Hosea Week 1
Introduce new book - Hosea. Let’s read verse 1 and place this book on our timeline.
Vs 1
We immediately notice there are kings of Judah and kings of Israel listed so we know that it takes place between 930 - 722BC
There’s lots of kings listed so his prophetic ministry actually takes place over quite some time.
FLIP THE BOARD TO TIMELINE OF KINGS
Notice the kings of Judah are the descendants of David. The kings of Israel are not. In fact they struggle to maintain any consistent dynasty at all. The families keep getting murdered and replaced by others.
That’s most important for us to notice is the period after Jeroboam in Israel. After a consistent 30+ year reign of one king. Israel goes through a wild period of 6 kings from 5 families within 30 years. 4 of whom assassinated the king prior to them. And ending in the destruction of the northern kingdom by Assyria.
Hosea prophesies throughout this whole period and even beyond it.
First section is 1:1 - 1:9
Vs 2-3
You’ll notice Hosea doesn’t shy away from strong sexual language. It’s a book that centers on covenant faithfulness like in a marriage. And that covenant sadly is often broken by sexual unfaithfulness which will receive a lot of air time in Hosea. I’ll try to be tactful in how I talk about the sexual language, but it’s definitely here.
One thing that often happens among the prophets is that they “act out” or even “live out” dramas that are a demonstration to the people of a spiritual truth God wanted to teach. Kind of like a reverse parable. In parables Jesus points at something they already know and teaches a spiritual truth. With the prophets, God creates a drama then points to it to teach a spiritual truth. These dramas are often called sign-acts. Jeremiah and Ezekiel are full of them. God tells them to shave their head and attack the hair with a sword or to build a model of Jerusalem and lay siege to it or to pack their bags and leave through a hole in the wall. Hosea’s opening chapters are a prolonged sign-act that begins here
Underline Gomer. Gomer is the name of Hosea’s wife and she is described as a wife of whoredom. Some people have taken this to mean that she was already living as a prostitute prior to Hosea marrying her, but I don’t think that’s the case. We see here that she is to be representative of Israel. And Gomer, like Israel, will start well and be committed, but later will abandon her husband.
The word translated “whoredom” here could also be adultery and that might help us get a sense of what’s happening - “Take a wife of adultery and have children of adultery for the land commits great adultery”
They have their firstborn son who is specifically said to be Hosea’s son. “She bore him a son” So as far as we can tell, no adultery yet
Vs 4-5
Underline Jezreel. The boy is named Jezreel because of something that took place at the city of Jezreel that God wants them to remember. It’s almost like naming your child “Alamo”
So what happened at Jezreel? First, I’ll say that all these things can be found out simply by searching through your Bible. If you see a name like Jezreel and don’t know what it refers to, just go looking. Use cross references or do a quick Google search. You don’t need a special degree in Bible to find these.
Again, what happened at Jezreel? You’ll notice the name Jehu there as well. There is a particular story about Jehu and Jezreel that can be found in 2 Kings 9-10.
For sake of time, I’m not going to read it to you, but Jehu kills a lot of people.
First he kills both King Joram of Israel and King Ahaziah of Judah. Then he goes to Jezreel and kills Jezebel, that famously wicked queen married to the late wicked king Ahab. Next he kills 70 of Ahab’s sons and every possible person related to him. Then he lures all of the prophets of Baal into their temple, kills them, and burns down the temple
Obviously Jehu was a pretty violent guy and shed lots of blood. But there’s one problem with God punishing him that we should point out. God specifically commanded Jehu to do it.
READ 2 Kings 9:6b-8, then after he kills everyone, 2 Kings 10:30
Now this is pretty baffling. Ahab was a bad guy and God asks Jehu to get rid of him. Jehu does this and God rewards him, but then later God through Hosea says he’ll punish him. It’s pretty confusing
One reasonable explanation is that Jehu loved killing a little too much. He killed not only the king of Israel, but also Judah’s king. He was not asked to do that. And while the prophets of Baal were evil, God never specifically told Jehu to kill them. Jehu was bloodthirsty and his violence is inherited by all of those who came after him as will be evident in the book of Hosea
Furthermore we know that Jehu does not follow God and continues to engage in idolatry at Bethel and Dan
So Hosea’s first son is named Jezreel because God says, I remember what happened there and the punishment is still coming
Vs 6-7
Underline No Mercy. Gomer has a second child, a daughter, and she is named “No Mercy” or even “No Compassion”
Interestingly it doesn’t say that he “went and took her” or that she “bore him” a daughter like it did previously. The possibility strongly exists that this is not Hosea’s child. The adultery may have already begun. And the name “No Mercy” seems to suggest that Hosea doesn’t have the same compassion for this child that doesn’t belong to him.
God says that he will no longer have mercy on Israel, but that he will in fact save Judah.
Vs 8-9
Underline Not My People. Here we have the last member of the family born, another son. This son was named “Not my people”. Now, if there is a name that strongly suggests a child of adultery, naming the child “not mine” is probably at the top of that list.
In the days when he first brought Israel out of Egypt in Exodus, God would repeatedly refer to them as “my people” as a term of endearment. Now he’s saying that they no longer belong to one another.
The next section is from Vs 10-11
Vs 10-11
Immediately God tells them about a future hope. He says they will be like the sand of the sea. Does anyone recognize that one? That’s the promise God made to Abraham that his descendants will be as many as the stars in the sky and the sands on the sea.
God keeps his promise in spite of the people’s sins. They receive blessings not by earning them but by God’s graciousness.
And God says, in the future instead of rejecting you, you will be children of God.
Furthermore he talks about Israel and Judah being reunited and having one head as in one king. But this won’t occur historically and refers to all of God’s people uniting under Jesus as their king in the future.
Underline Jezreel. With a last mention of Jezreel, God shows that he redeems things that were previously tarnished
Chapter 2 is a good division and we’ll cover the whole thing as one unit
Vs 1
Underline You are my people and You have received mercy. Chapter 2 reads as Hosea pleading with the children to go speak to their mother on his behalf. By saying, “you are my people” and “you have received mercy” he’s stating the opposite of the names of the two children who weren’t his. He’s stating that they can be part of his family if they will plead with their mother.
This whole thing has double meaning as clearly Hosea represents God and Gomer represents Israel. So as we read these you can see how it fits into both of those relationships. But the Hosea/Gomer relationship is meant to point to the truths of the God/Israel relationship
Vs 2-5
He tells them to go intercede with their mother
“She is not my wife and I am not her husband” would be the declaration made at a legal proceeding for a divorce filing. Here it seems to be a threat of what will happen if she doesn’t return
Vs 4 is an interesting verse. This also is phrased like a threat, but I think it is a type of entreaty. These 2 children, No Mercy and Not My People, do not belong to Hosea. If Gomer does not return to him, he cannot show mercy to them. They aren’t his. But if she does return to him he can have mercy and love them and care for them. There are some beautiful themes of adoption in this book and here is a good one. It doesn’t matter if they deserve his compassion or if they are biologically his, if they return to him he cares for them.
Vs 5 The reason she is going after other lovers is because she thinks that they provide for her and will give her what she needs
The rest of the chapter has 3 “Therefore” sections in verses 6, 9, and 14. We’ll read them in turn. Put a box around each of those “therefore”s.
Vs 6-8
Now this part seems to be God who is talking. He declares that he’s going to block the woman’s path so that she can no longer find her lovers.
But the reason he stops her is so that she will return to him. This is similar imagery to what we saw in Amos 4, God dropped all of these obstacles in their path and then it says “But you did not return to me”. God again is blocking their path so that they will turn back to him.
Have you ever had this experience where perhaps you had in mind to do something dishonest or sinful in some other way and then it wasn’t as simple as you’d hoped. You had to work hard to accomplish the wrong thing. Kind of like a lie that you think you can tell and it’s over with, but then something happens that might expose your lie and you have to double down. It’s as if God is putting obstacles in front of your sin to get you to repent and turn back to him
Circle the word Return. This is a theme word in Hosea. The word “return” in the Old Testament is the equivalent of the New Testament word “repent”. They both mean turn back. The goal of the whole book is to see these wayward people repent and return to God.
Verse 8 tells us that all of the good things she got from her lovers were actually given to her by God and she used them for wicked purposes.
There are times when we think that our sinful practices are benefitting us. Maybe we think “I have been getting more money by being dishonest.” or “I have been getting ahead in my job by acting like the greedy aggressive sinners do” But dishonesty and greed never lead to blessing. If you’re blessed it’s from God. Maybe you have even thought something like “Because I’m such an awesome good person who makes wise choices I have a healthy family and financial security” But self-righteousness doesn’t get us blessing either. Only God provides these things.
For sake of time I’m just going to read through section 9-13
Vs 9-13
God basically says that he will remove all of the blessings he gave her while she persisted in her sin because she has completely forgotten him
Vs14-23
14-15 contain lots of Exodus era language. You see coming out of the land of Egypt at the end of 15 then you see wilderness in 14 and you see valley of Achor in 15. Achor was just outside of Jericho. So God is referring to the “days of her youth” when she first left Egypt, crossed the wilderness, and went into the promised land. Almost like he’s suggesting a reset of their relationship back to then
Vs 16-17 makes a play on words. There was an older Hebrew word for husband and that word was “Baal”. God says, stop using that word. Start using the newer one “husband”. The old one had a connotation now that was inappropriate to be used. God reasserts his position as their only husband. A similar example might be if God were to tell someone in English, “Stop calling the king ‘My Lord’ and start calling him ‘Sir’” As in, he’s not your lord. I am. But in Hosea it’s, Baal isn’t your husband. I am.
Vs 19-20 God wants to betroth Israel again as if entering into a new marriage with her. This one will be righteous, just, loving, merciful, and faithful.
Vs 21-23 Underline all the children’s names: Jezreel, No Mercy, and Not My People. He ends by saying He will reverse the names of these children
Chapter 3 returns us to the narrative, the drama, or the sign-act of Hosea and it’s short enough for taking it all at one time
Vs 1-5
In vs 1-3, God commands Hosea to go again and find Gomer. Because though she is adulteress, God still loves his adulteress people.
There is a prediction that Israel will not have a king for many many days
Vs 5 says they will return to have David as their king. That’s significant because it again means they will be reunited with Judah who does have a davidic king.
It closes with the word “return” in vs 5. Circle that “return” also.
I went fast through some of that because I wanted to get to this last piece. Open your Bibles to 1 Peter 2:9-10
It’s important to recognize that the book of Hosea isn’t merely about some old people who lived a really long time ago. It’s about your story with God as well. In our sin we run away from God. We are not his people. We will not receive his mercy. We are like adulterers who abandon the one who has been so good to us. We think we’ll find joy and satisfaction in all kinds of other things. And when God is being gracious to us, he removes all the joy we experience from those other things so that we will repent and turn back to him.