Hosea 1-5

Hosea 1
1 Introducing Hosea, son of Beeri, prophesying for God in the days of Kings:

• Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah
• Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel

2-9 Hosea's Family

• God's first instruction to Hosea is to take a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom
• In obedience, Hosea marries Gomer daughter of Diblaim
• First child, a son: Jezreel ("God sows"), because God will punish the house of Jehu, putting an end to the house of Israel
• Second child, a daughter: Lo-ruhamah ("Not pitied"), because God would no longer pity or forgive Israel, but he would forgive and protect Judah
• Third child, a son: Lo-ammi ("Not my people"), for Israel is not God's, and God is not Israel's god

10-11 Restoration of Israel

• Yet Israel will be like the sand of the sea in number;
• The people of Judah and Israel would gather together and appoint one head;
• They will take possession of the land. (Fulfilled in Christ and in his church, per Romans 9:26)

Hosea 2
1 To Hosea: Say to your brothers Ammi ("my people") and to your sisters ("pitied")

2-23 Israel's Infidelity, Punishment, and Redemption
To his children:

• Beg your mother to put away her whoring
• If she doesn't, I will expose her for what she is; I will have no pity
• I will cut off her access to her lovers, and she will come back to her husband
• She didn't realize I was the source of her gifts, and I can take them away
• I will put an end to her mirth - her festivals, new moons, sabbaths -- and will punish her for her Baal festivals. (He's more clearly speaking to Israel now.)
• I will bring her into the wilderness, will take care of her, and she will respond to me as she did when I brought her out of Egypt.

To his wife:

• You will call me husband and no longer Baal
• I will take you for my wife in "righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy."
• The earth shall answer "Jezreel" ("God sows"), and I will have pity on Lo-ruhamah ("not pitied") and will say to Lo-ammi ("not my people") "You are my people" and he will say "You are my God."

Hosea 3
1-5 Further Assurances of God's Redeeming Love

• God to Hosea: Love a woman who has a lover and who is an adulteress, just as I love my people.
• So Hosea buys his own wife in the marketplace for 15 shekels of silver, a homer of barley, a measure of wine and tells her to stay with him.
  
• So Israel will go many days without royalty, religious ceremony, or priests, and afterward will return to God. (Referring, I suppose, to their captivity and return and to spiritual Israel as well.)

Hosea 4
1-10 God Accuses Israel

• The LORD's indictment against his people: No faithfulness, loyalty, nor knowledge of God
• Instead, swearing, lying, murder, stealing and adultery
• Therefore the land mourns and its inhabitants are in anguish. (Doesn't this sound like the American of 2008? We're experiencing a denial of God and His principles, while many are in anguish because of high gas prices, unemployment, and talk of recession.)
• Indictment against his priests: You stumble, you reject knowledge of me, you feed on the sin of my people.
• "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." Seems he's blaming the priests and prophets for this condition.

11-19 Israel's Idolatry

• They consult pieces of wood, sacrifice on top of mountains
• Men and women alike engage in whoredom
• To Israel: Don't corrupt Judah. I can't care for you if you are stubborn.
• Ephraim is joined to idols

Hosea 5
1-15 Impending Judgment on Israel and Judah

• Judgment pertains to kings and priests
• Ephraim is too far gone to repent
• Israel's proud; Ephraim and Judah stumble -- even if they seek the LORD, they will not find him.
• Ephraim goes to Assyria for help, but will not find a cure there
• The LORD will carry them off, and no one shall rescue
• I will desert them until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face