Bible Overview: Hosea
Notes
Transcript
Author: Hosea
Author: Hosea
Hosea is not mentioned outside of this book, so we know little about him as a person.
The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
As opposed to Amos, Hosea was probably from the Northern Kingdom since he makes reference to several specific places within the northern kingdom (Hosea 4:15, 5:1, 6:8)
Though you play the whore, O Israel, let not Judah become guilty. Enter not into Gilgal, nor go up to Beth-aven, and swear not, “As the Lord lives.”
Hear this, O priests! Pay attention, O house of Israel! Give ear, O house of the king! For the judgment is for you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah and a net spread upon Tabor.
Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with blood.
Date: 750 B.C.
Date: 750 B.C.
Hosea mentions the kings of Judah who reigned during his ministry as well as the primary king who reigned in the northern kingdom.
Because he mentions four kings of Judah, it would seem that his prophecies span at least a couple of decades. He may still have been prophesying when the northern kingdom fell during the reign of Hezekiah, king of Judah, in 722 B.C.
The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
Audience: Northern Kingdom
Audience: Northern Kingdom
Also called “Ephraim” because that was the most prominent tribe, and also Jacob.
Summary of Hosea:
Summary of Hosea:
1. Hosea’s unfaithful wife: Gomer (chapters 1-3)
1. Hosea’s unfaithful wife: Gomer (chapters 1-3)
2. God’s unfaithful wife: Israel (chapters 4-14)
2. God’s unfaithful wife: Israel (chapters 4-14)
Key Passages:
Key Passages:
When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.”
So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
And the Lord said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.
And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”
She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, “Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all.
But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”
When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son.
And the Lord said, “Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”
“And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’
For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more.
And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety.
And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy.
I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.
“And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth,
and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel,
and I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’ ”
Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.
Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel, for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land;
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
“Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.
After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.
Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.”
For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.
You have plowed iniquity; you have reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your own way and in the multitude of your warriors,
When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.
Take with you words and return to the Lord; say to him, “Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips.
Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses; and we will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy.”
I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them.
Applications
Applications
Sin separates us from God and receives his just punishment.
Sin separates us from God and receives his just punishment.
God calls us to repentance and promises forgiveness and restoration to those who repent.
God calls us to repentance and promises forgiveness and restoration to those who repent.
The marriage imagery in Hosea prepares us for Paul’s teaching in Ephesians on the marriage of Christ and the church
The marriage imagery in Hosea prepares us for Paul’s teaching in Ephesians on the marriage of Christ and the church