Old Testament Survey
Hosea
Rick Walker, M.A., M.Div.
http://Didaskalia.tripod.com
1. The Deathbed Prophet.
A. After Amos was driven out of the Northern Kingdom (Amos 7:10-12),
God raised up the prophet Hosea.
a. Hosea began his prophetic career
during the reign of Jeroboam 2
b. It was carried through to the last
king of the North, Hoshea (c. 732-722 B.C.)
c. Hosea is called the "deathbed
prophet" because he was the last prophet to speak to the Northern Kingdom before
it fell in 722
B.C.
B. He was the only prophet who lived in the Northern Kingdom.
1. Amos was called from his home in Judah to
prophesy in the north.
2. Because of this difference, there is a
difference in tone between the two prophets.
a. Amos is harsh
because he is not speaking to his own people. He expresses no sorrow for Israel.
b. Hosea carries the
same message, but is tender and affectionate toward them. In Hosea, God sorrows that he
has
to punish Israel.
2. Marriage to Gomer
A. The prophet's delivered the word of God in many different ways.
1. Usually they spoke or wrote the word of God.
2. Sometimes they acted the word of God out in
their personal lives.
a. In such a case the
action was the message.
b. His life became the
message.
B. The relationship between Hosea and Gomer is analogous to the relationship
between God and Israel.
1. Israel has not been faithful to God. She has
violated the marriage covenant.
a. There was lying, stealing,
murder and adultery (4:4), all violations of the covenant.
b. The priesthood was corrupt
(4:7). Hosea 4:8 indicates that they feed on the wickedness of my people and
relish
their wickedness. This likely means that the priests rejoiced in the sins of the people in
that they were
required
to make sin offerings and they would get a portion of the meat.
2. There was the worship of Baal (2:8; 13:1).
a. The Samaria Ostraca,
receipts dated during the first half of the eight century support the worship of Baal.
Some
names
have the element "Baal": Elibaal, Abibaal, Jeribbaal. This shows identification
with worship of Baal
(Thompson,
Bible and Archaeology, 139).
b. Israel had a spirit of
prostitution (4:12; 5:4). "Prostitution" is used in two senses in Hosea and
Israel was guilty
of
both.
1. The
physical union of a woman and man in exchange for some consideration (4:13, 14).
2. Also,
idolatry is called prostitution because Israel worshiped Baal in order to gain the
fertility of the land:
food,
water, wool, linen (2:5). In 4:12 idolatry is called a "spirit of prostitution."
C. How will God communicate to Israel the nature of what she has done? He
will command Hosea to marry an
unfaithful woman!
1. (1:1, 3) Go take to yourself an adulterous
wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the
vilest adultery in
departing from the Lord. He marries Gomer.
2. They have three children. Their names
indicate God's judgment upon Israel.
a. (son) Jezreel means
"God sows" (1:4).
b. (daughter)
Lo-Ruhamah means "not loved."
1.
God would no longer "love," i.e., aid Israel.
2.
This only speaks of immediate, not ultimate, love.
c. (son) Lo-Ammi means
"not my people."
1.
It appears that God has disowned them as his people.
2.
Literally it is "my non-people, in which case God still claims ownership, but of a
people that are really no
better
than the heathen nations (Anchor Bible Commentary, 24:198).
d. All of this is for a
future blessedness.
1.
Israelites will be as the sand on the seashore (1:10).
2.
Each of the three names is later negated or made positive.
a.
Jezreel becomes a "great day" (1:11).
b.
"My non-people" becomes "my people" (2:1) and "sons of the living
God" (1:10).
c.
"Not-loved" becomes "My loved one" (2:1).
3. Hosea Redeems Gomer (3:1-5).
a. Apparently, Gomer
actually left Hosea and was living with another man (there are other possible
interpretations).
b. In her
unfaithfulness, Hosea is commanded to go and purchase her.
1.
Pays fifteen shekels of silver and some barley.
2.
It is the same way that God loves Israel.
c. God will also bring
Israel back (3:5).
1.
This seems to be looking forward to restoration after the restoration of the Southern
Kingdom. The
Northern
Kingdom was never restored as a kingdom. However, Jews of the Northern Kingdom likely came
back
with the Decree of Cyrus.
2.
Paul speaks of all twelve tribes in his own day (Acts 26:7).
3.
The restoration would be under David, indicating a share in the restoration of the
Southern Kingdom
(Hosea
3:5).
4.
The theory of the "lost tribes of Israel" is fallacious. The promise was that
both kingdoms would be
restored
as one.
5.
Redemption comes through death and life (Hos. 2:1-23). The nation is created again after
it is totally
destroyed
(Anchor Bible Dictionary).
3. God Despised their Festivals and Sacrifices (Hos. 6:6).
A. It is typical of the eight century prophets to make what appear to be very
negative statements about the temple,
priesthood, sacrifices and festivals.
1. (Hos. 6:6) For I desire mercy, not
sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.
2. (Amos 5:21) "I hate, I despise your
religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies.
3. (Isa. 1:11-14) God detests their sacrifices
and festivals.
B. Some scholars have mistakenly interpreted this as a rejection of the cult
by the prophets. I.e., the prophets were
teaching that the only thing God required was a
good moral life.
1. However, this pits God against himself as
the Spirit guided both Moses who gave the law and the prophets who,
in this case, would be
undermining the law.
2. Later, in the post-exilic period, God was
concerned that his temple had not been rebuilt. He even raised up the
prophets Haggai and
Zechariah to encourage the Jews in this work.
3. What the eight century prophets detest is
not the cultic function, but the thought that cultic regulations were
sufficient in and of
themselves (cf. Isa. 29:13).
4. There are weightier matters within the law.
a. It is significant
that the Ten Commandments say nothing about cultic regulations. Not that they are not
important
and
can be neglected, but that without a right relationship with God, they are meaningless.
b. In Matthew 23:23, 24
Jesus condemned the Pharisees for having the same attitudes.
4. Destruction of Samaria, Capital of the Northern Kingdom.
A. It may be that Hosea had some success in his call to repentance.
1. Hosea 6:1-3 may be the call of the
people to repent.
2. However, Hosea 6:4 indicates that any
repentance was superficial, like the dew that evaporates in the
morning.
B. Hoshea was the last king of the Northern Kingdom.
1. He may have sought to religious reforms in
the Northern Kingdom since his reign receives a qualified censure in
2 Kings 17:2.
2. Hoshea's actions were responsible for the
fall of the Northern Kingdom (2 Kings 17:3-6).
a. Hoshea had been
paying tribute to the Assyrians and Tiglath-pileser claims to have put Hoshea on the
throne.
b. Hoshea called on So,
pharaoh of Egypt, to help him revolt against the Assyrians.
c. When he stopped
paying tribute, Shalmaneser V came and attacked Samaria in 724. In Dec. 722 or Jan.
721
Shalmaneser died ("Sargon," New Bible Dict., 1073). Samaria was conquered by his
successor,
Sargon
2.
d. Pharaoh So did not
give Hoshea the help he had promised._