To discover:
As you read consider how Israel ’s
unfaithfulness to God was expressed.
To ponder:
God’s word came to Hosea from around 760-790BC during the
time of the kings recorded in 2 Kings 15-20 (1v1). When first beginning to
speak to him, God told Hosea to symbolise the people’s spiritual unfaithfulness
by marrying an adulterous wife. This may mean someone known to have had sex
before marriage, as this would have been considered adulterous. Alternatively,
it may refer to the kind of women Gomer would be. Whatever the case, it means
that Hosea’s children would therefore be somehow tainted by that as “children
of unfaithfulness.” So when Gomer bore him a son, he was told to call him Jezreel
as a prophetic announcement that God was soon going to punish the northern
kings descended from Jehu for his massacre there (2 Kgs 9), and put an end to
their kingdom (the exile by Assyria). The sense is that this exile would be the
“child” of Israel ’s
spiritual unfaithfulness (1v2-5). Likewise with Gomer’s next child – Lo-Ruhamah
(meaning “not loved”), who symbolised that God would no longer show love and so
forgiveness to the northern kingdom, but would love Judah (the south), saving
them without military might (1v6-7, as 2 Kgs 19v35-37). Next was Lo-Ammi (“not
my people”) signifying that the Israelites (the north) were no longer
considered God’s people as they had been since the covenant of Sinai (1v8-9).
This is serious indeed, implying they are totally abandoned. However, God
immediately adds that, as was promised to Abraham (Gen 22v17), they will be as
numerous as the sand on the seashore, eventually called “sons of the living
God” and be united with Judah
under one leader. The note they will come up out of the land may refer to them
returning to Jerusalem from the
exile. And so the “day of Jezreel” is one of hope, in which the punishment on
the northern kingdom (1v4) is reversed. And so Hosea is told to address his
fellow Israelites as brothers and sisters: “my people” and “my loved one,”
reversing the sense of the other two names too (2v1). This all points to how
the descendents of the scattered northern kingdom would eventually join those
from the south in putting their faith in Jesus as their King, as began at
Pentecost. And so, God’s promise to Abraham is fulfilled and they regain the
privileges of being God’s covenant people, as God’s adopted children with an
eternal inheritance. The encouragement for us, is that we share in this. So the
status we lost in Adam’s sin is regained and more too.
From 2v2,
Hosea could be telling his children to rebuke their mother as a prophetic
picture of Israel .
But the language implies Hosea is being told to rebuke Israel
as his mother, by telling her she is no longer God’s wife, and that she must
remove her adulterous look and unfaithful acts. Otherwise God will strip her
naked – which is to make her like a desert, presumably knowing the spiritual
and physical barrenness she knew before inheriting her land (2v2-3). God
therefore says he will not show his love to her children (the people), because
they’ve come in her disgrace. Her unfaithfulness is said to be with many lovers
and in order to gain from them – ie. she sought false gods thinking they could
provide what only God could. But God will wall her in with thorns so she can no
longer chase her lovers - perhaps a reference to coming hardships. Without
catching or finding them, she will then say she will return to God for she was
better off with him than now (as did the prodigal son). But God states she
hasn’t acknowledged that he was the one who gave her good things, that she used
in worshipping Baal. So he will remove them, expose her lewdness before her
false gods, cease her religious celebrations, ruin her vines and fig-trees
which she saw as pay from her gods, and punish her for forgetting him and
worshipping the Baals (2v2-13). The lesson is to turn to no-one but God for provision
and care, nor presume that received comes ultimately from any god but him.
Yet again,
hope immediately follows, as God promises to restore this, in a sort of second
Exodus (from Egypt
into the desert, 2v14-15). Then she will call him husband, and he will remove the
name of the Baals from her. Indeed, with echoes of Eden ,
God promises to make a covenant agreement with the creatures, no doubt to
ensure they don’t attack them or ruin their crops (2v16-18, compare v12). He
will ensure they enjoy safety from enemies too. And this marriage will stem
from his righteousness and justice (ie. commitment to do right by his
promises), love, compassion and faithfulness. She will acknowledge him as her
God and he will love her as his people – and he will ensure she enjoys the
covenant blessings of prosperity in the land (2v19-23).
It’s an intimate picture of
forgiving reconciliation, in which the unfaithful wife is given everything as
if she had proved faithful. This is grace, reminding us that no matter how far we
have turned from the Lord, he is willing to receive us back. To illustrate
this, God tells Hosea to love his wife again, even though she has committed
adultery in a way that has caused her to be enslaved. He therefore buys her –
meaning that he is redeeming her. And he tells her she must live with him and
not be intimate with anyone. The sense is that she isn’t to be intimate with
Hosea either as a picture of Israel being without true religion or idolatry for
a time, until they return and seek the LORD their God and David their king in
the last days (3v1-5). This is an accurate prediction of the dissolution of the
northern kingdom in the exile, and then their descendents seeking God in Christ
Chapter 4
records God’s charge against the people. There is no faithfulness, love or even
acknowledgement of God, but only the breaking of the commandments, so the land
mourns and its people waste away – a reference to the covenant curses (Deut
28-30, contrasting 2v18-23). The meaning of verse 4 is uncertain, but the sense
in context is that the priests and prophets stumble because they lack
knowledge, causing the people to be destroyed because of their ignorance that
results from this. Its an indictment on ministers who fail to believe and teach
the scriptures today. For this reason, God rejects the priests, punishing them
as well as the people. Their sin is to ignore the law, disgrace their glorious
position, and feed on the people’s spiritual prostitution without ever having
enough (4v1-10). This idolatry and the immorality that accompanied it is then
outlined, and Judah
are warned not to go to two key sites of idolatry become guilty by doing the
same. The stubbornness of Israel
in sticking to her idols is then noted, as God declares it means they cannot be
pastured in a meadow, but will be swept away by a whirlwind for their shameful
sacrifices (4v11-19). Like Judah
we should heed this warning.
Praying
it home:
Praise God for his
immense grace in being prepared to reconcile us to himself. Pray for preachers
in the church who would preach scripture rather than teach blindly.
Thinking
further:
To read the NIV Study Bible introduction to Hosea, click
here.
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