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HOSEA

INTRODUCTION

The prophet Hosea spoke to the northern kingdom of Israel in the turbulent period of the 8thcentury BC. Following the death of Jeroboam II, Israel had six different kings in just over twenty years; four were assassinated and the last was forcibly removed from the throne. The rising empire of Assyria invaded Israel, and by 722 BC had completely conquered the nation and carried off much of its population into exile.

Israel had made the mistake of identifying the Lord with Baal, a Canaanite nature god. This identification may have begun innocently enough, since baal simply means “master.” But by the time of Hosea, the people were visiting shrine prostitutes, and had adopted the magical practices of fertility cults. Hosea repeatedly denounces this corrupted worship as spiritual prostitution. He also condemns the nation’s foolish foreign intrigues, its rejection of the moral law, and its callous greed. The people dismissed Hosea’s warnings, however, and simply mocked him.

The book is structured into two main parts. The shorter first part tells how God commanded Hosea to marry the unfaithful woman Gomer. She is symbolic of Israel’s wavering faithfulness to the Lord. The prophet’s own life thus provided a picture of God’s intentions toward wayward Israel. The longer second part contains oracles delivered during the decline after King Jeroboam, alternating hope and doom as Hosea both threatens and pleads with the kingdom of Israel in the last years before its exile.

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Hosea 1 (ESV)

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.

 

REFLECTION:

• Chapters 1 to 3 of Hosea use the family relationship of the prophet himself to symbolize the relationship between God and Israel, and use Hosea’s experience to illustrate how God loves His people.
• Why did God tell Hosea to marry an adulterous wife (2)? How can a holy God require a prophet in this way? The best explanation is to regard the “a wife of whoredom” as the prophet who understood God’s command when he recounted his married life. That is to say, when Hosea married Gomer, she was not an adulteress or a prostitute; but after getting married, she began to be unfaithful to her husband. The second half of verse 2 points out the symbolic meaning of Hosea’s marriage: the Israelites were chosen and loved by God, but they committed adultery, followed other gods, and deserted the Lord, just like Hosea’s wife.
• Note that the names of the three children of Hosea have symbolic meanings. It means that God will judge the Israelites, starting from punishing them for murder and bloodshed, showing no mercy to them, and breaking the covenant relationship. God is a righteous and stern God who will by no means clear the guilty. When we commit adultery in our spiritual life, God’s judgment and punishment will also come, because He will discipline the one He loves.
• The “yet” in verse 10 brings a turn for the better. God is a loving God; He judges but He also saves. He promised that the Israelites would be revived, their relationship with God would be restored, and they would be called children of God.

 

PRAYER:

Ask God to give you a heart of obedience. God’s guidance is sometimes difficult to understand, your situation may be special; ask God to enable you to understand and appreciate His will, and believe that the omniscient God has a good will in His requirements. Let you be willing to submit yourself to suffering in order to benefit those you serve.

 

HYMN: