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Hosea

Hosea After the death of King Solomon, the united tribes of Israel split into 2 kingdoms - the southern kingdom of "Judah," with the capital remaining at Jerusalem, and the northern kingdom of "Israel," with the capital at Samaria. The northern kingdom lasted just over 200 years before they were conquered and taken away into exile by the Assyrians. They never returned, and have become known to history as the "Lost Ten Tribes of Israel." The southern kingdom lasted slightly over 300 years before they were conquered and taken into exile by the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar. Unlike the northern kingdom however, a remnant of the southern kingdom was allowed to return and resettle Jerusalem in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah after the Babylonians were themselves conquered by the Persians under Cyrus the Great. Their descendants are known as the Jews of today. During the course of Jewish history, four prophets prophesied at approximately that time. They were Hosea, Isaiah, Amos, and Micah. Hosea was a prophet in the northern kingdom of Israel, at a time when many people worshiped pagan gods. A time just before the fall of the northern kingdom. Hosea regarded such worship as unfaithfulnes to God. He called on Israel to repent its sins of apostasy and warned of the judgement to come from God. His prophecy is remarkable for its descriptions of God as a loving father. Hosea was the first of the "minor" prophets. Often, we do not recognize the derivation of these Bible names, but this prophet's name would be "Joseph" in English, and is related to the name Joshua, which means "salvation." The sroty of Hosea goes thus. God told Hosea to marry and that she would be a harlot, a common street prostitute. Also, they would have three children, two boys and a girl which God would name himself. Now undoubtedly Hosea was very puzzled by God's strange command just as Abraham was puzzled by God's command that he take his son out and put him to death (Gen 28:1-18). God does strange things at times, things we don't always understand, things we can't categorize, things that don't fit into what we think we know of him. And this is one of those strange things. Perhaps Hosea then began to understand a little bit of what God was doing. He knew it was customary in Israel to teach by symbols -- God often used this method of instructing his people -- and that names were very important. God often used the meanings of names to teach Israel certain truths just as we shall see in the case of Isaiah later on. Now God was planning to use this prophet and his family as an example for his people. Hosea obeyed the will of God, went to court Gomer, and they were married. At first it was heaven on earth. Hosea loved this girl. You can't read this prophecy without seeing that. They must have been wonderfully happy together, and then they had their first child. It was a boy, as God had said. Bear in mind that it was the result of adultery on Gomer’s part. Hosea's heart was filled to bursting, and he went to God for the name of this boy. "What should we name the boy?" To his surprise, God picked the name Jezreel. Now Jezreel means "cast-away" and was a name of shame in Israel. He represented the hypocrisy and adultery of Israel, and he was a foreshadowing of what was to come in divine discipline as in the rule of Jehu, a king who was idolatrous and unfaithful in his relationship with God. Also significant of the name Jezreel was the fact that it was both located in the north of the northern kingcomd, and that it was also the natural route for the Assyrian army to invade Israel. (see 2 King 15:29) Remembering the bloody story of Ahab who cheated his neighbor out of his property and stole his neighbor's vineyard, with the encouragement of his Queen Jezebel. At last God's judgment fell upon her. She was looking out her upper story window one day when a general, Jehu was down in the courtyard, and he ordered the servants to throw Jezebel out the window. They threw her out and she fell on the pavement and was killed, and the dogs ate her up, and the courtyard has been called Jezreel ever since. (2 Kings 9:30-37) Nevertheless, that was the name that God picked for Hosea's oldest boy, his first son. And that was the name Hosea gave to his baby, for he understood that God was thus warning his people: they too would be cast away if they didn't recognize the folly of their actions, if they didn't turn from going after idols and giving way to abominable practices and trying to be like everybody else around them. God was warning them with this baby's name. At the same time, Isaiah was experiencing something similar down in the Southern Kingdom. Isaiah, also, had two boys. The younger boy's name was Shearjashub, which means "a remnant shall return." That was God's promise to Israel that even though they were taken into captivity, a remnant would come back. The older boy's name was Mahershalalhashbaz. Mahershalalhashbaz means "haste to the prey" or "haste to the spoil," and it was God's prophetic way of telling the nation that they were in deep trouble. But he also comforted them with the words "a remnant shall return." In the course of time, another child, a daughter, was born to Hosea, again born of adultery.. This one was named Loruhamah, which means "not pitied." The female child represents the effeminate nature of the people of Israel. The men were effeminate because of their immorality - their immoral activities had sapped their strength as men. They were no longer virile nor masculine. Israel had lost her capacity for compassion, and therefore no compassion would be shown to her. The women no longer had the quality of femininity and feminine compassion and the men no longer had the quality of masculinity and masculine compassion. Therefore, God would cut off His Godly compassion towards them. "But the LORD was gracious to them and had compassion and showed concern for them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To this day he has been unwilling to destroy them or banish them from his presence." {2 King 13:23) His patience was wearing thin. After some hundreds of years of trying to reach this stubborn people, he was now warning them that they were getting near the end. That a time would come when he would no longer pity them but would hand them over to invading armies. When this little girl was weaned, Gomer conceived again and bore a third child, another little boy. This one God named Loammi "not my people", for God was saying "you are not my people and I will not be your God." God had said that he would name these children as a sign to his people, but there would come a day of restoration: "And I will have pity on Not-Pitied, and he shall say, 'Thou art my God.'" (Hos 2:23 RSV) So that even in this time when God was announcing judgment. his grace also was being shown. This is also seen in first Peter where God says “Once you were no people, but now your are God’s people. Once you had not received mercy bt now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2:10 KJV) Now after this there were no more children in Hosea's household and Gomer began to fulfill the sad prediction that God had made when he had told Hosea to marry her. She became a harlot. The acts of Gomer are analogous to the adultery of Israel against God. These actions would have their consequences as we see in Kings with Jehu and the burning of the temple of Baal. (2 King 10:25-31 KJV) One day Hosea came home and found a note from Gomer: she had decided to find the happiness she felt she deserved, and she was leaving him and the children to follow the man she really loved. About this time a new tone came into Hosea's preaching. He still warned of the judgment to come and the fact that God was going to send the Assyrians down across the land, but no longer did he announce it with thunder. He spoke to them with tears. And he began to speak of a day when love would at last triumph, when -- after the bitter lesson was learned that the way of the transgressor is hard -- Israel would yet turn back to the God who loved her. Instead of "Not pitied," she would be called "Pitied" and instead of "Not my people," she would be named "My people" again. But poor Gomer passed from man to man, until at last she fell into the hands of a man who was unable to pay for her food and her clothing.. News of her miserable state came to the prophet and he sought out the man she was living with. Despite her past actions, he provided for her, but at last word came that the woman Hosea loved was to be sold in the slave market. Her current husband had tired of her and she was to be sold as a slave. The brokenhearted prophet didn't know what to do. He went weeping to God. And God said. "Hosea, do you love this woman in spite of all that she has done to you?" Hosea nodded through his tears, and God said. "Then go show your love for her in the same way that I love the nation Israel." So Hosea went to the marketplace and he bought back his wife and took her home. What then follows what is perhaps the most beautiful verse in all the Bible. As Hosea led her away he said to her: "You must dwell as mine for many days; you shall not play the harlot, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you." (Hos 3:3b RSV) The last two verses of the first chapter of Hosea justify all that had happened throughout the chapter. "And the number of the sons of Israel will be as the sand of the sea which is immeasurable and uncountable. And it will be instead of it being said to them “not my people”, it will be said “sons of the living God”. And the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel will be gathered together, and they will set for themselves one head. And they will ascend from the earth, for great will be the day of Jezreel." (Hos 1:10-11) The nation of Israel will be reunited with that of Judah. Their population will grow by a great amount (a sign of prosperity). They will obtain a new name, "the sons of the living God", which will reflect their fantastic relationship with Him, and his activities on their behalf. We see this also in Romans where he says “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” {Rom 9:26 KJV} They will have one leader in Jesus Christ, the greatest political and religious leader of all time. His coming is fulfilled, the story of his life is told in the new testament books from Matthew all the way to Luke, and the fulfillment of the prophecy of this one leader’s life is evident to all Christians all over the world today. Bibliography:

Word Count: 1960