19 September

Bible In 365 Days

Hosea 1-7

 

Hosea 1

The statement with which this prophecy opens, "When the Lord spake at the first," is a declaration by Hosea long after the events. Looking back, he understood that the impulse which resulted in the heart agony was also part of the divine method of teaching him. There is no reason to believe that Gomer was outwardly impure in the days when Hosea married her. If impurity were in her heart, Hosea did not know it, and it was not apparent during the early days of their married life.

In the picture of their domestic life the important matter is its revelation of Hosea's national consciousness. Three children were born to him, and there is still no reason to believe that during this period Gomer was unfaithful In naming the children he revealed his conviction concerning the condition of his nation. Living in close fellowship with God, he saw his people in the light of the divine purpose, and as the children were born, named them in such a way as to indicate his profound convictions. "Jezreel" means "the threatened judgment"; "Lo-ruhamah" means "mercy not obtained"; "Lo-ammi" means "cast out, not my people". While the outlook was dark, the section ends with words which show that, in spite of all contradictory appearances, the prophet's faith in the final fulfilment of the first divine purposes was unshaken.

 

Hosea 2

Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi - that is, "My people, and to your sisters, Ruhamah," i. e., "beloved or tenderly pitied." The words form a climax of the love of God. First, the people scattered, unpitied, and disowned by God, is re-born of God; then it is declared to be in continued relation to God, "My people;" then to be the object of his yearning love. The words, "My people," may be alike filled up, "ye are My people," and "be ye My people." They are words of hope in prophecy, "ye shall be again My people;" they become words of joy in each stage of fulfillment. They are words of mutual joy and gratulation, when obeyed; they are words of encouragement, until obeyed. God is reconciled to us, and willeth that we be reconciled to Him. Among those who already are God's people, they are the voice of the joy of mutual love in the oneness of the Spirit of adoption; "we are His people;" to those without (whether the ten tribes, or the Jews of heretics,) they are the voice of those who know in whom they have believed, "Be ye also His people." Despair of the salvation of none, but, with brotherly love, call them to repentance and salvation.

This verse closes what went before, as God's reversal of His own sentence, and anticipates what is to come (Hosea 5:14). God commands the prophets and all those who love Him, to appeal to those who forget Him, holding out to them the mercy in store for them also, if they will return to Him. He bids them not to despise those yet alien from Him, "but to treat as brethren and sisters, those whom God willeth to introduce into His house, and to call to the riches of His inheritance."

 

Hosea 3

Finally, the prophet was commanded to love and find and restore his sinning and wandering bride. Through his obedience he entered into fellowship with the amazing tenderness of God, and was thereby prepared to deliver the messages which followed. It must have been a startling command, "Go ye, love a woman . . . An adulteress," but its explanation was found in the words, "even as the Lord loveth the children of Israel." Hosea was commanded to exercise love in spite of his wife's sin, in order that he might learn God's attitude toward Israel. He obeyed, and the price he paid for her was the price of a slave, which in all probability she had become by this time.

The covenant he made with her was that she should enter on a period of seclusion, in which she would be neither harlot nor wife, and that he would be so toward her. The national interpretation of this covenant was that during Israel's time of penitence she would be deprived of both the true and the false, the king or prince, sacrifice or pillar, ephod or teraphim. The ultimate issue would be Israel's return to all the honors and blessings of union with God.

Thus equipped, the prophet was prepared to deliver his messages, all of which sounded the notes of sin, of love, and of judgment.

 

Hosea 4

In any attempt to analyze and tabulate the teaching in this second division of the Book it must be remembered that the prophetic utterances cannot be treated as verbatim reports. As they here appear, they are rather the gathering up of the notes or leading ideas of a long period of preaching. These notes fall into three distinct cycles, pollution and its cause, pollution and its punishment, and the love of Jehovah.

In dealing with pollution and its cause the prophet first preferred a general charge against the nation. Israel was summoned to attend and hear the word of the Lord, because He had a controversy with the people. They were charged with being without truth and mercy and knowledge of God, which resulted in the spread of all kinds of evil. The result was to be seen in the mourning land, the languishing people, and man's loss of dominion over nature. The prophet next declared the cause of the sin, and more carefully described the results. The cause was the pollution of the priests. Priest and prophet stumbled, and the people were destroyed for lack of knowledge. As the priests multiplied they sinned, and their glory was turned to shame. The result was the pollution of the people. The example of the priests issued in lack of understanding. The prophet declared that God would not punish for the smaller offense of physical harlotry, but for the more terrible outrage of spiritual adultery which lay behind it. In this connection he counseled Judah to take warning from the terrible example of Israel.

 

Hosea 5

Having thus declared the cause of pollution, the prophet's next message was especially addressed to priest, people, and king. First to the priests and the king as elders, and consequently responsible, but to the people also as having been guilty of following the false lead. The message af firmed the divine knowledge of the condition of affairs. Ephraim had committed whoredom; Israel was defiled. Thus the outward doings and the inward condition were recognized. The inevitable judgment was announced.

Ephraim and Israel would stumble, Judah also. There would be a fruitless search after God when it was too late. The prophet then dealt more particularly with the judgment, and indicated a threefold method. The first would be by the moth and rottenness. These were already at work. They were the emblems of slow destruction.

Ephraim, conscious of their presence, had turned to Assyria for help. The second would be by the young lion, suggestive of the new character of strong, devouring judgment determined against the sinning people. The final method of judgment would be the most terrible of all - the withdrawal of God from His people, out of which affliction the prophet declared they would seek His face.

 

Hosea 6

Here we have the prophet's appeal in consequence of the judgment threatened. It was first a message calling the people to return to Jehovah. It was based on the certainty of divine pity; and a promise of certain prosperity if the people did return to Him.

However, it is impossible to read this message without discovering its Messianic values, for all that the prophet declared finds its fulfilment in the Christ by way of His First and Second Advents. There are two appeals: the first, "Come, and let us return"; the second, "Let us know, let us follow on to know." The argument for the first is the suffering of Another. "He hath tom, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He wilI bind us up." Resurrection, "After two days will He revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live before Him." The argument for the second suggests the things that follow suffering and resurrection, which may be stated thus: Ascension, "His going forth is sure as the morning"; Pentecost, "He shall come unto us as the rain"; the Second Advent, "As the latter rain that watereth the earth."

The second cycle of the prophecy deals with pollution and its punishment. The prophet first stated the case as between Jehovah and His people. The divine attitude was declared to be perplexity. In the presence of the shallowness of their goodness, which was like the morning cloud, or early dew, Jehovah exclaimed, "What shall I do?" He had adopted different methods for their welfare, hewing them by the prophets, slaying them by words, proceeding against them in judgment. What He desired to produce in them as the character of mercy was knowledge of Himself rather than their burnt offerings.

The response to this attitude had been persistent transgression and treachery, and the proofs were to be found in Gilead and Shechem, both of which cities were, in all probability, cities of refuge. The former had been polluted, and the latter filled with lewdness, and even the priests were guilty of murder. Israel had committed the horrible sin of whoredom with Egypt. From Judah also would come a harvest in the day of restoration

 

Hosea 7

The prophet then declared more particularly the true state of affairs. The divine desire to heal was frustrated by the pollution and the people's persistent ignoring of God. Hosea graphically described the widespread pollution. The king, the princess, and the judges were corrupt. All were affected as by the heat of wine and the leaven of evil.

With reference to the widespread influence of Ephraim, the prophet described the tribe as mixing among the people. This ancient tribe was like a cake not turned, a symbol of utter failure, undeveloped on one side, and burned on the other. Moreover, it was, like a silly dove in its manifestation of fear and cowardice. The statement of the case was concluded by a declaration of the utter folly of the people. God was scourging them toward redemption, and in the process they were howling, assembling, and yet continuing in rebellion.