WWUTT 2214 Hosea's Unfaithful Wife (Hosea 1:2-11)

Hosea had a wife named Gomer who was unfaithful to him. And the names that God gives to Hosea's children are prophetic.

They point towards something that God is going to do in the future, which even includes the church when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the

Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday and our

Q &A on Friday. Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Hosea, we come back to chapter one today.

Last week we did an overview of the book and I read through all of chapter one, which I'm going to do here again at the start.

I'm also going to mention a couple of things I forgot to say in my overview of the book. So we'll catch that when we get to verse one again here.

But this is all 11 verses of Hosea 1 out of the Legacy Standard Bible.

Hear the word of the Lord. The word of Yahweh, which came to Hosea, the son of Berai, 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.

When Yahweh first spoke through Hosea, Yahweh said to Hosea, go take for yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry, for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking

Yahweh. So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and gave birth to a son for him.

And Yahweh said to him, name him Jezreel, for yet a little while, and I will visit the bloodshed of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and I will cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease.

And it will be in that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.

Then she conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. And Yahweh said to him, name her

Loruhema, for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel that I would ever forgive them.

But I will have compassion on the house of Judah and save them by Yahweh their God, and I will not save them by bow, sword, battle, horses, or horsemen.

Then she weaned Loruhema, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And Yahweh said, name him

Loamai, for you are not my people, and I am not your God. Yet the number of the sons of Israel will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered.

And it will be that in the place where it is said to them, you are not my people, it will be said to them, you are the sons of the living

God. And the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel will be gathered together, and they will set for themselves one head, and they will go up from the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.

Now, in my overview of the book of Hosea, silly me, I did not even mention the neat fact about Hosea's name.

Where does his name come from? Well, it's derived from the same verb that the name

Joshua comes from, and also the name Jesus. Hosea, Joshua, and Jesus are really technically all the same name.

In fact, every once in a while, you'll get one of those pretentious persons who will insist that we don't say

Jesus' name correctly. If you say the name Jesus, well, you're not even using the right name, because his real name is, and then they'll probably say

Yeshua or Yeshuaha or something with some extra syllables in it, or they'll say

Hosea or Hosea or something like that. So Hosea is the same name as Jesus.

Again, it's a Hebrew word that's derived from the same verb that means to save or savior, and that is

Hosea's name. Now, Hosea, as a prophet in Israel, had the longest prophetic ministry of all the prophets that we read about in the

Old Testament. Isaiah's ministry was about 40 years. Hosea's ministry was 58.

So he was prophesying for a long time in Israel. And just because a prophet has a ministry that long, it doesn't mean that they were a prophet their entire lives.

Once God calls them to be a prophet, they will probably remain a prophet until their death.

But for Hosea, it was for the most part his entire life. He was a prophet in Israel and the longest prophet of either the major or the minor prophets.

Now, we have these kings that are mentioned here in verse one, the word of Yahweh, which came to Hosea, the son of Berai, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

So that, of course, was the southern kingdom. And in the time of Hosea's ministry, those four men reigned as king.

And then you add the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel. Now, Jeroboam reigned for a little more than 40 years.

So it wasn't like he was the only king during the time of Hosea's ministry. But for the intents and purposes of what we're reading about here, these are the kings that we concern ourselves with in the time that this prophecy was written.

When Yahweh first spoke through Hosea, it says in verse two, Yahweh said to Hosea, go take for yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking

Yahweh. And then here in these first three chapters, Hosea one, two and three, the relationship that Hosea has with this whorish woman becomes something of a parable regarding all of Israel, God's relationship with Israel.

When we get to chapter two, which we'll look at next week, Hosea wants to go through the legal process of divorcing his wife because she has been so unfaithful to him.

And this is the way God is talking about separating himself from Israel because they have been unfaithful.

Now, there's no narrative here. We only we only hear from the words that God says all of the things that end up happening between Hosea and Gomer.

As I said last week, this story is often characterized as some kind of a love story.

And you have this woman that keeps running after other men. But Hosea keeps coming after her and wanting to forgive her.

And and that's just not the story of Hosea. We know that that that is the relationship between Hosea and Gomer.

But that's not the way this book is written. It is a prophecy book. So we're reading about prophecy here.

And some of the language is going to get kind of colorful because, of course, as I mentioned, Gomer is a prostitute.

And so the different things that will be said regarding her shame can sometimes be a little adult theme.

So just to let you know that, especially when we get to chapter two next week. Now, when

God tells Hosea to go and take a wife of harlotry or go and take for yourself a prostitute in the

ESV, so I'm reading here from the legacy in the English Standard Version, it's whoredom.

Go take for yourself a wife of whoredom because the land regarding Israel commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking

Yahweh. They've gone after the false gods. They don't worship the Lord, their God, but they worship the false gods of the pagans around them, exactly as God had warned them not to do and that they would do in Deuteronomy and in the word that Moses gave to Israel before Moses death.

And so those things that Moses had prophesied have since come true. Now, here in this first chapter, this is broken up into three parts with Hosea having children and God naming those children for him.

And then you have well, well, first of all, it's introduction. So that's that's one one. That's the first part is is the introduction of the book.

And then God first addressing Hosea, you might you might even include that with verse one.

So maybe you could make the introduction versus one and two. Or you bring verse two into the section where Hosea goes and takes a wife.

She bears children and then God names them. And that goes from verses two through nine.

And then you have the final prophecy at the end in verses 10 through 11.

Actually, a very hopeful message, so to speak, because even though God is going to cut off Israel yet, it says in verse 10, the number of the sons of Israel will be like the sand of the sea.

So what is that prophetically pointing to? We'll get to that here in a moment. So here is

Gomer having children unto Hosea. Well, let me let me phrase it this way.

Gomer has children while she's married to Hosea. How about that? From what we can discern from the language, it seems like the first child is actually

Hosea's and then the rest of them are not because, of course,

Gomer has been unfaithful. So verse three, he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblam, and she conceived and gave birth to a son for him.

And that's the only time that's mentioned with regards to her children, that this child was born for Hosea because it is

Hosea's son. But the next children that come don't use that language isn't used.

It doesn't say that the child is born for him. So there seems to be an indication, and we also catch it from their names, that this child was born out of unfaithfulness and was and they were illegitimate children.

They were not Hosea's children. So then verse four, Yahweh says to Hosea, since Hosea is a prophet and everything that is happening in the family of Hosea is going to be a picture of things not only that will happen between God and Israel, but even prophetically pointing toward things in the future.

So Yahweh says to him, name him Jezreel for yet a little while, and I will visit the bloodshed of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and I will cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease.

Now, let me ask you this. Does the name Jezreel sound familiar to you? Do you know by any chance?

What Jezreel is like, where was Jezreel in Israel? Jezreel is where Naboth's vineyard was located.

Do you remember Naboth? This guy had a vineyard that was the envy of King Ahab.

He saw what Naboth had and he wanted it, but Naboth would not sell his vineyard to King Ahab.

All of this is in first Kings 21, by the way. So Ahab moans and groans over the whole thing.

He whines and complains about it. He's acting like a real brat. And his wife, the pagan

Queen Jezebel, says to Ahab, well, you're the king. You take whatever it is that you want.

And she says, leave the matter to me. So she concocts this plan to have Naboth falsely accused and then put to death and his blood covers the ground so that at his death,

Ahab is able to gain his vineyard. But Ahab is plagued with guilt over it.

Now, it's not like Jezebel did this without Ahab's approval.

He was totally approving of the whole thing. But once all of that was done, then he was just filled with guilt over all of it.

But you have this man who was unjustly killed in the land of Jezreel, and that's what's being referred to here.

The house of Jehu, he was a king before Ahab, sort of. And so this is the descendants of the house of Jehu.

Eventually, they're going to be cut off. They will not be reigning in Israel anymore. So I will visit the bloodshed of Jezreel, the way that Naboth was so unjustly treated.

It's going to come back upon the house of Jehu. The wrath of God has been stored up. He's going to pour it out on the entire household that had been assuming the throne.

And I will cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease. Now, that is prophetically pointing to the

Assyrians. The Assyrians did not conquer Judah, but they did conquer Israel.

And that comes up here in just a little bit. So verse five, and it will be in that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.

So this is the first son. The first son is a legitimate son. Who is

Hosea's son, and he is named Jezreel. But even this is prophetically pointing to something that's going to result in the end of Israel.

And then verse six, then she conceived again and gave birth to a daughter.

Now, it doesn't say a daughter for Hosea. It just says that she gave birth to a daughter.

So this is likely the first child born in harlotry. And Yahweh said to him, name her

Leru Hama, for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel that I would ever forgive them.

And that in itself, the name of Leru Hama indicates that Gomer has been unfaithful.

And that's why Leru Hama has this name. And then verse seven, but I will have compassion on the house of Judah and save them by Yahweh, their

God. And I will not save them by bow, sword, battle, horses or horsemen. So Israel is going to be conquered by the

Assyrians. But Judah won't, even though Sennacherib, who is the the king of Assyria, makes these great threats against Judah.

And Hezekiah is filled with dread. He is filled with fear. He goes before the

Lord and asks how long God is going to allow his name to be blasphemed in this way. And so God takes the matter into his own hand.

So just as it says here, Yahweh will save Judah, but not by bow, sword, battle, horses or horsemen.

Do you remember what it was that he did? The angel of the Lord came down himself and slaughtered over one hundred and eighty thousand

Assyrians. And that was the victory that was claimed for Judah that day. It was God who did it himself.

And Judah did not even have to spare a single man. So all of the glory, all of the credit went entirely to Yahweh, as God had compassion on them.

But Israel would be would be conquered by the Assyrians. And then we have one last child, verse eight.

Then she weaned Leruhaima and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And Yahweh said, name him

Leruhaima for you are not my people and I am not your

God. Now, that is actually setting up something prophetic that is going to be fulfilled later on when

God, through Jesus Christ, will reconcile a people to himself made up of Jews and Gentiles.

And those who were at one time called not a people will now be called

God's people. So let's look at that. Here's the final prophetic portion of Hosea, chapter one, verse 10.

Yet the number of the sons of Israel will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered.

And it will be that in the place where it is said to them, you are not my people. It will be said to them, you are the sons of the living

God in the book of Revelation. When John turns and sees the people that are in the kingdom praising

God, he sees a number that cannot be counted. That's in Revelation chapter seven.

And it's right after we have the marking of the hundred and forty four thousand who are sealed there in chapter seven, and they all bear the names of the twelve tribes of Judah.

But it's in Revelation seven, nine, where it says, after these things, I looked and behold a great multitude, which no one can count.

So first of all, we have one hundred and forty four thousand. But then you have John saying there's a multitude that no one can count from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed in white robes and palm branches were in their hands, just like we read the triumphal entry in the

Gospel of Mark earlier this week. And they cry out with a loud voice saying salvation belongs to our

God who sits on the throne and to the lamb. So you have at one point, John numbering these people and recognizing them with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.

And then next, you say he sees this multitude that cannot be numbered. This is the new

Israel. It is the church and it is how the number of the sons of Israel will be like the sand of the sea.

You will not be able to count them because, again, this is not ethnic Israel that's being talked about here.

This is all who are the people of God in Jesus Christ, our savior. It's prophetically pointing toward that and the names that are given to Hosea's children in which it is said, you are not my people will it will be then said to them, you are the sons of the living

God. Peter talks about the fulfillment of this in first Peter, chapter two. You are a chosen family, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

For once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God.

You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. And we'll see that come up again in Hosea.

But Peter is pointing to how those things that were prophetically stated in Hosea have been fulfilled in Christ, and it's talking about his church.

So we get to be called the children of God, how great is the love the father has lavished upon us that we might become the children of God, and so we are.

That's first John three one. We also have it said in Titus three three for we ourselves also were once foolish, disobedient, deceived in slaves to various lusts and pleasures, spending our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

So we have that indication there, too, in Titus three three that we once were not a people, we were divided from one another, hating each other and hated by others.

But when the kindness and affection of God, our savior appeared, he saved us not by our works, which we did in righteousness, but according to his mercy through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the

Holy Spirit. Once again, pointing toward how we who are in Christ Jesus are this new people that are prophetically being foretold in Hosea one ten.

We go on to the next verse, verse 11, and the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel will be gathered together and they will set for themselves one head.

And they will go up from the land for great will be the day of Jezreel.

Now, that's talking about judgment that God is pouring out upon the land. We who will go up from the land will be we will not fall under the judgment of God that he will pour out on the unjust.

But instead, we will be preserved in his heavenly kingdom. So these are those things that are prophetically being pointed to that we may have hope and we have hope in Christ, who is our savior, who has called us out of the world.

So let us walk in holiness before him, not whoring ourselves out with the world, with the pagans that are around us, going after the things that the world loves and and entertaining the desires and the passions of sinful flesh.

But instead, we are called out of that world into Christ. And we now live in his heavenly kingdom, clothed in his righteousness, so live in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

That concludes Hosea chapter one, we'll move on to the next chapter next week. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we have read here in Hosea one.

And I pray that this stirs in our hearts, gratitude, thankfulness for our

God who has rescued us, not only rescuing us out of the world, but even from the judgment that is coming against this world.

You have set us in the heavenly places, as said in Ephesians chapter one. And so since we have been raised up with Christ, let us seek the things that are above where Christ is, as said in Colossians three.

We are no longer people without a people. We are part of the people of God.

So let us live as citizens of that kingdom. Even now, guide us in our steps. We pray these things in Jesus name.

Amen. This has been when we understand the text of Pastor Gabriel Hughes for all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more.

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