Hosea Class

Introduction

Top Ten quoted and alluded to Books of the Old Testament?

Psalms (68 times)

Isaiah (55)

Deuteronomy (44)

Genesis (35)

Exodus (31)

Leviticus (13)

Proverbs (8)

Zechariah (7)

Jeremiah (5)

Hosea (5)

What makes this book of only 14 chapters one of the most well known books of the NT writers?

Hosea is a great book that shows us the love that God has for us, the hatred that he has for sin, How important He takes covenant, and how he sees us even in the midst of our sins.

Contextual Setup

Historical Brush up on when in the history of Israel was prophesying.

The people of Israel were you remember led out of Egypt by Moses and to make a long story short, Joshua leads them into the promised land where after the death of Joshua are ruled by Judges, some of which were good, some of which were bad and that worked until the people of Israel demand a king as recorded in .

So after warning them about what will happen, they continue to demand a king so God gives them exactly what they ask for in Saul who then does evil and David becomes what by all accounts a good king. Now granted he does some pretty terrible things, but he united the tribes and actually made the kingdom work.

And it continued to work under his son Solomon, but Solomon eventually later in his life became unfaithful and his reign set the stage for the falling away of the people, we read about that in 1 Kings chapters 1-11

1 Kings chapter 12

Solomons son Rehoboam takes the throne and something tragic happens to the kingdom of Israel.

Read 12:1-24

And so the kingdom of Israel is now split into the north and south, the North being Israel with the capital of Samaria and the south being Judah with the capital being Jerusalem.

And so some 150 years pass from the division to the career of Hosea, during those 150 years Israel has 12 kings, all of which are wicked in the sight of God. Including Ahab to whom Elijah prophecies and Elisha who prophecies almost to the period of Hosea and dies during the rule of Joash.

In , Joash has a son named Jeroboam, not to be confused with the Jeroboam in , and it is during his reign that Hosea begins to Prophecy according to

I’m not big into dates, as I never can remember them and they aren’t really that important to me and they seem to vary wildly, but if you are this would be around the year 760 BC.

It seems that although the northern kingdom Israel had not had righteous kings, that they were prosperous by worldly standards nonetheless. indicates that this was a time of plenty, of riches and food.

And it seems the people of Israel mistook this physical blessing to be a sign of approval from God for the way they were living their lives.

The people like the kings where trading with and marrying foreigners and bringing in their Gods and committing idolatry.

And so they thought, well we’ve done all this and things seem to be going along pretty good as far as the economy goes, our military wins the occasional battle and brings home tons of loot. God must be alright with what we are doing!

Enter Hosea

It is in the midst of this that God uses a prophet to communicate to the people of Israel.

Define Prophet - Not someone that tells the future

-Communicates a message for someone else.

- - Sends Aaron with Moses

- - Like a prophet.

So a prophet of God is one that speaks Gods message.

They announce his judgement

Often times They proclaim His agony and desire for repentance.

Brief Overview of Hosea before we dive deep into it.

Writings or Prophecies are compiled or recalled through inspiration by someone else. “The Lord said to him”

And so

Israel’s Sin has not gone unnoticed and stands condemned

“Going to court”

like a patient District Attorney, God had not been ignoring or rewarding their sin, but he had been storing the evidence for an ironclad trial against Israel.

The trial is intended to prove one thing, they have broken the most sacred covenant with their God.

The Charges:

All really fall under one category - They failed to retain the knowledge of God

Annoyance

The very people that God had rescued and made his own, the people with whom he had made a sacred covenant with, the very people he loved and cherished and watched over had forgotten him.

They forgot God, but not Gods

Baalism - Tim Lewis page 7

Baal worshippers

Got drunk 4:11

and practiced gross immorality 4:13-14

Why the word whoredom or harlotry is used 16 times in Hosea’s 14 chapters.

Their Leaders were corrupt

0 for 20 in the good king department

7:7

8:4

10:7

13:11

Trust misplaced

12:7-8

Worship was unacceptable

2:11; 9:5

gifts 9:4

Animal sacrifice 8:13

Superficial repentance

Hos 6:4

Leland Ryken

“The book is designed to achieve the following: shock us into understanding the loathsomeness of sin in God’s eyes; shame the original audience and us as well for our rejection of God’s affections; use the format of satire to express the themes of the book; appeal to our imaginations with the vividness of the poetry; prompt readers to repentance and reformation of their lives; teach the importance of love toward God by means of the negative example of Israel’s waywardness toward God and his covenant”