The Book of Hosea

1. Summary

The Book of Hosea deals with a people who needed to hear of the love of God; a God who wanted to tell Israelites how great his love was and the only way through which it could offered. God wanted Israel to know his love, which was offered to the rejected and disinherited, who guided the people with gentle discipline, and persevered in spite of the people’s stupidity and resistance. Hosea, whose name means “salvation” or “liberation”, was chosen by GOD to give living testimony of his message before his people by marrying a woman who was unfaithful. The reason for this unusual request was to demonstrate that God’s Covenant People, the nation of Israel, had been unfaithful to God because of their worship of false gods. Hosea contains 14 chapters that are filled with some of the most powerful truths in all the Bible, and it can be divided into three sections. 

Ch. 1 to 3 depicts a picture of marriage encompassing the betrothal and marriage. However, Israelites committed adultery which estranged their relationship from God. But, our loving God didn’t abandon them instead of bringing redemption. 

Ch. 4 to 10 talks about Hosea bringing charges against Israel. There are three charges. The first charge is spiritual apathy that Israelites had no knowledge of God. The second charge is their uncertainty and the third charge is their idolatry. 

Ch. 11 to 14 is about God’s faithfulness. These few chapters depict a picture of a husband and a wife or a father and a child. Ch. 11 is particularly about a runaway child. 

Ch. 12 to 13 is about rebellious teen, and Ch. 14 is about a restored adult. The purpose of Hosea is to call Israel and Judah to repentance in Yahweh, the God of loyal love. God wanted to reveal the faithlessness of the nation toward their covenant with Yahweh and to indict the nation of its lack of knowledge, loyal love and faithfulness. 

2. What does the imagery of husband and wife in 2: 14-20 tell me about God? 

God is not capricious but consistent in keeping his covenant, and he waits for Israelites’ return patiently because of his deep love for them. In book of Hosea, Hosea stood in God’s point of view, Gomer referred as Israelites. Lord asked Hosea to marry a prostitute and loved her. Marriage is a mutual covenant which requires both the husband and the wife commit to each other, love and support each other, but then Gomer betrayed Hosea and went after whoredom. This is a very disappointing thing. However, what God asked Hosea do was really astonishing. Hosea “bought Gomer for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley” (Hosea 3:2). God paid ransom for Gomer and redeemed her. “

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in stead-fast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities” (Psalm 103:8-10). “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. I will not execute my burning anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath” (Hosea 11:8-9). God is not a man. Though, he needs to judge Israelites because he is a God of justice, but he couldn’t be unfaithful, uncompassionate, inconsistent, impatient, unloving and revengeful because these traits are against God’s nature. Therefore, he is steady and faithful. He knows Israelites and their weaknesses. They’re fallen creatures. “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer gas in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt” (Hosea 2:14-15). God didn’t coerce Israelites to return to him, but he wooed Israelites with his love, forgiveness, patience, consistency, faithfulness, tenderness, compassion and loyalty. God always ends up with hope and love because God is LOVE. God wants his beloved ones to return to him to enjoy his goodness. He is always there opening his arm waiting for his beloved ones.

3. What does the imagery of husband and wife in 2: 14-20 tell me about man?

“You trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passerby; your beauty became his” (Ezekiel 16:15) Here, beauty refers to human’s intelligence, capacity, talents, power, money and etc. We humans tend to forget and not recognize and acknowledge our Lord, the giver and provider, but we are prone to lean on our own. We tend to abuse and betray the trusting relationship with God. “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols” (Hosea 11”1). All we have and own are from God. It’s true that we own our property, and we have rights to enjoy them. 

However, without the understanding that the Lord of our God is our life foundation is disastrous because we then rely on ourselves and our beauty. We think ourselves and these temporal things could satisfy us and are capable to redeem us. We “shall reap the whirlwind” (Hosea 8:7). However, only everlasting things could be our eternal contentment. It’s like Israelites. They “have plowed iniquity; they have reaped injustice; they have eaten the fruit of lies. Because they have trusted in their own ways and in the multitude of their warriors (Hosea 10: 13). We have to acknowledge our God is the creator and holder of everything. Therefore, “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 (Hosea 10:12).

4. What does the imagery of husband and wife in 2: 14-20 mean to me?

I just imagine that if a husband finds out his wife commits adultery. What would a husband do to his wife? How about if the husband is a righteous man? This man must be heartbroken and under depression, and he must sigh and wonder about how could my beloved one being dishonest to me and give herself to someone else. We humans may have hatred and bitterness in our heart. We may think how could she treat me like that? She is being so unfaithful, changeable and inconsistent. She abandons me and goes to someone. In our heart, we may possibly think we should take revenge and make that person to pay for what she has done, or even more seriously, coerce her to go home by force. We want to cover our own shame. We don't want people to laugh at us and joke about this shameful thing. We don’t want to be depressed because especially when a husband sees his own wife being disrespectful to herself and not caring about her dignity as a person. However, God did the totally opposite of humans. It's like what Jocelyn said that we humans can't understand how great God's love is. There is no one who could love us so unconditionally in this world. This is true agape love.

Sometimes, God's love is too heavy for me to bear and receive. The weight of his love bends me over, and I couldn’t even breathe. It burns my heart and makes me fidgeting, especially when I sin and keep sinning. It makes me feel guilty and shameful. I couldn’t help to hold on to this "sin" very much. I keep my eyes fixing on it, and I blame myself for that. But I think if I respond God’s love with shame, guilt and blame. God won’t delight the response because when we hold onto shame, guilt and blame, we tend to have fear. We are afraid to make mistakes, but we know for sure it’s unavoidable because we are sinful. We are not joyful and confident. We are not enjoying God’s grace and love because we get too hung up on shame and guilt. If we are doing so much and keep focusing on that, we are very self-centered. If we are truly repentant, we ask for forgiveness with our heart, we are forgiven. We think we are not worthy to receive God’s love. Nevertheless, what God really wants is our genuine repentance, and then we continue to live and strive for Christlikeness.

Another case is sometimes I couldn't apprehend God's love. We always mention that Jesus humbled himself, and took on human flesh. He died for us and reconciled our relationship with God, and satisfied God's wrath. I know the meaning of the doctrine, but I haven’t taken it personally. I want to experience and feel the resonance of Holy Spirit. How the death of Jesus and God’s love mean to me? I’m not striving for the strong emotions and sad feelings about it, but at least I take it seriously. As one of this young generation, we seldom contemplate and sit on these basic but profound doctrines. Just understanding and head knowledge isn’t enough; it won’t help us to know God. These doctrines need to be connected with our life, so that we can live out God’s grace and love and respond to God’s love. When we take God’s words personally and wrestle with it, these doctrines will become lively like living water overflowing us and nourishing us. I know I need to be intentional. I seldom quiet myself. I notice this young generations’ life is full of electrical products and too many voices. To be quiet isn’t easy. Therefore, this is the problem I need to deal. Unless we are willing and allow Holy Spirit to work within us, then we could be guided by God because God won’t force us.

God's love attracts us to follow HIM.