I married her, I’ve been faithful to her, I haven’t divorced her. I raised the kids. I don’t deserve this. She doesn’t deserve my love. I don’t want to go buy her back because she just hurts me every time.

But Hosea didn’t respond that way. God wasn’t finished with just telling him what he is to do.

So why does God command that of him? “Even as the LORD loves the children of Israel event though they have loved other gods and love cakes of raisins.”

Hosea, go buy back your wife to be a clear picture of what I am about to do for my people. That’s why. Hosea, your life is painful, but your pain is a picture of my love and my pain.

The Problem: 

Listen how God describes Israel: they turned to other gods and they love cakes of raisins.

They turned to other gods. They wanted to be like the other nations around them, so they began to worship their gods, the false images that are made by hand, the Baals and Asheroths of the world.

They are not so different then our day. Yeah they turned to carved images and Baals and Asheroths, but what do we turn to? How many NFL teams can you name? What about Celebrities? What’s the latest celebrity news? What’s the latest video game? What’s new on the technology front?

Ok, name the books of the Bible, yes all 66 of them. Who were the 12 apostles? Where was Jesus born? Raised? What river was Jesus baptized in? Can you tell me the 10 commandments?

Now I know that some of that is just trivia. But my point is this, we get so caught up in the world and succumb to what is popular. We want to fit in. We want to see the latest movies or listen to the hottest songs so we know the lines and lyrics to fit into conversations. We want the latest fashion, the coolest shoes, the slickest hair cut, etc. We prioritize the temporal, and neglect the eternal. That is what made God said about Israel, and we continue to break God’s heart today too.

The loved cakes of raisins. What in the world? God doesn’t like raisin cakes? What’s wrong with raisins. Raisin cakes in biblical times was considered an aphrodisiac, a reference that they became consumed with sex as a culture.

Hmmm, does that sound familiar? I often tell students that if they want to stand out in this world, seek purity in their relationships. Christians who stand strong in their pursuit of purity and don’t give into sexual temptations will stand out in this society today. That includes conversations and the way we talk about sex, the opposite sex, and sexual issues of our day.

Sadly, Christians today have eaten the raisin cakes of our culture and many have rejected the biblical standards for what feels good, what is convenient, and what our culture does. Many who claim to be Christians do not think that premarital sex is wrong. Many don’t think its wrong to live with your special someone before marriage. Many who claim to be a Christian don’t think homosexuality is a sin. Many who claim to be a Christian affirm everything about the LGBTQIA agenda today. Many think its okay to abandon your marriage to pursue “true love.” And the list goes on.

You see, we are the same as Israel. And God’s message to Israel is extended to us as well.

We see God’s heart for us in the story of Hosea. Hosea goes to seek his wife. He finds her at the auction house. He spends his hard-earned money on the unfaithful, used up Gomer. He takes her home and declares she will no longer play the whore, she will learn to be faithful to him and he will be with her.

The Story:

I picture it this way:

Gomer is spent, she feels used, worthless and unworthy of anything good. She never intended to be here. She just wanted to find love, to be loved, to feel loved. But as long as she could remember, she always felt empty and unworthy. Now she is chained to the auctioning post and will soon be a slave, no freedom, no love to look forward to. She will be used, abused, neglected and cast aside.

The auction begins, she doesn’t even want to look at the crowd. She doesn’t want to know who bids on her, or what sick and twisted person would want her. “This is what I deserve, I couldn’t expect anything else,” she thought. The auctioneer keeps chirping, buyers keep calling, and bystanders are jeering.

As the commotion builds, her mind travels back to that day when a gentle and good man asked her to marry him. She remembered her wedding day, and the moments of joy and happiness she felt in the early days. Why, oh why did she reject that life. He had vowed to give her everything she needed and wanted. He said he knew she wouldn’t stay with him, but he loved her anyway.

In the beginning, she felt remorse when she would sneak off for a rendezvous with another man, only to find him willing to take her back. But the urges seemed to control her, her self-doubt and self-loathing drove her to continue rejecting the good man and pursuing an unfaithful lifestyle.  

She began to sob uncontrollably. The auctioneer paused and said, “stop that crying, nobody wants to buy a crier.” But she couldn’t hold back the tears as the memories kept coming. She was broken and tried to sink into the ground and disappear. “How did I get here,” she wondered.

“SOLD! For 15 Shekels of silver and some barley” Cried the auctioneer.

She couldn’t bring herself to look up at the buyer. Her broken and used up body couldn’t even earn the normal slave price. She felt so worthless and wished she could disappear. She huddled in the corner trying to cover her nakedness and feared the life that was coming.

The buyer quietly and slowly approached her. She couldn’t look up, she expect demands, maybe grabbing the chains and pulling her away. No sense in fighting it, she thought. The buyer didn’t say anything. He knelt down beside her, and wrapped her naked body in a soft blanket and just cried over her. It seemed like they were frozen in time, a gentle warmth began to creep over her trembling body as the unexpected kindness caught her off guard. She didn’t know what to do, so she stayed balled up and still hadn’t looked up.  

But then she heard a familiar voice, broken and gentle, speak, whispering her name… “Gomer…” he sobbed. “My Gomer…I…I waited for you…I searched for you…and now... I have purchased you back.”

Nothing in her world could have imagined this moment. She was perplexed. She didn’t know what to do, what to say. She lacked the ability to even move or look up. How could she respond to this display of humility, of love and kindness. So she just wept.

He slipped one arm around her neck and the other under her legs, and with the greatest of ease he lifted her off the ground and pulled her close to him. The bystanders never expected this seen. Never in the history of this auction site had a buyer ever treated a slave in this manner. The crowd began to buzz.

“That’s Hosea! He’s bought back his wife!” someone shouted. The buzz of the crowd erupted into a fervor as Hosea walked away carrying his wife.

Hosea whispered into her ear so only she could hear him, “you are no longer the whore, you no longer have to look for love with other men, for you are mine forever, and I will never leave you.”

As he finished these words, she summoned all the courage and strength she had to look up at him. Their eyes met and she realized he had changed. Once he was the carefree young man, but now he is aged. His eyes are blood shot from crying and she saw the pain she had caused and yet there was a gentleness there, not a harshness as she expected. She saw honesty in his eyes, he meant every word he said.

She was overwhelmed by the demonstration of his love. She had nothing to offer him, nothing about her deserved this kindness. There were no words. What could she say? So she said nothing, but wrapped her arms around his neck, buried her face in his shoulder and she cried.

Hosea carried her home, never faltering, never looking back.

That’s how Jesus loves you. He left heaven to pursue you and me while we were sinners. Romans 5:8 says it all, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” He paid the ultimate price for our freedom. He offers us forgiveness. His resurrection gives us the power to overcome sin.

Jesus is calling to you right now, “believe in me, trust my love for you. You are no longer a sinner, you are my child. You no longer have to look for love, meaning and purpose in all those empty places, for I love you and have bought you back. I will be with you and will never leave you.”

Oh sinner, hear these words and know that they are true. No, you do not deserve this kind of love, BUT it is freely given to all who will receive it. Stop turning to the false gods of this world, look to Jesus and know peace and love like you’ve never imagined.