I hope you all had an enjoyable weekend in the hot weather! I was at T-Street in San Clemente yesterday late afternoon and the beaches were PACKED!! It was great to see so many normal people just out enjoying life without muzzles on their faces.
Yesterday morning, of course, we had a great Bible study with great people and wonderful fellowship. I can't stress enough how encouraging it is to hang out, talk, and laugh with fellow believers. God knows that, and that's why He commanded it!
We studied the book of Hosea yesterday and focused mainly on the first four chapters. I have pasted excerpts from my notes and outline from that study below (forgive poor grammar please, these are notes!). Next week we'll be back in Huntington Beach to look at the prophet Joel; hope you can join us!!
Hosea, 1st of the 12 minor prophets. “Minor” just because they are shorter. Very difficult book to go through, to exposit, probably “hardest in the Bible” because of its poetic style, and just how it reads. It doesn't always follow as clear a path as say Acts which gives precise chronological data.
Name Hosea: means “help” or “deliverance” – we don’t know anything about him except what we read in his book here.
Where: A prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel.
Date: We learn from the 1st verse, he was a prophet around the time of Isaiah, beginning roughly 750 B.C.
CHAPTER 1
1 The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, 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.
So Jeroboam son of Joash was Jeroboam II. Remember the first king of the northern kingdom was Jeroboam when he split from Solomon’s son Rehoboam.
2 The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.
So Hosea is probably not the prophet you’d want to be if you could choose. Nor Ezekiel [390/40/strict diet].
And there’s discussion on whether this is literal or allegory and I see no reason to take it allegorically, but regardless, the point being made is the same.
And adultery or fornication (like here) is often used to describe unfaithfulness to God, or idolatry.
So Hosea is told to marry an unfaithful woman as an illustration of apostasy. Sometimes illustrations can speak to us better than just stating facts, that’s often why Jesus spoke in parables. He was asked questions that might have simple answers but He told a story to really make that point clear. Like good Samaritan! Pretty much everyone has heard about the Good Samaritan because of the story and illustration that it is. Illustrations can be easier to remember.
These first 3 chapters are kinda the 1st section of the book and it sort of dances between Hosea talking to his wife and God talking to His bride Israel. It’s blurred. Later in the book it also isn’t always obvious who is speaking.
3 So he [Hosea] went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son.
So she had a son with Hosea.
4 And the LORD said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.
So this is interesting, “avenge the blood of Jezreel” which was a city mentioned several times in the Bible, first in Joshua, not sure exactly where the city was, somewhere in Israel on the western region, but there was a lot of bloodshed there and Baal worship, and Jehu mentioned in this verse was a king of Israel but first he was like a military commander. So in 2 Kings 9 & 10, Jehu kills a lot of people, kills a lot of Baal worshipers – tricked them into worship then killed them all – also killed King of Judah Ahaziah.
Jehu partly did what God wanted, but he did it for his own bloodthirsty ambition reasons, and he worshiped idols after killing idol worshipers. A lot of this took place in Jezreel so that’s the reference in this verse.
The end of this verse 4, God tells us that the Kingdom of the House of Israel shall cease. Which it did about the year 722 by Assyria (2 Kings 18:9), and the Assyrians mingled with the Israelites and became known as the Samaritans and that’s part of the reason for the hatred being jew and Samaritan. we see in the NT.
5 And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.
Break the bow means to destroy the military power of Israel.
6 And she conceived again [Hosea’s unfaithful wife], and bare a daughter [Probably not Hosea’s]. And God said unto him, Call her name Loruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away.
Loruhamah means "mercy not obtained”.
7 But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the LORD their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen. 8 Now when she had weaned Loruhamah, she conceived, and bare a son. 9 Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.
Lo-ammi means “cast out, not my people.” Which makes sense. So this is some harsh prophecy against the kingdom of Israel. But…
10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.
This verse is similar with Hosea 2:23 and they’re very important verses quoted by Paul in Romans 9:24-26 > let’s go to Romans 9.
Rom. 9:24 – All jew and gentile have been invited into the kingdom by the gospel.
Rom. 9:25 – A.C. says “The apostle shows that this calling of the Gentiles was no fortuitous thing, but a firm purpose in the Divine mind, which he had largely revealed to the prophets.” Lots of these verses sprinkled around the OT that talk about the future calling of all people.
Rom. 9:26 – So Israel was totally taken away by God, the north kingdom, but the gentiles received into this, grafted into this by faith.
So in Hosea if we weren’t aware of the NT we would think this just applies to Israel, but the NT explains this for us what God’s intentions were.
11 Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
I believe this is talking about the 2nd coming of Christ and Jews that will be saved out of the tribulation period. The “one head” in this verse must be Jesus.
CHAPTER 2
So here in Ch 2 we see Gomer representing Israel and she basically leaves Hosea to go after her lovers. Let’s look at vs 2 – Hosea LOST his relationship with his wife. And this is significant, vs 2:
2 Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;
A big message in Hosea especially chapter 3 is kinda summed up in Luke 19:10 Jesus said, “For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
So Hosea lost his wife.
Lets go down to verses 10-11
10 And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand. 11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.
The wrath of God is clear here and is a really huge theme in pretty much all the prophets but we "don’t like that part" so it doesn’t get talked about much.
12 And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. 13 And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD.
In Hosea we truly see the heart of God like in no other book. As He desires Israel to be faithful He desires us to be faithful, and that’s why these first 3 chapters of Hosea are such a good illustration – not just of the spiritual fornication of Israel but to give us an idea of an unfaithful partner and how that feels and yet to still desire your partner and bring them back. Heart of God also seen in John 11:35 “Jesus wept” at seeing how sad Mary was at Lazarus’ death! Also Jesus wept over Israel in Luke 19:41-44.
Why? Because sin grieves God. “Eph. 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” God wants all to be saved.
14 Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.
So this is amazing, unfaithful Israel yet God will still draw her. She’s wicked, yet I will draw her to Me. Jesus said, "and I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me."
16 And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi [my husband]; and shalt call me no more Baali [my master]. 17 For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name. 18 And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.
So this is a really interesting section of verses talking about future Israel. God will make a covenant with animals FOR Israel. And this talks about complete peace. Like in Micah 4:3 it says, “and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
So this could be talking about Heaven, the millennium, I’m not sure. But it’s beautiful. [Isaiah 11:6-9] Let’s finish reading ch. 2:
19 And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. 20 I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD. 21 And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; 22 And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel.
23 And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.
Romans 9 again
CHAPTER 3
Very short chapter but very important! This wraps up the “family matters” of Hosea.
1 Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.
So God is speaking to Hosea, says GO love a woman beloved of her friend (Hosea is that friend, her only friend).
2 So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:
So apparently her wicked ways got her in trouble and she’s now a slave, probably to pay off debt, he had to buy her at auction. He REDEEMED her. Just as Jesus redeems us, just as He bought us. Notice he doesn’t wait for her to get her act together, doesn’t wait for her to start doing good works, or anything. She’s a slave like we all were a slave to sin –Romans 6:16-18 “Know ye not, that to whom ye present yourselves as servants unto obedience, his servants ye are whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that, whereas ye were servants of sin, ye became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered;18 and being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness.”
Let’s go to Titus 2:14
Then 1 Corinth 6:19-20
We were redeemed, bought back from death, by the greatest price ever the blood of Christ.
CHAPTER 4
1 Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
God has a controversy with the people, and this is like a lawsuit or a complaint that God is bring against them, that’s the language of it. Because of 3 things that describe the U.S. today pretty well:
There is no truth – The media is in the business of lying. People believe it, and act on those lies. We have huge censorship, and fake fact checkers that censor truth, and that kills me that these high & mighty “judges of truth” (twitter, insta, FB etc) that hate God, that allow things promoting evil against children, will censor genuine truth, censor anything that goes against their agenda.
Nor Mercy – “Mercy” is all over the Bible about God’s incredible mercy kindness compassion, the word is used a LOT in Psalms in asking for God’s mercy, praising God for His mercy, but there’s very little mercy in the U.S. today. Just look at crime. There was very little crime, didn’t lock your doors, lots of places were like that maybe most of America, but that compassion and care for one another is not what it once was.
Nor Knowledge of God in the land – Look what schools have done. No prayer in school, open attacks on God, lying to people about God. Nothing pro-God on TV, wasn’t that the gov. of NY that just said on TV we don’t need help from above?
Here’s a few verses about that go with Hosea 4:1 here – Proverbs 3:3-5 Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
Jeremiah ch. 3 has big parallels with the book of Hosea about the nations “playing the harlot” and spiritual adultery. But Jer. 3:15 says “And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.” The job of a pastor is to grow people in understanding of God/Bible.
Let’s look at Ephesians 4:11-15 [pastor job to mature/perfect the people.] In a few verses later back in Hosea ch. 4 we see God single out the priests because they weren’t doing their job which was already implied because of the lack of knowledge of God in the land.
2 By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood. 3 Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.
Let’s look at Romans 1 for these first 3 verses in Hosea, let’s look at similar statements in NT: Romans 1:28-32
Back to Hosea
4 Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest. 5 Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother. 6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
This is famous verse, and we should be clear that this is knowledge of GOD that is lacking, not general knowledge of math or sociology or whatever. But this is huge, this is why Bible study is so close to my heart and I feel is so important.
When we don’t have accurate knowledge of scripture we replace those gaps with what we feel is true or what non-Christian sources say is true.
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