Hosea

God sent Hosea to live out in his life the message that he wanted to give those in Israel. God asked Hosea to take a wife who he knew would become unfaithful. When she became worn out as a slave to sin and was put up for sale in the slave market, Hosea, out of his love for her, redeemed her by paying the price of a slave. Watch for the analogy between God and unfaithful Israel and between God and his redemption of us, who were slaves to sin, and who paid the price of the blood of Jesus to redeem us.

Hosea 1:2 “Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife.”

God knew that the woman Hosea married would become unfaithful. To call her “adulterous” before the fact was similar to when God called Gideon a “mighty man of valor” before he had fought a single battle (Jud 6:11-12). Gomer was not unfaithful at first and Gideon was not a mighty man of valor, at first.

Hosea 4:6, “Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I will also ignore your children. The more the priests increased, the more they sinned against me.”

Imagine priests and pastors today who denigrate the word of God who God rejects. Here it appears that the “clergy” were actually a corrupting influence on the people. Imagine a congregation erecting a huge sign on an empty lot of land announcing “FUTURE SIGHT OF XYZ CHRISTIAN CHURCH” and the community lamenting that with more churches, the moral character of the community erodes even further.

Hosea 6:6 “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings.”

Just as the Israelites were “religious” in the sense that they observed the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament, they were not Godly in their behavior towards one another. This is a key theme of the book of Amos. As long as everyone was going through the motions and appearing to be religious, they were content.

Hosea 6:8 “Ephraim is a flat cake not turned over.”

When you make pancakes on a weekend morning, if you don’t turn it over and cook the other side, it is worthless. So was Ephraim. So are Christians if they only pay lip service to ethical living.

Hosea 8:13 “They offer sacrifices given to me and they eat the meat, but the Lord is not pleased with them.”

The Apostle Paul refers to Christians as “Christ’s Ambassadors” (II Cor 5:20). If we don’t represent Christianity in the way we live, we are poor ambassadors, misrepresenting the teachings of Jesus Christ. I imagine that if we don’t live a godly life God would rather we kept our religion a secret. Don’t talk about Jesus, be seen going to church, wear Christian jewelry or give off any clue that you are a professing Christian if you are not living the life. You are simply embarrassing God and giving Christianity a bad name. 

Hosea 9:3 “They will not remain in the Lord’s land; Ephraim will return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria.”

Being expelled from the land is exactly what Moses predicted if they disobeyed Him. 

Hosea 9:7, “The days of punishment are coming, the days of reckoning are at hand. Let Israel know this. Because your sins are so many and your hostility so great, the prophet is considered a fool, the inspired man a maniac.”

Hosea 13:6 “When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.”

This is what Moses warned them about in Deut 6:11 “. . . then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord.”