Ep. 150. Hosea 1-3 | Hosea Part 1

EPISODE 150

HOSEA PART ONE: HOSEA 1-3

Pay special attention to Hosea's opening lines and the timeline established for us. You will see that it is similar to Isaiah. Of course, Hosea doesn't record as much for us as does Isaiah. 

God conscripts Hosea to the task of marrying an unfaithful wife. The whole of this is to portray to Israel their faithlessness and betrayal of God, their husband. God uses the language of marriage to indicate the kind of relationship he has and desires with his people. It is an analogy on display in both the Old and the New Testaments. When the people of Israel forsook God and turned to idols, it was likened to a wife being unfaithful to her husband and taking other lovers. To clarify that example, God requires Hosea to marry a woman who will never be faithful to him. 

After she has been faithless and had children of faithlessness, Hosea is told to go and bring her back to himself. In a similar way, God declares that he will woo his people, Israel, and bring them back to himself. The end of it will be that they would no longer consider him "master" but would instead view him as "husband." There is a promise in that return that God would betroth his people to himself forever "in righteousness, justice, steadfast love, and in mercy." The people would once again know the Lord. This hasn't happened yet. The Jewish people are still hardened against God and his anointed, Jesus. But it won't be that way forever, as we will see in future texts. But for now, Hosea will prophesy judgment for the unfaithful wife of God. 

ADDITIONAL READING: Ezekiel 16; Romans 9:27