Hosea
Major Lessons From the Minor Prophets • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Major Lessons From the Minor Prophets
There are 12 minor prophets.
Why Minor: meaning small in length.
Gods says to Hosea, I choose you to be my prophet. And your life and wife will be a symbol of my relationship with Isreal.
Friend invites you to a wedding / black dress / Vows: In adultery and prostitution.
2 When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.”
2 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.”
In the Old Testament, prostitution is symbolic of idolatry and unfaithfulness to God (Jer. 2–3; Ezek. 16; 23).
Since the Jews were idolatrous from the beginning (Josh. 24:2–3, 14), it seems likely that Gomer would have to be a prostitute when she married Hosea; for this would best symbolize Israel’s relationship to the Lord.
God called Israel in the idolatry; He “married” them at Mt. Sinai when they accepted His covenant (Ex. 19–21); and then He grieved over them when they forsook Him for the false gods of the land of Canaan. Like Gomer, Israel began as an idolater, “married” Jehovah, and eventually returned to her idolatry.
3 So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. 4 Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. 5 In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.”
The first child, a son, was called Jezreel, which means “God sows” or “God scatters.” Jezreel was a city in the tribe of Isaachar, near Mt. Gilboa, and is associated with the drastic judgment that Jehu executed on the family of Ahab. So zealous was Jehu to purge the land of Ahab’s evil descendants that he murdered far more people than the Lord commanded, including King Ahaziah of Judah and forty-two of his relatives.
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.
6 Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means “not loved”), for I will no longer show love to Israel, that I should at all forgive them. 7 Yet I will show love to Judah; and I will save them—not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but I, the Lord their God, will save them.”
The second child was a daughter named Lo-ruhamah (Hosea 1:6–7), which means “unpitied” or “not loved.” God had loved His people and proved it in many ways, but now 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.
8 After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. 9 Then the Lord said, “Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.
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. It was like a man divorcing his wife and turning his back on her, or like a father rejecting his own son
Chapters 4-14: God paints a picture of disobedience.
Bad news first.
5 You stumble day and night, and the prophets stumble with you. So I will destroy your mother— 6 my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. “Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.
4 “What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears.
5 Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth— then my judgments go forth like the sun.
6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.
4 “But I have been the Lord your God ever since you came out of Egypt. You shall acknowledge no God but me, no Savior except me.
5 I cared for you in the wilderness, in the land of burning heat. 6 When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.
7 So I will be like a lion to them, like a leopard I will lurk by the path. 8 Like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will attack them and rip them open; like a lion I will devour them— a wild animal will tear them apart.
14 “Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her.
15 There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will respond as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
19 I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. 20 I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord.
I will betroth you (3x)
23 I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’ ”
9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
1 The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”
2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley.
There was a price to pay for her sin.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
