December
8th Hosea
1
A.
Personal – The Prophet and his wife
Hosea takes an unfaithful wife
1:
The word of the LORD that came unto 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. 2:
The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to
Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of
whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from
the LORD. 3:
So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived,
and bare him a son. 4:
And the LORD said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little
while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu,
and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel. 5:
And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of
Israel in the valley of Jezreel. 6:
And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him,
Call her name Lo-ruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the
house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away. 7:
But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by
the LORD their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor
by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen. 8:
Now when she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived, and bare a son. 9:
Then said God, Call his name Lo-ammi: for ye are not my people, and I
will not be your God.
Israel
to return to the Lord
10:
Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the
sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to
pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my
people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the
living God. 11:
Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be
gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall
come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
Hosea 2
1:
Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ru-hamah. 2:
Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I
her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her
sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts; 3:
Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born,
and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay
her with thirst. 4:
And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children
of whoredoms. 5:
For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath
done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give
me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.
6:
Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a
wall, that she shall not find her paths. 7:
And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake
them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall
she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it
better with me than now. 8:
For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and
multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. 9:
Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof,
and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my
flax given to cover her nakedness. 10:
And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and
none shall deliver her out of mine hand. 11:
I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new
moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. 12:
And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath
said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will
make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. 13:
And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned
incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her
jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD.
The
Lord loves His people
14:
Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the
wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. 15:
And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of
Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of
her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of
Egypt. 16:
And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me
Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali. 17:
For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they
shall no more be remembered by their name. 18:
And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of
the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things
of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle
out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely. 19:
And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee
unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and
in mercies. 20:
I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know
the LORD. 21:
And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the LORD, I
will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; 22:
And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and
they shall hear Jezreel. 23:
And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon
her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were
not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my
God.
Hosea
was a prophet to the Northern Kingdom of Israel along with Amos and
he knew Isaiah and Micah prophets to Judah. A good title for this
book would be ‘God still loves his wayward people’. This book of
14 chapters was written about 715 BC. This book of Hosea is the first
of 12 smaller prophetic books. Hosea writes to record the word of the
Lord to Israel - the northern kingdom. He had been told to marry a
wife, Gomer, although he knew she would be unfaithful to him as a
picture of Israel’s relationship with God. It is a tragic love
story - with a happy ending. The first thing that Hosea is told to do
is to go and take a wife who was a prostitute and the daughter of a
prostitute. So he took Gomer as his wife and had a child from her
that he named Jezreel. (Sown and sown again. The idea is that the
kingdom is to be sown in the nations and then much latter still
prophecy today, gathered and sown again in the land) The point of
his naming is that soon God would cause the northern kingdom to
cease. The army of Israel would be smashed in the valley of Jezreel.
Then Gomer bore another - child a daughter that he called Lo-ruhamah.
(Not loved) This name signified that the Lord would not have mercy on
Israel anymore. But the Lord will have mercy on Judah and will save
them but not by their own strength of arms. When the child was weaned
she had another child – a boy that Hosea named Lo-ammi. This name
means – not my people. The Lord said to Israel, l will not be your
God. Yet the Children of Israel will continue to grow in number and
in the very place were they are called not my people – there they
will one day be called the sons of the living God. The judgment of
God on Israel will be called Great. (All the time that Israel is in a
state of having forsaken the Lord is called Lo-Ammi which means ‘Not
my people’. This is the condition of Judah in the present day after
the rejection of their Messiah. ‘I will not be ‘I am’ to you’.)
The names of the children of Hosea were a living message to Israel.
Hosea is to cast out his wife for her unfaithfulness as a picture to
Israel of their spiritual unfaithfulness. Then the Lord will make the
living of Israel to be hard so that they will return unto the Lord
their God. (This gives a clearer vision of the Ministry of John and
Christ and his apostles they called on unfaithful Israel to return
unto the Lord their God. It was a call not to be saved but a call to
repent – to think again and return to the God they had forsaken.)
The Lord says l will deal with Israel in such a way that she will
remember the Lord. He will entice her and speak kindly to her. In
that day Israel will call the Lord ‘Ishi’ which means ‘my
husband’ and will not call God ‘Baali’ which means ‘my Lord’.
The affection of the married state will be the character of their
relationship. In that day (which is yet future) the Lord will make
peace with the wild animals, birds and creeping animals for the sake
of Israel. And the Lord will destroy all the armies against them so
that they will live in safety. Israel will be married to the Lord
forever and the character of the Lord toward Israel will be
righteousness, judgment (on their enemies) and love and mercy. The
Lord will be exceedingly king to Israel. He will declare his love for
them saying - I will say to them which were not my people, ‘You are
my people’; and they will answer, ‘You are my God’.
- Why does Hosea take the wife that he takes?
- What does LoAmmi mean?
- How does the Lord describe the relation between himself and Israel?
No comments:
Post a Comment