HOSEA---PROPHET WITH A PROBLEM

INTRODUCTION: Hosea, the man

1.    Name means ”the Lord saves” or “deliverance”

2.    “Carried on his ministry during the days of four different kings of Judah--Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah; and of Jeroboam II, the king of Israel.” New Scofield-p. 919 (Introduction)

3.    His contemporaries were Isaiah, Amos, and Micah.

4.    His ministry covered perhaps as much as 72 years. (1:1)

5.    He has been called “the Jeremiah of the northern kingdom”; for like Jeremiah he was called to weep and suffer. He was to Israel what Jeremiah became to Judah.

6.    He prophesied to the northern kingdom of Israel.

A.   The name “Ephraim” (a collective name used to designate the ten tribes) occurs in this book as least 35 times.

B.   The name “Israel” occurs with equal frequency.

C.   Judah is not mentioned more than 14 times.

D.   Jerusalem is never mentioned.

E.   He saw the ten tribes of Israel carried away from the land into exile and dispersed among the nations from which, even yet, they have not been regathered.

F.    The captivity he foresaw was the Assyrian, 722 B.C.

7.    Little else is known of the man. “He is unknown as a man and is important only as a messenger of the Lord.” He died between the ages of 92-98 years.

CONDITIONS OF ISRAEL

1.    Outwardly - “There was prosperity. Syria and Moab had been conquered; commerce had greatly increased; the borders of the land had been extended and the temple offerings were ample.”

2.    Inwardly - “There was decay. Gross immoralities were being introduced; worship was being polluted and the masses of the people crushed, while the Assyrian Empire was advancing and ready to crush Israel, when, because of her sins, God had abandoned her to her fate.”

                                                                                                                                           --Tidwell

3.    A list of Israel’s sins as recorded by Hosea:

A.   Unfaithfulness to God (2:2)

1)    Spiritual adultery (2:5)

2)    Prostitution; seeking favor with the nations (2:5)

B.   Backsliding (2:13)

1)    No knowledge of God in the land (4:1,6)

2)    Rebellion against God (7:13-15)

C.   No moral code (4:1-11)

1)    No truth or mercy (v. 1)

2)    Swearing (false oaths), killings, stealing, adultery, bloodshed, violence (v. 2)

3)    Licentiousness (v. 10)

4)    Political ungodliness (9:15)

D.   No religious ethic

1)    Opposed the priests of God (4:4; 9:7)

2)    Emulation of the apostate, degenerate priests of Baal (4:9)

3)    Ignored the law and way of God (4:10)

4)    Idolatrous (4:17)

5)    Sought the help of nations rather than reliance on God (5:13; 7:11)

A SYMBOLIC MINISTRY

1.    The prophet, through the heartbreak of his own marriage tragedy, had come to see Israel’s sin against God in its deepest and most awful significance.

2.    The home life of Hosea forms the basis of the book. God uses the events in the life of the prophet to speak of the relationship between Him and His people.

3.    Hosea, as instructed by the Lord, married a woman named Gomer who was to become a harlot. (1:2) This marriage is used by God to speak of His uniting with the nation of Israel and her subsequent turning from Him to others. As Gomer is unfaithful to Hosea, so Israel is unfaithful to the Lord.

4.    Both the wife of Hosea and his children were signs and prophecies to Israel. His children were:

A.   Jezreel (1:4)--so named because of God’s judgment associated with the site of Jezreel. (I Kings 21-22; II Kings 10)

1)    Speaks of the judgment of God that would come upon all Israel because it had gone into idolatry, with the destruction of their kingdom because of their gross departure from the Lord.

2)    Jezreel means “scattered by God”.

B.   Lo-ruhamah (1:6)

1)    Means “not pitied” or as Baxter suggests, “she that never knew a father’s love”.

2)    Signifies that the hour for Israel has struck and her punishment is inevitable. She is ripe for judgment and nothing will deter it.

C.   Lo-ammi (1:9)

1)    Means “not my people” or “no kin of mine”.

2)    Signifies that when they depart from the way of the Lord, and are dealt with by God in chastisement, they appear for all intents and purposes to be “not my people”.

5.    Future Restoration--According to Hosea’s prophecies, a time would come when the nation would be scattered (Jezreel), and at this time Israel will be considered not pitied (Lo-ruhamah), and not God’s children (Lo-ammi). But a time is coming when:

A.   The Lord will take Israel back (2:19,20 Gomer)

B.   Her children will find God’s pity - “I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy.” (v. 23)

C.   Her children will be recognized as His people - “I will say to them who were not my people, Thou art my people.” (v. 23)

D.   Those who have been scattered would be planted in their land - “I will sow her unto me in the earth.” (v. 23)

E.   Compare 1:4-9 and 2:1

KEY VERSE: 8:7a

KEY WORD: Return, 15 times

OUTLINE OF THE BOOK

  I.    THE TRAGEDY IN HOSEA’S HOMELIFE (1-3)

A.   The signs - reflected in the children (1)

B.   The sins - reflected in the wife (2)

C.   The salvation - reflected in the husband (3)

II.    THE TRAGEDY IN HOSEA’S HOMELAND (4-14)

A.   The polluted people (4-7)

B.   The punished people (8-10)

C.   The pardoned people (11-14)

                                                                                         --Exploring the Scriptures;

                                                                                        John Phillips