articlesforchristians

Hosea
Hosea 3:1(NKJV)Then the LORD said to me again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery just like the love of the LORD for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans

Hosea is the first of 12 books known as the Minor Prophets. The term is used to identify the length of the books not their importance as prophets.

Author

• Hosea whose name means ‘Salvation or Deliverance”
• The prophet of love

Date

• 750 B.C

Theme

• The love of God and His yearning for His people to return to Him.
• God’s love revealed through the Hosea’s love for an unfaithful wife.

Purpose

• Hosea prophesies to the northern kingdom of Israel during the same time Isaiah primary prophesied to the southern kingdom of Judah.
• His message came shortly before the fall of Samaria to Assyria.
• Hosea was told to marry a woman who would be unfaithful to him. This was to demonstrate Israel’s unfaithfulness to God and God’s unfailing love to an idolatrous people.

Content

• Hosea’s family life Hosea 1:1-3:5
  • Hosea 1:2,3(NKJV) When the LORD began to speak by Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea “Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry for the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the LORD So, he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son
  • Hosea 3:1-3(NKJV) Then the LORD said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the LORD for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans.” So, I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and one and one-half homers of barley And I said to her, “You shall stay with me many days; you shall not play the harlot nor shall you have a man-so, too, will I be toward you.”
    • Speaks of redemptions
• Israel’s sin Hosea 4:1-6:3
  • Hosea 4:1-3(NKJV) Hear the word of the LORD, You children of Israel, For the LORD brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land: “There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. By swearing and lying, Killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break all
    restraint, With bloodshed upon bloodshed. Therefore, the land will mourn; And everyone who dwells there will waste away with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air, Even the fish of the sea will be taken away.
  • Hosea 4:6(NKJV) My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me, Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
  • Hosea 6:1,2(NKJV) Come, and let us return to the LORD; For He has torn, but He will heal us, He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up. That we may live in His sight.
• Punishment for Israel’s disobedience Hosea 6:4-10:15
  • Hosea 8:1-3 (NKJV) Set the trumpet to your mouth! He shall come like an eagle against the house of the LORD, My law. Israel will cry to Me, My God, we know You!” Israel has rejected the good; The enemy will pursue him.
• God’s judgment and mercy Hosea 11:1-14:9
  • Hosea 11:1-11
• Christ in the Book of Hosea
  • Christ is the one who redeems us from the power of the grave through His death and resurrection.
    • Hosea 13:14(NKJV) I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O Death, I will be your plagues! O Grave, I will be your destruction! Pity is hidden from My eyes.”
    • Galatians 3:13(NKJV) Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”),
    • Romans 5:8(NKJV) But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
  • Jesus rose on the 3rd day.
    • Hosea 6:1,2(NKJV) Come, and let us return to the LORD; For He has torn, but He will heal us, He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up. That we may live in His sight.
    • 1 Corinthians 15:4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: