The name Hosea means, in Heb, "Yah is help" or "Salvation". He
was contemporary with the more famous Isaiah, whose name is very similar. The
name finds an echo in Hos 13:4: "I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt;
you know no God but me, and besides me there is no SAVIOR."
Outline
1. The unfaithful wife and the faithful husband: Hos 1:1
- 3:5
a) Hosea's wife and children: Hos 1:1 - 2:1
b) Judgment on faithless Israel: Hos 2:2-13
c) The restoration of faithless Israel: Hos
2:14-23
d) Hosea's redemption of his faithless wife: Hos
3:1-5
2. The unfaithful nation and the faithful God: Hos 4:1 -
13:16
a) Israel's unfaithfulness: Hos 4:1 - 6:3
b) Israel's punishment: Hos 6:4 - 10:15
c) The Lord's faithful love: Hos 11:1 - 14:9
Theme
The most prominent symbolism in Hosea's prophecy is the
marriage relationship as a parable of God's relationship with His covenant
people; this reflects an aspect of the help God gives to His people. Because of
her unfaithfulness, God had "divorced" Israel; He had previously regarded her as
His wife, but He now repudiates her. The prophets repeatedly refer to this
symbolic relationship between Israel and God (Jer 3:8,20; Isa 50:1; Eze
16:32,38; cp also Eph 5:23; Rev 17:4,5; 19:7; 21:9), but nowhere else than in
Hosea is it acted out so dramatically.
God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance, and even the hundredth straying lamb is carefully searched
out. The children of Israel are the seed of Abraham; therefore they are the
kernel of God's purpose and "the apple of His eye", so that despite their
rebelliousness and faithlessness He continues to watch over them, and will never
make a full end of them. He says to Hosea, "Go again, love a woman who is
beloved of a paramour and is an adulteress; even as the LORD loves the people of
Israel, though they turn to other gods" (Hos 3:1). The displeasure which God
feels at Israel's sin in departing from her Master to worship Baal takes the
form of a loving husband's feelings toward a grossly adulterous wife: feelings
which are perhaps at once the most mixed, and the most harrowing, which it is
possible for a man to experience. How strong must have been His yearning desire
to go forth and accept the least sign of repentance on her part. Yet at the same
time, how intense His feelings of loathing toward her abominations!
In the naming of Gomer's children (of which some seem not to
have been fathered by Hosea) there is found this mingled compassion and
loathing: The second child was named "Lo-ruhamah", which means "without
compassion", or "without pity" (Hos 1:6,7).
God contrasts His great compassion toward the Southern Kingdom
of Judah with His lack of compassion toward the Northern Kingdom of Israel. And
so God allows the overthrow of Israel by the kings of Assyria, but He saves
Jerusalem and Judah from the same Gentile power by a miraculous destruction of
Sennacherib's great army. The third child was "Lo-ammi", which means "not my
people" (v 8)... "for you are not my people, and I am not your God" (v
9).
Yet, because of His own covenants of promise to Abraham, God
cannot allow this to be the permanent condition of His people Israel. The
apostle Paul takes up these words from Hosea in Rom 9:25,26. Paul points out
that the breaking off of Israelite branches has made room for the grafting of
the Gentiles into the true olive tree, and then also speaks of God grafting
natural Israel back in again. And he speaks of those who previously had not
obtained the mercy of God, at last obtaining His mercy again (Rom 11, esp vv
30,31).
In the purpose of God concerning a final restoration of
Israel, a reunited kingdom is envisioned, so that as the northern kingdom has no
future separate existence, only the return of Judah from captivity is referred
to. In Hosea's day the faithful ones in Israel went over to support the kingdom
of Judah (Hos 6:1; 2Ch 11:13,16,17; cp Eze 37:16-20). To indicate the Messianic
application in the future, the meaning of the names are reversed; the negative
("Lo-") is removed from "Ruhamah" and "Ammi" (Hos 1:10,11) -- so that the names
now signify "MY compassion" and "MY people". After continuing "many days without
a king" and all the things that make for a divine nation (Hos 3:4), Israel will
finally "return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and they
shall come in fear to the LORD and to his goodness in the latter days" (v 5).
(Here is indicated a Last Days application of the prophetic parable.)
"They shall go after the LORD, he will roar like a lion; yea,
he will roar, and his sons shall come trembling from the west; they shall come
trembling like birds from Egypt, and like doves from the land of Assyria; and I
will return them to their homes, says the LORD" (Hos 11:10,11).
"Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem
them from Death? O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your
destruction?" (Hos 13:14).
"They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow, they shall
flourish as a garden; they shall blossom as the vine, their fragrance shall be
like the wine of Lebanon" (Hos 14:7).
Throughout the book of Hosea Israel and Judah are accused of
relying upon Egypt, Assyria, and their own fenced cities, and of worshiping
idols and the calves of Samaria. These evils brought appropriate recompense upon
them. In the meantime, therefore, captivity in Egypt and Assyria will be their
lot, and their king will be dethroned (Hos 7:11; 8:14; 13:1,2; 9:3,6;
10:3).
Israel having ignored the word of God revealed in His
commandments, their faithfulness is described as "whoredom", or "adultery" (Hos
1:2; 4:2,10-14; 5:3,4; 6:10; 7:4; 8:1; 9:11-14; 13:13). Yet, in spite of all,
God would reinstate them (Hos 11:8-11). As he originally called Israel out of
Egypt, so He would do so again. They would return from their false worship to
the recognition of the one true God whom their fathers had worshiped.
What happened in a limited sense in OT times (with the return
of Israel from Babylon to their land under the leadership of Ezra, Nehemiah,
Zerubbabel, Haggai, and Zechariah) will happen once again in the Last Days.
Indeed, it has begun to happen already, with the return of millions of Jews from
Europe (and now from the former USSR); but this return is only a preliminary --
for there is no real acknowledgment of the hand of God in modern Israel's
affairs.
However, this state of affairs can change rapidly, when the
children of Israel realize that they can no longer rely on their peace treaties
with surrounding nations (like Egypt), nor the support of their former ally the
United States, nor even their own military might. Age-old enemies will finally
find the means to defeat them in battle. Then, like an adulterous wife who knows
at last that there is neither comfort nor security in the arms of another,
Israel will turn back to her God. "And I will have pity on Not pitied, and I
will say to Not my people, 'You are my people'; and he shall say 'Thou art my
God' " (Hos 2:23). The history of Israel, a pattern for the future?
"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" (Hos 14:9).