HOSEA 1: 1, 2, 3-5, 6-7, 8-9, ; 3: 1-3, 4-5.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO HOSEA 1.
This week we begin a 4 lesson unit of study entitled, “God’s Tough Love.” We will examine the life and message of a prophet who learned thru his personal domestic tragedy two unforgettable things. First, sin break’s God’s heart. Second, God loves us in spite of our sins.
The 8th century before Christ was called the golden age of prophecy. Isaiah, Amos, and Micah were contemporaries of Hosea.
It was also called a time of great tumult. To be alive in this century meant great danger. It also meant thrill and newness. That world, like our own, was on the move. Shocks came often because of rapid change in both leaders and events. One could see God’s Tough Love through His acts of discipline.
In recent years people have used the words tough love to describe the kind of love that calls for stern measures to help someone they love. Usually tough love is used only when tender love has failed. Often the tough love is directed toward a rebellious child by parents who have tried everything else. Tough love is really another name for discipline or chastisement. Sometimes tough love helps, and sometimes it doesn’t.
God’s love is tender, but at times His love can be tough. The Book of Hosea is about the tender yet tough love of God. Two family situations reveal this kind of love: a husband’s love for his unfaithful wife and a father’s love for this rebellious son. God’s love is likened to these human experiences.
This four-lesson study theme focuses on God’s love for His people. All of the Bible passages come from Hosea. Today’s lesson, “If God Really Loves Me….” Is based on verses from Hosea 1-3, which uses Hosea’s love for his unfaithful wife as a revelation of God’s love for Israel.
TEACHER READ HOSEA 1:1.
The events in the reigns of the kings mentioned in this first verse are recorded in 2 Chronicles chapter 26-32. To see Hosea’s message against the background of its historical setting, you will want to read 2 Kings 14:23 through 17:23.
Following the death of Solomon and the division of the kingdom about 931 BC, the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah had existed side by side.
The reading of the record of the two hundred years of the life of the Northern Kingdom is marked by an oft-recurring expression which becomes almost monotonous because of the frequency with which it appears----“and he did that which was evil in the sight of God.” Generally speaking, the kings of Israel were a sorry lot!
Hosea is recognized as a prophet of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and his message is primarily directed to Israel. Historically, there is no record of the reaction of Israel to the preaching of Hosea. Subsequent events indicate that it was largely ignored.
It will be a challenge and a personal blessing as we look with Hosea deep into the heart of God and to marvel again at the greatness of God’s love, “in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Hosea spoke to a backslidden, worldly, impenitent people, who were so blinded by compromise and sinful living that they did not recognize their own condition, and, therefore failed to realize that judgment was inevitable and close at hand. His message graphically pictures the moral and spiritual decay of a nation which was on its way down. Outward prosperity is no evidence or guarantee of security.
Hosea saw what was happening and knew that if the present trend continued there could be only one outcome----judgment upon a national scale. There was, and is, however, a way out. It is the gracious forgiveness and love of God. The heart of God was, and is, torn by the thought of what must inevitably happen to His people and He pleaded for repentance and return. In this plea Hosea passionately joined.
In Hosea’s time the balance of power among the nations was shifting. Syria’s strength of the previous century had been crushed; she was no longer a threat to Israel. Egypt was still mighty to promise, but midget to produce. Isaiah called her ‘Rahab that sitteth still.” She could not be ignored, but she posed no real problem at this time.
Babylon’s day had not yet come. It would be more than a hundred years before she became a factor in the power struggle among the nations. Assyria had been a strong nation, but was at this time in a dormant state.
In the second half of the 8th century Assyria rose quickly to power. She came on strong under four forceful kings. Within the span of these four kings Israel was destroyed, and Judah was brought to her knees.
The first three kings of Israel were Saul, David, and Solomon. At Solomon’s death in 931 B.C. the kingdom was split into two nations. Ten tribes retained the name Israel. The other two became known as Judah.
At Jeroboam’s death in 763 B.C. the Northern Kingdom declined quickly. Six kings followed him in rapid order. Under them the nation fell apart. Only one of these last six rulers died a natural death. The other five were killed in cold blood. Israel’s period of peace was gone.
The peace that had been brought by Jeroboam and Uzziah also brought wealth. More trade meant more profit. Nothing could halt the mad race for riches. The people enjoyed the luxury brought to them by their strong kings. Those who came after Jeroboam coasted on his momentum.
The people’s quest for wealth brought about a crucial problem. Prosperity can be dangerous to a nation’s spirituality. A widening gap began to appear between the economic classes. Within a few years the poor were reduced to the level of slaves. The stable middle class was gone. The wealthy controlled the land, and they managed things so as to bring gain to themselves. As the landowners’ wealth increased, they moved to the city. They wanted the safe, easy life with all its comforts. The upper class wanted the nation to prosper, but ignored social sin and human need.
PLEASE READ HOSEA 1: 2.
The Book of Hosea describes the painful, humiliating life and ministry to which God called this man. Before the Israelites entered Canaan under Joshua, they had found something new. It was a religion based on strong appeal to man’s lustful nature and sex drive. The Canaanites served a number of gods. The chief one was Baal. He was the god of rain and the storm and thus assured fertility to land, animals and humans.
How did the Israelites feel about Baal worship? They quickly decided that two forms of worship could exist side by side. At first they were separated. Then the Israelites began to use some of the Baal rites in their worship of Jehovah. The final step was a merging of the two. More of Baal rubbed off on those who worshiped Jehovah than the opposite.
The people did not intend, even in Hosea’s day, to forsake Jehovah as they worshiped Baal. They felt their ancient God could meet some of their needs but Baal supplied others. We, as they, tend to worship that which meets our needs. In defense of their country they called upon Jehovah of Hosts. In matters of food, water, clothing, oil, silver and gold, Baal met their needs. Israel had merged the worship of Baal and Jehovah so that she had two religions in one.
Israel’s downward plunge began with Baal worship. By the time of Hosea the full bitter fruits had come. The stream became darker as it flowed into unbridled lust. By Hosea’s day, the worship had become nothing but a sex orgy. Every holy memory was effaced by present corruption.
This type of abuse led to other sins. People who indulge in fleshly excess seldom make up for it by noble conduct in other parts of their lives. The people were equally wicked in dealing with their weaker brothers. Injustice prevailed; fraud was rampant. Courts were corrupt because the judges were smitten with love of money.
The prophet spoke often concerning bribes. Judges, for even a small gift, took the side of the rich against the poor. Large estates were built in a short time by buying off the judges and taking the holdings of the poor. There was no feeling of guilt for such actions. The deprived man was reduced to the status of a slave and was then sold into bondage for a small price.
Israel’s worship caused her way of life to become both wicked and empty. Spiritual blindness came upon the people. Hosea stated it clearly in Hosea 4: 11 “Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the understanding.” Israel became captive to her own false worship. She came to lack insight and was unable to know right from wrong.
It was in this turbulent, chaotic period preceding Assyria’s devastation of the Northern Kingdom that Hosea lived and prophesied. He watched, as five of the nation’s last six kings died violent deaths. His entire message was a succession of sobs for the people he loved and whom he knew God loved.
The great 8th century prophets—Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah---sustained a resounding, needed note: “The one true God who is righteous demands that His people be righteous. God expects His people to reflect His character, not merely in times of formal worship but in all of life’s activities.”
Hosea was the last prophet to Israel before she fell in 722 B.C. before the onslaught of Assyria. In 586 B.C., Judah would be deported to Babylon, by the Babylonians. All the 8th century prophets indicated that God was not pleased with His people.
Hosea may be called the prophet of the decline and fall of the Northern Kingdom. He sought to call the sinful and estranged nation back to God. The name Hosea means “Yahweh has rescued or delivered.” He is the first of the minor prophets after Daniel. His experience was similar to that of Jehovah’s with Israel.
Hosea 1-3 intertwines the themes of God’s love for unfaithful Israel with Hosea’s love for unfaithful Gomer. God used Hosea’s tragic family life as the setting to reveal to him God’s love for this unfaithful people. Hosea’s position was to speak the Word of the Lord.
Difficult though it may be to understand and interpret, it is God’s Word and “is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” It deals with the “deep things of God.” In the study of God’s message through Hosea, we stand on holy ground.
It seems strange that in vs. 2 God would command a holy man to marry an unholy woman. Dr. Rick Byargeon, Prof. of O.T. at New Orleans Seminary, in teaching the book of Hosea at O.B.U. said that he believed that in the beginning Gomer was pure, but God knew that eventually she would be unfaithful. Would be guilty of the age-old sin of cheating on her husband.
After God told Hosea to take to himself a promiscuous wife he explained to him the reason for this most unusual command. His people were forsaking the Lord by committing harlotry. Consequently, God pictured Israel as a woman acting as a prostitute. By this action, Gomer symbolized Israel’s infidelity in her relationship with God in the strongest terms possible.
In vs. 2 an adulterous or promiscuous wife describes a woman with a bent toward sin. Children of whoredoms, does not mean that she already had such children. Indeed the descriptions of the children imply that the first child was the child of Hosea, but the other two were not. This indicates that Gomer’s unfaithfulness came later.
Homer Halley said it is more probable that she was not a harlot at the time of Jehovah’s instruction to Hosea, but a typical daughter of the age: who, after marriage, was so influenced by her surroundings and environment that she became immoral.
God will use Gomer’s action to point up the guilt of Israel in flagrant spiritual harlotry as they turned from God to idol worship. They forsook the Lord and followed other gods.
PLEASE READ HOSEA 1: 3-5.
After Hosea married Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, she conceived and bare him a son. God told Hosea to name his son Jezreel, which means “God sows or scatters.” It was in Jezreel that Jezebel and Ahab had the prophet Naboth murdered, and it was there that God’s prophecy through Elijah was fulfilled in the gruesome ends of this evil pair and their sons.
Hosea, however, focused on the blood shed in Jezreel by Jehu. Jehu rightly destroyed the family of Ahab, yet he continued in the false worship begun by Jeroboam and was not careful to obey God’s commandments.
Although Jehu was commissioned to be the instrument of God’s wrath, “self-interest and bloodlust” were his dominant springs of conduct, and it was this that made ‘the blood of Jezreel’ an accusing stain.
Jehu’s house was to be punished for the terrible massacre at Jezreel described in 2 Kings 10. All 70 sons of Ahab and all the prophets of Baal were slain. Blood ran deep in the valley of Jezreel during the reign of Jehu. In 2 Kings 10: 30-31 we find Jehu followed the idolatry of Jeroboam.
Although Jehu’s massacre of the house of Ahab might appear excessively bloody, God commended him for carrying out the divine judgment but Jehu forgot that God would not tolerate idolatry.
After executing God’s judgment on King Ahab’s family, Jehu perpetuated the use of the golden calves in the worship of the Lord. Consequently God would judge Jehu’s family for its violation of His covenant just as He had judged King Ahab’s family through Jehu.
God had promised Jehu four generations on the throne. The king when Hosea wrote was Jeroboam II, the third generation. Zachariah, the fourth generation was assassinated after reigning only six months.
Hosea also was told to announce the coming end of the kingdom of the house of Israel. The warlike Assyrians had been preoccupied during the long reign of Jeroboam, but they later began to destroy Israel piece by piece. Hosea predicted that God would break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel, symbolizing the breaking of Israel’s army.
God would put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. Israel had failed to learn the lesson associated with the name Jezreel and would no longer stand as a force for God. His loving discipline had to come. God indeed would scatter Israel from her land and His favor. That began when the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pilesar III invaded the land of Canaan and defeated Israel in 733 B.C. and concluded in 722 B.C. with Israel’s utter defeat.
Gomer became pregnant again and another child was added to the family.
PLEASE READ HOSEA 1: 6-7.
A little daughter came next to the home of Hosea and Gomer and was named LO-RUHAMAH (loh-roo-HA-muh). The prefix lo means “no” or “not,” when placed with a word meaning “mercy” or “pitied” means “no mercy” or “unpitied.” Or lo when placed with a word expressing “love” and “forgiveness”, Loruhama changes the meaning to be “no compassion” or “has no love.”
The name of the children denotes a deterioration of relationship between Jehovah and His people. “Jezreel” announces judgment but “Lo-ruhamah” signifies a withdrawal of love. Even the mercy and patience of God must run out when proud, stubborn, unrepentant hearts continually “do despite unto the spirit of grace.” Notice the text says Gomer “bore a daughter” rather than “bore Hosea a daughter.” Apparently Hosea could not give this daughter a father’s love because he suspected that Gomer had been with another man.
God named the child. The name expressed God’s reaction to the spiritual adultery of Israel. God explained the name like this: “I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel.” The nation Israel was left without mercy before her God. No longer would God show to Israel the kind of love a father extends to his children.
The nation had broken with God. He was now within his right to withdraw his feelings as father. He had endured their follies and failures thus far, but the cup was full. The divine verdict was that judgment must fall upon Israel…The second child’s name affirmed that there was no way to turn back; the certain doom of Israel remained. God was deeply grieved and His love for His people continued; however, the kingdom of Israel was doomed.
Vs. 7 contrasts Judah with Israel. At that time Judah had not yet sinned away their day of grace. God continued to extend His mercy to Judah. He promised to deliver them. This deliverance would not be by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen. This promise was fulfilled when the same Assyrians who had defeated Israel threatened to take Jerusalem, God destroyed the boastful invaders. (see Isa. 36-37). (Judah fell to the Babylonians a century-and-a-half after Israel fell to the Assyrians.)
PLEASE READ HOSEA 1: 8-9.
Again the text reads that Gomer bore a son, not bore Hosea a son. He was named Lo-ammi. (loh-AM-eye) The name means “not my people,” or “no kin of mine.” Jehovah can no longer claim the sinning, sinful people of Israel as His. He must regard and treat them as a foreign people. God’s love is persistent and patient, but continuing sin eventually leads to divine judgment.
Was it now that Hosea realized that infidelity had invaded his home, that this third child was not his? Was it at this point that he began to realize the parallel between his own heartbreaking experience and the tragic break between Jehovah and His people?
God made clear what the name of this son showed about His relationship with Israel: “Ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.”
PLEASE READ HOSEA 1: 10-11.
Most of the prophets preached both judgment and hope. Hosea is no exception. After the words of judgment in vs. 2-9, suddenly there are words of hope. After revoking the covenant with Israel, the Lord preached a stunning reversal. In vs. 10 God reinstated the covenant by essentially repeating portions of the covenant He made with Abraham. Vs. 10 picks up on an earlier promise made to Abraham and repeated to Jacob: “The number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered.”
Events seemed to be moving in the opposite direction. Israel was about to fall with great loss of life. Judah would soon follow. Only a remnant would return from the exile. How could their number ever be as the sand of the sea? Only by the grace and power of God, for whom all things are possible.
Hosea 1: 9 records how God named Gomer’s third child Lo-ammi in order to say that Israel was no longer His people. Hosea was inspired immediately to qualify that word of judgment with a word of hope. Lo-ammi would again become Ammi: “Where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.”
This is a great promise, one not based on Israel’s becoming worthy but on God’s grace in seeking them and forgiving them.
Hosea 2: 1 says that not only would Lo-ammi become Ammi but also Lo-ruhamah would become Ruhamah. Hosea 1: 11 indicates also that the name of the first child, Jezreel, would become a symbol of salvation instead of a symbol of judgment.
Promised judgment immediately followed by promised mercy and restoration is a striking characteristic of Hosea’s prophecy. We are repeatedly reminded that God is simultaneously a God of justice and a God of love. Because He loves His people, God will not stand by indifferently and permit them to sink further and further into depravity. Because He is a God of justice, He must punish violations of the covenant. Lest we think that God’s love and justice are opposed to one another, we must remember that He administers His justice lovingly and His love justly. There is no struggle within the nature of God between His love and His justice.
Peter in 1 Peter 2: 10 and Paul in Rom. 9:25-26 quoted these verses as examples of N.T. grace. Paul clearly applied these verses to Gentile converts. Thus the number of Abraham’s descendants includes all who have his kind of faith.
In Rom. 11:25 Paul spoke also of the bright future for physical Israel. Hosea predicted the reunion of Israel and Judah, who sometimes fought each other in the O.T. time. They would be brought together under one head, whom Christians believe is Jesus Christ. He will be the One who rules over God’s unified kingdom.
Please turn to Hosea 3.
PLEASE READ HOSEA 3: 1-3.
The New Revised Standard Bible reads, “The Lord said to me again, go love a woman beloved of her friend.” The NIV translates vs. 1 as “Go, show your love to your wife again.” Since Hosea did not name the woman who was loved by another man, he most likely was referring to the only woman so far identified in the narrative—his wife, Gomer.
Apparently Gomer had deserted her family and returned to her promiscuous lifestyle. Now God instructed Hosea to do something that many husbands would find not only offensive, but, seemingly incomprehensible. Hosea was commanded to find his unfaithful wife and show love to her even though she was loved by another man and was an adulteress.
Hosea was commanded to show love to his unfaithful wife, not just to take her back. The humiliated prophet might have grudgingly taken Gomer back into his home out of a sense of duty to God’s instructions. He might have lived with her while resenting the public disgrace she had brought to him, But God commanded Hosea to love his wife who had so shamefully spurned that love. To do this would require much more than some warm, emotional, sentimental feeling often associated with love.
To truly love Gomer would require Hosea to do what was in her best interest and for her welfare despite any feelings to the contrary. Hosea, in other words, would have to treat Gomer with self-sacrificial love. He would have to put the welfare of his wife ahead of his own feelings or reputation. Gomer did not deserve such treatment, but Hosea was instructed to give Gomer what she needed, not what she deserved. Loving Gomer meant that Hosea had to extend grace to her.
In vs. 1 the word love is used two different ways. When Hosea received this command; Gomer was loved by another man. But this other man’s interest in Gomer was purely for his own gratification. Even though adulterers often claim to love their new sex partners, the reality is that their actions prove their claims to be lies. Genuine love as the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 13: 5 “Does not act improperly: is not selfish.” If an action is self-centered or sinful, then it is not love. By his gracious and self-sacrificial actions, Hosea demonstrated genuine love to his seemingly unlovable wife.
The reason God commanded Hosea to take back his unfaithful wife was because God intended to use Hosea’s actions to teach Israel a lesson regarding His love for her despise her adultery. The Lord affirmed His love for the Israelites despite the fact that they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.
Israel, like Gomer, had proven to be an unfaithful wife and had violated the vows of the covenant between herself and her Husband. Despite her unfaithfulness, the Lord professed His persistent love for His wayward wife.
To turn to other gods means that the Israelites had broken their covenant promise of loyalty to the Lord. The Israelites had violated the first of the Ten Commandments: “Do not have other gods besides Me.” By embracing “other gods besides the Lord,” the Israelites had committed spiritual adultery. They were to the Lord what Gomer was to Hosea.
There is nothing inherently wrong with loving raisin cakes. But in this context the association of raisin cakes with other gods indicates that these cakes were probably used during pagan rituals. Israel’s love for these cakes is yet another expression of Israel’s unfaithfulness to the Lord.
Hosea complied with God’s instructions. He located his adulterous wife and bought her for 15 shekels of silver and five bushels of barley. Gomer had either become poverty stricken and sold herself into slavery, or her lover, having no more use for her, Gomer ended up on a slaves auction block. In any case, Hosea had to purchase her. Hosea redeemed his wife for a price equal to 30 pieces of silver; The price of a slave.
Hosea’s purchase of Gomer immediately makes us think of Christ who was betrayed in Matt. 27:3 for 30 pieces of silver.
That Hosea bought her demonstrates how far she had fallen, how tightly sin held her, and how far he was willing to obey God’s command to love her.
Once again Hosea’s relationship with Gomer provided the analogy for the message God sought to communicate to Israel. God listed the things that would be taken from Israel in seeking to redeem and restore them.
For many days the Israelites would be without a king or prince. After the fall of Judah, there was no king to reign over the Israelites. The Temple was destroyed, so they were without a sacrifice; without the sacred pillar, and without ephod or household idols. The Ephod was part of the clothing worn by the priests.
The many days of deprivation for Israel corresponded to the many days in which Gomer was prohibited from belonging to any man.
After the deprivation of the many days, God promised that the people of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their King. The people of Israel would learn their lesson from the discipline God was about to impose, and they would eventually return to covenant faithfulness--even as Gomer returned to Hosea, her loving and faithful husband.
To seek David their king would appear to be a reference to the Messiah whom God would raise up in the last days. This will be fulfilled when Jesus, the son of David, returns in glory (Rev.19:11-16; 22:16)
When Israel returned to faithfulness to God, they would come with awe…to His goodness.
God’s discipline of His people was compelled by His love for them and was intended for their good. The Lord’s disciplinary purposes would achieve their goal. The Israelites would eventually reverence the Lord and enjoy His goodness. They proved unfaithful to the covenant—just as Gomer proved unfaithful to Hosea---but God would not abandon His people. He redeemed them from their unfaithfulness in order to keep His commitment to the covenant and to bring them back into a covenant relationship with Himself. Many believers expect a great turning of literal Israel to God in the latter days.
The Lord continues to be faithful to His people even when they are not faithful to Him. The Lord often accomplishes His purposes in the lives of His people by brining harsh discipline into their lives.
NEXT SUNDAY FROM HOSEA 4 AND 5 THE LIFE QUESTION IS, “If I am forgiven for my sins, why does it matter what I do?” A.V. DAUGHERTY <altav@swbell.net.>