Hosea

Hosea

Book Outhne

Key theme: Devotion to the Lord is like faithfulness in marriage. Idolatry is like adultery.

Key verse:

I. Israel’s Unfaithfulness Described ()

A. God is gracious ()

B. God is holy ()

C. God is love ()

II. Israel’s Sins Denounced ()

A. Ignorance ()

B. Idolatry ()

C. Insincerity ()

III. Israel’s Judgment Determined ()

A. The Assyrian invasion ()

B. The nation scattered ()

C. Reaping what they have sown ()

IV. Israel’s Restoration Declared ()

A. God’s past mercies ()

B. God’s present disciplines ()

C. God’s future promises ()

Book Overview

Prophets sometimes act strangely. For three years, Isaiah embarrassed people by walking the streets dressed like a prisoner of war. For several months, Jeremiah carried a yoke on his shoulders. The prophet Ezekiel acted like a little boy and played war, and once he used a haircut as a theological object lesson. When his wife suddenly died, Ezekiel even turned that painful experience into a sermon.

Why did these men act in these peculiar ways?

These peculiar behaviors were really acts of mercy. The people of God had become deaf to God’s voice and were no longer paying attention to His covenant. The Lord called His servants to do these strange things—these action sermons—in hopes that the people would wake up and listen to what they had to say. Only then could the nation escape divine discipline and judgment.

But no prophet preached a more painful action sermon than Hosea. He was instructed to marry a prostitute named Gomer, who subsequently bore him three children, and he wasn’t even sure that he fathered the last two children. Then Gomer left him for another man, and Hosea had the humiliating responsibility of buying back his own wife after she had been sold into slavery.

What was this all about? It was a vivid picture of what the people of Israel had done to their God by prostituting themselves to idols and committing spiritual adultery. Because God’s people today face the same temptation (), we need to heed what Hosea wrote for his people. Each of the persons in this drama—Hosea, Gomer, and the three children—teach us important spiritual lessons about the God whom Israel was disobeying and grieving.

“Be Transformed”

Few of us are called to be prophets like Hosea; all of us are called to pay attention to his message. Few of us will be asked by God to submit our plans and desires for marriage in the way He asked Hosea, but all of us are asked by God to trust Him with our lives. Few of us will experience the level of disappointment Hosea experienced in his marriage and his ministry, but all of us are faced with the disappointing news of our utter unfaithfulness to God. Spiritual awakening for each of us means, in part, realizing how very much we treat God the way that Gomer treated Hosea. Recognizing the shocking hardship of what Hosea had to endure in repeatedly rescuing Gomer from herself helps us appreciate, in a different way, what God has done for us: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” ().

People made in God’s image can actually revel in unfaithfulness to Him. We see such careless frivolity around us all the time. People loved lavishly by God can choose to ignore His love. And people lost in sin can mock the message of hope. But no one will ever be able to stand before God one day and say, “You didn’t do enough to get my attention.” Saved and condemned alike will remember in that day the moment when we, like Gomer, were bound in sin and we saw our Hosea/Messiah reach out His nail-scarred hand to draw us into freedom. Some will remember with unspeakable joy reaching for His hand while others with realize with eternal shame that they chose to stay in bondage. The deepest transformation we can ever experience is that moment of reaching for Christ’s hand of rescue and forgiveness.

The Family of Hosea

“Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry

And children of harlotry,

For the land has committed great harlotry

By departing from the LORD.”

“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.

5It shall come to pass in that day

That I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”

“Call her name Lo-Ruhamah,

For I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel,

But I will utterly take them away.

7Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah,

Will save them by the LORD their God,

And will not save them by bow,

Nor by sword or battle,

By horses or horsemen.”

9Then God said:

“Call his name Lo-Ammi,

For you are not My people,

And I will not be your God.

The Restoration of Israel

Shall be as the sand of the sea,

Which cannot be measured or numbered.

And it shall come to pass

In the place where it was said to them,

‘You are not My people,’

There it shall be said to them,

‘You are sons of the living God.’

11Then the children of Judah and the children of Israel

Shall be gathered together,

And appoint for themselves one head;

And they shall come up out of the land,

For great will be the day of Jezreel!

And to your sisters, ‘Mercy is shown.’

God’s Unfaithful People

For she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband!

Let her put away her harlotries from her sight,

And her adulteries from between her breasts;

3Lest I strip her naked

And expose her, as in the day she was born,

And make her like a wilderness,

And set her like a dry land,

And slay her with thirst.

4“I will not have mercy on her children,

For they are the children of harlotry.

She who conceived them has behaved shamefully.

For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,

Who give me my bread and my water,

My wool and my linen,

My oil and my drink.’

6“Therefore, behold,

I will hedge up your way with thorns,

And wall her in,

So that she cannot find her paths.

7She will chase her lovers,

But not overtake them;

Yes, she will seek them, but not find them.

Then she will say,

‘I will go and return to my first husband,

For then it was better for me than now.’

That I gave her grain, new wine, and oil,

And multiplied her silver and gold—

Which they prepared for Baal.

9“Therefore I will return and take away

My grain in its time

And My new wine in its season,

And will take back My wool and My linen,

Given to cover her nakedness.

And no one shall deliver her from My hand.

11I will also cause all her mirth to cease,

Her feast days,

Her New Moons,

Her Sabbaths—

All her appointed feasts.

12“And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees,

Of which she has said,

‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me.’

So I will make them a forest,

And the beasts of the field shall eat them.

13I will punish her

For the days of the Baals to which she burned incense.

She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry,

And went after her lovers;

But Me she forgot,” says the LORD.

God’s Mercy on His People

14“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,

Will bring her into the wilderness,

And speak comfort to her.

15I will give her her vineyards from there,

And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope;

She shall sing there,

As in the days of her youth,

As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.

16“And it shall be, in that day,”

Says the LORD,

“That you will call Me ‘My Husband,’

And no longer call Me ‘My Master,’

17For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals,

And they shall be remembered by their name no more.

18In that day I will make a covenant for them

With the beasts of the field,

With the birds of the air,

And with the creeping things of the ground.

Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth,

To make them lie down safely.

19“I will betroth you to Me forever;

Yes, I will betroth you to Me

In righteousness and justice,

In lovingkindness and mercy;

20I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness,

And you shall know the LORD.

21“It shall come to pass in that day

That I will answer,” says the LORD;

“I will answer the heavens,

And they shall answer the earth.

22The earth shall answer

With grain,

With new wine,

And with oil;

They shall answer Jezreel.

23Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth,

And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy;

Then I will say to those who were not My people,

‘You are My people!’

And they shall say, ‘You are my God!’ ”

Israel Will Return to God

2So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and one and one-half homers of barley.

3And 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.”

God’s Charge Against Israel

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.

Killing and stealing and committing adultery,

They break all restraint,

With bloodshed upon bloodshed.

3Therefore the land will mourn;

And everyone who dwells there will waste away

With the beasts of the field

And the birds of the air;

Even the fish of the sea will be taken away.

For your people are like those who contend with the priest.

The prophet also shall stumble with you in the night;

And I will destroy your mother.

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.

7“The more they increased,

The more they sinned against Me;

I will change their glory into shame.

8They eat up the sin of My people;

They set their heart on their iniquity.

9And it shall be: like people, like priest.

So I will punish them for their ways,

And reward them for their deeds.

10For they shall eat, but not have enough;

They shall commit harlotry, but not increase;

Because they have ceased obeying the LORD.

The Idolatry of Israel

11“Harlotry, wine, and new wine enslave the heart.

12My people ask counsel from their wooden idols,

And their staff informs them.

For the spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray,

And they have played the harlot against their God.

13They offer sacrifices on the mountaintops,

And burn incense on the hills,

Under oaks, poplars, and terebinths,

Because their shade is good.

Therefore your daughters commit harlotry,

And your brides commit adultery.

14“I will not punish your daughters when they commit harlotry,

Nor your brides when they commit adultery;

For the men themselves go apart with harlots,

And offer sacrifices with a ritual harlot.

Therefore people who do not understand will be trampled.

Let not Judah offend.

Do not come up to Gilgal,

Nor go up to Beth Aven,

Nor swear an oath, saying, ‘As the LORD lives’—

16“For Israel is stubborn

Like a stubborn calf;

Now the LORD will let them forage

Like a lamb in open country.

17“Ephraim is joined to idols,

Let him alone.

18Their drink is rebellion,

They commit harlotry continually.

Her rulers dearly love dishonor.

19The wind has wrapped her up in its wings,

And they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

Impending Judgment on Israel and Judah

Take heed, O house of Israel!

Give ear, O house of the king!

For yours is the judgment,

Because you have been a snare to Mizpah

And a net spread on Tabor.

2The revolters are deeply involved in slaughter,

Though I rebuke them all.

3I know Ephraim,

And Israel is not hidden from Me;

For now, O Ephraim, you commit harlotry;

Israel is defiled.

Toward turning to their God,

For the spirit of harlotry is in their midst,

And they do not know the LORD.

5The pride of Israel testifies to his face;

Therefore Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity;

Judah also stumbles with them.

6“With their flocks and herds

They shall go to seek the LORD,

But they will not find Him;

He has withdrawn Himself from them.

7They have dealt treacherously with the LORD,

For they have begotten pagan children.

Now a New Moon shall devour them and their heritage.

The trumpet in Ramah!

Cry aloud at Beth Aven,

‘Look behind you, O Benjamin!’

9Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke;

Among the tribes of Israel I make known what is sure.

10“The princes of Judah are like those who remove a landmark;

I will pour out My wrath on them like water.

11Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment,

Because he willingly walked by human precept.

12Therefore I will be to Ephraim like a moth,

And to the house of Judah like rottenness.

13“When Ephraim saw his sickness,

And Judah saw his wound,

Then Ephraim went to Assyria

And sent to King Jareb;

Yet he cannot cure you,

Nor heal you of your wound.

14For I will be like a lion to Ephraim,

And like a young lion to the house of Judah.

I, even I, will tear them and go away;

I will take them away, and no one shall rescue.

Till they acknowledge their offense.

Then they will seek My face;

In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”

A Call to Repentance

For He has torn, but He will heal us;

He has stricken, but He will bind us up.

2After two days He will revive us;

On the third day He will raise us up,

That we may live in His sight.

3Let us know,

Let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD.

His going forth is established as the morning;

He will come to us like the rain,

Like the latter and former rain to the earth.

Impenitence of Israel and Judah

O Judah, what shall I do to you?

For your faithfulness is like a morning cloud,

And like the early dew it goes away.

5Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets,

I have slain them by the words of My mouth;

And your judgments are like light that goes forth.

6For I desire mercy and not sacrifice,

And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

There they dealt treacherously with Me.

8Gilead is a city of evildoers

And defiled with blood.

9As bands of robbers lie in wait for a man,

So the company of priests murder on the way to Shechem;

Surely they commit lewdness.

10I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel:

There is the harlotry of Ephraim;

Israel is defiled.

11Also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed for you,

When I return the captives of My people.

Then the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered,

And the wickedness of Samaria.

For they have committed fraud;

A thief comes in;

A band of robbers takes spoil outside.

2They do not consider in their hearts

That I remember all their wickedness;

Now their own deeds have surrounded them;

They are before My face.

3They make a king glad with their wickedness,

And princes with their lies.

4“They are all adulterers.

Like an oven heated by a baker—

He ceases stirring the fire after kneading the dough,

Until it is leavened.

Princes have made him sick, inflamed with wine;

He stretched out his hand with scoffers.

6They prepare their heart like an oven,

While they lie in wait;

Their baker sleeps all night;

In the morning it burns like a flaming fire.

7They are all hot, like an oven,

And have devoured their judges;

All their kings have fallen.

None among them calls upon Me.

Ephraim is a cake unturned.

But he does not know it;

Yes, gray hairs are here and there on him,

Yet he does not know it.

10And the pride of Israel testifies to his face,

But they do not return to the LORD their God,

Nor seek Him for all this.

Futile Reliance on the Nations

They call to Egypt,

They go to Assyria.

12Wherever they go, I will spread My net on them;

I will bring them down like birds of the air;

I will chastise them

According to what their congregation has heard.

Destruction to them,

Because they have transgressed against Me!

Though I redeemed them,

Yet they have spoken lies against Me.

14They did not cry out to Me with their heart

When they wailed upon their beds.

“They assemble together for grain and new wine,

They rebel against Me;

15Though I disciplined and strengthened their arms,

Yet they devise evil against Me;

16They return, but not to the Most High;

They are like a treacherous bow.

Their princes shall fall by the sword

For the cursings of their tongue.

This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.

The Apostasy of Israel

He shall come like an eagle against the house of the LORD,

Because they have transgressed My covenant

And rebelled against My law.

2Israel will cry to Me,

‘My God, we know You!’

3Israel has rejected the good;

The enemy will pursue him.

4“They set up kings, but not by Me;

They made princes, but I did not acknowledge them.

From their silver and gold

They made idols for themselves—

That they might be cut off.

5Your calf is rejected, O Samaria!

My anger is aroused against them—

How long until they attain to innocence?

6For from Israel is even this:

A workman made it, and it is not God;

But the calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces.

And reap the whirlwind.

The stalk has no bud;

It shall never produce meal.

If it should produce,

Aliens would swallow it up.

Now they are among the Gentiles

Like a vessel in which is no pleasure.

Like a wild donkey alone by itself;

Ephraim has hired lovers.

10Yes, though they have hired among the nations,

Now I will gather them;

And they shall sorrow a little,

Because of the burden of the king of princes.

They have become for him altars for sinning.

12I have written for him the great things of My law,

But they were considered a strange thing.

13For the sacrifices of My offerings they sacrifice flesh and eat it,

But the LORD does not accept them.

Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins.

They shall return to Egypt.

And has built temples;

Judah also has multiplied fortified cities;

But I will send fire upon his cities,

And it shall devour his palaces.”

Judgment of Israel’s Sin

For you have played the harlot against your God.

You have made love for hire on every threshing floor.

2The threshing floor and the winepress

Shall not feed them,

And the new wine shall fail in her.

3They shall not dwell in the LORD’s land,

But Ephraim shall return to Egypt,

And shall eat unclean things in Assyria.

4They shall not offer wine offerings to the LORD,

Nor shall their sacrifices be pleasing to Him.

It shall be like bread of mourners to them;

All who eat it shall be defiled.

For their bread shall be for their own life;

It shall not come into the house of the LORD.

5What will you do in the appointed day,

And in the day of the feast of the LORD?

6For indeed they are gone because of destruction.

Egypt shall gather them up;

Memphis shall bury them.

Nettles shall possess their valuables of silver;

Thorns shall be in their tents.

7The days of punishment have come;

The days of recompense have come.

Israel knows!

The prophet is a fool,

The spiritual man is insane,

Because of the greatness of your iniquity and great enmity.

8The watchman of Ephraim is with my God;

But the prophet is a fowler’s snare in all his ways—

Enmity in the house of his God.

As in the days of Gibeah.

He will remember their iniquity;

He will punish their sins.

Like grapes in the wilderness;

I saw your fathers

As the firstfruits on the fig tree in its first season.

But they went to Baal Peor,

And separated themselves to that shame;

They became an abomination like the thing they loved.

11As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird—

No birth, no pregnancy, and no conception!

12Though they bring up their children,

Yet I will bereave them to the last man.

Yes, woe to them when I depart from them!

So Ephraim will bring out his children to the murderer.”

14Give them, O LORD—

What will You give?

Give them a miscarrying womb

And dry breasts!

15“All their wickedness is in Gilgal,

For there I hated them.

Because of the evil of their deeds

I will drive them from My house;

I will love them no more.

All their princes are rebellious.

16Ephraim is stricken,

Their root is dried up;

They shall bear no fruit.

Yes, were they to bear children,

I would kill the darlings of their womb.”

17My God will cast them away,

Because they did not obey Him;

And they shall be wanderers among the nations.

Israel’s Sin and Captivity

He brings forth fruit for himself.

According to the multitude of his fruit

He has increased the altars;

According to the bounty of his land

They have embellished his sacred pillars.

2Their heart is divided;

Now they are held guilty.

He will break down their altars;

He will ruin their sacred pillars.

3For now they say,

“We have no king,

Because we did not fear the LORD.

And as for a king, what would he do for us?”

Swearing falsely in making a covenant.

Thus judgment springs up like hemlock in the furrows of the field.

5The inhabitants of Samaria fear

Because of the calf of Beth Aven.

For its people mourn for it,

And its priests shriek for it—

Because its glory has departed from it.

6The idol also shall be carried to Assyria

As a present for King Jareb.

Ephraim shall receive shame,

And Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.

7As for Samaria, her king is cut off

Like a twig on the water.

8Also the high places of Aven, the sin of Israel,

Shall be destroyed.

The thorn and thistle shall grow on their altars;

They shall say to the mountains, “Cover us!”

And to the hills, “Fall on us!”

9“O Israel, you have sinned from the days of Gibeah;

There they stood.

The battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity

Did not overtake them.

10When it is My desire, I will chasten them.

Peoples shall be gathered against them

When I bind them for their two transgressions.

That loves to thresh grain;

But I harnessed her fair neck,

I will make Ephraim pull a plow.

Judah shall plow;

Jacob shall break his clods.”

Reap in mercy;

Break up your fallow ground,

For it is time to seek the LORD,

Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.

13You have plowed wickedness;

You have reaped iniquity.

You have eaten the fruit of lies,

Because you trusted in your own way,

In the multitude of your mighty men.

14Therefore tumult shall arise among your people,

And all your fortresses shall be plundered

As Shalman plundered Beth Arbel in the day of battle—

A mother dashed in pieces upon her children.

15Thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel,

Because of your great wickedness.

At dawn the king of Israel

Shall be cut off utterly.

God’s Continuing Love for Israel

And out of Egypt I called My son.

2As they called them,

So they went from them;

They sacrificed to the Baals,

And burned incense to carved images.

Taking them by their arms;

But they did not know that I healed them.

4I drew them with gentle cords,

With bands of love,

And I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck.

I stooped and fed them.

But the Assyrian shall be his king,

Because they refused to repent.

6And the sword shall slash in his cities,

Devour his districts,

And consume them,

Because of their own counsels.

7My people are bent on backsliding from Me.

Though they call to the Most High,

None at all exalt Him.

How can I hand you over, Israel?

How can I make you like Admah?

How can I set you like Zeboiim?

My heart churns within Me;

My sympathy is stirred.

I will not again destroy Ephraim.

For I am God, and not man,

The Holy One in your midst;

And I will not come with terror.

He will roar like a lion.

When He roars,

Then His sons shall come trembling from the west;

11They shall come trembling like a bird from Egypt,

Like a dove from the land of Assyria.

And I will let them dwell in their houses,”

Says the LORD.

God’s Charge Against Ephraim

And the house of Israel with deceit;

But Judah still walks with God,

Even with the Holy One who is faithful.

And pursues the east wind;

He daily increases lies and desolation.

Also they make a covenant with the Assyrians,

And oil is carried to Egypt.

And will punish Jacob according to his ways;

According to his deeds He will recompense him.

3He took his brother by the heel in the womb,

And in his strength he struggled with God.

4Yes, he struggled with the Angel and prevailed;

He wept, and sought favor from Him.

He found Him in Bethel,

And there He spoke to us—

5That is, the LORD God of hosts.

The LORD is His memorable name.

6So you, by the help of your God, return;

Observe mercy and justice,

And wait on your God continually.

Deceitful scales are in his hand;

He loves to oppress.

8And Ephraim said,

‘Surely I have become rich,

I have found wealth for myself;

In all my labors

They shall find in me no iniquity that is sin.’

9“But I am the LORD your God,

Ever since the land of Egypt;

I will again make you dwell in tents,

As in the days of the appointed feast.

And have multiplied visions;

I have given symbols through the witness of the prophets.”

11Though Gilead has idols—

Surely they are vanity—

Though they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal,

Indeed their altars shall be heaps in the furrows of the field.

12Jacob fled to the country of Syria;

Israel served for a spouse,

And for a wife he tended sheep.

13By a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt,

And by a prophet he was preserved.

14Ephraim provoked Him to anger most bitterly;

Therefore his Lord will leave the guilt of his bloodshed upon him,

And return his reproach upon him.

Relentless Judgment on Israel

He exalted himself in Israel;

But when he offended through Baal worship, he died.

2Now they sin more and more,

And have made for themselves molded images,

Idols of their silver, according to their skill;

All of it is the work of craftsmen.

They say of them,

“Let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves!”

3Therefore they shall be like the morning cloud

And like the early dew that passes away,

Like chaff blown off from a threshing floor

And like smoke from a chimney.

Ever since the land of Egypt,

And you shall know no God but Me;

For there is no savior besides Me.

5I knew you in the wilderness,

In the land of great drought.

6When they had pasture, they were filled;

They were filled and their heart was exalted;

Therefore they forgot Me.

Like a leopard by the road I will lurk;

8I will meet them like a bear deprived of her cubs;

I will tear open their rib cage,

And there I will devour them like a lion.

The wild beast shall tear them.

9“O Israel, you are destroyed,

But your help is from Me.

10I will be your King;

Where is any other,

That he may save you in all your cities?

And your judges to whom you said,

‘Give me a king and princes’?

11I gave you a king in My anger,

And took him away in My wrath.

12“The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up;

His sin is stored up.

13The sorrows of a woman in childbirth shall come upon him.

He is an unwise son,

For he should not stay long where children are born.

14“I will ransom them from the power of the grave;

I will redeem them from death.

O Death, I will be your plagues!

O Grave, I will be your destruction!

Pity is hidden from My eyes.”

15Though he is fruitful among his brethren,

An east wind shall come;

The wind of the LORD shall come up from the wilderness.

Then his spring shall become dry,

And his fountain shall be dried up.

He shall plunder the treasury of every desirable prize.

16Samaria is held guilty,

For she has rebelled against her God.

They shall fall by the sword,

Their infants shall be dashed in pieces,

And their women with child ripped open.

Israel Restored at Last

For you have stumbled because of your iniquity;

And return to the LORD.

Say to Him,

“Take away all iniquity;

Receive us graciously,

For we will offer the sacrifices of our lips.

3Assyria shall not save us,

We will not ride on horses,

Nor will we say anymore to the work of our hands,

‘You are our gods.’

For in You the fatherless finds mercy.”

4“I will heal their backsliding,

I will love them freely,

For My anger has turned away from him.

5I will be like the dew to Israel;

He shall grow like the lily,

And lengthen his roots like Lebanon.

6His branches shall spread;

His beauty shall be like an olive tree,

And his fragrance like Lebanon.

7Those who dwell under his shadow shall return;

They shall be revived like grain,

And grow like a vine.

Their scent shall be like the wine of Lebanon.

‘What have I to do anymore with idols?’

I have heard and observed him.

I am like a green cypress tree;

Your fruit is found in Me.”

Let him understand these things.

Who is prudent?

Let him know them.

For the ways of the LORD are right;

The righteous walk in them,

But transgressors stumble in them.

Annotations for Hosea

Hosea names four kings of Judah and only one king of Israel, Jeroboam II. The kings of Judah, of course, belonged to David’s dynasty, the only dynasty the Lord accepted (; ). The kings of Israel were a wicked lot who followed the sins of Israel’s first king, Jeroboam I, and refused to repent and turn to God (). What a time to be serving God! Murder, idolatry, and immorality were rampant in the land, and nobody seemed to be interested in hearing the Word of the Lord. On top of that, God told His prophet to get married and raise a family!

Here we meet a bit of a problem because not every Bible student agrees on the kind of woman Hosea married. Hosea either married a pure woman who later became a prostitute, or he married someone who was already a prostitute. She bore him three children. In the Old Testament, prostitution often symbolizes idolatry and unfaithfulness to God (; ; ).

Since the Israelites were idolatrous from the beginning (, , ), Gomer likely would have had to be a prostitute when she married Hosea, for this would have best symbolized Israel’s relationship to the Lord. God called Israel in their idolatry; He “married” them at Mount Sinai when they accepted His covenant (); then He grieved over them when they forsook Him for the false gods of the land of Canaan. Like Gomer, Israel began as an idolatress, “married” Jehovah, and eventually returned to her idolatry.

As with Isaiah’s two sons (; ), and numerous other people in Scripture, Gomer’s three children were given meaningful names selected by the Lord.

Through the birth of Hosea’s son, God announced that He would avenge the innocent blood shed by Jehu and put an end to Jehu’s dynasty in Israel. This was fulfilled in 752 B.C. when Zechariah was assassinated, the great-great-grandson of Jehu and the last of his dynasty to reign. (See .) God also announced that the whole kingdom of Israel would come to an end with the defeat of her army, which occurred in 724 B.C.

, God had loved His people and had proven it in many ways, but at this point He said He would withdraw that love and no longer show them mercy. The expression of God’s love is certainly unconditional, but our enjoyment of that love is conditional and depends on our faith and obedience (see ; ). God would allow the Assyrians to swallow up the northern kingdom, but He would protect the southern kingdom of Judah (; ).

, Lo-Ammi was the third child, a son, and his name means “not my people.” Not only would God remove His mercy from His people, but He would also renounce the covenant He had made with them. This would be like a man divorcing his wife and turning his back on her, or like a father rejecting his own son (see ; ).

Here is where God’s grace enters, for God will one day change these names. “Not my people” will become “my people”; “unloved” will become “my loved one.” These new names reflect the nation’s new relationship to God, for all of them will be “the sons of the living God.” Judah and Israel will unite as one nation and will submit to God’s rule, and the centuries-old division will be healed. When will these gracious promises be fulfilled for the Jews? When they recognize their Messiah at His return, trust Him, and experience His cleansing (). Then they will enter into their kingdom, and the promises of the prophets will be fulfilled (; ; ; ; ; ). Hosea and Gomer’s three children teach us about the grace of God.

Hosea was preeminently the prophet of love, but unlike some teachers today, he didn’t minimize the holiness of God. The Bible says that “God is love” (, ), but it also states that “God is light, and there is no darkness in Him at all” (). God’s love is a holy love, not a sentimental feeling that condones sin and pampers sinners.

In this stanza, the prophet focused on three particular sins: idolatry (spiritual adultery), ingratitude, and hypocrisy. These could be called the three clues of moral decay in the life of a person or society.

God spoke to the children and told them to rebuke their mother for her unfaithfulness. Israel was guilty of worshiping the gods of the pagan nations around them, especially the Canaanite rain god, Baal. Whenever the land experienced a drought or a famine, the Israelites repeatedly would turn to Baal for help instead of turning to the Lord. (See .) Pagan worship involved sensual fertility rites, and both male and female prostitutes were provided for these rites. In a literal as well as a symbolic sense, idolatry meant prostitution.

Instead of thanking the true God for His blessings of food, water, and clothing, the nation thanked the false gods and used those gifts to serve idols. What ingratitude! God had provided rain for the land (), but the Israelites had given the credit to Baal, the rain god. Because God gives us power to earn wealth (, ) and enjoy the blessings of life (), we must thank Him and acknowledge His goodness.

Because the people were acting like prostitutes, God would treat them like prostitutes and shame them publicly. He would no longer claim the nation as His wife because she had broken the solemn marriage covenant and consorted with idols. According to Hebrew law, adultery was a capital crime, punishable by death, but God announced that He would discipline Israel and not destroy her.

Unfaithfulness to the Lord is a serious sin, just as unfaithfulness to one’s mate is a serious sin. The man who says he’s 90 percent faithful to his wife isn’t faithful at all. As Israel was tempted to forsake God for idols, the church is tempted to turn to the world system that hates God and wants nothing to do with God.

In Scripture God’s people have to be admonished many times to be thankful. In at least fifteen places we are commanded to “give thanks to the Lord,” and and admonish us to be thankful. Jesus and Paul set the example by giving thanks often to the Lord for His blessings. One of the first steps toward rebellion against God is a refusal to thank Him for His mercies ().

The people still enjoyed celebrating the Hebrew festivals, but in their hearts, they were giving the glory to Baal and the other false gods that they worshiped. Unfortunately, the same sin was being committed by their brothers and sisters in the temple at Jerusalem (). We can easily attend divine services and go through the motions of worshiping God when our hearts are really far from Him ().

Catalyst

The numerous “I will” statements in assure us that God has a wonderful future planned for the Jewish people. Let’s note His six promises in these verses.

“I will win her back once again” (v. ). God doesn’t try to force His people to love Him. Instead, He woos (“speak tenderly to”) them as a lover woos his beloved, seeking her hand in marriage. Certainly God had spoken tenderly to His people through His Word and through the manifold blessings He had bestowed on them in their land. Just as He had led her through the wilderness and “married” her at Sinai, so God would meet His beloved in the wilderness in the last days and lead her into her land and her glorious kingdom.

“I will return her vineyards” (v. ). God guarantees a return to their land and a restoration of their prosperity. Once again, the Lord changes the meaning of a name, this time, “the Valley of Achor.” To Israel, the Valley of Achor was the place where Achan had stolen from God and had brought shameful defeat to Israel’s army (), but that memory would be erased from their minds. The valley would become a “gateway of hope” through which Israel would enter into a new life.

“For I will take from her [Israel’s] mouth the names of the Baals” (vv. , ). God declares an end to idolatry among His people. They would have a new vocabulary and the “Baals” would never be named again. Ishi means “my husband” in Hebrew and Baali means “my master.” Both terms were used by Jewish wives when addressing their husbands. In the future kingdom, however, every Jew would call God “my husband,” for the divine marriage relationship would be restored. Israel would no longer prostitute herself before idols but would love and serve the true living God.

“I will make a covenant” (vv. ). God’s wooing of Israel would result in her yielding to Him and entering into a covenant relationship that would never end. This new covenant would include a restored creation (see ; ) and peace among the nations. Among the wedding gifts would be such blessings as righteousness, justice, love, compassion, and faithfulness—everything that Israel had lacked during her years of separation from her Husband, Jehovah God.

“I will answer” (vv. , ). In a tremendous cosmic conversation, God would speak to the heavens and the earth, and they would respond and bring blessings to God’s people. The heavens would send the rain, the earth would bring forth the produce, and the Lord would send His rich blessings. This pictures a restored universe where sin and death no longer reign ().

“I will sow” (v. ). The word Jezreel means “God sows,” and God would sow His people in their land the way a farmer sows seed. The Lord would say to them, “You are my people.” They would respond, “You are my God.” This relates back to the names of the children that God in His grace had changed ().

Go to the

These verses describe another action sermon as Hosea reclaimed his estranged wife and brought her home to himself. Gomer had left Hosea and was living with a lover, another picture of the way Israel had treated the Lord. Hosea had to buy her back at a cost of fifteen pieces of silver (half the price of a slave—) and about ten bushels of barley. This was not an exorbitant price, but she had cheapened herself by her sins. We need to remember that God has purchased us at the tremendous cost of the precious blood of His only Son (, ).

Today Israel has no king because she rejected her King and therefore has no kingdom. “We will not have this man to reign over us” (). “We have no king but Caesar!” (). She has no prince because Israel has no reigning dynasty. All the records were destroyed when the Romans captured Jerusalem in A.D. 70, and nobody can prove to which tribe he or she belongs.

Here is an “afterward.” Israel wouldn’t stay “without king or prince” (v. ) for she would see her Messiah, repent of her sins, and say, “You are my God.” The people would enter into that blessed relationship in which the Lord would say, “You are My people.” This would occur in the latter days when the messianic King sits on David’s throne and judges righteously (; , ).

The key word is “return,” a word that appears twenty-two times in Hosea’s prophecy. When Israel repents and returns to the Lord, then the Lord will return to bless Israel (, ). God has returned to his place and left Israel to herself () until she seeks Him and says, “Come, and let us return to the LORD” ().

The basis for judgment was the holy law of God, the covenant God made with Israel at Mount Sinai. “All that the LORD has spoken we will do,” they had promised (), but they had quickly broken that promise. Just as Gomer didn’t take her marriage vows seriously but went to live with another man, so Israel had reneged on her promises to God and turned to pagan idols. No faithfulness was in the land, no loyal love to the Lord.

Just as Hosea had experienced a quarrel with his wife, so God had a quarrel with His estranged wife, the people of Israel. But it wasn’t a personal quarrel; it was an official controversy: “The LORD brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land.” The picture of God bringing people and nations to trial in His courtroom is a familiar one in Scripture (see ; , ; ; ; ).

When people reject God’s covenant, they begin to exploit each other; the Ten Commandments deal with our relation-ship with our neighbor as well as with God. If we love the Lord, we will also love our neighbor (; ). But in the land could be found no mercy, no love for one’s neighbor, no compassion for the poor and needy. People were falsehearted toward God and hardhearted toward one another.

When Jeroboam I had set up his own religious system in Israel, many of the true priests had fled to Judah. The king had responded by ordaining priests of his own choosing (). Of course, these counterfeit priests knew neither the Lord nor His law. They were primarily interested in having an easy job that would provide them with food, clothing, and pleasure, especially opportunities to be with the shrine prostitutes.

When we obey God’s Word, we walk in the light and don’t stumble (; ). When we reject the Word, however, we walk in the darkness and can’t find our way (). Worldly and ignorant spiritual leaders produce worldly and ignorant people, and this brings destruction to the land. As goes spiritual leadership, so goes the church; as goes the church, so goes morality; as goes morality, so goes the nation. God’s people are to be both salt and light in society (); when they are corrupt, society becomes corrupt.

The basic sin was ignorance; the land had “no knowledge of God” (v. ). The statement, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (v. ) means much more than knowing facts about God; it refers to a personal knowledge of God. The Hebrew word describes a husband’s most intimate relationship with his wife (; ). To know God is to have a personal relationship with Him through faith in Jesus Christ ().

Next the prophet turns to the people of the southern kingdom of Judah—the spectators in the court—who were carefully watching events in Israel. Hosea’s warning was clear: Don’t meddle in the affairs of Israel because their doom is sure! Israel was like a stubborn heifer, not a submissive lamb, and God’s whirlwind of judgment would sweep the kingdom away.

God declared a summation of the evidence that He as Judge applied to all the accused. He condemned the leaders for trapping innocent people and exploiting them. No justice was in the land. They were sinking deep in sin and lacked the power to repent and turn back to God, for their sins had paralyzed them.

What was the cause? They did not know the Lord (v. ; ) and their arrogance only led them to stumble and fall (; ). Even if they came to the Lord with entire flocks and herds to sacrifice, God would not meet them; for He had withdrawn himself from them. He rejected their illegitimate children, and their monthly feasts would soon become funerals.

Only one verdict could be rendered: “Guilty!” A day of judgment was coming when the cities of Israel would be conquered by the invading Assyrian army and the citizens taken into captivity. Israel would become desolate (v. ). The inner decay of the nation was like the slow hidden destruction caused by a moth (v. ), but the coming of the Assyrians would be like the sudden, open attack of a lion (v. ). Both were unavoidable and both brought ruin.

Israel and Judah were weak, sick nations (, ; , ). Instead of turning to the Lord for healing, however, both turned to the king of Assyria for help (). They needed prayer and true repentance, but instead, they trusted politics and useless treaties. All the Lord could do was withdraw and wait for them to seek His face in truth and humility. God certainly has had a lot of practice in the fine art of waiting for each of us to respond to His grace.

Reading these words, we get the impression that the nation was sincerely repenting and seeking the Lord. When we read what God said, however, we see how shallow their confession really was. “They do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek Him for all this” (). Often the accused in a trial will express regret and remorse for what he or she has done and to ask for another chance. That’s just what Israel did, but God anticipated their hypocritical subterfuge and exposed not only their duplicity but the sinful way they had treated their Lord.

Catalyst

The people of Israel say, “Come, and let us return to the LORD,” (), which sounds very sincere. But there is evidence in this passage that their “repentance” was shallow.

The people wanted healing (“bandage our wounds”) and not cleansing (v. ). They saw their nation in difficulty and wanted God to make things right, but they did not come with broken hearts and surrendered wills. They wanted happiness, not holiness—a change of circumstances but not a change in character. Many times in ministry we meet people in trouble who treat God like a celestial lifeguard who should rescue them from danger but not deliver them from their sins. They shed tears of remorse over their suffering but not tears of repentance over their sins.

The people of Israel thought that the remedy would work quickly: “After two days He will revive us” (v. ). What blind optimism! They were like the false prophets in Jeremiah’s day who offered the nation superficial remedies but never got to the heart of the problem (; ). They were like physicians, putting suntan lotion on skin cancer instead of calling for drastic surgery.

They saw forgiveness and restoration as a mechanical process that was guaranteed and not as a relational matter that involved getting right with God. To paraphrase , “If we seek Him, His blessing is sure to come just as the dawn comes each morning and the rains come each spring and winter.” This is formula religion, like getting a candy bar out of a vending machine. Further evidence of their shallowness is the fact that they depended on religious words rather than righteous deeds. When we truly repent, our words will come from broken hearts, and they will cost us something. Hosea considered words to be like spiritual sacrifices brought to the Lord (), and we must not give Him something cheap (). Words can reveal or conceal, depending on the honesty and humility of the sinner. We must take to heart the warning in , and not rush to make rash promises to God.

Go to the

In a series of vivid similes and metaphors, Hosea revealed the true character of the people of Israel.

Early in the morning, the mist looks like sparkling jewels, but soon it evaporates in the sun. Israel’s devotion to the Lord was temporary, lovely but not lasting. To give some substance to their faith, God had sent them His prophets with the Word of God, which is like a penetrating sword () and a flash of lightning (), but the people had refused to listen. God doesn’t want our relationship with Him to consist of shallow, transient feelings and empty words and rituals, hearts that are enthusiastic one day and frigid the next. A superficial ritual can never take the place of sincere love and faithful obedience (, ; ; ; ; ).

God had promised Adam His blessings if he obeyed His commands, but Adam deliberately disobeyed and plunged the human race into sin and death (; , ). God had promised Israel the blessings of the Promised Land if they would obey Him (), but they broke the covenant and suffered the consequences. For both Israel and Judah, God had appointed a harvest, and they would reap just what they had sown (, ).

God wanted to heal Israel. What prevented Him from helping His distressed people? They wanted Him to act on their terms and not according to the condition of His holy covenant. They thought they could get away with their many sins, but God saw them all and remembered them (v. ; contrast , ).

The people’s passion for sin was like a fire in an oven: Bank the fire at night, and it will be ready to blaze out in the morning. The oven was so hot that the baker could ignore it all night and know it would be ready for baking his bread in the morning. The fuel for the fire was wine, for alcohol and sin often go together.

The next simile is that a “cake unturned.” The nomadic peoples of the East would bake their bread on hot rocks. If the dough wasn’t turned, one side of the loaf would be burned and the other side uncooked. Instead of remaining separate from the nations, Israel had mixed with the nations and had become like them. Because of her compromising political posture, the nation was “burned” by Assyria on the one hand and left uncooked on the other. When it comes to our relationship with the Lord, we must be thorough and not half-baked. His gracious work must permeate our whole being so that heart, mind, and strength are all devoted to Him. Compromise with the world leads to unbalanced conduct and immature character.

, Continuing the theme of compromise, Hosea pictured Israel as a man getting gray and not knowing it. By mixing with the nations and ignoring the Lord, the nation was secretly losing her strength, like someone getting older and weaker but in her pride refusing to admit it. This is the tragedy of undetected losses that quietly lead to ultimate failures. Israel saw her political strategy failing, but the leaders still refused to turn to the Lord. The “pride” of the people (v. ; see ) refers to Israel’s national glory, which had greatly eroded since the days of David and Solomon. Selfish politicians and corrupt priests had brought the nation to ruin.

, The Israelites were like “a silly dove.” First they had turned to Egypt for help and then to Assyria, and both nations had proven to be false allies (; ; ). If the leaders had listened to the prophets, they would have known that Assyria would one day invade the land (; , ; ). God warned that Israel’s flying here and there would come to an end when He caught them in his net and gave them to the king of Assyria. God is in control of the nations, but His people would not obey Him.

The final image is a crooked bow because God couldn’t depend on Israel to be faithful. (This image is also used in .) God had called Israel and trained them, so they should have been able to hit the target. But because they had strayed from the Lord, rebelled against Him, lied to Him (in their feigned repentance), and refused to call upon Him, they could not win the battle. As we review these images, we might take inventory of our own devotion to the Lord. How lasting is it? How deep is it? How strong is it? How serious is it? How dependable is it?

“The house of the LORD” (v. ) refers to the nation of Israel as a community or house, for the people were God’s dwelling-place (; ; ). The Assyrian eagle was about to swoop down and destroy God’s house because the nation was given over to idolatry, and the leaders were not seeking God’s will in their decisions.

For the second time, Hosea called for the alarm to be sounded (see ). According to , the Israelites used trumpets to announce special occasions, to sound alarms, to gather the people for assemblies, and to proclaim war. This call was a trumpet of alarm because the enemy was coming and God was giving His people opportunity to repent. Again Hosea used a number of familiar images to show the people what God would do to them because of their sin.

Scripture often uses the picture of planting and harvesting as it relates to conduct (; ; ; , ), and Hosea used it twice (; , ). In their idolatry and political alliances, the Israelites were trying to sow seeds that would produce a good harvest, but they were only sowing the wind and would reap the whirlwind. Nothing could stop the force of the Assyrian army. The harvest would be more powerful than the seed! The rulers of Israel had thought their worship of Baal and their foreign alliances would produce a good crop of peace and prosperity; but when the time came for the harvest, nothing was there to reap. And even where heads of grain did appear, the enemy reaped the harvest and Israel gained nothing.

Israel had no grain to swallow, but she herself would be “swallowed up” by Assyria. She was “like a vessel in which is no pleasure.” Their compromise had so cheapened them that Israel was of no value to the community of nations. Nobody feared them, nobody courted them, and nobody wanted them.

, In negotiating with the Gentile nations for protection, Israel had acted like a common prostitute selling herself for money. Israel’s kings had paid tribute to the king of Assyria and had sent gifts to Egypt (). Instead of being faithful to her husband, Jehovah God, Israel had prostituted herself to the Gentile nations—and had lost everything. God promised to gather them together for judgment, and they would “sorrow” under the ruthless hand of the Assyrian king.

Israel wanted to be a part of the alliances that were forming to fight Assyria, but she was actually isolated. She was like a dumb animal that had lost its way in the wilderness. Israel had forsaken her God and had been forsaken by her allies, so she was abandoned to face a terrible future alone.

The book mentions Egypt thirteen times, and these references fall into three distinct categories: past—the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt (; ; , ; ); present—Israel’s unholy alliances with Egypt (, ; ); future—Egypt as a symbol of their impending bondage to Assyria (; , ; , ). Three times in this section, the prophet announced, “They shall return to Egypt” (; , ); but makes it clear that “Egypt” is a symbol for Assyrian bondage: “He shall not return to the land of Egypt; but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to repent.”

Instead of trusting the Lord to protect her from Assyria, Israel fortified her towns and sought help from foreign nations. From a spiritual point of view, that was like prostitution.

, During the harvest season, prostitutes would frequent the threshing floors where the men would sleep to guard the grain. The harvest season should have been a time of great joy (), but Israel would have no joy.

Twice this passage mentions events in “Gibeah” (see ). The reference is to the awful sins of the men of Gibeah and the tragic civil war that followed (). The men of Gibeah had practiced unnatural lust and had killed an innocent woman in a gang rape episode. Because the city would not punish the offenders, the whole nation had attacked Benjamin and almost destroyed the tribe. In Hosea’s day, all the ten tribes of Israel were practicing these abominable things, but God would judge them and they would reap what they had sown.

God reviewed the history of His relationship with the Israelites. We don’t find grapes in the desert, but if we did, we would be thrilled. That’s how God felt when He had called Israel. The early fruit of the fig tree is especially good, and Israel was special to the Lord. But this joyful experience didn’t last, for King Balak had given Israel her first taste of Baal worship, and the nation had indulged in idolatry and immorality with her neighbors ().

God had planted His people in a special land, but they had polluted the land with their idols. The more prosperous they had become, the more they had turned away from God. So they had to suffer a bitter harvest for their sins, they and their children. The nation was blighted, having no roots and bearing no fruits. What a persistent human tendency—to take for granted what God has graciously supplied!

Israel had a “multitude of fruit,” but she will eventually be without fruit. Instead of recognizing that abundance comes from the Lord, Israel wasted or sought greedily God’s blessings. These agricultural images remind us that we reap what we sow.

“Swearing falsely” here is a term referring to lawsuits and legal squabbles. People couldn’t trust one another and few were keeping their promises (covenants); therefore, they had to sue one another to get what they deserved. The multiplying of laws and lawsuits is one evidence that integrity and credibility are vanishing from society.

The chapter closes by comparing Israel to a young heifer that enjoys treading out the grain because she can eat and work at the same time. But then she is yoked to another beast and forced to do the hard work of plowing. Israel’s salad days were over, and she would feel the Assyrian yoke.

Hosea gave one more appeal to the nation to repent and seek the Lord. Israel had become like land that had lain idle and become hard and full of weeds. This appeal sounds like the preaching of John the Baptist: “Repent! Bear fruits worthy of repentance!” (See .) The plow of conviction must first break up hard hearts before the seed of the Word can be planted and the gracious rain can be sent from heaven. The nation did not repent, and judgment fell. In 722 B.C., the Assyrian army invaded the land, and the ten tribes as a nation vanished from the pages of history.

God reviewed Israel’s history. At least fourteen times in the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses used the word “remember.” Deuteronomy is Moses’ farewell address to the new generation of Israelites as they were preparing to enter the Promised Land. But why would Moses ask these young people to look back when they were getting ready to move forward? Because a correct understanding of God’s dealings in the past is the best way to be certain of success in the future.

Hosea pictured the God of the exodus as a tender father who freed his son from bondage. The emphasis here is not on Israel the unfaithful wife, but on Israel the ungrateful son. (For God as “Father” and Israel as a “son,” see , ; ; .) After all God had done for his son, the son had refused to return his love or obey His will.

, God had sent Joseph ahead into Egypt to prepare the way for Jacob and his sons. What Joseph’s brothers had done to their brother was meant for evil, but God had used it for good (). Because of Joseph, the people of Israel had been kept alive during the severe famine and were able to multiply in the ensuing years. From this humble beginning, God had formed a nation; Moses had led that nation out of Egypt in great power and triumph ().

, The loving father not only had carried his son out of bondage, but he had also taught him to walk and had tenderly cared for him during the wilderness journey. When a child stumbles and gets bruised, mother and father are there to give healing and encouragement, and that’s what God had done for His people. He had taught them, healed them, and led them; He was careful to lead them as we would a child and not as we would an animal. He had bound himself to them with cords of love, not with bit and bridle (, ) or a galling yoke. God still carries out those purposes with us.

On more than one occasion, God could have destroyed the nation and started over again (), but He had chosen to be longsuffering. When the journey became difficult, the Israelites had wanted to go back to Egypt; they had complained when they should have been praying and giving thanks for God’s mercies.

Throughout history, whether Jewish or Gentile, human nature has not changed, so all of us are prone to do what Israel did: enjoy God’s blessings but take God for granted. The Lord had set the people free and had guided them to their inheritance, but within one generation after the death of Joshua, the nation had turned to idolatry and had forsaken the Lord (.).

, What a revelation in this verse of the compassionate heart of God! According to Hebrew law, a rebellious son was supposed to be turned over to the elders of the city and stoned to death (), but how could God do this to His beloved son, Israel? (Centuries later, His innocent, only begotten Son would suffer for the sins of the world.) God destroyed the cities of the plain because of their sins (), and those people didn’t have the same privileges of learning about God that Israel had. What right did Israel have to expect God to spare them, especially since they were sinning against a flood of light?

What had motivated God to spare Israel from total destruction? Not only His deep compassion, but also His faithfulness to His covenant: “For I am God and not man.” God’s covenant with Abraham () was unconditional and would not change; therefore, the nation of Israel was preserved. But His covenant with Israel at Sinai had conditions attached, and if the people failed to meet those conditions, God was obligated to withdraw His blessings.

Often in Scripture we find a declaration of judgment immediately followed by a promise of hope, and that’s the case here. Hosea looked ahead to the end times when Israel would be gathered together from all the nations, brought to their own land, cleansed of their sins, and established in their kingdom.

God is patient with His people, as He is with all sinners (), even though they lie to Him and rebel against Him. What Jesus said to Jerusalem in His day, God was saying through Hosea to the people of that day: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (). God’s mercies in the past certainly proved His love, but Hosea offered a second evidence that God loved His people.

The people “feed on the wind” and receive no nourishment. The word translated “feed” means “to graze”; but whoever saw hungry sheep ignoring the green grass and chewing on the wind? The very idea is ridiculous, but that’s the way God’s people were living.

Israel was committing two sins: First, they were worshiping idols, which are nothing, even less than nothing, and turning from the true God to live on empty substitutes. They were “feeding on the wind.” Second, they were depending for protection on treaties with Egypt and Assyria instead of trusting their great God. This too was emptiness and chasing after the wind, and God had to discipline Israel to bring them back to himself and His Word.

Jacob’s experiences getting a wife and raising a family are examples of God’s loving discipline (). In order to get the family blessing, Jacob had schemed and lied to his father Isaac, but then Laban had schemed and lied to Jacob in order to marry off two daughters in one week! Trying to please two wives, only one of whom he really loved, and trying to raise a large family had brought many burdens to Jacob, but he had persisted—God had blessed him and made him a wealthy man. During those difficult years, however, Jacob had suffered much (); yet the Lord had been working out His purposes.

Next, Hosea named some of the sins that his people had committed. Hosea could see the widespread practice of people defrauding others in order to make more money. Their prosperity led to pride (v. ), the kind of self-sufficiency that says, “We don’t need God” (see ). But the Lord warned that He would humble them. Instead of enjoying their houses, they would live in tents as Israel had during their wilderness journey. When the Assyrians were through with Israel, the Israelites would be grateful even for the temporary booths they lived in for a week during the Festival of Shelters.

God had sent prophets but the people wouldn’t listen. They had turned from the Word of the living God and had practiced idolatry (vv. ). This had provoked God to anger, and the way they had shed innocent blood provoked Him even more. (On Gilead’s wickedness, see , .)

The people of Ephraim had felt that they were an important tribe that deserved to be listened to and obeyed. But Ephraim had abandoned Jehovah for Baal, and that had brought spiritual death. They had gladly participated in Jeroboam’s human-made religion by sacrificing to the golden calves—even offering human sacrifices—and kissing the calves in worship.

It was the same old story: the Israelites were glad for what God had done for their forefathers—the exodus, God’s provision and guidance in the wilderness, the abundant wealth in the Promised Land—but they didn’t really show Him sincere appreciation. In their trials, they turned to God for help, but in their prosperity, they became proud and turned away from God to idols. Moses had warned them about this sin, but they had committed it just the same ().

Once again, Hosea used a number of similes and metaphors to describe the trials that God was sending on His disobedient people.

Though His people may turn away from Him, God will not abandon them, even though He disciplines them, for He is true to His covenant and His promises. “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny himself” (). God pleaded with His people to return to Him and forsake the sins that were causing their downfall (). He had already told them to plow up their hard hearts and seek the Lord () and to turn to God for mercy (), but here He spoke to them like little children and told them just what to do. The Lord gave them promises, to encourage them to repent.

, God had every reason to reject His sinful people, but He chose to offer them forgiveness. Instead of bringing sacrifices, they needed to bring sincere words of repentance and ask God for His gracious forgiveness. “You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would give it. You do not delight in a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart—these, O God, You will not despise” (, ).

Catalyst

The Lord says, “I will heal their backsliding” (). God restores the penitent to spiritual health and heals their backsliding ().

When a person collapses with sickness, it’s usually the result of a process that has been working in the body for weeks or months. When sin gets into the inner person and isn’t dealt with, it acts like an insidious infection: It grows quietly, brings loss of spiritual appetite, and creates weariness and weakness; then comes the collapse. When we confess our sins to the Lord, He forgives us and the germs of sin are cleansed away ().

As with physical sickness, however, often a period of recuperation is needed, when we get back our strength and our appetite for spiritual food. “I will love them freely” describes that period, when we’re back in fellowship with the Lord and enjoying His presence. We see the smile of His face, for His anger is turned away.

Go to the

Hosea pictured the restoration of the penitent as the emergence of new life in a dry field on which the refreshing dew has fallen. In the summer and early autumn in the Holy Land, the dew is very heavy and greatly appreciated (; ). That’s what the word “revive” means: to bring new life. The rich vegetation appears, producing beauty and fragrance where once the farmer had seen only ugliness and emptiness. The fallow ground becomes a fruitful garden!

The closing verse presents us with only two alternatives: Rebel against the Lord and continue to stumble, or return to the Lord and walk securely in His ways. The first choice is foolish; the second choice is wise. But the choices are timeless, and they are before us today.

Hosea 1

1:1

1:1

1:1

1:1

1:1 ;

1:2

1:2

1:4

1:4 ; , ;

1:5

1:6

1:6 Literally No-Mercy

1:6 Or That I may forgive them at all

1:7

1:7 []

1:9 Literally Not-My-People

1:10 ;

1:10

1:10

1:10 []

1:10 Hebrew lo-ammi (compare verse )

1:11

Hosea 2

2:1 Hebrew Ammi (compare , )

2:1 Hebrew Ruhamah (compare )

2:2

2:2

2:3 ,

2:3 ,

2:3

2:4

2:5 ,

2:6 ,

2:7 ,

2:7 ;

2:8

2:10

2:11 ;

2:15

2:15

2:15

2:16 Hebrew Ishi

2:16 Hebrew Baali

2:17

2:18

2:18

2:18

2:20 [, ]

2:21

2:22 Literally God Will Sow

2:23

2:23

2:23

2:23 Hebrew lo-ruhamah

2:23 Hebrew lo-ammi

Hosea 3

3:1

3:1 Literally friend or husband

3:3

3:4

3:4

3:4 ; ,

3:5

3:5

3:5 [, ]

Hosea 4

4:1

4:1

4:3 ;

4:3

4:4

4:5

4:6

4:6

4:7

4:7 Following Masoretic Text, Septuagint, and Vulgate; scribal tradition, Syriac, and Targum read They will change.

4:7 Following Masoretic Text, Septuagint, Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate; scribal tradition reads My glory.

4:9

4:10

4:11 ;

4:12

4:12 ,

4:13 ; ,

4:13

4:14

4:14 Compare

4:15 ;

4:15

4:15

4:16 ; ;

4:17

4:18

4:18 Hebrew is difficult; a Jewish tradition reads Her rulers shamefully love, ‘Give!’

4:19

4:19

Hosea 5

5:1

5:2

5:3 ;

5:3

5:4

5:5

5:6

5:7

5:8

5:8

5:8

5:10 ;

5:11

5:11

5:12

5:13

5:13

5:14

5:14

Hosea 6

6:1

6:1

6:1

6:2 ; ; []

6:3

6:3

6:3

6:3

6:5 []

6:6 ;

6:6 []

6:6 []

6:7 Or like Adam

6:8

6:9

6:9 ,

6:9 ;

Hosea 7

7:1

7:2 ;

7:3

7:3 []

7:4 ;

7:5 ,

7:6 Following Masoretic Text and Vulgate; Syriac and Targum read Their anger; Septuagint reads Ephraim.

7:7

7:8

7:9

7:10

7:10

7:11

7:11

7:11 ;

7:12

7:12

7:13

7:14 ,

7:14

7:14 Following Masoretic Text and Targum; Vulgate reads thought upon; Septuagint reads slashed themselves for (compare ).

7:14 Following Masoretic Text, Syriac, and Targum; Septuagint omits They rebel against Me; Vulgate reads They departed from Me.

7:16

7:16

7:16 ;

7:16 Or upward

Hosea 8

8:1

8:1 Hebrew shophar, ram’s horn

8:2

8:2

8:4 ,

8:5

8:6

8:7

8:7

8:8

8:8 ;

8:9

8:9 ,

8:10 ;

8:10

8:10 Or begin to diminish

8:10 Or oracle

8:12 []

8:13

8:13

8:13

8:14

8:14

8:14

8:14

8:14 Or palaces

Hosea 9

9:1 ,

9:1

9:3 []

9:3 ;

9:3

9:4

9:4

9:6 ;

9:7

9:7

9:7

9:8 ;

9:8 That is, one who catches birds in a trap or snare

9:9

9:9

9:10

9:10

9:10

9:10

9:12

9:13

9:14

9:15 ;

9:15

9:16

9:17 []

9:17

Hosea 10

10:1

10:1

10:2

10:4

10:5 , ;

10:5

10:5 Literally calves

10:6

10:8

10:8

10:8

10:9

10:9

10:9 So read many Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint, and Vulgate; Masoretic Text reads unruliness.

10:10

10:10 Or in their two habitations

10:11 []

10:12

10:12

10:13 []

Hosea 11

11:1

11:1 ,

11:2

11:2 Following Masoretic Text and Vulgate; Septuagint reads Just as I called them; Targum interprets as I sent prophets to a thousand of them.

11:2 Following Masoretic Text, Targum, and Vulgate; Septuagint reads from My face.

11:3 ; ,

11:3

11:3 Some Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate read My arms.

11:4

11:4

11:4 Literally cords of a man

11:4 Literally jaws

11:7 , ;

11:7 Or upward

11:8

11:8 ; ,

11:9

11:9 Or I will not enter a city

11:10 []

11:11 ;

11:11 , ; ,

11:12 Or holy ones

Hosea 12

12:1 ,

12:1

12:1

12:2

12:3

12:3

12:3 Compare

12:4 [; ]

12:5

12:6

12:7

12:8

12:9

12:10

12:11

12:11

12:12

12:12 ,

12:13 , ;

12:14

12:14

Hosea 13

13:2 Or those who offer human sacrifice

13:3

13:4

13:4 ; ,

13:5 ;

13:5

13:6 , ;

13:7

13:7

13:8

13:9 Literally it or he destroyed you

13:9 Literally in your help

13:10

13:10 ,

13:10 Septuagint, Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate read Where is your king?

13:11 ;

13:12 ,

13:13

13:14 [, ]

13:14

13:14 Or Sheol

13:14 Septuagint reads where is your punishment?

13:14 Or Sheol

13:14 Septuagint reads where is your sting?

13:15 ,

13:16

13:16

13:16 Septuagint reads shall be disfigured

Hosea 14

14:1 []

14:2 []

14:2 Literally bull calves; Septuagint reads fruit.

14:3 ; ;

14:3 []

14:3 ;

14:4

14:4 []

14:5

14:6 ;

14:6

14:7

14:7 Literally remembrance

14:8 []

14:9 []

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