Last week, Hosea criticized Israel (the 10 northern tribes) because they had abandoned Yahweh, the true God. He smacked them with God’s Law and said they were no longer the people of God. But then, applying the Gospel Word, He wrote that God planted (“jezreeled”) those who are His. Hosea now continues to bring God’s prophetic word the Israel.
Read Hosea 2:2-5
– In these verses, to whom is Hosea specifically referring?
– Remembering why God told Hosea to marry Gomer, who then becomes the recipients of Hosea’s words to Gomer?
– Who is the husband and who is the bride? How does this language help us understand, in part, who we are in relation to God?
– More zealous than an ordinary prostitute who waits for her customers to come to her (Genesis 38:14-19, Jeremiah 3:2), what has Gomer/Israel been doing?
Read Hosea 2:6-13
– In these verses, what is God planning to do? Why?
– What does verse 10 say about the love that God has for His people?
God punishing His people is not what He seeks or His intended goal. The drive of what God says is toward reconciliation, pleading with Israel to quit her adultery (2:2) and to return to her true lover (2:7). Behind God’s words of censure, we can see a divine love that will not let even a faithless Israel go.
Read John 10:22-31
Jesus says the words in this passage during the Feast of Dedication. That was a time when the Israelites remembered the Temple being restored and the true worship of God taking place again after the Seleucids had defiled the Temple and forbade the worship of Yahweh.
– How does what Jesus says restate what God said in Hosea 2:10?
– How is the response similar to Hosea’s day?
Read Hosea 2:14-16
The Valley of Achor: Achor means “trouble” or “disaster.” That was the place where Achan was stoned after he disobediently took for himself clothing, silver, and gold from the condemned city of Jericho (Joshua 7). Achor then became a synonym to represent the trouble that comes one’s way because of disobedience. Indeed, crime and punishment belong together. But Hosea teaches us that in the heart of God, love burns hotter than anger.
Read Hosea 2:17-23
– When is “that day” to which God refers?
– To what does God point His people toward?
– Israel was already under a covenant with God. What does this then say about the New Covenant Jesus will institute?
– This new covenant of Jesus (which is what?) then does what?
Hosea buys back his wife
Read Hosea 3:1-5
Raisin cakes were eaten during religious festivals of the Canaanites (see also Isaiah 16:7, Jeremiah 7:18). Although nothing was wrong in itself when one ate raisin cakes (David gave raisin cakes to the people of Israel in 2 Samuel 6:19 and 1 Chronicles 16:3), it was what eating the cakes confessed in Hosea’s context that made it wrong. Paul makes the same comparison in the New Testament when some Corinthians ate meat sacrificed to idols (1 Corinthians 8:1-13, see also Acts 15:29).
– What does Hosea do to get his wife back? (vs. 2)
– How does this point forward to Jesus?
– What does Hosea prophesy in verse 4?
– How can the children of Israel seek after the LORD their God and David their king when Hosea just said that “Israel shall dwell many days without king of prince”?
– Discuss how Matthew the Evangelist helps us understand this in his genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:1, 17).
Israel’s Unfaithfulness
Read Hosea 4:1-3
– In verse 1, how are the Israelites failing?
– If “no knowledge of God” is a fault with the people, what does this say about the need to know Him and about Him?
– Lack of faithfulness, loyal love, and knowledge of God can lead to what behaviors?
Read Hosea 4:4-6
– Who is now being singled out for being unfaithful?
– What was the priest not doing? (Remember the context of the Northern Kingdom)
The Book of Malachi describes the priest’s responsibility for religious instruction and traces this tradition back to Levi, the ideal priest (Malachi 2:5-7). In Malachi’s day, the priests were also guilty of failing in their teaching responsibilities (Malachi 2:8).
– Since the Israelites had forgotten the Torah (law, instruction, revelation) of their God, what will He do?
– What does this say about doctrine, that is, the content of the faith?
– Discuss God not forgetting His people and God forgetting His people. How can we make sense of this, especially considering the natural expressions of language?
Read Hosea 4:7-8
– What does Yahweh say about the priests of the Northern Kingdom?
– Instead of being hungry for the Torah, what is their hunger?
