Survey of the book of Hosea

Welcome to The Rapid Pull, daily edition, where we provide a quick biblical interpretations and applications. This is a ministry of striving for eternity.

Hosea as a Picture of Israel’s Unfaithfulness

The book of Hosea, this is written by Hosea the prophet, and most notably known for those opening few chapters where God has Hosea do something that is a picture of Israel. And so Hosea ends up having to marry someone who is going to be unfaithful, in fact she's so unfaithful she becomes a harlot, she becomes a prostitute.

She ends up being destitute and yet throughout that Hosea is still caring for her and taking care of her. He's buying food for her and putting it out for her. When she's on a slave block and being sold as a slave because she's no value to anyone other than as a slave now and Hosea is commanded by God to buy her back and take her in.

Israel’s Idolatry and God’s Faithful Care

The whole imagery is there because God wants to show Israel that through their idolatry they have been unfaithful. They have sold themselves to another, to a Gentile God, to a false God and Gomer is there to represent the nation of Israel.

Hosea represents God and what you end up seeing is that here God is doing everything for Israel. As they are giving themselves over to idolatry, here is God taking care of them, providing for them and then when there's nothing left and they've given themselves over to idols, here is God taking them back in.

Sin, Judgment, and Salvation in Hosea

So what you end up seeing is that this book deals with three main topics and those are sin, judgment and salvation.