Hosea

by J.L. Ferguson, Barrhead | Category: Profiles Of The Prophets | Sept 1978

The Minor Prophets

With Hosea we move into the group of what are generally termed the Twelve Minor Prophets, that is, the prophets with the shorter messages, known of old to the Jewish people as The Book of the Twelve. They were set in what was believed to be their historical order, a point however which is not free from doubt.

Hosea and his contemporaries

He was the son of one, Been, his name meaning "salvation". Of his background nothing else is known, nor indeed matters. What mattered was that the word of the Lord came to him "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". His prophetic ministry therefore may well have covered a period of some 60 or 70 years. He prophesied throughout the same period as Isaiah of the major prophets. Among the minor prophets he was for a time contemporary with Amos who spoke in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam, king of Israel; and with Micah, whose messages were in the days of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

The main direction of his ministry

Although not stated, it is evident that Hosea belonged to the Northern Kingdom, the ten tribes known as Israel or Ephraim. There are only eleven references to Judah in the book. His ministry was therefore directed in the main towards Israel-Ephraim, in the particularly prosperous but spiritually perilous reign of Jeroboam 2, the great grandson of Jehu, It was chiefly a ministry of strong condemnation directed against the sweeping tide of appalling apostasy in Israel. There was very little break in the clouds of judgement. In fact as one reads over the messages of all the prophets whom God sent to both Judah and Israel, one cannot fail to be impressed with the seeming endless variation in the presentation of Israel's departure from the Covenant of Sinai and the abominable idolatries and other evils to which they had sunk. In all the repetition there must surely be some profound message for us in our day; some warning of how far a spiritually privileged people can go, in falling away from the living God.

The personal chapters (1-3)

Walking in the saintly steps of Isaiah and Jeremiah, to be followed later by Ezekiel, Hosea placed himself completely at God's disposal to be, at great personal grief on his part, an object lesson to the nation and to subsequent history. Right away in his ministry, a young man in all his purity, he was directed to marry an adulterous woman. This was neither vision nor allegory. It was simply a deeply grievous fact. This union with the adulterous woman was to be an expression of the spiritual state of the nation in relation to God. So Hosea married Gomer and she bore three children whom God named as follows:

The first boy was called Jezreel (meaning "God will sow"). It was in Jezreel

that Jehu smote all that remained of the house of Ahab, thus carrying out the desire of the Lord yet in an attitude of complete departure of heart from the Lord. Therefore, God decreed that the kingdom of the House of Israel would cease (1:4). Not simply the house of Jehu: that was in any event to cease in the fourth generation (2 Kings 10:30), and Jeroboam 2 was the third generation. But it was the kingdom of the ten tribes which was itself to cease in due course.

The second child was a girl, called by God Lo-ruhamah (meaning "that hath not obtained mercy"), indicating that God had decided to have no further mercy on Israel nor in any wise to pardon her; but mercy would be reserved for Judah.

The third child was a boy, called by the Lord Lo-ammi (meaning "not My

people"), confirming that the divine intention was no longer to regard Israel as His people.

Thus in the mother, Israel's sin was disclosed, and in the names of the children appeared the sentences of judgement as a consequence.

This matter of the ten tribes having hitherto been regarded as among the people of God raises an important issue. With Judah, Israel still stood in the Covenant of Sinai with God. All twelve tribes had utterly forsaken the principles of the Covenant and the idolatrous service at Bethel was abhorrent to God. Yet it appears that not until the apostate ten tribes were removed into captivity did they know the revoking on God's part of His Covenant.

Then follows in chapter 2 one of those choice developments of generous, divine thought, tracing the course of Israel's history of unappreciative departure from her true Lover, yet finishing with the promise of another day, still future, when God will say in infinite mercy to a believing remnant. "Thou art My people", and they will respond and say, "Thou art my God". So that the God who once "sowed" them in judgement will then "sow" them to Himself in the earth, in the great era of millennial splendour.

The final personal reference is in chapter 3. Gomer had left Hosea and the adulterous wife had gone into slavery. As an expression of the tenderness of God's love for His spiritually adulterous nation, Hosea was told to go and love and bring back Gomer. And the words of instruction he gave her form themselves into a little dispensational pearl. For just as she was to abide for Hosea for many days and not play the harlot, so "the children of Israel shall abide many days without king, without prince, and without sacrifice, and without pillar, without ephod or teraphim. Afterwards shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God and David their king; and shall come with fear unto the LORD and to His goodness in the latter days".

And there the nation of Israel is today, exactly as predicted. May God speed the time of her "latter days"!

Transgression, visitation and restoration - chapters 4-14

It would be very interesting to know how the messages from the Lord through Hosea reached all the people. His denunciations of the evils of the nation were well informed and devastating. He lived too close to the people not to know their ways. He lived too close to God to let them pass unheeded. The following may highlight how he laid the axe to the root of the tree.

"There is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land" (4:1).

"There is nought but swearing and breaking faith, and killing and stealing, and committing adultery; they break out and blood toucheth blood" (4:2).

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (4:6).

"Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the understanding" (4:11).

"My people ask counsel at their stock, and their staff declareth unto them" (4:12).

"They sacrifice upon the tops of mountains, and burn incense upon the hills" (4:13).

"Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone" (4:17).

"They like Adam have transgressed the covenant: ... they have dealt treacherously against Me" (6:7).

"And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way toward Shechem: yea, they have committed lewdness"

(6:9).

In these and many other words God through His prophet charged and warned the disobedient nation. One very dramatic warning is in chapter 5. There He says that He will be like a moth to Israel working destruction unseen among them. And like a young lion - rending, tearing and going away. And finally, "I will go and return to My place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek My face; in their affliction they will seek Me earnestly" (5:15). And, dispensationally, Israel is there today. God has retired from them nationally. But thank God for the glorious day of 6:1 that is coming, maybe sooner than we think, the great day of Israel's national, repentant return to be raised up again into the purposes of God and live before Him in the years of Messiah's millennial splendour.

Jerome is said to have described Hosea's writing style as commaticus, that is, consisting of short clauses. That is true. They move backwards and forwards, with warnings and condemnations mingled with affectionate nostalgia, and finally rich promises of ultimate return to blessing.

In this connexion the picture in chapter 11 is choice. God loved Israel as a son in Egypt. In due course His prophets beckoned forward the nation, but even as they called, so the people turned aside to worship the Baalim. And that despite all God's early care, and feeding and healing and teaching, until they became bent on backsliding and turned to other gods. But the compassions of God towards them were fathomless. "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboim? Mine heart is turned within Me, My compassions are kindled together. I will not execute the fierceness of Mine anger ..." (11;8,9).

This might have been a fitting climax to the prophecy, but again Hosea broke out in strong denunciation of the falsehood and deceit of Israel. Ephraim had once been powerful in her prevailing excellency among the tribes. Others trembled when she spoke. But when she allied herself to Baal and the idolatrous system of worship it was as though she died to God. Then she proceeded to add sin to sin.

Yet away deep in the heart of God He loved Israel for the fathers' sake, nor could He forget the covenant with Abraham. So the final call goes out to the prodigal nation, "0 Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and return unto the LORD, say unto Him, 'Take away all iniquity...'" And looking as a seer by the Spirit's help through the centuries ahead, Hosea foresaw the day when the remnant of Israel will return in a spirit of deep response to divine entreaty, to cast off her idols for ever, and be fruitful to her faithful God, throughout the thousand years of Messiah's reign - loved, healed, freely forgiven and restored.

We leave this brief meditation with a reflection on the last verse of the book, Hosea's closing comment. "Who is wise and he shall understand these things? prudent and he shall know them?" Surely there still remain in the Word, considerable areas for study and ministry for the people of God, great fields of Israel's experiences which are rich in teaching as to the manner of the God whose we are and whom we seek to serve.

J.L. Ferguson, Barrhead | Sept 1978
Profiles Of The Prophets