Minor Prophets 01 Hosea - Prophet of God’s Tough yet Tender Love

(Sources include The Wiersbe Bible Commentary and the ESV Study Bible.)

Name: “salvation” (like Joshua and Jesus). Primary audience: North Israel, 760-720 BC.

Setting: Assyrians increase in power, deport N. Israel in 722 BC, and take control of S. Judah.

Issue: N. Israel’s idolatry and sexual immorality.

Baal was the weather-god worshiped in Syria-Palestine, who controlled agriculture and fertility, rainfall and productivity. Baal’s female counterpart was Astarte. Pagans believed that, when Baal and Astarte had relations, they would produce fertile seed and rain for a good crop. To prompt these gods, Canaanite men would go to a shrine and have sex with a cult prostitute as an act of worship. One would pray, “I beseech the goddess of Astarte to favor you and Baal to favor me.”

So, physically and spiritually, “the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” 1:2

Hosea is told to take a “wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom.” 1:2

Three-Part Outline:
Image So Graphic:      Hosea’s Unfaithful Wife       (1-3)
Sin So Awful:               God’s Unfaithful People       (4-10)
Grace So Amazing:      God’s Faithful Love               (11-14)

Detailed Outline:

Image So Graphic:      Hosea’s Unfaithful Wife (1-3)

Hosea’s Wife and Children (1:2 – 2:1)

         Wife: Gomer (meaning of name unknown).

         Three children with significant names:

         [1] Jezreel = God scatters and/or God sows.

         [2] No Mercy (Heb., Lo-ruhama).

         [3] Not My People (Heb., Lo-ammi).

Israel’s Adultery (2:2-13)

         Idolatry (2:2-5a).

         Ingratitude (2:5b-9).

         Hypocrisy (2:10-13).

God’s Love – Promised (2:14-23)

         [1] “I will allure” (2:14).

         [2] “I will give” (2:15).

         [3] “I will remove” (2:16-17).

         [4] “I will betroth” (2:18-20).

         [5] “I will answer” (2:21-22).

         [6] “I will sow” (2:23).

God’s Love – Pictured (3:1-5)

Hosea loves his wife, buys her from slavery, and brings her home.

         Redemption (3:1-2).

Repentance (3:3-4).

Return (3:5).

Sin So Awful:      God’s Unfaithful People (4-10)

God’s Courtroom (chs. 4-10)

God Convenes the Court (4:1 – 5:15)

         The nation as a whole (4:1-3).

         The priests (4:4-14).

         The spectators in the court (4:15-19).

         Priests, rulers, and people (5:1-7).

         The Judge’s sentence (5:8-15).

God Rejects the Appeal (6:1 – 7:16)

         The nation’s false repentance (6:1-3).

         The nation’s true condition (6:4 – 7:16)

         Their love for God like a morning cloud and the dew (6:4-11).

         Their greed, lust, and anger like an overheated oven (7:1-7).

         Their worldly compromise like a half-baked cake (7:8).

         Their weakness like a man turning gray and not knowing it (7:9-10).

         Their allegiance like a silly, senseless dove (7:11-13).

         Their faithfulness like a faulty bow (7:14-16).

God Pronounces the Sentence (8:1 – 10:15)

         The vulture (8:1-6).

         Sowing and reaping (8:7).

         Worthless pottery (8:8).

         A wild donkey (8:9a).

         A prostitute (8:9b-10).

Result: bondage to “Egypt” (Assyria) (8:11 – 9:9).

         Grapes in the wilderness (9:10-12).

         A young palm (9:13-17).

         A luxuriant vine (10:1-2).

         Poisonous weeds (10:3-7).

         Thorns and thistles (10:8-10).

         A trained calf (10:11-15).

Grace So Amazing:      God’s Faithful Love (11-14)

God’s Mercies in the Past (11:1-12)

         God’s love demonstrated at the exodus (11:1-2).

         God’s love demonstrated in the wilderness (11:3-4).

         God’s love demonstrated by his longsuffering (11:5-7).

         God’s love demonstrated by his faithfulness to his promises (11:8-9).

         God’s love demonstrated by the hope of future restoration (11:10-12).

God’s Disciplines in the Present (12:1-13:16)

         The need for discipline (12:1).

         The example of discipline (12:2-6, 12).

         The reasons for discipline (12:7 – 13:6).

         The kinds of discipline (13:7-16).

God’s Promises for the Future (14:1-8)

         I will receive you (14:1-3).

         I will restore you (14:4).

         I will revive you (14:5-8).

Conclusion: the upright who walk versus the transgressors who stumble.

Key passages from Hosea:

Ho 3:1 And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.”

Ho 4:6a My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge …

Ho 8:7a For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.

Ho 10:12 Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.

Ho 11:1 When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

Ho 11:8 How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender.

Ho 14:4 I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them.