Hosea
Author
Hosea, whose name means “Salvation.” His prophetic ministry was one of the most personally painful in all the Bible, as his own marriage is used as the prophetic metaphor for the message God has for His own people.
Date
Hosea’s ministry covered from about around 750 to 715 B.C. He was a contemporary of both Isaiah and Micah.
You can compare the times of his writings with 2 Kings 14-17, beginning near the end of King Jeroboam II’s reign in Israel, through the fall of the Northern Kingdom to the Assyrians in 722 B.C. His ministry seems to have continued after Israel’s downfall until at least the reign of King Hezekiah in Judah in 715 B.C., who is mentioned in 1:1. It was likely around this time that Hosea wrote the book.
Audience and Purpose
Hosea was writing to Israel, the northern kingdom, especially during their last decade before destruction by the Assyrians.
His marriage to an unfaithful, self-prostituting wife becomes the primary prophetic metaphor to describe the nation’s unfaithfulness in their relationship to God. As Hosea’s wife is being sold into slavery, it becomes clear that Israel is also facing a season of captivity due to their sin. Yet through Hosea’s actions, God also reveals Himself to be the redeemer who will rescue them from their self-inflicted destruction.
Major Themes
- God’s Faithfulness.
- Man’s unfaithfulness.
- Covenant.
- Redemption. The picture of Hosea standing at the slave action, purchasing back his unfaithful wife is one of the greatest pictures of redemption in scripture (3:1-3).
Key Scriptures
- Hoseas 1:10 — “Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.”
- Hosea 14:9 — “Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the ways of the LORD are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.”
Outline
- Hosea 1:1-3:5 — Hosea’s Family Troubles as Symbols
- • Hosea 4:1-14:9 — Prophecies Revealing the Meaning of the Family Symbols
Gospel Summary
Despite the negative circumstances of Hosea’s writings, as Israel faced the coming judgment of God for their unfaithfulness, Hosea is still held up as one of the most beautiful pictures of God’s love and grace in the Old Testament. We see the beauty of the gospel through Hosea, who represents God’s unfailing love, continually chasing after his unfaithful wife, representing God’s people, chosen out of sin. Even when Gomer is being sold into slavery as an outcome of her whoring lifestyle, Hosea is there to purchase his wife back to Himself (redeem her).
It is difficult to find any other Old Testament picture of the gospel that so clearly demonstrates prophetically the message of Romans 5:8 — “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
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© Anthony Scott Ingram 2021. All Rights Reserved.
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Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”
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