Hosea 3:1-4:10

Hosea 3 1-5

v.1 This chapter begins with a return to the story of Hosea and Gomer. Gomer has left Hosea for the company of other men. She is living in an adulterous relationship. God commands Hosea to go and get her. Notice that Gomer is “loved by another man”.

Gomer is called an “adulteress”. There are those who believe unfaithfulness is acceptable if you love the one you are unfaithful with. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Gomer is the wife of Hosea. It does not matter what her feelings for him or other men are. Any intimacy with another man is considered adultery.

Hosea’s pursuit of his wife will be synonymous with God’s pursuit of Israel. Here we see some truths about Israel.

* They were loved by the Lord. God had pledged His love to Israel. He would not abandon that love even if they were unfaithful.

* They looked to other gods. The Israelites had found acceptance in other cultures by bowing to the gods of the pagan lands. They enjoyed the attention and benefits that worshipping these gods brought.

* They loved “cakes of raisins”. Dried grapes were often pressed together to make a type of desert in those days. They were eaten to give energy (1 Sam. 30:12) and were known to be a type of aphrodisiac (Song of Solomon 2:5). These raisin cakes were eaten by many of the pagans in their worship. Because much of the Baal worship involved sexual immorality it is not surprising that the eating of raisin cakes was so prevalent.

Israel was loved by the Lord. Yet she was looking to other gods and loving the pleasure that worshipping them brought.

v.2 Hosea obeyed God’s command. He went to get his wife. He did not find her at the house of one of her lovers this time. It seems her lovers had experienced their fill. She had been sold into slavery as many prostitutes were. In fact, many slave girls in Hosea’s days were actually treated more like prostitutes than slaves. We are not sure how Gomer became a slave.

She could have become one of the temple prostitutes and then sold by the religious leaders of Baal.

One of her lovers could have taken advantage of her situation and sold her.

She could have accumulated some type of debt and sold herself into slavery.

In the end it really doesn’t matter. She was a slave when Hosea found her.

When the bidding started for Gomer Hosea was there to watch. It was common in Hosea’s day for the marketplace to auction off merchandise. There would have been a crowd of people watching the auction. It must have been hard for him to see his wife, the mother of his children and the one he loved being treated so shamefully. There is no doubt that other men bid for his wife. There was no way he would be outbid, however. He finally purchased Gomer for “fifteen shekels of silver a homer of barley and a half homer of barley”.

This was not a lot of money. It equaled to about thirty shekels. This was the price paid for a slave (Exodus 21:32) and the price that Judas betrayed the Lord Jesus for (Matt. 26:15). The fact that she was sold for such a small price reveals that sin must have taken a toll on her by this time. She was not desirable enough for any of these pagan men to pay much for her. Regardless, we can be sure of this, Hosea would have paid any price to get her back. She was his wife; she was loved by him. Hosea now had his wife back.

v.3 What would he say to her? It would not be hard for us to imagine a few things to say to her. He could have had her stoned according to Jewish law. He didn’t though. He could have given her a piece of his mind. He could have told her how sorry of a wife and mother she was. Notice what he said to her.

* You must dwell as mine. Hosea told Gomer she was coming home. He would take her back to the house. He says they will live together for many days. He is telling Gomer, I’m going to take you back. We are going to live together like we did before.

* You will no longer live in adultery. In other words, you are my lover. You are not going to live like you have been living anymore.

* I will be for you. This is a powerful statement. He could have said “You will be for me.” Hosea would be faithful to Gomer. He would be her husband. They would live together as if none of this had ever happened.

Gomer must have been speechless at this point. We can only imagine how frightened she must have been on the auction block. And we can only imagine how happy she must have been to see Hosea’s face in the crowd. She probably would have been happy just to be a servant in Hosea’s home. Now she was being taken home as a wife.

v.4 The last two verses of this chapter make application to Israel. Israel would suffer for quite some time without a political ruler or religious system. In fact, they would not even have the luxury of idol worship. Just as Gomer had become undesirable to her lovers, Israel had become unattractive to the pagan nations. Israel would be sold into slavery and unable to enjoy the sinful pleasures that the idol worship once brought her. She would be a castaway, as Gomer. Isarel would be worth very little in the eyes of the pagan culture.

v.5 Just as Hosea brought deliverance to Gomer, God would bring deliverance to Israel. God would come and redeem the people of Israel. They would come back to the land and seek the Lord. The reference to “David their King” is a reference to the Messiah. David had been dead a long time when Hosea prophesied. This verse looks forward to the “latter days”. There is a great day when Christ will rule, and Jew and Gentile will worship Him for all eternity. Hosea looked forward to that day and we should as well.

As we end this section, we should take the opportunity to make application of the story to ourselves.

We were all adulterers at heart.

We were sold into the slavery of sin.

We had become undesirable and ugly.

We were without hope.

As we stood on the auction block God started the bidding. He asked, “Who will buy these sinful men and women and what is the price you will pay?” The Lord Jesus made His way through the crowd and said, “I will buy them, and I will pay the price of My own blood.” There was no higher bid placed! The Lord Jesus then told us “You are coming home with Me to be my Bride for all of eternity.” Praise the Lord!!!

Thoughts to Consider

1. The love of God initiates reconciliation.

2. The love of God will compel us to do things that may appear foolish to the world.

3. The love of God changes us.

Hosea 4 1-10

v.1 In this section Israel will be charged with their great sins. God will call Israel to recognize what they have done. “Controversy” is a courtroom term that means “dispute”. Israel is being charged by the Judge of all the earth for her great sins. The charge is threefold.

*There is no faithfulness. The word means “firmness or stability”. It is used to describe the faithfulness of a person. Israel was not faithful at this point. She had no integrity whatsoever. God had been faithful to her, just as Hosea had been faithful to Gomer. Yet Israel had broken her covenant with God. Of utmost importance in a believer’s life is integrity. God expects us to be true to our word and our convictions. Israel would be judged for her lack of integrity, and we should expect no less.

* There is no steadfast love. The word is “chesed”. It is used of God’s covenant love. It is descriptive of a love that goes beyond what is required. The people of Israel did not have this type of love for one another, nor did they have a love for God.

* There is no knowledge of God. Israel had abandoned the knowledge of God. They had forsaken the true God for the false gods of the pagans. Correct worship must be based on truth. Israel had forsaken the truth for a lie. Not only did they not possess doctrinal knowledge, they also did not possess experiential knowledge of God (Jeremiah 9:24). The believer must remember that we need to have both a correct understanding of God as well as a personal relationship with Him. Israel had neither of these things.

This is God’s case against Israel. They were void of the essential elements of the faith. They had no faithfulness, no love, and no knowledge.

v.2 In this verse God will list Israel’s sins specifically. Each of their sins is a breaking of one of the Ten Commandments.

“Swearing” means they were taking the name of the Lord in vain. It could mean they were making false vows or calling a curse upon someone. Either way, they were using His name in a vain manner. “Lying, killing, stealing, and committing adultery” are all signs that a society has left its faith in the One True God.

The phrase “they break all bounds” and “bloodshed follows bloodshed” describes the prevalence of sin in the society. The city was overflowing with sinfulness and a disregard for human life. It is not hard for us to see our own country in this verse. Our people have forsaken God and it is evidenced by the continual breaking of God’s law and a disregard for human life.

v.3 God’s judgment upon Israel would affect the whole land. The earth would mourn. Humanity as well as the animals would experience suffering because of Israel’s sin. Even the fish in the sea would experience the wrath of God. We are not sure exactly how that would happen. Yet, the Scripture says it would. God’s judgment on humanity is often described in the Bible as affecting the entire creation (Rev. 8:6-13).

v.4-5 Hosea commands the people not to blame one another for the judgment of God. This seems surprising. What does he mean here? Well, he does not mean that Israel was innocent. They were guilty to a man. In this verse, Hosea points the finger where the problem truly lies. It lies with the religious leaders. The people were simply a reflection of their unwillingness to preach the truth.

The people of Israel were failing morally because the prophets were falling morally. Therefore, the entire nation of Israel was falling into sinfulness. The fact that they fall both in the “day and night” reveals that their sin is constant. They are living in habitual rebellion toward God. Their perpetual sin would result in their destruction. Israel as a nation is the “mother”. She would be destroyed as a nation.

v.6 In context “My people” refers to the religious leaders of Israel. They had no knowledge of God. Ultimately this is why the nation would be destroyed (5). The religious leaders had failed to teach the truth of God because they had forsaken it. God would reject the religious leaders as well as their “children”. The children should be understood as the people of Israel. Hosea is continuing to develop the truth that the religious leaders are the primary ones to blame in Israel’s rebellion.

v.7 “They” refers to the religious leaders. During Hosea’s time Israel experienced great prosperity. As a result, the number of religious leaders grew. Sadly, this was not a good thing. As their numbers increased, so did their sinfulness. We see this in our day. We live in a time of economic prosperity. A person can make a good living in America in the ministry. There is no shortage of preachers in our society. Our society has also witnessed an increase in sinful activity among those who claim to speak for God. Many have abandoned the truth and indulged in sin. In this verse God promises to take away their “glory” and give them “shame”. Their glory is in their identity. God would reveal that they were not His spokesman and shame them. That could be in this world or in the next.

v.8 The priests were allowed to eat the burnt offerings that were offered by the people of Israel (Lev. 6:26). The priests did not care that Israel was committing great sin. In fact they “are greedy for their iniquity”. They relished in the sin of the nation. The more Israel sinned, the more offerings they received. There was no intent to lead the nation from their sin. The priests were prospering at the nations sin, and they loved to have it that way. Our nation is in trouble when religious leaders wink at sin so they can prosper themselves.

v.9 God would punish both the priests and the people. The people were not excused because of the priest’s sin. They willfully followed false gods. God never excuses us for our sin. We cannot blame anyone else for our rebellion. Even if stumbling blocks are placed in our way, we are found guilty for continuing down the path.

v.10 Judgment is coming. Their festivities in the pagan worship would not benefit them. They ate their food, but they would not be full. They committed whoredom with them, but they would not increase as a nation. They believed that allegiance to Baal as a fertility god would make them prosper. Nothing could have been farther from the truth. Their worship of Baal would bring poverty.

The last line of this verse sums up what the priests and the people had done. They abandoned the Lord. Now they would face the consequences.

Thoughts to Consider

1. There will be more than enough evidence to convict the unbeliever on the day of judgment.

2. When the preachers begin to fall, the people usually follow.

3. The worth of a preacher is measured by what it takes to make him look the other way when sin is committed.

4. The preacher is not the only one to be blamed for sin or spiritual immaturity in the life of the believer.