Hosea

Commentary by Dr. Chuck Missler

Hosea used his own marriage to an adulterous wife to compare to God's adulterous wife--Israel, who chose consistently chose idolatry over God.

Book of Hosea is to point out that Israel has not been living up to the contract between God and Israel.

Hosea is written in 3 parts
Ch. 1-3: Hosea's married life
Ch. 4-13: Israel's unfaithfulness and the coming judgement as a consequence
Rest of the Booke: Israel's ultimate conversion and renewal

Background reading to understand the times of Hosea:
2 Kings 15-17

Sins listed in Hosea:
Social injustice
Violent crime
Religious hypocrisy
Political rebellion
Foreign alliances that God had discouraged
Selfish arrogance
Spiritual ingratitude

Hosea's whole message is therefore to warn Israel of its sin, prophesy its coming judgment, and encourage the Israelites of its coming restoration and salvation, as promised in Deuteronomy.
 

The meaning of "Hosea" means salvation.

Hosea speaks about many different aspects of God:
First few chapters (1-3): God is a sovereign God
Next few (4-7): God is a holy God
Next few (8-10): God is a just God
Last few (11-14): God is a loving God
 

God's charges for Israel's prosecution:
Lawlessness
Immorality
Ignorance of God's Word
Idolatry

Penalties of ingratitude: man forsakes God, God will forsake man
Death of Joy (Hosea 9:1-2)
Exile from the land (Hosea 9:3-6)
Lose spiritual discernment
Declining birth rate
Being cast out

Hosea 10
Review of Israel's sins
1. Gross corruptions in the worship of God
2. Corruptions in the civil government which leads to social injustices
3. Imitating sins of their fathers
4. Asked to repent and was warned that punishment would ensue if they don't, and yet they still don't repent!

On a separate note based on the writing style of Hosea, the Bible should be taken literally with the knowledge that it also has metaphoric, allegorical connotations.

For example:
In Numbers 21, a bunch of snakes are killing people, Moses went to God, and God told Moses to construct a brass snake on a pole, have the people look at it, and the people were cured of the snake attacks.
 

What does this mean?
 

It isn't until the New Testament that we learn that the brass snake is an anticipatory symbol that foreshadows another event that would occur thousands of years later. In, John 3, we learn from Jesus' explanation to Nicodemus that just as Moses raised the brass snake so shall the Son of Man be raised up.

Using the same example, the people of the Old Testament couldn't understand why God had Moses raise a brass snake to solve the problem and even went as far as to worship the brass snake. My insight from this is that the Bible is easy to read, but at the same time, it is difficult to read. It's easy to read because it can be taken literally. Hence, it's been said that a 3rd grader can understand the Bible. However, some parts of the Bible, especially prophesies, are very difficult to read, mostly because of the allegories and the mysteries that are part of the deeper meanings that can only be uncovered with diligent studies. It's worth to keep this in the back of our heads as we continue to explore the Word.