02: Minor Prophets - Hosea 1:2-3:5

[Dunkle] Welcome back, everyone! As we continue in this Minor Prophets class, we’re just at the beginning of Hosea, after we did a fair bit of introduction. So I remind you, we’re starting off Hosea. He talks about his time frame. And in chapter 1, verse 2, we get to what might have been devastating news to Hosea. He’s supposed to go and marry a harlot, he’s told. There’s an interesting thing I didn’t note last time. It says,

"And children of harlotry"—

scholars sometimes debate, did this woman that he marries— and in verse 3, we see her name is Gomer—did she already have children of harlotry that Hosea took into his family? There’s some speculation of that, but most Bible scholars that I’ve studied say it’s a reference ahead of time to the children that they’ll have.

There’s no reference anywhere in the book to prior children, but we’ll see they’re going to have children that God will tell Hosea to give certain names, representing His relationship with Israel. Sometimes I like to raise these questions and then tell you that the answer is, well, we don’t know. Or we don’t know for sure. And a lot of times when we don’t know, we don’t have to know. But it’s clear—he’s going to marry—it says, verse 3,

"So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son" (Hosea 1:2–3).

So he’s not talking about the wedding and the honeymoon and all the other stuff. He’s going to quickly get to the fact that they have a child. I do want to mention, though, that what we’re going to see in this analogy parallels a story that we can find in the book of Ezekiel. In Ezekiel chapter 16, there’s a similar allegory. We’re not going to go there and look at it now, but it has a lot of the same lesson. Similarly, Ezekiel 23, I believe, has a slightly different version of it.

We’ll stay here. We know it’s Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim. Some Hebrew scholars say Diblaim could be translated to mean “double cake of figs.” Which—yeah—I see by the looks on your faces—what’s up with that? Well, we’re not sure if that’s her actual name or the name of her parents, or it can be symbolic for meaning something like a double cake of figs. Yeah, it’s like something extra sweet and rich.

They say it can be used to symbolize extreme sensual pleasure. Think of something really rich that you might eat, but you wouldn’t want too often. And it’s autumn here while we’re doing this, so we’re getting into fair season. You ever go to one of these local fairs and you see the stands, and you can get like a deep-fried Twinkie? Man, is that decadent. I’ve never eaten one, but I’ve wondered—people say—anybody here had a deep-fried Twinkie? What was it like? Not Twinkie. Other things, yeah.

So this might be referring to Gomer as—you know—Diblaim—I’m not referring to her name—but representative of a characteristic about her. And there is a Hebrew trait in the language where someone might be referred to as the son of, or the daughter of, and then it gives a character trait.

In the New Testament, you’re familiar with Barnabas. Barnabas wasn’t his actual name. That meant son of encouragement, because he was very encouraging. James and John were nicknamed by Jesus as sons of thunder, okay, because probably their boisterous personality and their noisiness.

So calling Gomer the daughter of Diblaim might be referring to one of her greatest, most notable traits as having to do with sensual pleasure—which I hate to put it in crass terms—but she was already a prostitute. I’ve heard some people speculate maybe she was really good at her job, but it could just be that her parents’ name was Diblaim. I kind of like that idea. Anyways, they marry and they have a child. They have a son.

And the Lord said to Hosea, "Call his name Jezreel"—okay, Jezreel is a name we might know from the Old Testament—

"For in a little while I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, and bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel" (Hosea 1:4).

Okay, so a little geography is important here. There is a plain in northern Israel called the Plain of Jezreel that cuts through the highlands. Okay, so it’s a fertile area where they can grow a lot of grain. So Jezreel is pretty well known, and this is referring to a story in ancient Israel’s history. You probably remember King Ahab as being a pretty bad king. And there is a time when God had a prophet ordain Jehu—or Yehu, depending on how you want to pronounce it—to be king, and he’s supposed to wipe out Ahab’s family.

And Yehu does—but he goes overboard. He kills the family, he kills a lot of other—he just slaughters a lot of people. So he shed a lot of innocent blood, and God is calling that to mind. He’s going to avenge the blood of Jezreel on the house of Jehu. Okay, and bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. It does not say it’s going to bring an end to the house of Israel.

We know from many prophecies that Israel might lose its identity, but God would keep track of Israel and would eventually keep the promises that He made to Abraham. And that’s something we’ll cover at another time. I’m just making it very clear here that while He might end the kingdom, it’s not ending the people—or even ending their association as a people.

Okay, another thing I want to note, though, about the name Jezreel—because we’re going to see that that’s a name not only of a valley, but it can be translated to mean “God scatters,” or alternately as “God plants” or “sows.” And you might think, how could those be the same? Scattering?

Well, the relation is, if you’ve ever seen someone do what’s called broadcast planting—you might see this if you’re seeing a rendition of the past where the farmer would have a sack of seed, and he’d walk through the field, and he’d grab handfuls and do this— I’ve never done that to plant seed, but when I shovel my driveway in the winter and I want to put salt, I do exactly that. I broadcast plant the salt. So Jezreel could refer to God scattering Israel, which He prophesies He will do.

He’ll bring in the Assyrians, and He’s going to conquer Israel and take them out of their land. Later, He’s going to refer to planting Israel, and He can use the same word. So having Hosea name his son Jezreel can help remind Israel of this lesson. We’ll come back to that in a bit.

Well, I will note in verse 5, it says,

"It shall come to pass in that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel" (Hosea 1:5).

It doesn’t say this because God hates archery. The bow is a symbol of military strength. So it’s saying God is going to break Israel’s military power, and God would do that when it’s time for a nation to fall. I believe this prophecy applies to ancient Israel, but if we want to look forward, God uses the same methods at different times. There might be a time in the future when God will symbolically break the bow of the people of Israel to fulfill prophecy.

Okay, so we’ll move on. Another child comes. Verse 6. She—that is Gomer—conceived again and bore a daughter.

God says,

"Call her name Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away" (Hosea 1:6).

Lo-Ruhamah means not having mercy. There’s different ways to translate it. The long version is not having obtained mercy. Short way would be no mercy—Lo-Ruhamah. And God is saying, I’m done having mercy on Israel. I’m going to stop that. So mercy is done. Now, I had to turn the page in my Bible.

In verse 7, He says,

"Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah, will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow nor by sword or battle, by horses or horsemen" (Hosea 1:7).

This is one of those places where God says, okay, the different nations have separated and Israel is going to suffer first.

Judah had some good kings at times. They’re not going to be conquered by Assyria. It’s going to be more than a hundred years later that they’ll be conquered by Babylon. So in this prophecy here and now—Israel, your time is about up. Judah, you’re okay for now. Okay, I’ll save them—the Lord God. But He says it’s not going to be by bow or sword or battle or horses. God’s mercy is based on His mercy.

Okay, verse 8.

“Now, when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son.” (Hosea 1:8)

So Gomer was—you know—a fertile woman.

And He says,

"Call his name Lo-Ammi, for you are not My people, and I will not be your God" (Hosea 1:9).

Lo-Ammi means not my people. Okay, so basically God is saying, you’ve sinned, you were My people, we were married, we’re getting divorced. Doesn’t say that here—actually there’s a prophecy in Jeremiah where God refers to a certificate of divorce—and I don’t want to go into that now. But God is saying, you’re getting what you’ve earned.

So we’re going to end this. I’m not going to have mercy on you. You’re not going to be My people. That’s not the end of the story. Keep that in mind, but that’s where it is now. Matter of fact, I guess what I’m saying—not the end of the story—I should look at my notes occasionally.

And verse 10—yet—okay, yet we could say in spite of this—

"Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured” (Hosea 1:10).

Okay, I’m not done with Israel. I like the way Darris McNeely often says, God has unfinished business with Israel. That’s absolutely true. And we see it here. Even though I’m going to punish them, I’m not having mercy, they’re going to be scattered, not My people—that’s not the end of the story. They’re going to be increased.

“It’ll come to pass where it was said of them, you’re not My people—there it will be said, you’re the sons of the living God.”

I want to pause there because that’s a phrase that’s quoted by two different writers in the New Testament. And it takes on a double meaning, so it’s worth us looking at it here, okay? And the two writers in the New Testament are Peter and Paul. Mary didn’t write one—but sorry if you’re into folk music.

Okay, so I’ll note Paul talks about it the most. In the book of Romans, chapters 9 through 11—we won’t turn there—but in Romans, Paul will spend a lot of time discussing how to be Lo-Ammi, how to be God’s people. Okay, and it goes to show a remnant of Israel are being called God’s people—but not because of who they’re descended from.

Paul will make the case that you become God’s people by being called, by being the ekklesia, and responding to that call, and then having God’s Spirit. So he’s saying, you know, by calling and election, some people become God’s people.

And in Galatians 3:7, he says,

"Those who are of faith are sons of Abraham" (Galatians 3:7).

That was Galatians 3:7, if you want to note it. In Galatians 3, a little bit later, starting in verse 26, he says,

"And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Galatians 3:26, 29).

So he goes on—basically Paul will quote this. And by the way, it’s in Romans 9, verse 26, where he actually quotes this verse from Hosea. I should have given you that earlier, but he spends a lot of time talking about how—okay—Israel, God disowned them. They’re not going to be His people, but He still has unfinished business. He’s going to make them His people.

But Paul will look to a group of people who may or may not be Israelites, and he’s going to say, you weren’t a nation, you weren’t a people—now you are a people. Now you’re a nation called by God. Okay. I will note—yeah—I’m referring to Romans, and of course, Mr. Meyers will lead you through all that fairly soon.

In Romans 11, Paul says, what of Israel? Are they excluded? Certainly not. And he goes on to talk about how he uses an analogy of branches broken off of a tree. He said, yeah, they were broken off because of disobedience, and new Gentiles are grafted in. He says, you know, the natural branches can be grafted back in. Israel’s not done. I’m going to graft them back in.

But if I can mix metaphors a little, remember what Jesus said in John chapter 15, where He says,

"I am the vine, you are the branches" (John 15:5).

Okay. Branches being grafted in aren’t grafted to Israel. They’re grafted to Jesus Christ. We who are not a nation—maybe not a people—become a people when we’re grafted into Jesus Christ, when we’re unified and become a people because of God’s Holy Spirit. That’s why where God is talking about Israel saying, I’m not done with you. I’m—you know—I stopped having mercy, but I will have mercy. I made you not My people, but I will make you My people. The Apostle Paul and later the Apostle Peter said, hey, you guys in the church, you weren’t a people. Now you are.

I’m actually—I didn’t turn to Romans—but I’m going to turn to 1 Peter because Peter looks at that same Scripture. 1 Peter 2, beginning in verse 9. If we can find it. Yes, it’s still there.

1 Peter 2 verse 9. Peter is writing to members of the church and says, “you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people” (1 Peter 2:9).

He’s talking to the church that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Who once were not a people, but now are the people of God who had not obtained mercy. Once you were lo ami and you became ami. Once you were lo ruhamma, now you’re ruhamma. You’ve become the people of God.

Beloved, I beg you, sojourners and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts against the soul. Actually, I don’t think I wanted to go beyond verse 10. Now we’ll leave it at that.

Peter and Paul both look at what Hosea wrote and said, God meant that for the church as well as for ancient Israel. So we want to see this in that context. And along with that, going back to Hosea 1 verse 10, 

“it’ll come to pass in the place where it was said to them, you’re not my people” (Hosea 1:10).

“It’ll be said, you’re the sons of the living God. Then the children of Judah and the children of Israel will be gathered together and appoint for themselves one head. They’ll come up to the land of Israel. Great will be the day of Jezreel” (Hosea 1:10–11).

This will be a time where it’s not God’s scatters, it’ll be God’s sows. God is going to replant Israel as a nation, and he’s going to fulfill the purpose he had for them in the first place.

Now, I want to note chapter 2 verse 1. Almost everybody agrees should have been part of chapter 1. So it should be verse 12 of chapter 1, because he says, “Say to your brethren, my people, Ami, say to your sisters, mercy is shown, Ruhama” (Hosea 2:1).

So, yeah, you were low, Ruhama, you were low, Ami. That’s not where God wants the story to end. The story is going to end with, I’m having mercy. You are my people.

By the way, the story’s also not done because we’ve got to get back to Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim. We’ll circle back around to that. Another thing I wanted to mention here in verse 11, there’s a parallel with Ezekiel chapter 37 verses 16 to 25.

So where it says in verse 11 of chapter 1, “the children of Israel will be gathered together, point themselves one head” (Hosea 1:11). In Ezekiel 37, after the dry bones prophecy, there’s an image of Ezekiel joining two sticks together, one for Judah and one for Israel, and they become one in Ezekiel’s hand. And it says, my prince, David, will rule over them (Ezekiel 37:16–25).

So it’s a prophecy of the future when God turns green and purple into one nation again, and in the millennium, King David will be resurrected and he will be king. So God is prophesying this fairly early on for Israel, and of course it pertains to the church and all of mankind. Wow. We got through chapter 1. We’ve got more to go.

I was hoping to get to the end of chapter 3 before we’re done today.

Now, I’ll remind you, I said chapters 1 and chapter 3 are written in prose. Chapter 2 goes into poetry, and we could possibly skim a little more quickly through that, because we get some of this imagery.

We’ll pick up with verse 2. “Bring charges against your mother” (Hosea 2:2). Who’s your mother? No, I’m not your individual mother. He’s talking to Israel, so he’s saying the nation.

Hosea, bring charges against the nation. That’s what the mother symbolizes. “For she’s not my wife, nor am I her husband” (Hosea 2:2). He’s not saying there wasn’t a marriage relationship. He’s saying Israel cheated. They broke the covenant. She’s not acting like a wife. I can’t be her husband.

But what he wants her to do is “put away her harlotries from before her sight, her adulteries between her breasts” (Hosea 2:2). Between the breasts is something you hold nice and close. And he’s saying, get rid of that. Don’t hug your sin close to you. Get rid of it.

“Lest, I strip her naked and expose her the day she was born” (Hosea 2:3). You’re going to suffer. I’m going to expose your sins, so get rid of them. By the way, that also sort of fits with the Ezekiel 16 analogy.

But I want to move on. “I want to have mercy on her children. They’re the children of harlotry” (Hosea 2:4). Their mother played the harlot. Again, adultery symbolizes idolatry. You’re worshiping false gods.

The northern kingdom, they had those golden calves that the first Jeroboam set up. And then they got into Baal worship. And in Ezekiel, God will talk about how Israel looked for whatever God they could find and said, let’s worship that God here. And he was disgusted by it. So he’s calling them out on that.

Verse 5, “Their mother played the harlot. She who conceived them behaved shamelessly. She said, I’ll go after my lovers who gave me bread, water, wool, and drink” (Hosea 2:5). Therefore, God is saying, you thought they gave you those good things? God will later say, I’m the one that gave you the good things.

So “I’m going to hedge up your way with thorns and wall her in so she can’t find her way out” (Hosea 2:6). So God’s going to restrict the access. Take away your ability to go do these things.

Verse 7, “She’ll chase her lovers but won’t overtake them. She’ll seek them but not find them” (Hosea 2:7). I’m going to set it up so you can’t get those good things from other sources, like you thought.

Then she’ll say, well, I’ll go return to my first husband.

In the analogy, the allegory, it could be Gomer looking back to Hosea as the one who loved her. God is saying Israel will eventually come to see that I was the one that provided. Through the punishment, they’ll turn back to me. “Return to my first husband. It was better for me then than now” (Hosea 2:7).

She didn’t know. She was confused. Didn’t realize “I gave her grain, new wine, and oil. I multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal” (Hosea 2:8). I gave you riches and you used it to honor a false god.

I will note that these things like grain, wine, and oil sometimes can be seen to symbolize spiritual things. Like we think of grain and we think of the Word of God. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Oil can symbolize the Holy Spirit. It’s not certain that God means that symbolism here, so I’m just saying sometimes we see that.

But I want to go on verse 9. “Therefore I’ll return because you did those things, take away my grain, and a new wine is seasoned. I’ll take back my wool and linen that was given to cover her nakedness” (Hosea 2:9).

This talks about exposing sin, exposing the bad things.

By the way, this is a little bit reminiscent of what God told the Laodicean church in Revelation chapter 3. Revelation 3 verses 14 through 18, where he says, “You think you’re rich and increased with goods. You don’t realize you’re poor, blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:14–18).

God is using the same metaphors and the same figurative language to describe these things because it’s the same type of problems that can come.

Verse 10, “Now I’ll uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers” (Hosea 2:10). It will be, lewdness here can represent sin and depravity, going away from God’s way.

“No one will deliver her from my hand” (Hosea 2:10). That pretty much says it. When God decides to do something, no one’s going to stop it. You can’t intervene and say, I’ll save you from God. No, that would be ridiculous. Of course that can’t happen.

Verse 11, “I’ll also cause her mirth to cease. Her feast days, her new moons, her Sabbaths, all are appointed feasts” (Hosea 2:11). We see this in the same light as in Isaiah 1 verses 13 to 14, where God says, “I hate your feast days. I hate your Sabbaths” (Isaiah 1:13–14).

I don’t think this is referring to the holy days that God gave. God loves Pentecost and the Day of Trumpets and the Feast of Tabernacles. But in the sense of the northern kingdom, you might remember when Jeroboam set up those golden calves and said, these are the gods that brought you out of Israel.

And he said, it’s too much to go up to Jerusalem for that feast of the seventh month. And he made a feast in the eighth month. So there were other feast days, not God’s. And God, he didn’t like those. He hated those.

Coming back to chapter 2 verse 12, he says, “I’ll destroy her vines and her fig trees, which she had said, these are the wages my lovers gave me” (Hosea 2:12).

By the way, vine and fig tree is sometimes used in the Bible as a symbol of peace and prosperity. There are places it’ll say, every man sat under his vine and under his fig tree. Here God says, I’m taking away the vines and the fig trees. Not a time of peace and prosperity.

“I’ll make them a forest, the beast of the field will eat them” (Hosea 2:12). “I’ll punish her” (Hosea 2:13). The her here is still the nation of Israel for the days of the bales. Bales can basically refer to false gods. The word bale can mean master.

So you’re masters, but there were bad evil masters. God will punish for false religion. “For she decked herself with earrings and jewelry and went after her lovers. But me she forgot,” says the Eternal (Hosea 2:13).

You went after these other gods, you forgot me. This is going to be a recurring theme in the prophets. And we never want this to be us. We never want in our lives for God to look at us and say, you left me. You got caught up doing other things.

That shouldn’t be us. And by the power of God’s Spirit, it doesn’t have to be us. We’re in a different situation than Israel because he pours out his Spirit on us. So I don’t want to have you fearful that that’ll happen when you’re not paying attention.

We turn to verse 14. In English it says, “Therefore, behold, I will allure her” (Hosea 2:14). Many scholars of the Hebrew say therefore is not the best translation of this word. They say it would be better if it said, nevertheless. Or it could say, yet I will allure her.

God is saying, although you cheated on me, you did all these bad things that deserve punishment, I still want to win you back. I’m going to allure you. “I’m going to bring her to the wilderness and speak comfort” (Hosea 2:14).

God’s unfailing love here is not failing. He’s not giving up. He says, “I’ll give her vineyards from there and the valley of Acore as a door of hope. She’ll sing there as in the days of her youth when she come up from the land of Egypt” (Hosea 2:15).

Now, you probably don’t think a whole lot of the valley of Acore, am I right?

Okay. There’s a significant story in the book of Joshua. You remember when the children of Israel marched around Jericho, blew the trumpet, and the walls came down. But they were told ahead of time, no plunder. You can’t take any of that. One guy took some plunder, a fella named Achan, and he got found out.

Joshua later said, why have you troubled Israel? Acore, sorry, means trouble. And this happened near the valley of trouble. So he said, Israel will trouble you. So God is making a reference back to that story of punishment for sin, in a way that people reading the original Hebrew and living in ancient Israel would have remembered.

So I’m bringing it to our mind because God says the valley of trouble, I’m going to change into a door of hope. There’s a subtle thing there that we could read over in English, but it’s sort of like, you know, nevertheless, I will allure her. I’m going to win you back. I’m going to turn your trouble into hope.

That’s the kind of God we worship. One who turns trouble into hope. And he’ll restore as in the days of youth.

So in verse 16, “It’ll be in that day, says the Lord, you’ll call me my husband” (Hosea 2:16). My husband is Ishi in the Hebrew, which you don’t have to memorize that. But what you will not call me is my master, Biali (Hosea 2:16).

God wants to be Ishi, husband, loving friend, not harsh master. The thing he’s saying here for Israel represents the relationship he wants with us. God doesn’t want to have a harsh, be afraid of me or else relationship. He wants a loving, kind relationship where we’re glad to spend time with God.

Which makes me think I shouldn’t be yelling it at you. I should be speaking this in a kinder voice. Sorry, I get all caught up with the caffeine. But this is powerful stuff. God wants to have a loving, interactive relationship with his people, not a dominating one.

So part of what he’ll do is take away the false gods. Verse 17, “I’ll take away from her mouth the names of the Bails” (Hosea 2:17). We’ll not even think about those false gods. “And they will be remembered by their name no more” (Hosea 2:17).

There’s several places God says we’re not even going to think about that anymore.

And then in verse 18, he says, “In that day I’ll make for them a covenant” (Hosea 2:18). I want to stop because I want to point out something I haven’t said in class yet. There are certain phrases that more often than not are reference to end-time prophecy, something that’s in the future.

And this is one of them. In that day. Which day? That day. In that day, though, it’s often looking ahead to the time when this is going to be fulfilled.

What’s going to be fulfilled? Well, for one thing, “I’m going to make a covenant with the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, the creeping things” (Hosea 2:18). What? Well, this is reminiscent of a prophecy in Isaiah chapter 11. We talked about this earlier with the wolf and the lamb, the bear and the cow cattle. A little child will lead them.

You know, a child will play on the hole of the asp. No one will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain. Isaiah 11 spreads it all out and gives us detail. But it’s really the same thing God is talking about here in Hosea 2:18.

I’m going to bring peace with the beasts of the field in that day. “The bow and the sword of battle I’ll shatter from the earth” (Hosea 2:18). You know, neither will they learn war anymore, is what he’s saying. “I’ll make them lie down safely” (Hosea 2:18).

And he says, “I will betrothe you to me forever” (Hosea 2:19). Okay, this is a future marriage covenant. God married ancient Israel, and ancient Israel broke that marriage. They cheated on it and they broke the marriage covenant.

But God is saying, I will betrothe you to me. That could refer to Israel restoring the marriage, but we see Israel will become a people by being called and becoming members of the church, by being grafted onto Jesus Christ. And that’s where we are.

I want to add to this again some prophecies. And this is what I like to point out in Isaiah 62 verses 4 and 5. And referring to this future marriage covenant, he says, “You’ll be called Beulah” (Isaiah 62:4–5).

How do you like to have your name changed to Beulah? Beulah means married. So he’s saying you’re going to be married, and it means a covenant relationship with God.

So it’s meant to be a very exciting, positive thing. I like to stop and talk about it because of my grandma. What’s grandma got to do with this?

By the way, my grandmother was the first member of my family that was in the church. She’s the one that started teaching me scriptures. Her name was Genevieve. Genevieve Dunkle, later York when she got remarried. But her middle name was Beulah.

She didn’t know that Beulah meant married. She just thought it sounded like a horse’s name. So she always laughed and said, I don’t want people to call me Beulah. That sounds like a horse. I wish I could have her come in now and talk about this is in the Bible. It’s talking about this future betrothal and this great relationship with God.

When she comes up in the resurrection, she and I are going to have a talk. She’ll probably say, I knew that all along. I just still didn’t like the name. Maybe. Okay. Anyways, let’s get back to this.

“I’ll betrothed you to me forever. Yes, I’ll betrothed you in righteousness, in loving kindness and mercy” (Hosea 2:19).

That word that’s translated loving kindness is often as the Hebrew has said. Sometimes it’s with a C because it has the guttural chased, which I don’t do very well. But it’s a very important word that describes God. It means covenant love. It’s sometimes translated mercy, ongoing love. It’s a deep thing, a covenant love.

It’s hard to express it with English because it’s so powerful, but it’s something about God. And he’s saying, “in has said and mercy, I’ll betrothed you to me in faithfulness and you shall know the Lord, the Eternal” (Hosea 2:19–20).

“It shall come to pass in that day” (Hosea 2:21). Here’s that phrase again that lets us know we’re looking ahead, probably to end-time prophecy. “It’ll come to pass in that day that all answers,” says the Lord (Hosea 2:21).

“I will answer the heavens. They’ll answer the earth. And the earth will answer with grain” (Hosea 2:21–22). There’s a lot of answering going on here. The Hebrew word there is arah, which could also be translated as respond. So, an answer back, a response.

So God is pouring out these things, and the response from the earth is grain, new wine, oil. So positive things. Think of the plagues that are going to happen at the end, drought and famine and all that. God is prophesying the earth producing lots of food.

Earlier we talked about taking away the vines and the fig trees, but we know when the kingdom comes, everyone will sit under his vine and under his fig tree. It’ll be very positive, peaceful, prosperous.

Verse 23, “Then I will sow her for myself on the earth” (Hosea 2:23). Jezreel. I will sow. “And I will have mercy,” Ruhama (Hosea 2:23).

“And I will say to those who weren’t my people, you are my people,” Ami (Hosea 2:23).

So we circle back around. We have the relationship broken, damaged. You’re not my people. I’ve got to scatter you. I can’t have mercy. But in that day, it’s coming. I’m going to gather you. I’m going to plant you. I’m going to make you my people. I will show mercy.

“And they’ll say, you’re my God” (Hosea 2:23).

So is that just us in the church? I think this is looking well beyond that. We could say it’ll be just the church because God is going to call everyone into his church when the time comes. You know, God’s plan and purpose is for everyone.

We’re referred to as the firstfruits because we have an opportunity now. And the Bible refers to as the first resurrection as a better resurrection. But it doesn’t say the only resurrection. Everyone is going to have a chance to be Ami. Everyone is going to have the chance to have Ruhama.

I say it that way. You’d think I know Hebrew, but I don’t. But God’s plan is wonderful and good.

And with that, we turn back to the allegory. Chapter 3, and we’re sort of breaking in. It’s like passage of time. In chapter 1, Hosea, go marry yourself a prostitute. We have these kids, and now we stop and tell a story. And we come back, and there’s Hosea, but where is Gomer?

It’s like Hosea sitting, being lonely and lost. And God tells him, “Go again. Love a woman who’s loved by a lover and is committing adultery” (Hosea 3:1).

Now, that can be pretty confusing as it’s translated into English, but we’re pretty sure we know what it means. And I’m going to tell you, because it means something really good. And we partly know the meaning because of what it represents.

It says, “Just like the love of the Eternal for the children of Israel who look to other gods, and love the raisin cakes of the pagans” (Hosea 3:1).

So God is saying, Hosea, the people that I love went off and cheated on me, but I still love them. And it’s like he’s saying, Hosea, I want you to go again and love a woman who’s loved by a lover.

I’ll note that word there that’s translated lover, as in loved by a lover, the Hebrew is rea. It can be translated various ways. A lot of times it’s translated as friend or associate, but it can properly be translated as husband.

So let’s look at it this way. Hosea, I want you to go love this woman whose husband still loves her. And that husband, Hosea, is you. You still love Gomer. She cheated on you. She went off back into prostitution, but I know how much you love her because that’s the way I still feel about Israel.

I can almost imagine Hosea having tears in his eyes, and maybe God has tears in his eyes because they share this feeling. And it’s like God is telling Hosea, it’s okay that you still love her.

You might think you have to punish her. You could never take her back because her sin was that bad. And yet you love her. You want her back. Go get her.

This would be a great romantic comedy, right, where the hero rushes off to the airport to catch her before she gets on the plane? Isn’t that in a bunch of different movies? Go get her, Hosea. You still love her, and that’s okay. I still love Israel.

Okay, and that’s the point. He says, just like the love of the Eternal for the children of Israel who look to other gods. We never want to lose sight of how important this is to us.

Because Hosea loved Gomer that much. God loved Israel that much. God loves you that much. There’s not a sin that you have committed or will commit that’s greater than what Israel did to God. That’s greater than what Gomer did to Hosea.

And yet God’s love is unfailing. He still loves each one of us, not because we sin, but in spite of our sin. And he wants to have mercy on us. He wants us to be his people.

And just like he tells Hosea, go get her and bring her back, that’s what God will do for us.

And Hosea does. Verse 2, “I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver and one and a half omers of barley” (Hosea 3:2).

That sounds almost comical in the midst of all this emotional stuff. But fifteen shekels of silver, now why did he have to buy her? Apparently, somehow she ended up in slavery, you know, and it seems that we would say sex slavery. He’s got to go buy her from her pimp, if we’d use modern parlance.

And fifteen shekels of silver is not a lot of money. So maybe she’s really run down. I say that because in Exodus 21 verse 32, it tells us if you’ve got to reimburse someone for a slave that gets killed, that’s thirty shekels of silver (Exodus 21:32). So Gomer is only worth half that in this case.

I’ll bet she was worth a lot more than that to Hosea. But he does have to throw in an omer and a half of barley. I’m not sure how much that cost. Sorry, I want to be funny about it, but it’s not funny. But he buys her back. He loves her that much.

Remember, as I said, think of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice. We’re in sin that bad, and he went and bought us with his own blood because he still loves us.

Okay, and he says, “You’re going to stay with me many days. You’re not going to play the harlot. You shall not have a man, so I’ll be toward you” (Hosea 3:3). You’re not going to have another man. It’s like, you’re with me now, and it’s going to stay that way.

For the children of Israel, God is saying, “Shall abide many days without a king or a prince, without sacrifice, sacred pillar, without ephod” (Hosea 3:4). Now, there’s a fair bit of speculation on what this means for Israel abiding many days.

Some people equate it to when, after they’re conquered by Assyria, they won’t have a king. They’re not going to be identified as a kingdom. So there’s a good chance it is referring to that as well, while God keeps track of them.

In Amos, it talks about sifting Israel like grain through a sieve, but not losing a single one. We could keep that in mind. I’m not going to parse this immediately, but God is going to take away these false things. A sacred pillar used for false worship, an ephod, a teraphim. A teraphim is a local household god.

But after those many days, “The children of Israel shall return” (Hosea 3:5). They’re going to rebuild that relationship. It’s going to be Ami. It’s going to be Ruhama. And “shall seek the Lord their God and David their King” (Hosea 3:5).

I already mentioned that we see prophecies in other places that says God is going to resurrect David. He’s going to be king over Israel once again. And “they’ll fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days” (Hosea 3:5).

By the way, I mentioned some phrases that often refer to end-time prophecy. Latter days is one of those. And that one makes sense. One of the latter days, they’re later. They’re after all of that. So we want to look to that.

Alright. I don’t think I want to try to endeavor into chapter 4 today. So we’ll wrap that up for today. Say thank you. We’ll pick this up next time.