Untitled Sermon

Intro to Hosea:

The Prophet Hosea lived in Northern Kingdom of Israel, often called Ephraim or Jacob about 200 years AFTER they had broken off of Southern Judah.

The events described in Hosea take place in Israel’s northern kingdom, after internal strife has divided the nation into the northern kingdom of Israel and southern kingdom of Judah.

Hosea spoke during the reign of one of Israel's worst Kings, Jeroboam II.

The book is almost all Poetry. It is a collection of about 25 years of Hosea's writings, preachings, etc.

God has been a faithful husband, and Israel an unfaithful and adulterous wife.

This was a time of upheaval and uncertainty. Hosea prophesied the fall of Israel, but does not report the fulfillment of the prophecy—which came in 722 bc when the Assyrian Empire conquered Israel’s capital, Samaria. There are two major sections in Hosea. The first section (Hos 1–3) is Hosea’s symbolic enactment of God’s relationship with Israel by his marriage with an adulterous woman, Gomer. This marriage takes place at God’s direction and results in three children who are given symbolic names (Hos 1:4, 6, 9). After Gomer leaves Hosea for another man, Hosea is told to once again love an adulterous woman, possibly indicating that he is to reconcile with Gomer and redeem her from slavery (Hos 3:1–2). Hosea’s marriage represents God’s relationship with Israel, while Gomer’s adultery represents Israel’s idolatry. The second section of Hosea (Hos 4–14) is a collection of prophecies articulating the message behind Hosea’s actions. The prophecies of this section are largely delivered in the voice of Yahweh. They use a variety of metaphors to portray the Israelites’ unfaithfulness and God’s judgment against their disobedience, as well as God’s unrelenting love for His people and His promise to restore them.

Elias’ Sum up:

The weight of sin

The consequence of sin

The faithfulness of God

Chapter 1-

Within the first chapter, we learn of 3 things:

The setting (time, place, era).

Hosea’s immediate family, symbolism behind the names of Hosea and Gomer’s children.

The rebellion of Israel, but the faithfulness of God (The charge against them; whoredom).

In reading and studying the book of Hosea, the two common themes will be as follows: A) Israel’s sin B) God’s faithfulness.

Verse 1:

Brings us to the setting and establishes a timeline for us. In 38 verses, we now know the gravity of the context in which Hosea is giving this prophesy.

Verse 2:

Here, we see God tell Hosea to “take himself a wife of whoredom” to represent God’s relationship with Israel. This main indictment against Israel is portrayed and realized by and through Hosea’s relationship with his wife, Gomer. Just as Gomer, knowing that she commits adultery against Hosea, Israel has, too, acted adulterously in their relationship with God and “forsaken” Him.

Verses 3 to 4:

Hosea does as God commands and takes Gomer as his wife, and she bears him a child and names him Jezreel, meaning “God will scatter”.

children of whoredom—The kingdom collectively is viewed as a mother; the individual subjects of it are spoken of as her children. “Take” being applied to both implies that they refer to the same thing viewed under different aspects. The “children” were not the prophet’s own, but born of adultery, and presented to him as his [Kitto, Biblical Cyclopaedia]. Rather, “children of whoredoms” means that the children, like their mother, fell into spiritual fornication. Compare “bare him a son” (see Ho 2:4, 5). Being children of a spiritual whore, they naturally fell into her whorish ways. Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, vol. 1 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 650.

Verse 5:

It seems as though God is promising to “break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”

“Breaking the bow” refers to the destruction of the nation’s military might (cf. 1 Sam. 2:4; Ps. 46:9; Jer. 49:35).

The general fulfillment of this prophecy came in 734-722 b.c. when the Assyrians overran Israel and reduced it to a province within their empire (2 Kings 15:29; 17:3–5).