Our Holy and Gracious Covenant-keeping God

Date: 1 February 2026, 9.30 am

Speaker: Ps Daniel Tan Sermon Text: Hosea 1:1–2:1 

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Transcript

Introduction

Blessed Sunday to everyone.

For those of us who are home-bound or travelling and you have taken the time to tune in, I want to commend you for that.

Thank you for endeavouring to journey with us even when you are unable to be present.

As a church, we will be going through 2 Old Testament books and 1 New Testament book this year. Today, we begin Hosea, it is the first of the 2 Old Testament books.

Stay back later for our Comms Day to know more about all the books we will be journeying through.

Last Sunday, Ps David, in his final sermon from Nehemiah, gave us an object to remember chapter 13.

We need spiritual binoculars so that we can see the future as God has intended us to see.

With spiritual lenses, we are to seek to honour God’s house, observe the sabbath and pass on the faith.

The book of Nehemiah situates itself around 445 BC.

The situation of Nehemiah is that Israel has in recent years been released from exile. An exile due to the conquest by the Assyrian and Babylonian empires.

The book of Hosea, is God given Israel spiritual binoculars to see the future from the point of 740 BC. 300 years before the time of Nehemiah.

Between the time of Hosea and Nehemiah, God will discipline Israel and Judah because of their spiritual adultery.

Israel the northern 10 tribes went into exile in 722 BC. While Judah the southern tribes went into exile from 586 BC.

And in the final verses from Hosea 1, we will see that Hosea’s binoculars will point even further than the time of Nehemiah, it will point all the way to Jesus Christ and the church.

Hosea did not live in a time too different from us today in 21^st Century Singapore.

We know about his time because he tells us that it was during the time of the kings of Judah – Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah.

And as well as the time of Jeroboam, the King of Israel.

We can read about their kingdoms in 2 Kings.

At that time, Israel was described as enjoying peace and prosperity. Borders was secure and trade was flourishing.

Yet, though there was outward success, inwardly, there was moral decay. There was blatant idolatry. Many in Israel were taking their prosperity for divine tolerance.

They were paying lip service to God while getting on with their heart’s desires.

Because of the similarities with Hosea, I submit, Hosea’s spiritual binoculars will be very useful for us today as well.   

Our Holy God confronts Covenant Infidelity (1-2)

When we went through Nehemiah 8, we did something different during the Scripture Reading remember?

We enacted what the people did when Ezra the scribe read from the book of the law of Moses.

Remember, we stood up as a congregation when Nehemiah 8 was read.

Standing for the reading of God’s Word is seen as a visible show of respect for what is being heard. We show respect because what is being heard is received as God speaking to us.

Hos 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.”

In the book of Hosea, the phase ‘the word of the Lord that came to Hosea’ will be a common phase. God speaking in the first person to Hosea, has been observed nearly 100 times.

Our Holy God takes the initiatives. He does not wait for idolatrous Israel to repent, instead God makes the first move and speaks through His prophet.

And because God speaks, it carries the weight of authority. Instructions we must take note of. Words, we will see that also comes from a heart that is gracious and covenant keeping.

Words from our Heavenly Father.

And so, since these words comes from a heart that has our best interest.

We should not just seriously consider these Words, but should seek to mediate upon them, such that, it will cause a change in our life’s direction.

All these presumes however that we have respect for and reverence towards Scripture.  

Do you notice that our Scripture Reader ends each reading by stating the obvious – This is the word of God. So, we respond – ‘Amen’ or ‘Thanks be to God’.

Let’s pause and ask, do we receive what we have just heard as literally God’s Word?

God speaks through Hosea, did Isreal listen with obedience? History bears it out that the initial audience did not obey. What about us today?

When God speak, do we say like the Samuel in the temple, speak Lord for your servant hears. Are we like Samuel, prepared to listen so as to understand and to obey?

In verse 2 God calls Hosea to marry a wife Gomer, who will after marriage, repeatedly be unfaithful - will commit whoredom.  

Hosea will also have to receive and embrace children that will be the result of this unfaithfulness.

This hard task, God is asking him to do, is to be prophetic not just with his mouth, but with his marriage as well. His marriage is to portray Israel’s true nature.

His marriage is to reflect the relationship that God has with Israel - where Israel is living like Gomer.

Israel didn’t stop outwardly worshipping God, no they didn’t, but they also worshipped Baal.

Baal was the weather-god, worshipped by the pagans. It was believed that Baal had control over agriculture, fertility, rainfall and productivity.

In the shrine of Baal, there would also be cult prostitution. Sexual intimacy with the temple prostitutes was an act of worship to Baal, seeking Baal’s favour for a good harvest.

And together with prostitution came uninhibited drinking and feasting.

Church, God took the initiative to seek out Isreal even as they were being unfaithful to Him.

I submit, God had to do it because firstly, God is holy, and what Israel is doing is unholy. They are indulging in idolatry.

Secondly, God had to do it because of His covenant. Israel is His bride.

In Jeremiah, Isaiah and Ezekiel, God describes His relationship to Israel as a marriage covenant. And we know, in a marriage covenant, the husband and the wife are one flesh.

Yet, Israel has been unfaithful, she has played the whore.

For us as 21^st believers, have we like Israel been flirting with idolatry due to our own unfaithfulness?

Being a Christian is not merely adding Jesus to our lives. It’s bearing true and sole allegiance to God.

What might be our equivalent of Baal worship today? Baal was worshipped for rain to give a good harvest. Do we worship our work and careers to give us wealth?

Someone said this – spiritual adultery often grows quietly in seasons of success.

A case in point is the announcement on 6 Jan 2026, that the famous Christian author Philip Yancey admitting to an 8 year-long affair with a married woman.

Philip and his wife have been married for 55 years. In 2023, Yancey was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

He wrote for Christianity Today about how the disease had been slowly disabling him and how his wife had been preparing for the journey of caregiving. All the while hiding the truth of his affair.

Through his public admission, Philip has since acknowledged that he has sin both against God and his wife. His failure is both morally and spiritually.

Spiritual adultery often grows quietly in seasons of success. Let us thus, take heed when God speaks.  

Our Holy God declares judgement and its consequences (v3-9)

Why do we take effort and time to deliberate on the names of our children?

We consult baby name books, we ask advice from family and close friends for suggestions.  

And for every likely name, we do a background check right?

Firstly we ask, does it sound right, why set your child up to be teased because his name sound funny.

Secondly what is the meaning of the word, her name should be a blessing, an aspiration and not a curse right?

And finally, do we know of anyone whom we dislike that goes by that name. We don’t want to call our kid and always have a picture of that person come to mind.

Hos 1:3 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.”

I submit God was even more deliberate when He instructs Hosea to name his children.

God wanted tangible, in your face reminders of how He viewed Israel and to declare the future consequences of their unfaithfulness.

To Hosea’s first son, Hosea is to name him Jezreel. Jezreel means God sows. God will sow justice and here it means punishment for Israel.

Jezreel was also the place that Jehu executed the wicked Queen Jezebel the wife of King Ahab. Ahab and Jezebel we know from 1 & 2 Kings, turned Israel towards idolatry and the worship of Baal.

The current king of Israel, Jeroboam was also a descendant of Jehu. For Israel the valley of Jezreel was a fertile valley in Samaria and also a stronghold.

Thus, by naming his son Jezreel, God is providing Israel with binoculars to pronounce that as He has judged Jezebel, he will also judge Israel.

And in the place of their stronghold, Jezreel, he will break their bow. Israel cannot escape God’s punishment.  

Next Hosea is to name the daughter that Gomer conceived, No mercy (Lo-Ruhamah). Why, because God will not have mercy on the house of Israel and will not forgive them at all.

When Moses was up at Mt Sinai with the Lord receiving the ten commandments the first time, God told Moses, go down and constrain the people, they have made the golden calf.

And God described them as a stiff-necked people and that His wrath burns hot against them.

Because Moses broke the 2 tablets when he rushed down to confront the Israelites of their idolatry, God called Moses up the mountain again the 2^nd time in Exodus 34.

At that second time, we read this self-revelation from God:

Ex 34:5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

But now, God was announcing through Hosea’s 2^nd child that He will no longer be party to Israel’s sin. He will not give His forgiveness because they were not seeking it.

Since God is merciful, then if there is no mercy, it means God’s very presence will not be with Israel.

This is an escalation of the intensity of the punishment. Firstly, there will be an end to the kingdom of Israel and now God’s merciful presence will be withdrawn.

Finally, God says to Hosea, for your 2^nd son and third child, call him Not My People (Lo-Ammi).

This is full rejection by God. The highest consequence of their unfaithfulness.

Between the 2^nd and the 3^rd child, Scripture says that Gomer weaned her daughter before she had her 2^nd son. In those days, we understand that it would mean a period of 3 years.

So, for 3 years, the daily reminder of God’s warning – Jezreel and No mercy would have sounded out to the nation of Israel, but sadly, they did not heed God’s admonishments.

And so, God is intending to divorce Israel.

To comprehend the significance of this impending divorce, we need to recall the promise God gave to Abraham:

Gen 17:7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

Not just the loss of land or even His presence, but now the full loss of belonging.

Have you seen videos of how children are adopted? They have lived with their foster parents for some time and they feel part of the family but yet at the back of their minds, things are not quite certain.

And then these videos, capture the faces of these foster children as they are told that the adoption papers have come through and now they legally belong to the family.

The joy, the complete sense of security and that of being loved is very visible in their faces. And so, it’s worthwhile to celebrate such milestones.

Here, the opposite effect is to be felt. God is saying because of your persistent unfaithfulness, Israel no longer belongs to God. God is going to cut them off completely.

I submit, Jesus echoes the warning of Hosea in the sermon on the mount.

Mt 7:21  “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Church, let us never be presumptuous about God’s grace. As individuals and as a church, we can maintain the veneer of Christianity yet lose all credibility in the sight of God, if we become unfaithful.

The privileges of being in God’s covenant requires that we be faithful to God’s covenant. And practically, that means knowing His will and obeying it.

Israel did not heed God’s warnings, today, may we not follow in their footsteps.

Our Gracious God remembers His covenant (v10-2:1) 

In our final segment, we see that Hosea’s spiritual binoculars points Israel to the distant future. The future when the Son of David, comes in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There Hosea is saying indirectly that all of God’s promises are Yes and Amen in Jesus.

Hos 1:10 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. 2:1 Say to your brothers, “You are my people,” and to your sisters, “You have received mercy.”

V10 begins with a gracious word. The word ‘Yet’. It tells us that there is then a turning point. A turning point that is 180 degrees from the trajectory of the first 9 verses.

In v10, God reminds through Hosea that He remembers the covenant that He made with Abraham.

Gen 22:17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

Israel through their persistent unfaithfulness was going to forfeit God’s covenant blessings and call upon themselves God’s punishment.

But thanks be to God that His covenant with Abraham is an everlasting one.

God is gracious, giving us what we do not deserve. And because He is a  covenant-keeping God, He initiated the plan for the restoration of His people.

Paul says Hosea’s binoculars points to Jesus. And in Jesus, the consequences of the children’s names are reversed. 

Rom 9:1 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit …. 25 As indeed he says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ ” 26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ”

So, Paul is saying in Romans 9 that all who put their faith in Christ become the children of the living God. Thus, the prophesy of Hosea is fulfilled.

Therefore, when Hosea says in v11 that in the future, the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together and they shall appoint for themselves one head – the New Testament will say, that head is none other than Christ Jesus.

May I add too that in Romans, Paul was talking about the church, the church that is made up of both Jews and Gentiles who have put their faith in Christ Jesus.

This means, the binoculars of Hosea points to the fulfilment of the prophesy in Jesus who is the head of the church. The church that we are all part of.

The Apostle Peter wrote in 1 Peter 2, this very significant truth about Gentiles. As believers in Jesus, they have inherited the blessings of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenant.

1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

And then, with Hosea chapter 1 in the back of his mind, Apostle Peter says in v10:

10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

The word ‘Yet’ in Hosea 1:10 is the gracious act of God. It happened because He is a covenant-keeping God and will be faithful even as Israel was unfaithful.

That word ‘Yet’ we know on this side of Calvary is fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

As believers, the Gospel reminds us that our identity is never defined by our past. Our identity is only defined by our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that identity we have in Jesus is a purely gracious act on God’s part.

This is a timely reminder for us to thus be grateful and thankful for our gracious covenant-keeping God.

And may I offer, that the implication of such gratefulness, is for us to never give up praying for the prodigals in our midst.

We may have loved ones and friends who once were believers who have now rejected God and seem to be adamant in staying far from Him.

As Scripture has reminded us, God is gracious, so let us not give up on those who are far from God right now, but instead plead with God for His grace.

His grace to touch them and to bring them back into His loving embrace.

Conclusion

Israel was the unfaithful spouse but Jesus Christ is the faithful Bridegroom.

At the cross, Christ experienced Lo-Ruhamah, no mercy.

At the cross, Christ bore Lo-Ammi – My God, why have you forsaken Me.

Now because of Christ, because we are in Him, we can hear these sweet words of assurance  – ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

What we are receiving is not sentimental love, no, this is the love of a holy and gracious covenant-keeping God.

I shared about the spiritual adultery of Philip Yancey earlier. But I would like to close with the words of Yancey’s wife. I submit, she exhibits the heart of our God.

“I, Janet Yancey, am speaking from a place of trauma and devastation that only people who have lived through betrayal can understand. Yet I made a sacred and binding marriage vow 55 years ago, and I will not break that promise. I accept and understand that God through Jesus has paid for and forgiven the sins of the world, including Philip’s. God grant me the grace to forgive also, despite my unfathomable trauma. Please pray for us.”

Our Singapore society values material success and reputation. Hosea reminds us of the danger that it is utter failure when we have any measure of success without faithfulness to God.

But for all of us who are struggling, let us take comfort that our God is gracious and He remains faithful even when we are not.

Therefore, let us run back and cling on to Him.

Reflection Questions

• How would you rate your faithfulness to God in your life at this point?

• How can you grow in the Gospel assurance that you have been “shown mercy” and are, even now, “God’s people?

• What patterns of thoughts/actions should you repent of, in other to live out the Gospel reality in your life?