Hosea - God's Redeeming
Love (1:1-3:5)
(1 John 4:9-10)
“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God
sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son
to be the propitiation of our sins.”
INTRODUCTION
1. About the time that
Amos (the "country prophet") was prophesying to
the northern kingdom of
Israel, another prophet came on to the scene
a. His name was Hosea
b. Whose name means "salvation"
(Joshua and Jesus are derived from
the same word)
2. While the audience
was the same, there were some differences...
a. Amos was from Judah
(Tekoa); Hosea appears to have been from
Israel
[In this lesson, the first of several on
Hosea, we will see why Hosea
was so sympathetic, even
as he condemned his own people for their sins.
Let's start with
some...]
I. BACKGROUND
MATERIAL
A. THE MAN...
We read of his wife
(Gomer and his children)
“So he went and took
Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived and bare him a son. and his children...
a. Jezreel, a son -
“And the Lord said unto
him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood
of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the
house of Israel.”
b. Lo-Ruhamah, a daughter –
“And she conceived again, and bare a daughter, And God said unto
him, Call her name Lo-ruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of
Israel; but I will utterly take them away.”
c. Lo-Ammi, another son –
“Now when she had weaned
Lo-ruhamah, she conceived, and bare a son. Then said God, call his name
Lo-ammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.”
-- Through his family,
the basic message of Hosea will be
illustrated (see below)
C. BACKGROUND OF THE
TIMES...
The northern kingdom of Israel was on its last
legs...
a. Sin was even more
rampant than seen in the book of Amos
b. Religious, moral, and
political corruption was rampant
3. One word sums the
condition of the nation of Israel: harlotry
(whoredom, KJV), used
thirteen times throughout the book
D. KEY TO UNDERSTANDING
THE BOOK...
1. An analogy is made
between Hosea's experience with Gomer, and
the Lord's experience
with Israel
II. HOSEA'S FAMILY,
AND THE ANALOGY WITH ISRAEL
A. ISRAEL'S REJECTION
SYMBOLIZED... (1:2-9)
1. Hosea commanded to
marry "a wife of harlotry" –
“The beginning of the
word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a
wife of whoredoms, departing from the Lord. So he went and took Gomer the
daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son.”
a. Her name was Gomer
b. If the parallel
between Gomer and Israel is exact, then she
was not a harlot at the
time of the marriage; but her
background would prompt
her to become one
c. She certainly would
come to symbolize what Israel had
become
2. Gomer bears three
children
a. The first son is
named "Jezreel"
1) Which means "God
scatters", or "God sows"
2) His name prefigured
God's judgment on the ruling house
of Israel –
b. The daughter is named
"Lo-Ruhamah"
1) Which means "no
mercy"
2) Her name describes
God's attitude toward Israel, though
Judah still found grace
in God's sight –
“And she conceived
again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, call her name Lo-ruhamah:
for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take
them away. But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by
the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow, nor sword, nor by battle, by
horses, nor by horsemen.”
3) Some suggest that the
daughter (and the son to follow)
were not Hosea's
a) Note it does not say
she bore "him" (Hosea) a
daughter, as before
b) I.e., Gomer had
become a harlot - cf.
“And I will not have mercy upon her children; for
they be the children of whoredoms.”
c. The second son is
named "Lo-Ammi"
1) His name means "not
my people"
2) Thus God declares his
rejection of Israel –
“Now when she had weaned
Lo-ruhamah, she conceived, and bare a son. Then said God, call his name
Lo-ammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.”
B. ISRAEL'S RESTORATION
FORETOLD... (1:10-2:1)
1. Though cast off, God
promises a restoration
2. There might be a
reference to the restoration from Assyrian
and Babylonian captivity
3. However, both Paul
and Peter apply this promise to believing
Jews and Gentile in the
church –
“As he saith also in
Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved,
which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in place where it said
unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the
living God.”
“which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of
God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.”
C. ISRAEL'S
UNFAITHFULNESS... (2:2-13)
1. Condemnation for her
sinful conduct –
“Plead with your mother,
plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put
away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her
breasts; lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born,
and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with
thirst. And will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of
whoredoms. For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them
hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my
bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.”
a. Charges of harlotry
and adultery
b. No mercy on her
children, as the children of harlotry
-- God's rage for
Israel's unfaithfulness described in terms
of an enraged husband
who learns not only of his wife's
adultery, but that the
children are not his
2. Punishment for her
sinful conduct –
“Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way
with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.7And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them;
and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I
will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me
than now.8For she did not know that I gave her corn,
and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they
prepared for Baal.9Therefore will I return, and take away my
corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover
my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness.10And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and
none shall deliver her out of mine hand.11I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new
moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.12And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said,
These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them
a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.13And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned
incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and
she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD.”
a. God will prevent
Israel from finding her lovers
b. God will take away
the blessings and the feasts that Israel
enjoyed
c. God will destroy what
Israel has used to commit spiritual
harlotry
-- Israel's sin was
foremost her idolatry (cf. references to
"Baal"); God
viewed such idolatry as a form of "harlotry"!
D. ISRAEL'S RESTORATION
DESCRIBED... (2:14-23)
1. Using a
"wilderness", God will win her back, just as He did in
the days of Moses and
Joshua –
“Therefore, behold, I
will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto
her. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the vally of achor for
a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as
in the day when she came up out of the
land of Egypt.”
2. God will establish a
covenant of peace and safety, and betroth
Israel to Him once again
–
“And in that day will I
make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of
heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow
and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down to
safely. And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto
me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. I
will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the Lord.”
4. God will once again
bless them, and be merciful to them as His
people –
“And it shall come to
pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and
they shall hear the earth; And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and
the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel. And I will sow her unto me in the earth;
and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to
them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art
my God.”
-- While there may be
references to the restoration from
captivity, it also
foreshadows the age of the Messiah and His
spiritual blessings –
“even us, whom he hath
called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? As
he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people;
and her beloved, which was not beloved.26And
it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye
are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living
God.”
E. ISRAEL'S RESTORATION
SYMBOLIZED... (3:1-5)
1. Hosea is charged to
love an adulterous woman –
“and I said unto her,
Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou
shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee.”
a. Most take this to be
Gomer, who had gone into harlotry
b. Hosea takes her back,
though with a period of probation
2. Symbolizing God's
willingness to take Israel back –
“For the children of
Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without
a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim:
afterward shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God, and
David their king; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days.”
a. Also with a
probationary period, in which there be no king,
sacrifices, etc.
b. But Israel would
return, and seek the Lord and David their
king (the Messiah?)
Matthew 21:8-9
“And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut
down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. And the multitudes
that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of
David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the
highest.”
CONCLUSION
1. In these first three
chapters, it appears God used Hosea to teach
Israel an object
lesson...
a. Through Hosea's
experience with Gomer, God provided Israel a
concrete illustration of
what His relationship with Israel had
been like
b. Israel had played the
harlot; but God would take her back,
following a period of
punishment and probation
-- Keeping this analogy
in mind will assist our understanding of the
remaining chapters
2. A lesson to be
learned from this analogy is how God views apostasy:
spiritual harlotry!
a. Christians, we are "betrothed to Christ –
“For I am a jealous over
you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may
present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”
b. But we too can become
spiritual harlots" if we are not careful!
“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his
subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ.”
**Keeping Christ first in our lives can be very difficult when we
have so many distractions threatening to sidetrack our faith. As Eve lost her
focus by listening to the serpent, we, too, can lose our focus by letting our
lives become overcrowded and confused. **
Are we being true to our
betrothal? May the words of the Lord in
Hosea
encourage us to remain
ever faithful:
“And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I
will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in
lovingkindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in
faithfulness: and thou shalt know the Lord.”
By Dinah Ramos
No comments:
Post a Comment