Hosea 1:1 [NLT]
March 6, 2013
Oak Park Baptist Church – Wed Bible Study Series
Hosea Bible Study
Hosea – Chapter One:
A Study of the Minor Prophet-Hosea (760-720 BC)
HOSEA to Israel (Northern Kingdom)
Hebrew word for “Salvation”
BACKGROUND
1The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and of Jeroboam son of Jehoash, king of Israel.
Author: Hosea
Time Frame: King Uzziah thru Hezekiah (in Judah); King Jeroboam II (Israel)
King Uzziah began his reign 783 thru 742 BC
King Jotham began his reign 742 thru 735 BC
King Ahaz began his reign 735 – 715 BC
King Hezekiah began his reign 716 thru 697 BC
King Jeroboam II began his reign 786 BC – 746 BC after King Jeroboam II there were many kings and assassinations… probably why the writer did not include these!
We believe that Hosea served prophet from around 760 BC thru about 720 BC which is a period of about 40yrs. 40 yrs of prophecy about Israel’s sinful rebellion and the impending DOOM of judgment!
Hosea prophesied in the Northern Kingdom or in the nation of Israel. After King Solomon died (approx 928BC), his son Rehoboam was even harder on the people than Solomon had come to be by the end of his reign SO… there was a revolt in the kingdom.
The kingdom split into two kingdoms – the Northern Kingdom (Israel) and the Southern Kingdom (Judah)… this split led to conflict between the 2 kingdoms for the entire time they existed…
In the time of Jesus this ‘northern kingdom’ was known as Samaria… the Samaritans were a mish-mash of foreigners who had been inported into the region and the Jews who had returned from exile… they had intermarried so much by the time of Jesus, the two tribes of the Southern Kingdom had written these people off as infidels and foreigners… they were considered lower than a dog…
They were NOT foreign to God. They actually worshiped God on Mt Gerazim and had the rituals of the OT sacrifice system in place, however, idol worship was prevalent and quite normal within the lives of the Samaritans.
The Northern Kingdom (Israel) under the reign of King Jeroboam I (the man whom they called as King when they rejected Rehaboam as their King) departed from a strict worship of God alone and began to incorporate other religions and rituals.
Israel (Northern Kingdom) strayed from a true worship of God. They DID continue the rituals and ceremony, but they also mixed in their own desires and idol worship.
From this point forward in Israel all the Kings are recorded as doing evil in the sight of the Lord and it is said that they committed the sins of Jeroboam… Some Kings would do some good, but they NEVER did return to a true worship of God!
Now how does this apply to us today? Well when we look at the sin of Jeraboam I and his leadership of the nation away from God… we can see how that sin affected the nation in his day, but we can also see the effects it carried forward for hundreds of years!
With that in mind, how can we believe that our sin does NOT have consequences beyond our life or our family? Sin has an effect on everyone in contact with it… Any sin in our lives has an effect on the people around us and the people who follow us in life!
We do NOT live in a vacuum and our sin WILL affect others! This sin can sometimes affect our families or our churches for GENERATIONS to come!
So here we find the prophet Hosea is called BY God to prophesy against the people and nation of Israel for their willing rebellion and idol worship! They had abandoned God and failed to submit to Him as God and for their pagan and idolatrous worship practices.
Basically what we find throughout this book is that Hosea is called by God to point out 3 glaring sins against the nation of Israel:
She had prostituted herself with foreign gods… she had left the God who had chosen her (2:12-13)
Her people were without knowledge of God… the religious leaders were NOT teaching the people about God (4:6; 5:4)
Her people were ignorant about the Laws of God and God Himself (8:12)
The key to understanding the overall message of Hosea is the illustration put forth in 1:2-3
2When the Lord first spoke to Hosea, He said this to him: Go and marry a promiscuous wife and have children of promiscuity, for the land is committing blatant acts of promiscuity by abandoning the Lord. 3So he went and married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
Here God commands Hosea to do something very difficult. He instructs him to go and marry a prostitute. In this illustration Hosea represents a loving God and Gomer represents a rebellious and sinful nation of Israel. God instructs Hosea to raise a family with Gomer… to have children with her.
Now it has been said that the children of Gomer were products of her prostitution but that is not necessarily the case. These children are called children of whoredom or children of promiscuity BUT there is nothing to say that Hosea was NOT the father of these children.
I believe that the point that is being made here is in reference to the mother Gomer and her CONTIUNUAL infidelity to the marriage as she continues her promiscuous ways, even AFTER she marries Hosea.
The picture God is painting here is explained at the end of this verse when God states, “…for the land is committing blatant acts of promiscuity by abandoning the Lord.”
The situation God created with Hosea and his wife Gomer was what was happening with Israel and God… Israel had ‘prostituted’ herself with other gods…
Now the three children have some great significance to God’s message so let’s look at them and see what it holds for us…the first child is revealed in v4
4Then the Lord said to him: Name him Jezreel, for in a little while I will bring the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu and put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. 5On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.
Now, Jehu is a name we read about if we read the background information in 2 Kings…
Jehu was the man whom God used to destroy Ahab’s family and the evil Jezebel (enemies of Elijah) He basically slaughtered ALL of Ahab’s family and took the throne… He was anointed King by a student of Elisha in 2 Kings 9… God anoints him King to destroy Ahab’s family for all he and Jezebel did to the prophets and priests of God during their reign.
Jezreel is the place where Jehu began this purge of the royal family when he went there and killed the injured but recovering King Joram (son of Ahab). Joram is killed and thrown onto the plot of Naboth who was the man Ahab had killed to get his vineyard…
So here the name Jezreel has some significance to these people… it carries with it a sense of woe and dread as this is where the KING was killed and ‘treachery’ occurred. God is telling Israel THRU Hosea in this passage that just as Ahab’s family came to an end in Jezreel…
This child will be a reminder to the nation that God is going to END your nation! You have been disobedient and have prostituted yourself and YOU will come to an end… a very solemn message from God to the people!
So child #1 was named as a reminder of the judgment that is coming… a final judgment of the nation… a judgment that God says will END the nation!
6She conceived again and gave birth to a daughter, and the Lord said to him: Name her No Compassion (or No Mercy) [this is the meaning of the name… but other translations give the actual name = Loruhamah], for I will no longer have compassion [mercy] on the house of Israel. I will certainly take them away. 7But I will have compassion [mercy] on the house of Judah, and I will deliver them by the Lord their God. I will not deliver them by bow, sword, or war, or by horses and cavalry.
Here the judgment of God is being pictured by His attitude toward a nation who refuses to repent. Their refusal to submit to Him left Him no choice but to discipline them and in His discipline He was NOT going to have ANY mercy upon their suffering. This child represented God’s promise of strict judgment W/O mercy!
This should have been a wake up call for the nation… the message here is very clear, but they do NOT seem to care OR believe the message. The message is I will come and punish you for your sinful state unless you repent and my discipline will have NO mercy on you! You will suffer greatly as a nation… repent or there will be NO mercy for you!
The nation refused to repent… they nation refused to TURN so this child stood as a testament TO God on His promise of judgment on the Nation of Israel. At this time tho’ Judah had NOT turned away from God and God says that he will NOT abandon her!
So the Jewish race was now being divided by those who believed in God’s actions… and those who believed God was not in control. Two children… two terrible prophecies for the nation. But there was 3rd child!
8After Gomer had weaned No Compassion, she conceived and gave birth to a son. 9Then the Lord said: Name him Not My People, for you are not My people, and I will not be your God.
Now here is another child with a name that brings judgment… “Not My People” is actually the meaning of the name as the Hebrew name is LOAMMI.
In other words, God is saying to these people who refused to bow to Him and give Him sovereignty… that they would NO longer be his people and He would NO longer be their God.
10 Yet the number of the Israelites will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. And in the place where they were told: You are not My people, they will be called: Sons of the living God. 11 And the Judeans and the Israelites will be gathered together. They will appoint for themselves a single ruler and go up from the land. For the day of Jezreel will be great.
V10-11 are verses of faint hope for a nation that must repent… God’s promise of grace is present in these verses. God is saying Yes, I am going to discipline you BUT you will not pass away as a people, but you are going to prosper and where I have called you NOT MY PEOPLE… I am going to call you My People!
Here God instills hope in the lives of those in Israel, hope that there will come a time when they abandon the idol worship and return to worship of the true God who has never left them and had protected them for many years. God’s desire here was that the people would once again be restored and serve Him and be the nation they were called to become…
