Hosea’s prophecy was then concentrated on Israel. God’s words are against Israel using Hosea’s family as a picture. God announces that Israel does not belong to him, she is not His wife nor is He her husband, He compares her to an adulterous wife. He calls her to put her adulteries away. Israel had been guilty of idolatry by giving themselves to other gods. God clearly says that if she failed to put these things away, He would bring judgment. (v2,3)
The Gospel is God’s good news to us. It quite clearly states that we are sinners and need God’s salvation to change us. If we are still in our sin we will face judgment, but if we turn to Christ in repentance and receive Him into our lives, He will take us out of condemnation and give us eternal life. We might not think of being in sin as idolatry, but it is. Anything that comes before God is an idol and as sinners, we worship something or someone, even ourselves, and if that comes before God, it is idolatry.
The Lord Jesus Christ came to earth to die for sin. The greatest sacrifice ever given for sinners to be cleansed and given new birth. The message is clear – ‘The soul that sins shall die’; ‘the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life.’
Hosea does not minimise the holiness of God and His holiness also means that God has to deal with sin, and Hosea’s family teach us about the grace of God.
God said that He would not have mercy on her children because their mother had played the harlot (v4,5) and had received gifts from her lovers, relying on them rather than God. God had done so much for Israel, but they had thrown it back in His face and were thanking idols instead.
Verses 6-8 God tells them how He will draw them back to Himself. He would put up a hedge of thorns to keep them in the right paths. Thorns are often not welcome to hedge us in – can be painful, but sometimes necessary to keep us in check. Someone has said that ‘freedom has fences’. God is showing His love, rather than giving them no boundaries, He wants them to return, and He makes it irresistible by making the paths difficult so that they will want to return. Unknown to them, even when they went after other gods, God was providing for them, He still loved them despite their waywardness. Hosea was, likewise, providing for Gomer just as The Lord Jesus gave His life for us while we were still sinners. He loves us even though we waste our gifts from Him on other things.
God mourns that Israel had turned from Him and He outlined the punishment He would mete out on them (v9-13) – the grain and wine would not produce in their season and their joyful feasts would be filled with sadness. Once again God lets them know of His mercy (v14-15). He said that He would allure Israel, even though bringing her into the wilderness, he would speak words of comfort and provide vineyards there.
An interesting phrase – ‘allure her’. There is no force implied nor driving her, but a term of romantic drawing. There’s the idea of loving attraction. God will speak gentle words and display actions that will inevitably draw them to Him.
In the book of Joshua, the Israelites suffered an ignominious defeat at the hands of a little place called Ai (Joshua 7) and this was all because of one man’s sin, the sin of Achan. This had followed on from an amazing victory of Jericho. The judgment of God fell on them, and it was called The Valley of Achor (v15) which meant ‘Valley of Trouble’. God said that the Valley of Achor would become a door of hope where thy would sing for joy. God would bring transformation from something which was trouble into joy.
Something which was a blot on their landscape, something they would rather not remember, would become something which would fill them with pleasure and rejoicing as God was luring them back to Himself in His great mercy and love. Their relationship would be genuinely restored (v16-20) – “In that day…. You will call me, “My Husband” and no longer “my master”. I believe that the word ‘master’ and ‘Baal’ sounded very much alike, and rather than a fear-based allegiance, God wanted a love-based relationship with Himself. “Yes, I will betroth you to Me In righteousness and justice, In lovingkindness and mercy; I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, And you shall know the LORD.” That betrothal would be forever in a relationship where they would know The LORD; and that relationship would affect the whole land including beasts of the field, birds and creeping things – the whole of nature.
A familiar biblical phrase follows – “…. And it shall come to pass” (v21). To me that indicates certainty. God deals in certainties not maybes. He said that He would answer, and He did and always does. God would provide them with all they need, grain, vines and oil. (v22,23)
God would speak to the heavens and the earth, and the heavens would send rain, and the earth bring forth produce for His people.
God promised to restore Jezreel (see 1:4,5) Hosea’s first child, a son was named Jezreel which means ‘scattered’. Here it is going to be a good scattering by The LORD, a sowing of seed. God Himself would sow.
Hosea’s second child, a daughter was named Lo-Ruhamah which meant ‘no mercy’ (1:6) but here, God Himself would restore them with His mercy.
Hosea’s third child, a son, named Lo-Ammi, indicated ‘not my people’ (1:9), but God said they would be His people who previously had not been so.
The restoration would be completed by the people saying, “You are my God”.
God’s work in us is to bring us out of judgment and condemnation and to restore us by His mercy and grace. (See Romans 8:1)
This is an amazing picture in Hosea’s three children, named in connection with His judgment but bringing us into His kingdom.
