Hosea Introduction

The Minor Prophets

Historical Context

Covers from approximately 810 - 420 BC

The ministries of the minor prophets can generally be divided between the pre-exilic and post-exilic periods.

The Assyrian conquest of Samaria and the subsequent deportation of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 BC

The Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and exile of the people of Judah to Babylonian in 586 BC.

The mission of the twelve minor prophets

Warn people of impending divine judgement as a consequence of disobedience

Call people to repentance

Provide a message of hope for restoration after judgement and exile.

Arrangement of the Prophecies

Hosea, Amos, Micah and Jonah are set within the Assyrian period

Nahum bridges the gap between Assyrian and Babylonian dominance

Zephaniah and Habakkuk proclaimed the impending Babylonian exile

Haggai and Zechariah speak to the first generation returnees out of exile in Babylon

Malachi exhorts the later generation that was already established back in the land

Joel and Obadiah are difficult to place in the timeline. (probably in the 6th century BC)

So to be clear, Hosea (along with Amos, Micah and Jonah) are the oldest of the minor prophets. and prophesied before the Northern Kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians.

Hosea

Some distinctions

The longest of the Minor Prophets (14 chapters)

Focuses on the northern kingdom while most of the minor prophets focus on the southern kingdom of Judah.

About the Northern Kingdom

to be clear, the Northern Kingdom are the 10 tribes that followed Jeroboam in rebelling against Solomon’s son a couple hundred years earlier.

Sometimes the Northern Kingdom is called Samaria because that was the capital city.

Sometimes it’s called Ephraim because Ephraim was the most prominent tribe.

But generally it’s called Israel.

The decades leading up to the reign of King Jeroboam II, who reigned during the time Hosea prophesied were unstable. The nation had gone through many kings and the country was in a steady decline.

Assyria, located just north of Israel, continually pushed their way over Israel’s borders. Hosea (and Amos) were called by God to prophesy in the waining days of the Northern Kingdom

Outline

1-3: Hosea’s personal history and some prophecy

4-14: collection of prophecies that warn of God’s coming judgement as well as several promises of hope.

Unfailing Love

The Love of God

Hosea & Gomer

Hosea 1:1-9.

Hosea 1:1–9 ESV

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. 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.”

God instructs Hosea to marry Gomer.

The reason Hosea is instructed to marry a woman of whoredom and have children with her is because Israel was committing whoredom by forsaking the Lord.

Hosea obeys God.

Their children are identified.

after chapter 1 the book presents prophecy which we will consider in detail in the upcoming weeks.

Hosea 3:1-3.

Hosea 3:1–3 ESV

And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.”

Hosea’s wife had been unfaithful to him and maybe sold herself into temple prostitution.

God told her to buy her back and continue to love her.

God and His People

In much of the prophetic portions of the book, God and Israel are personified as husband and wife. (see 2:2)

Throughout the first three chapters, God declares His intention to execute judgement upon Israel for her infidelity.

As the story continues, the connection between God’s judgement of His people and His love for His people will be described.

The Challenge to Love: Sin

The Nature of Sin

Hosea 4:6 (ESV)

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge;

because you have rejected knowledge….

Hosea 4:16 (ESV)

Like a stubborn heifer,

Israel is stubborn…

Hosea 8:3 (ESV)

Israel has spurned the good...

Hosea 8:12 ESV

Were I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands, they would be regarded as a strange thing.

Hosea 11:7 (ESV)

My people are bent on turning away from me…

Notice how personal this is for God. In rejecting His law, Israel was rejecting God.

With the theme of marriage in view, breaking God’s law is like breaking the marriage covenant He has with His people.

Hosea 8:1 (ESV)

… because they have transgressed my covenant

and rebelled against my law.

The Heart of Sin

Hosea 4:7-8.

Hosea 4:7–8 ESV

The more they increased, the more they sinned against me; I will change their glory into shame. They feed on the sin of my people; they are greedy for their iniquity.

The religious leaders (priests) were feeding on the sins of the people. They were cheerleaders of sin because they profited from it.

The people of Israel’s sin can be summarized in one word: idolatry. Cultic worship, false gods.

Adultery and idolatry go together. Idolatry is spiritual adultery. Israel was committing adultery against God through their idolatry.

The Recovery of Love: Repentance

God’s call to repent

Hosea 6:1-3.

Hosea 6:1–3 ESV

“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.”

The consequence of Israel’s sin still came to fruition. They were overtaken by the Assyrians within a few years of Hosea’s writing. But God’s call to repent continued. There is no sin that is so grievous that God will not forgive the repenting sinner.

The essentials of repentance

see the seriousness of sin

see the offense of sin

see the repulsiveness of sin

see the self-centeredness of sin

see the destructiveness of sin

see our sin in the light and not the dark

see the hope beyond sin

The Hope of Love: Restoration

Hosea 2:14-23.

Hosea 2:14–23 ESV

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. “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.’ ”

Repentance offers a pathway to recovery… to restoration

Notice God promises to lead the people out into the dessert (2nd exodus)

God’s people always possess hope.. even in the darkest times if sin.

Hosea 1:10–11 ESV

Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.” And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head. And they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.

The Fulfillment of Love: Jesus

Hosea 11:1-2.

Hosea 11:1–2 ESV

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols.

God did call Israel out Israel out of Egypt, but we also know that Israel deserted the Lord.

Behind Hosea’s prophecy are the words of Moses from Deut. 28:15.

Deuteronomy 28:15 ESV

“But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.

Later in Deut., God gives Moses a song to teach Israel that anticipated their disobedience but also provided hope:

Deuteronomy 32:43 ESV

“Rejoice with him, O heavens; bow down to him, all gods, for he avenges the blood of his children and takes vengeance on his adversaries. He repays those who hate him and cleanses his people’s land.”

The word cleanse there is the word atonement. God promised to make atonement for His land and His people because of their sin.

The son who was liberated from Egypt but failed, but Matthew quotes Hosea to show Christ as the fulfillment of this prophecy.

Matthew 2:15 ESV

and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

The eternal Son of God would make atonement for His people’s sins.

This theme is emphasized again in

Hosea 13:14.

Hosea 13:14 ESV

I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol; I shall redeem them from Death. O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion is hidden from my eyes.