Hosea 6-14

Hosea 6
1-3 A Call to Repentance

• Let us return to the LORD; he has torn, and he will heal.
• "Let us know, let us press on to know the LORD." Hosea is including himself in this call to repentance. And isn't this a goal for us all -- to "press on to know the LORD."

4-11 Impenitence of Israel and Judah

• God to his nations: What shall I do with you?
• "Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early."
• I have punished my people, "for I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings." A common statement, a common theme in the OT.
• Even the priests commit monstrous crimes.
• For you, Judah, a harvest is appointed.

Hosea 7

• Amid all their wickedness, they forget that God sees everything.
• They are adulterous, drunkards, treacherous toward their rulers
• Ephraim (Israel?) is weakened by mixing with other people, ignorant, too proud to seek God

11-16 Futile Reliance on the Nations

• Ephraim is like a dove - silly and without sense, and I will capture them like birds, discipline them, destroy them, for they speak lies against me.
• They use the strength I gave them to follow useless pursuits

Hosea 8
1-14 Israel's Apostasy

• Israel cries - My God, we know you - but they spurn the good.
• They make unworthy kings and idols for their own destruction
• "For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind."
• They are swallowed up by foreign nations.
• In Ephraim, God's instructions are strange things; their sacrifices are not acceptable.
• Israel has forgotten his Maker
• Judah has multiplied fortified cities, and I will send a fire upon them

Hosea 9
1-17 Punishment for Israel's Sin

• Do not rejoice, Israel, for you have played the harlot. Ephraim shall return to Egypt; in Assyria you shall eat unclean food.
• Sacrifices will defile, not please God. Bread will be for hunger only.
• The days of punishment have come.
• I found Israel like first fruits, but they consecrated themselves to a thing of shame.
• It would be better for Ephraim to be barren, for now he must lead out his children for slaughter.
• Their evil began at Gilgal; I will love them no more.

Hosea 10
1-15 Israel's Sin and Captivity

• Once, Israel prospered, but no more.
• They disrespected the king; they did not fear the LORD; they made empty oaths
• They mourn over the loss of a golden calf
• They shall perish, "say to the mountains, Cover us, and to the hills, Fall on us."
• Once I spared the neck of Ephraim, a fair heifer, but no more.
• Judah must plow: "Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you."
• You have plowed wickedness, you have reaped injustice.

Hosea 11
1 - 12:1 God's Compassion Despite Israel's Ingratitude

• When Israel was a child, I loved him, but he left me.
• I raised Ephraim, taught him to walk, but they are determined to turn away from me.
• I don't want to hand over Israel, I will not destroy Ephraim
• They will return to me, and I will give them back their home.
• Yet - Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, and Israel with deceit, but Judah is faithful to the Holy One.

12:2-14 The Long History of Rebellion

• The LORD's indictment against Judah: In the womb he tried to supplant his brother; he strove with God; he met him at Bethel and spoke with him.
• "Return to your God, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God."
• Ephraim became arrogant in his wealth and would admit no sin.
• But God will make him live in tents again, will pay him back for his insults.

Hosea 13
1-16 Relentless Judgment on Israel

• Ephraim was exalted in Israel, but he incurred guilt through Baal and died, but they still keep on sinning, bowing to the work of artisans
• They kiss calves! Therefore they will be like chaff.
• It was I, God, who fed you, yet you became satisfied and forgot me. Therefore, I will fall upon you like a bear robbed of her cubs.
• Where is the king that can save you from me?
• "O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your destruction?"
• Samaria shall bear her guilt..."their little ones shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open." (This was done by one of their own - Menaham, in 2 Kings 15:16)

Hosea 14
1-3 Plea for Repentance

• Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God. This time Hosea does not say "Let us..."
• Ask God to take away your guilt.
• Tell him you know your salvation is not from Assyria.

4-9 Assurance of Forgiveness

• He will heal your disloyalty, love you freely.
• You shall live under his shadow, blossom like the vine.
• Conclusion: The ways of the LORD are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.

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