Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries |
Hosea Can you See
Wednesdayday, November 21, 2012
ROM 9:22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?
ROM 9:23 And He did so in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,
ROM 9:24 even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.
ROM 9:25 As He says also in Hosea, “I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’ And her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.'”
ROM 9:26 “And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘ you are not My people, ‘ There they shall be called sons of the living God. “
Hosea is the story of the Great Reversal of the Great I-Am.
The Book of Hosea is the first book of the Book of the Twelve, known as the so-called Minor Prophets of the Old Testament.
As Charles Dickens said in the Tale of Two Cities; “It was the best of times and the worst of times…”
Obedience would bring blessing (DEU 28:1-14);
Disobedience would bring judgment and eventual exile (DEU 28:15-68).
Hosea emphasized idolatry, and compared Israel’s relationship as spiritual adultery, using his own marriage to an unfaithful woman as an illustration.
And we will see how Hosea’s own reconciliation and forgiveness toward his faithless wife illustrates Israel’s ultimate restoration.
Other sins and forms of rebellion mentioned include:
Social injustice HOS 12:7
Violent crime HOS 4:2; 6:9; 12:1
Religious hypocrisy HOS 6:6
Social injustice HOS 12:7
Violent crime HOS 4:2; 6:9; 12:1
Religious hypocrisy HOS 6:6
Political rebellion HOS 7:3-7
Foreign alliances HOS 7:11; 8:9
Selfish arrogance HOS 13:6
Spiritual ingratitude HOS 7:15
Foreign alliances HOS 7:11; 8:9
Selfish arrogance HOS 13:6
Spiritual ingratitude HOS 7:15
The major themes of Hosea’s message are the sins of faithlessness and spiritual adultery as well as the lack of the promises made by Gomer, Hosea’s faithless wife.
“My people which were not…” (ROM 9:25, 26)
“O Death, where is thy sting…” (1CO 15:55)
“My people which were not…” (1PE 2:5, 10)
HOS 1:1 The word of the Lord which came to Hosea the son of Beeri, during the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, {and} Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
HOS 1:2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry, and {have} children of harlotry; for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord.”
HOS 1:3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
HOS 1:4 And the Lord said to him, “Name him Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will punish the house of Jehu for the bloodshed of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.
HOS 1:5 “And it will come about on that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.”
HOS 1:6 Then she conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. And the Lord said to him, “Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel, that I should ever forgive them.
HOS 1:7 “But I will have compassion on the house of Judah and deliver them by the Lord their God, and will not deliver them by bow, sword, battle, horses, or horsemen.”
HOS 1:8 When she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and gave birth to a son.
HOS 1:9 And the Lord said, “Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not My people and I am not your God.”
HOS 1:10 #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 come about 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.”
His prophecy (750-730 B.C.) is second chronologically behind Amos (about 760 B.C.), but…..
Hosea is first because of the fundamental notions he works with to explain Israel’s past as the people of God and to foretell its future.
This explanation and proclamation involves the great reversal of the Great I-AM with Israel as His people, the object of His divinely passionate attention in a world that is His creation.
The vitality of the eighth-century prophets is bound up with the way they saw beyond Israel’s punishment for breaking the covenant between Israel and God.
You have not listened, even from the beginning of our covenant with God.
But the Day of the Lord will come, when you will hear, and you will be His people.
One of the main problems that Hosea’s wife whose name was Gomer had with Hosea was that her faithlessness toward him led her to a lack of respect as noted in EPH 5:33.
His main target was the Northern Kingdom, but his message encompassed the entire people of God.
1. And the point is that God suffers when His people are unfaithful to Him.
2. God cannot and will not condone unfaithfulness.
3. God will never cease to love His own, and, consequently He seeks to win back those who have forsaken Him.
So Hosea’s Message was the best of times and the worst of times…” as Charles Dickens said in the Tale of Two Cities
No material prosperity is a guarantee of safety to that people whose stability rests not on the moral basis of the respect of God and obedience to His doctrines.
Israel was to maintain loyalty to the Lord by worshiping Him alone and obeying His commands.
Obedience would bring blessing (DEU 28:1-14);
Disobedience would bring judgment and eventual exile (DEU 28:15-68).
This is where a woman is to have for her right man the Greek word phobeo which means to respect and honor, not him, but the Lord.
EPH 5:22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
EPH 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.
EPH 5:24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.
EPH 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her;
In EPH 5:31 For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh.
EPH 5:32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.
In EPH 5:33 Nevertheless let each individual among you also love his own wife even as himself; and let the wife see to it that she respect her husband.
And in the pres-act-subj it means to be habitual with her respect.
This is where she receives the power from God the Holy Spirit and the word of God (JOH 4:24), from the Spirit and the truth.
It’s funny how people think that prostitution is simply working on the streets when in reality as Webster says it is the act or practice of engaging in promiscuous sexual relations.
One man said – No true man would ever disrespect a woman by cheapening up her body.