scripture for a broken heart

the book of the prophet hosea. hosea livedin the northern kingdom of israel which he sometimes calls ephram or jacobabout two hundred years after they had broken off from southern judah. rememberthe story from 1 kings. hosea was called to speak on godâ´s behalf duringthe reign of one of israel's worst kings jeroboam the second. the nation wasdescending into chaos, and in the year 722 the big bad assyrian empire swoopedin, and decimated israel. again, see the story in 2nd kings and hosea had seenall of this coming. the book is a collection of sometwenty-five years of his preaching and writing it's almost all poetry and thiswhole collection has been designed to

have three main sections. lets just dive in you'll see how it works.the opening part tells the story of hoseaâ´s broken marriage to a woman namedgomer, who commits adultery. now it's not totally clear whether gomer slept aroundwith other men before or only after they got married, but they did have threechildren together and things fell apart. the important point is that god tells hoseathat despite gomerâ´s unfaithfulness he is to go find her, to pay off her debts toher lovers, and to commit his love and faithfulness to her once again, and thengod says that all of this: the broken and repaired marriage, the children, it's alla prophetic symbol telling the story of

god's relationship to israel. so god hasbeen like a faithful husband to israel, he rescued them out of slavery, he broughtthem to mount sinai where he entered into a covenant with them. he asked themto be faithful to him alone, but then he brought israel into the promised landand they took all the abundance that he gave them and they dedicated it to theworship of the canaanite god baal, and so god has a legitimate reason. he could end the covenant and divorce israel and he thinks about doing so butinstead, he says that he's going to pursue israel again and renew hiscovenant with them. and he says why. it's purely because of his own love,compassion and faithfulness. hosea then spells

out what all this means. he saysthe consequences for israel's rebellion will be imminent defeat by other nationsand exile. but there's hope for future restoration. one day israel will once again repentand come back to worship their god and hosea says he will place over them a newmessianic king from the line of david who will bring god's blessing. and so thisopening section introduces all the main ideas of the book. israel has rebelled and god's going tobring severe consequences but, god's own covenant love and mercy are morepowerful than israel's sin. and so in

the remaining sections of the book hoseaâ´s poetry explores these themes in more depth. so there are two collections of hisaccusations and warnings for israel and then each of these is concluded by avery hopeful poem about god's mercy and hope for the future. so chapters 4 through 10, hoseaexplores the causes and effects of israel's unfaithfulness. he says numeroustimes that israel lacks all knowledge or understanding of god. the hebrew word "to know" which is yadã¡ it's more than just intellectual activity it describedpersonal relational knowledge is the difference between just knowing aboutsomeone and then actually knowing that someone.

and god wants israel to know himlike that, in a relationship. he wants them to experience his love for them andbecome the kind of knowledge that transforms their hearts and lives sothat they love him in return. and so this is why hosea is constantly exposing thehypocrisy of israel's worship. he constantly shows how they're breakingthe ten commandments, how they're allowing grave injustice in theircommunities and then they go to their sacred temples and they offer sacrificesto god like everything is just fine. but it's not fine and not only because oftheir hypocrisy because they're worshiping all of these other gods too. he mentions many times their altars to baal

at the cities of bethel and gilgal andnot only have they given their allegiance to other gods hosea repeatedly accuses israel for trusting in their political alliances with egypt andassyria. so instead of trusting god to protect them they want to become likethese nations and rely solely on military power and god says its all goingto come crashing down on their head because in not too long assyria will turn on them and come to ravage their lands. in this other section of warning hosea gives an ancient israelite history lesson toshow how this family's been unfaithful

from the beginning so he alludes to thepatriarch jacobâ´s lying and treachery --remember genesis 27 and 28-- he alludes toisrael's rebellion in the wilderness --remember the book of numbers-- he alludes to their appointment of the corrupt king saul who led the people into sin anddisaster --remember the stories in 1 samuel-- this is all hoseaâ´s way ofsaying "some things in this family never change." so what hope does hosea have. what we know from chapter 3 that god's going to do something to save and restore his people and thatâ´s what these two concluding chapters explore.chapter 11 is beautiful. the poem depicts god as a loving father who raised hisson israel and then shared everything

with him but the son grew up and rebelledand turned on the father, taking advantage of his generosity and so inthis poem god is emotionally torn apart. one moment he's angry and naturally hesays he's going to bring severe consequences but the next moment he'sheartbroken and then he says that he's moved by his mercy and compassion andhe's going to forgive the son that he loves. he says how can i give you up, ephram? my heart churns inside of me all my compassion is aroused. and so while god did allow israel to be conquered by assyria face the consequences... that's not god's final word there's still hope. and that's what the last chapter is about. hosea calls israel

to repent and turn back to their god but he knows that it won't last because it never has before. and god says that one day he will heal their waywardness and love them freely. god goes on to describethis new healed israel as a lush tree that will grow deep roots and broadbranches and offer shade and fruit to all of the nations. it's an image of god'spromise to abraham - how israel was to become a blessing to the nations andgod is saying if that's ever going to happen it's going to require an act of god's grace and healing power torepair the deep brokenness and sinful selfishness of the human heart so thatgod's people can receive his love and

love him in return. this is what god promises to do. afterthis poem concludes we find the very last words of the book. theyâ´re like anappended note. they're likely from the author who collected hoseaâ´s poetry andnow wants to speak to you the reader for a second and he says who is wise anddiscerning to understand all of this, in other words, hoseaâ´s poems. the ways of the lord are right. the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them, so theauthor wants you to know that hoseaâ´s ancient poetry to northern israel is notlocked in the past. it reveals deep truth about god's character and purposes andhuman nature and while god should and

does bring his justice on human evil, hisultimate purpose, his heart, is to heal and to save his people and that's what the book of hosea is all about.