WWUTT 2209 Introduction to Hosea (Hosea 1:1)

The book of Hosea is one of the most misunderstood books in all of the Old Testament, but it is in this book that we see the glorious promise that God has to draw a people to himself through the Messiah he will send, when we understand the text.

WWUTT Schedule and Introduction

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. If you follow along with me in your Bible, then you want to open your Bible today to the book of Hosea, as we will do an introduction to this book written at roughly the same time as the book of Isaiah, but whereas Isaiah addressed things that were going on in Judah in the Southern Kingdom, Hosea is looking at things happening in Israel or the Northern Kingdom, Israel most commonly called Ephraim here in this particular book.

Reading Hosea 1:1-11 and the Judgment on Israel

We'll do some backstory here and an overview of the book. I want to begin by reading the entire first chapter. This is Hosea 1, verses 1 -11, which I'm reading from the Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord.

The word of Yahweh, which came to Hosea, the son of Berih, 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, this book is one of the most misunderstood and mischaracterized books in the entire Old Testament.

Hosea Is Not a Romance Novel

Whenever you hear of the book of Hosea, you often hear this book depicted as what? What kind of a story? You hear it characterized as a love story. This is a story about a guy who went after a woman who just didn't want to be loved by him.

She wanted to go sleep around with all these other guys. And so that's what she did. And yet this man loved her so much that he continued to pursue her and he won her with love. And she finally came back to him.

He was faithful to her, though she was unfaithful to him. That's the way that you often hear this story talked about, right? Some sort of a romance. In fact, that's exactly the way this book is depicted in the popular Christian romance.

I use the word Christian loosely here, but it was a book called Redeeming Love, written by Francine Rivers over 30 years ago. Now, just a couple of years ago, that book was made into a movie by the same name.

It was rated PG -13 and it contained extensive sex scenes. It may not have shown sensitive areas on the man and the woman that were depicting these scenes in this particular film. But nonetheless, this is the way that Francine Rivers took this story and she made it into a smut novel.

Now, as I understand it, the original writing or the original publication of Redeeming Love, it was the original version of the book that contained more explicit scenes in it. But then later publications, those scenes got edited out in the movie, however, way worse than what is depicted in the book.

So no Christian should watch this. You would not be able to watch it with a clear conscience. Some things we can have liberty about when it comes to art, music, movies, TV shows and things like that. But there are certain things Christians should not be setting in front of their eyes.

Do not be entertained by those sins Christ gave his life to redeem you from. And again, this is often the way that the book of Hosea is depicted. The only similarity, though, between the book of Hosea in the Bible and Redeeming Love, which is said to be a romantic sort of resetting of the book of Hosea in modern times, it's not really modern times.

So I think it's in the Old West is how the book is is set. But it is supposed to be a retelling of the book of Hosea. Yet the only similarity. That the movie or the book or the novel rather has with the book of Hosea is that the main name is Hosea, and he takes for himself a prostitute as a wife.

The similarities in there. The book of Hosea in the Bible is not a romance. In fact, it is not even a narrative at all. This is entirely poetry. And you don't have any description of Hosea and Gomer having this romantic life together and Hosea loving Gomer, though she'll run away from him and will sleep with other men and all this kind of stuff.

And then Hosea is brokenhearted and he goes and he tries to chase her down and he brings her home. That's not anywhere in the book of Hosea. It's only mentioned to us through the poetry, which, again, is talking about how God is going to bring judgment against Israel because they have whored themselves out with the pagans around them and have worshiped false gods.

God is going to cut them off, yet he is still going to bring about a redeemer. And through this redeemer, God will gather Israel to himself in such a way that there will be so many of them that they cannot be numbered.

And this is not talking about the northern kingdom of Israel that will come to destruction because of their sin. This is referring to a spiritual Israel that God will bring to himself at a later time.

Once again, we even had it said here in chapter one, it is said to them, you are not my people, but instead it will be said to them, you are the sons of the living God. And in the New Testament, we see how that gets fulfilled in the church.

At one point, at one point, these people that filled the church who are now Gentiles, Jews and Gentiles gathered together, reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. At one point, this people was not a people.

Peter talks about that in first Peter chapter two, but now they are God's people. So this is prophetically looking toward a Messiah who is going to come. We're going to have very messianic prophecies that will be made here in Hosea and how through this Messiah, God is going to gather people to himself.

God will be faithful to fulfill his promises, even though Israel was unfaithful to him. Now the fate of Israel is going to be much more dire than what we will see happen to Judah. Remember, in the book of Isaiah, we've been looking at what was going to happen to Judah.

They would be exiled. They would be sent into Babylonian captivity, but God would eventually rescue them out of the land. With Israel, that's not going to be the case. And we've seen that here, even in chapter one, God is going to destroy them.

I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel that I would ever forgive them. And indeed that Northern kingdom is handed over to the Assyrians and those that exist there in the Northern kingdom, they are either killed or they are assimilated in with other people that get kind of exiled to that land.

So the, the king of the Assyrian sends a bunch of other people, floods that land with all different kinds of people, including the Israelites. And then they intermingle with one another. They have children with each other and their descendants don't look anything like the 10 tribes of the Northern kingdom any longer.

It's no longer a Israel. It's what, what do they get called in the time of Christ? You remember this? So who is the Northern kingdom in the days of Jesus? It's the Samaritans and the Samaritans are mutts.

They are descendants of the tribes of Israel, but they have intermarried with all of those other pagan people that had been put into that land. And it even became a hodgepodge of all different kinds of beliefs.

It was not just believing in the Torah, the law, and even some of the prophets, but it was also all of the other things that these pagan people worshiped and, and believed in and practiced and things like that, that kind of became part of the religion that was going on there in the Northern kingdom, following God's judgment upon this particular land yet to this people, God is going to bring a savior.

And that is Jesus Christ who will reconcile, not just Jews, not just those mutts made up of Israel and all these other kingdoms that they intermarried with, and not just Gentiles. All these people will be gathered to himself through Jesus Christ.

Hosea’s Date, Covenant Faithfulness, and the Book’s Structure

So here is an overview of this particular book. Isaiah was written somewhere around 700 BC and Hosea would have been written a little bit before that. So somewhere between 755 and 725, Isaiah would have been written somewhat after that and Hosea somewhat before.

So Hosea is a book to remind the Israelites that God is a loving God and his covenant with his people is unwavering. And even though this thing is going to happen to the Israelites, this judgment is going to come upon them.

Yet God through Israel is still going to bring about a savior as he had always promised. So he will fulfill. And the only way back to God, it will not be because they were descendants in the line of Abraham or even among the 10 tribes of Israel, their way back to God will be through Jesus Christ.

So through this symbol of marriage between Hosea and Gomer, Hosea, this guy who takes a wife of harlotry, this marriage becomes a symbol of the way that Israel was idolatrous. Israel was unfaithful. Israel whored themselves out with false gods.

And God is going to be angry about this. We are going to see his anger expressed in the book of Hosea. We've had it said right here at the very beginning that I will, I will not forgive them. Yet God does have compassion on them.

We do see his mercy and his compassion, even upon this unfaithful people, because God is faithful to himself. He is faithful to do what he had pledged that he was going to do. He is faithful both to redemption that he promises and judgment that he promises.

In Hosea chapter four, verses six through seven, we read, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because you have rejected knowledge. I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

The more they increased, the more they sinned against me. And I will change their glory into shame. Now the way that this particular book breaks down, we have it given to us in three parts. Chapters one through three, give us the saga.

So Hosea and Gomer and their relationship and the children that they have, and how all of this is a prophetic symbol of God's relationship with Israel. We have the marriage, we have the adultery, and then we will have the restoration.

Gomer even being taken back by Hosea. And even within those first three chapters, it talks about what all of this is pointing toward. There's the imminent defeat of Israel that will come, but then there will be the promise of restoration and hope.

And that is a continuing theme that will come about. And in fact, that's at the end of all three sections, a mention of the hope of Israel that God has promised that he will fulfill. So in the next two sections, there's chapter four through 11, and then chapter 12 through 14.

And both of them show God accusing Israel of the sins that they have committed and gives them warnings. Here's what will happen to you as a result. So you have these accusations and warnings. But then at the end of both of those sections, four through 11, 12 through 14, at the end of both, I believe this is chapter 11, where it talks about the hope for a future.

And then in the second section, 12 to 14, it's in chapter 14 that you have, once again, a statement of the hope for the future. So both of them being somewhat the same, kind of repeating the same warnings and accusations over again, as we see things often done this way throughout the Old Testament.

And this is characteristic of every charge will be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. God doesn't need another witness. He just needs himself. And yet he will make these charges twice so that it will be said twice to Israel, here's what you are guilty of, and here will be the result.

But at the same time, here's the hope that I'm going to give you. And not despair, but hope in God is so that those who will be convicted of heart of these charges that God brings against Israel, they will turn their hearts away from that and they will come back to the Lord because of this hope that God promises.

The book ultimately points toward God's purpose to heal and to save and to restore. Salvation is the message of the book of Hosea. And like I said, there's messianic prophecies that are made here that we're going to see even repeated in the New Testament.

It's amazing how many passages are in Hosea that get referenced in the New Testament. Perhaps one of the most popular ones is Hosea 11, one out of Egypt. I have called my son. And we know we know that in the context of Hosea, that's talking about Israel.

But Matthew in Matthew chapter two references that passage is talking about Christ. Because remember, Mary and Joseph and Jesus to flee from Herod went down to Egypt. And then once Herod the Great died, they came back into the land, fulfilling the prophecy that was made in Hosea chapter 11 out of Egypt.

I have called my son. That's one of the the big prophecies that we see fulfilled in Christ later on in the New Testament. So we'll see some of those passages as well. Now, some will say that Hosea can just be divided into two parts, chapters one through three and then chapters four through 14.

But I think it's those passages that give hope that kind of separate out that four through 14 in that way to show that there's really there's two clear parts, even though they're thematically the same, the accusations and the warnings, but then the promise of hope, the accusations and the warnings, but then the promise of hope.

And like I said, that's kind of the two witnesses motif. There are two cases that are therefore made against Israel, but at the same time, two promises that there is restoration for those that will turn from their sin to the Lord Jesus Christ.

So that's our outline. Chapters one through three, that kind of sets up the whole thing. If you were going to have anything of a narrative in the book of Hosea, that's where it is. But it's still all poetry.

It's all prophetic since this is a book of prophecy. The second portion then is chapters four through 11. And then the third section is chapters 12 to 14 with chapters 11 and 14 offering the promise of hope to those that will turn from their sin to the Lord, specifically the Lord Jesus Christ, as all of this is foreshadowing and looking forward to Christ and those who turn to him will live now among some of those popular passages in Hosea.

Hosea’s Prophecies Fulfilled in Christ and the Church

Chapter two, verse 23 is another one of those famous verses. I will show her for myself in the land, and I will have mercy on no mercy. And I will say to not my people, you are my people, and he shall say, you are my God.

And we have seen in the New Testament how that is fulfilled, directing toward the church, and it is also fulfilled in Christ. We have, we who were not a people have become the people of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Another popular passage we find in chapter four. This is one that that Jesus, for example, references to the Pharisees. I'm sorry, I said chapter four. It's actually in chapter six, for I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

And as I mentioned to you before, Hosea 11, one when Isaiah, when Israel was a child, I loved him. And out of Egypt, I called my son. And that, of course, pointing toward a fulfillment that would be done in Christ Jesus in Matthew chapter two, when Jesus is called out of Egypt, back into the land of Israel, Matthew shows us how that was a fulfillment of a prophecy that was made in Hosea.

Lots of prophecies in Hosea we see referenced in the New Testament. All right. So in addition to the judgment that is promised that will come upon Israel, there's also the message of salvation, not just for Israel, but even for non-Jews, for Gentiles.

And we see these passages recorded in places like Romans 9, 25, and in first Peter 2, 10. Those who were not a people have now been called the people of God. And there's even a reference to a tree in Hosea.

And from this tree, the people of the earth will eat its fruit. And we see the apostle Paul do a similar kind of illustration in Romans chapter 11 with the cultivated olive tree. Now in the Old Testament, before Christ comes, dies on the cross, builds his church, sends the apostles out to go and preach the gospel.

Before all of that happened, these things were talked about as mystery. But then the mystery is fulfilled in Christ. And the apostle Paul, for example, talks about those things that had previously been mysterious.

In Ephesians chapter two, we see those things fulfilled in Christ. How was God going to call people to himself from all over the world? How is this whole tree thing going to work? They thought it was going to be through the blessing, the way that people would bless Israel.

Like in the covenant that God made with Abraham, those who curse you, I will curse. Those who bless you, I will bless. Well, the Israelites thought, well, you see, we're just going to become this superpower nation again.

And those that bless us will come to us. That will be the Gentiles. Those Gentiles that curse us, God will destroy. And they didn't see how God was actually going to fulfill this through his son. And the people of God are all who are in Christ.

So all who bless us in Christ will be blessed. And all who curse us will be cursed. And you see this all the time. Things like this happening in the world where there are people that will curse Christians.

They will hate Christianity because you Christians just want to stop us from having any fun. They will blaspheme God or they will mock Christianity and some of our religious symbols and things like that.

They do all of that because they hate God. And so therefore, they hate his people. But those who love God will become the people of God. And so in this way, as that promise, even that covenant that God made with Abraham fulfilled.

Practical Application: Hope, Holiness, and Warning Against Idolatry

Now how about some practical applications that we can make from this book? How can we practically apply this to our lives as we go through these chapters over the next several weeks? Well, the book of Hosea assures us of God's wonderful love for his people.

And there's nothing more practical than that for the Christian. To know that God loves us and we are saved. We are forgiven our sins and we are promised life forevermore with him in his eternal kingdom.

That changes our entire disposition in the world. And we know that we have nothing to despair of no matter how things get in this world because God will rescue us out of it. And he has the promise for us of an eternal kingdom.

Remembering how much God has done for us helps us to helps us to escape from the temptations that happen in this world. So we use the things that happened to Israel. We recognize how they turned from God to worthless idols and the judgment that came upon them.

And for us, practically, that reminds us not to be friends with the world. Remember what James said in James 4, that friendship with the world is enmity with God. And so we do not become adulterers as Israel did in whoring ourselves out with the world, but rather we hold fast to Christ.

We desire his holiness. And if indeed we have been clothed in the righteousness of Christ, then we're going to show that in our lives by not going after the things that are in this world, not being tempted by the devil's schemes, not even led astray by our own flesh.

Though we will be tempted in these things, we have the power of the Holy Spirit within us to resist and to come to Christ and desire to do what is pleasing to him. Remember that Romans 15, verse 4 says, whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope.

And in 1 Corinthians 10, we are told, verse 6, these things took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, but instead we are to recognize that because of what they did, God's judgment came upon them so that we would turn from that to Christ and desire holiness.

Even the book of Hosea will direct our thoughts and actions in that way and remind us of these things. So may we love God, remembering the promise that he has fulfilled in his son, Jesus Christ. We hold fast to Christ and desire to be obedient to him and to his word.

For he gave his life for us that we would be rescued out of the world and into the kingdom of God. Let us then live as the people of God. Once not a people, now we are his people through the precious blood of Jesus.

Closing Prayer

Heavenly Father, I thank you for what we've read here in this introduction to the book of Hosea. And as we go through this particular study, convict us of our sin and help us to take our thoughts captive and hold fast to Christ in these present days, not led astray by the things that are happening in the world, not even coming to despair in the things that we see happening in the world.

But just as God had promised through Hosea that he would send a Messiah, so we have it promised that that Messiah is coming. He has come and he will return to rescue us out of the world, bringing judgment upon the wicked and delivering the righteous.

But to be sure that we will stand with him on that day, we turn from sin to the righteousness of God, remembering what God has rescued us out of and into, that we may live as children of God, even in this present darkness.

Let us be as lights in the world. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.