Outline
Introduction
I. Who was Hosea?
II. Background study of the book
__A. Historically
__B. Socially
__C. Religiously
III. Language
IV. The Message
V. The Central theme
Discussion
VI. Drifting from God
__A. Children of Israel were a special people (Deut. 7:7-8)
__B. Hosea describes their departure as to show that God was the husband, and Israel was the wife (1:2; 2:2-5, 13; 4:12)
__C. This is what Moses and Joshua warned about (Deut. 8:11-14; Josh. 24:14, 20).
__D. The departure was slow and gradual
VII. Religious Corruption
__A. Lack of knowledge
____1. No knowledge of God (4:1)
____2. People are destroyed (4:6)
____3. Did not take heed to the Lord (4:10)
____4. Asked advice from their idols (4:12)
____5. The law was something strange (8:12)
____6. Like people, like priest (4:9)
__B. Spiritual adultery and whoredom
____1. The closest of all human relationships is that of marriage
____2. This figure is used to represent the relationship between God and Israel (Isa. 54:5; Jer. 3:20; 31:32)
____3. In drifting from God, Israel committed adultery and whoredom (6:7-10)
____4. Such infidelity was caused:
_______a. By material greed (2:5)
_______b. By rejection of the truth (4:6)
_______c. By unworthy leaders (4:9; 6:9)
_______d. By pride and self-sufficiency (5:5; 7:10)
_______e. By love of sin (9:10)
____5. The results were:
_______a. Grief on the part of God (11:8)
_______b. Complete separation (2:2; 5:6)
VIII. God’s love to Israel
__A. This is the heart and theme of the book
__B. To see God’s love, Israel must know God’s wrath (2:6-13)
__C. Is is easier for us to see God’s love than it was for Israel
__D. God’s love is seen through:
_____1. His call to repentance (14:1, 4)
_____2. His willingness to woo and win Israel back (2:14-19)
_____3. His willingness to love and forgive (7:10; 14:4)
__E. Truly, God is love!
IX. The Messianic Import
__A. Prophecies concerning Christ and His kingdom are few
__B. Passages in the New Testament
__C. Great principles are better understood
_____1. Married to Christ (Rom. 7:4; 2 Cor. 11:2; Rev. 2:4)
_____2. Present conditions (John 3:16; 2 Pet. 3:9)
_____3. God’s love (Rev. 3:20)
Conclusion — An Invitation
Introduction
The name Hosea means “salvation” or “deliverance.” From the book that bears his name, one learns that Hosea was a man of tender nature. He was capable of the deepest kind of love. The book of Hosea is not a cold, detached, sophisticated study of social and religious conditions in Israel. It is the throbbing of a heart that has been broken because of a love that has been lost. His wife had left him for another. She had born a child that was not his; yet he loved her. Under these circumstances his heart was tortured, and from this experience he learned the pain in the heart of God when His people forsake and forget Him.
The language of the book is plain and frank. There is no way to tone it down. To do so is to lose the force of its message. Keep in mind that it is God’s word. Desperate circumstances call for strong measures. Hosea used such words as: “whoredoms, lovers, harlot, adultery, whores, and lewdness.” These words may be offensive to some, but they also show the exceeding sinfulness of sin.
Hosea, more than any other in the Old Testament, learned that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Hosea was to the Old Testament what John is to the New Testament in this respect. Israel’s great sin was their failure to learn the love of God.
To understand this book it is necessary to understand the historical, social, and religious condition of Hosea’s day. Historically: verse one of the first chapter tells us: “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.” Hosea began his work as a prophet in the days of great prosperity. There had been no invasion of Israel and of Judah for many years. The nations respected the power of God’s people. After the death of Jeroboam, many changes took place. In 2 Kings we learned that internal feuds broke out. Rival politicians sacrificed the nation’s interest to their own. Princes became debauched. And the national power became seriously weakened. Of the six kings that followed Jeroboam II, only one, Menahem, died a natural death. The nation that had forgotten God began to look one way and another for help. They turned to Assyria and to Egypt, and for the help they received, they paid heavy tribute until finally they lost their independence and national autonomy. In time Samaria fell and Israel was carried off into Assyrian captivity. It was during these years of bloodshed and revolt that Hosea prophesied to the people. Socially: The social condition in this period was very corrupt. Hosea sums up the condition with the one word “whoredoms.” Israel had done worse than adultery; she had become a prostitute. “‘And [Israel] went after her lovers; but Me she forgot,’ says the Lord” (Hosea 2: 13). The moral condition became so bad that the prophet exclaimed, “There is no truth, or mercy, or knowledge of God in the land. By swearing and lying, killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break all restraint, with bloodshed upon bloodshed” (Hosea 4:1-2). Religiously: The people were bent on backsliding. They had departed from God. They had played the harlot and gone after strange gods. They worshiped idols. Their worship to the true God was only lip service.
The message of this book is learned by careful study. This opening verse presents a great problem: “Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry for the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord” (Hosea 1:2). What did God mean? What is the explanation of such a strange command? The answers of these questions is the secret of the book. It is its message. The answers must be based upon a careful study of the entire book. At least three interpretations of the account of his marriage have been advanced: 1) Some claim that the account is literal history and that Hosea was commanded to marry an actual adulteress and that he obeyed the command; 2) Many have considered it an allegory, claiming that no such marriage took place, but that the prophet invented the parable to illustrate the love of God for sinful man; 3) The majority of interpreters hold to the view that Hosea actually married Gomer, who was at the time of the marriage a clean woman only guilty of spiritual adultery. Later on, idolatry brought forth its natural fruit, and Hosea’s wife became an actual adulteress. The last of these is the most logical, and one that I shall use in discussing this book. In chapters 1-3, we have the autobiography of Hosea and Gomer.
We have the birth of three children. The names of these children are significant. The Lord gives the names. The first baby was a boy. God said, “Call his name Jezreel for in a little while I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, and bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel” (Hosea 1:4). In 2 Kings 9-10, we read of the bloody battles of Jehu, but in 10: 31 we read, “But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart.” Sin caught up with one after another, and Israel paid the price. The name “Jezreel” indicates that the sins of Israel are about to catch up with them. The second child was a little girl. God said, “Call her name Loruhamah for I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away” (Hosea 1:6). This name denotes a deterioration of the relationship between Jehovah and His people. Jezreel announces judgment, but Loruhama signifies a withdrawal of love. God’s mercy has run out. The third child is another son. “Then God said: ‘Call his name Loammi for you are not My people, and I will not be your God’” (Hosea 1:9). The name means “not my people,” “no kin of mine.” Was it at this time that Hosea realized that infidelity had invaded his home and that his third child was not his own? Was it at this time he realized the parallel between the heartbreaking experience and the tragic break between God and Israel?
At this point there seems to be a break in the story. No other reference is made to Hosea’s home life. What is his attitude to his unfaithful wife? What did he do? What did Gomer do? The silent answer to these questions is broken by another strange command: “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans’” (Hosea 3:1). This woman is no doubt the woman of the first chapter–that is Gomer. God tells Hosea to take his wife, who is a drinking adulteress, back to himself. Here is the key to the whole book. Hosea stands for God; Gomer for the children of Israel. Although Hosea’s wife had become a common harlot, he bought her back out of slavery: “So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and one and one-half homers of barley. And I said to her, ‘You shall stay with me many days; you shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man—so, too, will I be toward you’” (Hosea 3:2-3). The comparable love of God is here shown for his backsliding wife–Israel.
The central theme of the book is the love of God. As Hosea’s love for Gomer is great enough to take her back, so God’s love for a sinning, idolatrous, adulterous Israel is great enough to allow them to come back to Him. Chapters 4-14 are the message of God to His people. These chapters tell the story of Israel on the way down, and God’s willingness to lift them up again, to love and forgive. The message of Hosea is needed as much in our century as it was in the days of Hosea. Let us study the book and see if it doesn’t have a great message for us today. I shall discuss this great book in the following parts: drifting from God, religious corruption, God’s love, and the Messianic import.
Discussion
Drifting from God
No one can know how God suffers when His people drift away from Him. Hosea, now from personal experience, knows some degree of it. As he pours out his heart, we begin to feel part of the pain. The relationship between God and Israel was a very special one: “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth” (Deuteronomy 7:6). God did this because He loved them (Deuteronomy 7:8). God’s love is manifested to them over and over again as He leads them out of Egyptian bondage, feeds and cares for them while in the wilderness, and gives them a home in the wonderful land of Canaan. Against the background of this kind of care, Hosea testifies against them: “For the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord” (Hosea 1:2).
Again and again Hosea accuses God’s redeemed people of forsaking Him: “Bring charges against your mother, bring charges; for she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband! . . . For their mother has played the harlot; she who conceived them has behaved shamefully . . . For she said, ‘I will go after lovers . . .'” (2:2, 5). “‘And she went after her lovers, and forgot Me,’ says the Lord” (2:13). “And they have gone a whoring from under their God” (4:12). “Woe unto them, for they have fled from Me!” (7:13) “Their heart is divided” (10:2). This condition is the very thing that Moses and Joshua had feared: “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God . . . lest—when you have eaten and are full . . . [then] your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God . . .” (Deuteronomy 8:11-14). Joshua warned the same thing (Joshua 24:14, 20). In the history of this period, as recorded in 2 Kings, one reads over and over again such expressions as these: “They sinned against the Lord their God”; “They did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord” (2 Kings 17:7, 17). So as the leaders had feared, it happened. As K. Owen White stated, “The departure was no sudden decision on their part, but the result of a slow gradual inner decay. It was like dry rot in the heart, unseen and unsuspected at first. It was like a dreaded disease which has spread through the whole system before being detected and diagnosed. It had affected all classes of people including prophets, priests, rulers, the kings and the princes. In actual fact, they were no longer Jehovah’s people, and He was no longer their God.”
Religious Corruption
When a man drifts away from the true God, his way of life becomes corrupt. Since man was created to worship God, if he turns from God, he will worship something else. Solomon said,“Truly, this only I have found: that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes” (Ecclesiastes 7:29). The first step in Israel’s way down was a lack of knowledge: “Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel, for the Lord brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land: ‘There is no truth, or mercy, or knowledge of God in the land. By swearing and lying, killing and stealing, and committing adultery, they break all restraint, with bloodshed upon bloodshed’” (Hosea 4:1-2). This charge looks like life on the front page of any newspaper in the land today. When man puts God’s word out of his heart, these things follow.
The condition grows worse! “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children” (Hosea 4:6). They can have no strength. “For they shall eat, but not have enough; they shall commit harlotry, but not increase because they have ceased obeying the Lord” (Hosea 4:10). The law becomes a strange thing (Hosea 8:12). “My people ask counsel from their wooden idols, and their staff informs them” (Hosea 4:12). The man that thinks he can live without the knowledge of God is sadly mistaken.
Without knowledge there is no faith. A lack of knowledge results in spiritual inactivity. For a lack of knowledge, people are fearful. A lack of knowledge results in immorality. It happened in Hosea’s day, and it happens in our day. “. . . because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting” (Romans 1:21-28).
The second step down was Israel’s unfaithfulness. The closest of all relationships is that which exists between husband and wife. Based upon mutual care and understanding, there is such a blending as the two become one flesh. In searching for a figure by which God could indicate to His people how He felt toward them, the relationship of marriage was selected. Jehovah had told Israel, “For you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God” (Exodus 34:14). The prophets referred to the relationship between God and Israel as that of marriage. Isaiah 54:5 states, “For your maker is your husband.” Jeremiah 3:20 states, “‘Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so you have dealt treacherously with Me, O House of Israel,’ says the Lord.” In Jeremiah 31: 32 God says, “For I was a husband to them.” Nine times in the book of Hosea God refers to the people of Israel as “My people.” When the children of Israel forgot God and departed from Him, they turned to another. They became guilty of spiritual adultery. “But like men they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt treacherously with Me. . . . As bands of robbers lie in wait for a man, so the company of priests murder on the way to Shechem. Surely they commit lewdness. I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the harlotry of Ephraim; Israel is defiled” (6:7-10). This state was brought about by a number of things: 1) Material greed (Hosea 2:5). Whosoever promises to provide food, clothing, and money is assured of a large following. This has been one reason why Communism has spread so much in our day. It has promised a better distribution of material things. 2) Rejection of truth (4:6). Paul stated years later concerning the Gentile world “even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind” (Romans 1:28). 3) Unworthy leadership (6:9; 4:9). Great is the responsibility of leadership, whether it be in the home, or in the church. 4) Compromise with idolatrous neighbors (7:8). Ephraim has mixed himself among the people. When we compromise with the things of the world, we will not be faithful and true to God. 5) Pride and self-sufficiency (5:5; 7:10). When people are filled with pride and self-sufficiency, they are not likely to rely upon God or to be faithful and loyal to Him. 6) The love of sin (9:10). There is nothing that can keep one in sin like a love for sin. This situation had happened to Israel.
A combination of these things had led the children of Israel to break their marriage vow. Over and over again God said concerning them “they have gone a whoring,” “they are guilty of adultery,” “they are whores.” Not only had they become guilty of spiritual adultery, but the spiritual adultery had brought forth its fruit, and they had actually become immoral in their conduct. Their children were not the children of God. As they had turned to the worshiping of idols, their children did not know the law of God, and the law became a strange thing to them.
God’s Love
As Hosea has shown his love for Gomer in buying her back, so God will show His love for Israel by receiving her back. God had a right to cut them off from His grace and punish them severely. He told them that He would. His wrath is revealed in 2:6-13. Hosea shows the magnitude of God’s love by showing that His love is greater than His wrath. It is not hard for us to see God’s love. We have the New Testament; we have the story of Calvary. Hosea had neither of these. Yet, very clearly he shows us God’s great eternal love. This is the great message of Hosea.
This love is first seen in God’s call to repentance: “O Israel, return to the Lord your God” (14:1). “I will heal their backsliding” (14:4). Second, God’s love is seen as He tries to win Israel back to Him. In Chapter 2 starting with verse 14, there are listed ten things that God would do for Israel if she would return. God would woo and win her again. He would speak comfort to her. He would restore the fruitfulness of her land. He would give her an open door. He would restore the joyful songs of her youth. She would be remembered as his wife, and the other gods would be forgotten. He would provide and protect. He would betroth her in loving kindness. He would have mercy upon her. In spite of all Israel’s sins of wickedness and unfaithfulness, God was trying to win her back. We are reminded of Peter’s statement, “God is not slack concerning His promises as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Third, God’s love is shown by His willingness to love and forgive. “Come and let us return to the Lord; for He has torn, and He will heal us” (6:1). God says, “I will heal their backsliding; I will love them freely; for My anger is turned away from him” (14:4). God promised that Israel would grow and flourish again. Truly, God is love!
The Messianic Import of Hosea
The prophecies concerning the coming of the Messiah as are given in Hosea are few. However, the principles that would be a part of the covenant of God under Christ are very clear and distinct. Christ and Paul both used passages from Hosea as they spoke in their own day which show to us that the principles of Hosea would be a part of the doctrine of Christ. In chapter 1 verses 10 and 11 there is a passage of scripture that would seem to indicate some things relative to Christ and the church. First, verse 10 indicates to us, as it is used by Paul in Romans 9:25-26, that both Jew and Gentile would come into covenant relationship with God. In verse 11 we have the picture of Judah and Israel coming together that they should have one head. Of course, this was not accomplished until the coming of Christ, in which not only the Jew–Judah and Israel–came to have one head, but also, as the proceeding verse has indicated, the Gentile as well could be brought into this covenant relationship. With “the middle wall of partition” broken down (Ephesians 2:14), God through Christ Jesus could reconcile all people into one body with Christ as the one head.
Another passage that has fulfillment in Christ is 11:1. Israel is referred to as a child and as being called out of Egypt. In Matthew 2:15, this passage is applied to Christ as He comes from Egypt and returns to Nazareth.
To me, the greatest Messianic import of Hosea is found in the principles he brings out that are further developed in the New Testament. From this book it is easy to understand what it means to be married to Christ (Romans 7:4; 2 Corinthians 11:2). One can better understand the feeling in Christ’s heart as He had John to write to the church at Ephesus and tell them that “they had left their first love” (Revelation 2:4).
With a study of Hosea, one can better appreciate the statement of John 3:16, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” The passage in 2 Peter 3:9 takes on a new light when we learn from Hosea just how long-suffering God really is. When one considers how far Israel had fallen and Jehovah was willing to love and forgive, one gets a keener insight into the message of the church at Laodicea when Christ says, “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hears My voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and I will sup with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20).
Conclusion
Hosea concludes his book by asking, “Who is wise? Who is prudent?” The answer is clearly seen. He who walks in the ways of the Lord. Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes to the Father but by Me” (John 14:6) Let us know that the transgressor shall fall, but God is still willing to forgive and to restore. Come, for God is love!
Questions for Class Discussion
- Who was Hosea?
- Under what Kings did he serve as prophet?
- What was the condition of Israel historically, socially, and religiously during the days of Hosea?
- What is the central theme of the book?
- What were the names of Hosea’s children?
- What significance do you place on the names of the children?
- What were some of the terms that Hosea used to describe the departure of Israel from God?
- Had Moses and Joshua warned of such a departure?
- What two things characterize the religious corruption in Hosea’s day?
- List several things that resulted when Israel lost all knowledge of Jehovah.
- What relationship did Hosea use to show the closeness of God to Israel?
- List five things that caused Israel to become unfaithful to God.
- List two results of this unfaithfulness.
- How does Hosea try to get the Israelites to see the love of God?
- Is it easier to see God’s love today than in the days of Hosea? Why?
- In what three ways did Hosea try to get Israel to see the love of God?
- Are any of the words of Hosea found in the New Testament? Where?
- List the passages of Hosea that are Messianic.
- Is the relationship of marriage used in the New Testament? Where?
- List some great passages in the New Testament that are better understood with a knowledge of the work of Hosea.