Day 1: Spiritual Adultery

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,”

Matthew 22:37

Happy Thanksgiving Chi Alpha Family! We are so excited to get this devotional in your hands. One of the most important spiritual rhythms we have in our lives is spending time daily in scripture. It is easy to struggle with consistency in our scripture reading when we are not in our normal routine. One of our very own students in Chi Alpha planned and wrote this devotional to help us with just that! Hosea may be a minor prophet, but the message God gave him to share thousands of years ago is major and still resonates with us today. This devotional is 7 days long, covers the entire book of Hosea, includes the scriptures from the ESV translation, has questions to mediate over, as well as a closing activity. If you take thirty minutes each day to read and muse through the scriptures, questions, and activities, we know you will be deeply encouraged, challenged in your walk, and uplifted. We will be doing it right along with you! -VTXA Staff

• Day 1: Spiritual Adultery (Chapters 1-3)
• Day 2: Knowing God (Chapters 4-5)
• Day 3: Influenced (Chapters 6-7)
• Day 4: Assyria and Egypt (Chapters 8-9)
• Day 5: The Prodigal Son (Chapters 10-11)
• Day 6: Comfort (Chapters 12-13)
• Day 7: True Repentance (Chapter 14)

Day 1: Spiritual Adultery

Hosea 1-3 (ESV) Chapter 1:

1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” 3 So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.4 And the Lord said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. 5 And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”

6 She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, “Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. 7 But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”8 When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. 9 And the Lord said, “Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.” 11 And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head. And they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.

Chapter 2:

1 Say to your brothers, “You are my people,” and to your sisters, “You have received mercy.” 2 “Plead with your mother, plead— for she is not my wife,    and I am not her husband—that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts; 3 lest I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst. 4 Upon her children also I will have no mercy, because they are children of whoredom. 5 For their mother has played the whore; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’

6 Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths. 7 She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them, and she shall seek them but shall not find them.Then she shall say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband,    for it was better for me then than now.’ 8 And she did not know    that it was I who gave her    the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal. 9 Therefore I will take back    my grain in its time, and my wine in its season, and I will take away my wool and my flax, which were to cover her nakedness. 10 Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.

11 And I will put an end to all her mirth, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her appointed feasts. 12 And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, of which she said,‘These are my wages, which my lovers have given me.’I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour them. 13 And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals when she burned offerings to them and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry, and went after her lovers and forgot me, declares the Lord. 14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. 15 And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

16 “And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18 And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. 19 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy.

20 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.21 “And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth,22 and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel, 23 and I will sow her for myself in the land.And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”

Chapter 3:

1 And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” 2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. 3 And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.” 4 For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. 5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.

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Hosea is a book of rich metaphor and complex prophecy. Predictions of the capture of Israel by Assyria intertwine with the complexity of God’s love for his wayward people to demonstrate the balance of demanding holiness and utter mercy. But what was Israel’s sin? What had brought this affluent nation to a place of imminent destruction?Idolatry.

Idolatry has two parts: (1) forsaking the Lord and (2) pursuing other things in place of Him. Or as Jeremiah 2:13 describes it, “for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” Idolatry is turning from the source of life to broken wells that are useless at accomplishing the purpose they were intended to do. In the same way, when we make anything, even good things, idols in our lives they do a terrible job at fulfilling the role of Lord. They might have a purpose, but they were never meant to serve that purpose.

In the same way, when we make anything, even good things, idols in our lives they do a terrible job at fulfilling the role of Lord. They might have a purpose, but they were never meant to serve that purpose.

Only one, only God, Yahweh, Lord, was meant to be God, Yahweh, Lord of our lives. In the words of David, “They have mouths but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat,” (Ps. 115:4-7). They are dead, inanimate, silent, and still, yet we seek life, action, guidance, and purpose from them, as did the Israelites of Hosea’s time.

But idolatry isn’t just the worship of useless, inanimate, misplaced things; it is spiritual adultery. Spiritual adultery is unfaithfulness to the Lord. It is the turning away from Our True Love to other lesser loves. It is the corruption of the greatest commandment, “ “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” (Matthew 22:37). This is presented in Hosea through his marriage to Gomer. Hosea is commanded by the Lord to wed a prostitute. To take her into his home, provide for her, and love her, even though she has proven to be nothing but unfaithful.

Not only does Gomer end up literally running away from Hosea, it is thought that her last two children, No Mercy (1:6) and Not My People (1:9), were actually born out of wedlock. Even under his roof and within his care, his wife took another man into her bed and committed adultery against her husband.

What was Hosea’s reaction? Did he give her over to her own ways? Did he seek revenge, maybe even to the point of taking her life? No, not at all! He bought her out of her slavery. You see, in chapter 3 it is written that Gomer had gone as far as to sell herself into bondage, into slavery under the ownership of her adulterous lover. But Hosea came to the auction block, and bought her back into love, brought her back into safety.

We, like Gomer, find protection, love, and faithfulness in the Lord, yet we walk away to serve gods that seem right in our own eyes. In the pursuit of love, we make relationships our god. In the pursuit of security, we make careers or academics lord of our lives. We run after physical appearance, fitness, gluttony, alcohol, pride, self-reliance, reputation, family acceptance, all the while, digging broken cisterns that hold no water. Taking on mistresses that can never be satisfied and that will never satisfy. Gods that serve no purpose, but destruction and separation from the one true God who has true power. As Kelly Minter puts it, idolatry is pursuing life in lesser things, pursuing life from things, even good things, where life cannot be found. Just like sin, idols will take you to places you never wanted to go. They will leave you in a pit, in a tomb, enslaved in chains of your own choosing. 

Yet, God does not pronounce you dead. He does not pronounce you too far gone. He doesn’t leave you on an auction block to be bought by just anyone. Hosea 2:16-17 says, “And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ For I will remove the names of Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more.” God says I will strip away your idols. I will remove their names from your mouth, and I will pronounce that I am Lord over you life. That I am your God, and you will have no other gods before me.

But in this pursuit we have a choice. Even as Gomer stands on the auction block she has a choice. Be bought back, turn back, or stay in bondage. We can turn towards this pursuit of God or we can run away. We can accept it or we can deny it. We can embrace love and forgiveness, joy and mercy, or we can choose guilt and shame. We have the choice to let go or hold on.

It is okay if you need help in this choice. In fact, you do need help. Not only do you need to run to God, you need to run to community. Even as you enter your home, a place where past idols can return and fester, reach out to your lifegroups, leaders, and friends. Lay yourself bare before them. Pour out your heart before God and your brothers and sisters in Christ. Those idols that you don’t want the light to touch, let them shine bright in the sparks of iron sharpening iron.

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Reflection

• Who are the main characters of Hosea 1-3? Describe what each of these main characters are doing in these chapters.
• What are the names of Hosea’s three children born in chapter 1? What do you think these names reveal? 
• What does God tell Hosea to do in chapter 3? Where do we find Gomer in chapter 3? 
• What does Hosea 1-3 reveal about God’s character and human nature?
• What are your idols? Where have your idols taken you that you never wanted to go? Take some time now to journal, pray, and reflect upon the idols that you hold onto, ask God to reveal to you how to begin to lay them down and let them go.
• Ezekiel 16 once again describes Israel as an unfaithful bride. The scene begins with God taking Israel, who is described as a young woman, entering into a covenant with her, and providing for her needs. But verse 15 says, ““But you [Israel] trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passerby; your beauty became his.” How does this passage further reveal the nature of spiritual adultery?
• In what ways have you sensed God’s love for you fill the empty places where idols once resided these past few weeks of the semester? How has His love and guidance helped to strengthen you and encourage you to continue to let go and lay down more?  

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