OVERVIEW:
Israel compared to an unfaithful wife (chapter 1); God seeks reconciliation with Israel (chapter 2); Hosea’s reconciliation with his wife (chapter 3); God’s controversy with his people (chapters 4-6).
HIGHLIGHTS & INSIGHTS:
We now move into the section of the Old Testament referred to as the Minor Prophets. As has been previously mentioned, they are “minor,” not in terms of the content of their message, but simply in terms of their length. The books of the Bible written by these next 12 prophets were simply shorter than the writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel.
Also keep in mind, that a prophet was someone God called to take His side against nations and peoples. (Deuteronomy 18:22, “…a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord…”) There is, without a doubt, no prophet who had more of an opportunity to actually “speak in the name of the Lord” than Hosea, as God asked this prophet to do the unthinkable! “And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms…” (Hosea 1:2) Hosea was actually told to marry a wife that God knew would break his heart by her unfaithfulness!
Why would God do such a thing? For two reasons:
First, because it was a graphic ILLUSTRATION. Hosea, whose name means “Jehovah”, or “God is salvation” (much like “Joshua” in the Old Testament, and “Jesus” in the New Testament), is to take a wife of whoredoms because she depicts the unfaithfulness of Israel to her “husband”, the “God of her salvation”. (Ezekiel 16:8–15)
Secondly, faithful Hosea is to take an unfaithful wife because it is a graphic REALIZATION. God wanted Hosea to preach to unfaithful Israel, feeling in his heart, what God felt in His. Perhaps the only way Hosea could really preach “in the name of the Lord”, with both the Lord’s passion and compassion, was living through the hurt in his relationship with his own lover, Gomer, that God felt with His lover, Israel.
Are you experiencing hurt in any area of your life right now? It may reveal something very interesting and significant if you were to take the time to write down the circumstances of what happened to hurt you, and how it has made you feel. Many times, God allows the events and circumstances of our lives to unfold as they do, not only because they fit perfectly into His sovereign design and plan for our lives, but to allow us, like Hosea, to feel in our hearts what He feels in His! When we actually put the situation that has hurt us into words, we discover that what we are going through and how it has made us feel, is actually a perfect description of what God goes through and feels and has gone through and felt! The New Testament terminology for this principle is “…the fellowship of His sufferings…” (Philippians 3:10) Do recall, that it is through this unique type of “fellowship” that actually leads to “death” to ourselves, through which we truly come to “know Him, and the power of His resurrection”!
It seems, however, that most Christians never connect the dots between the pain they’re experiencing, and what our Lord experienced. (i.e. “His sufferings.”) Missing this connection, it becomes very easy to begin to use our circumstances to justify a vengeful, angry or bitter spirit, rather than allow our circumstances to move us into a whole new dimension of “fellowship” with our Lord! God has always longed for, and looked for, people “after His own heart” (1st Samuel 13:14); people who know Him, love Him, and manifest His power! Sadly, when He orchestrates/allows the events and circumstances of our lives to conform us into that kind of people, we tend to forget the principle of Philippians 3:10, and miss the fact that God, through the circumstances of our lives, is actually answering the prayer of our hearts to know Him, love Him, and be like Him! (Romans 8:28–29)
Before we actually get into the “guts” of Hosea’s book, don’t’ miss the fact that Gomer is also a very graphic and extremely sad picture of us! When we “love the world” (1st John 2:15), or seek to rationalize or justify our “friendship with the world” (James 4:4), our “husband” (2nd Corinthians 11:2), the God of our salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ, views it, and even calls it, “adultery” (James 4:4)!
As we move into chapter 1, note also the lesson God wanted to “preach” to Israel through Hosea’s three children:
- God named his first child “Jezreel,” meaning “God sows” or “God scatters” — depicting the fact that God was about to scatter the nation of Israel.
- His second child, God named “Loruhamah,” meaning “no mercy” or “unpitied” — pointing to the fact that God would no longer extend His mercy to Israel, but that she (Israel) would be taken into captivity.
- The third child, God named “Loammi,” meaning “not my people” — teaching Israel that He no longer recognized them as His children. It may have even been that Loammi was not actually Hosea’s child, but a child born of Gomer’s whoredoms.
Realize, that it would be difficult to ever get very far away from your calling if you had to give your children names that depicted God’s vantage point of the very people to which you were called to minister! It would be like God asking those of us called to “preach” to this generation (Romans 10:14), to name our children “Laodicea” — meaning “the rights of the people,” and “Lukewarm” — depicting the state of His church and the lives of His people, and “Selfish” — depicting the real love of His people, “lovers of their own selves”! (2nd Timothy 3:2) Can you even imagine?
Note, however, in Hosea 2:1, that the Lord points to a time when the “Lo” — meaning “no” or “not” or “without” would be removed, and Israel would once again be “Ammi” — meaning “my people”, and “Ruhamah” — meaning “having obtained mercy”! Note, also, that “in that day”, “Jezreel” will no longer mean “God scatters”, but “God sows”! God says in 2:23, “And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.” Hallelujah! This, of course, will be during the Great Tribulation, culminating with the Second Coming of Christ and the establishment of His millennial kingdom.
More will be said concerning the chapters in today’s reading in tomorrow’s “Highlights and Insights”.
CHRIST IS REVEALED:
Through HOSEA’S LOVE FOR HIS UNWORTHY, SINFUL WIFE — Hosea 3:1–5 (Romans 5:8; 8:32; 2nd Peter 1:3)