3.11.2018 AM: Hosea 2 PM: No Worship SCRIPTURE Hosea 2 1 [a] Say of your brothers, My people, and of your sisters, My loved one. Israel Punished and Restored 2 Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts. 3 Otherwise I will strip her naked and make her as bare as on the day she was born; I will make her like a desert, turn her into a parched land, and slay her with thirst. 4 I will not show my love to her children, because they are the children of adultery. 5 Their mother has been unfaithful and has conceived them in disgrace. She said, I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink. 6 Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way. 7 She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will say, I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now. 8 She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold which they used for Baal. 9 Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens, and my new wine when it is ready. 1 of 8
I will take back my wool and my linen, intended to cover her naked body. 10 So now I will expose her lewdness before the eyes of her lovers; no one will take her out of my hands. 11 I will stop all her celebrations: her yearly festivals, her New Moons, her Sabbath days all her appointed festivals. 12 I will ruin her vines and her fig trees, which she said were her pay from her lovers; I will make them a thicket, and wild animals will devour them. 13 I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals; she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but me she forgot, declares the Lord. 14 Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. 15 There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor[b] a door of hope. There she will respond[c] as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt. 16 In that day, declares the Lord, you will call me my husband ; you will no longer call me my master.[d] 17 I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked. 18 In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land so that all may lie down in safety. 19 I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in[e] righteousness and justice, in[f] love and compassion. 20 I will betroth you in[g] faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord. 21 In that day I will respond, declares the Lord I will respond to the skies, and they will respond to the earth; 22 and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and the olive oil, and they will respond to Jezreel.[h] 23 I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called Not my loved one.[i] I will say to those called Not my people,[j] You are my people ;and they will say, You are my God. MAIN POINT The child of God can always come home to the Father because His grace is greater than our sin. INTRODUCTION As your group time begins, use this section to introduce the topic of discussion. 2 of 8
If you re married, what is the best memory you have about your wedding? How did your hopes and expectations of marriage change after that day? How quickly did they change? Hosea provides a shocking story. The prophet Hosea was instructed by God to marry a woman who would be unfaithful to Him. Even knowing this, Hosea obeyed and married Gomer. Their relationship and eventually Hosea s actions to redeem Gomer provide a tangible illustration of God s love and grace. The child of God can always come home to the Father because His grace is greater than our sin. UNDERSTANDING Unpack the biblical text to discover what the Scripture says or means about a particular topic. Have a volunteer read Hosea 2:1-5. What stands out to you as a particularly difficult aspect of this passage? How do you interpret the phrase Rebuke your mother? Why would Hosea give such harsh instructions to children? What is the underlying message of this passage to believers today, specifically Bible teachers? Hosea s rebuke of Gomer was actually an act of grace. Adultery was a grave offense, punishable by death. Hosea willingly gave Gomer a chance to change her ways and return to him. Gomer was destroying the family. Although she was their mother and Hosea s lawful wife, she was acting as though she was not his wife and Hosea was not her husband. A jolt was needed to end her mad behavior. Prophetically, the children s rebuke of their mother expressed a larger reality about the nation. The children symbolized the need for the Lord s prophets to rebuke the people of Israel for their spiritual adultery. What would happen to Gomer - and Israel - if they did not change their adulterous ways? Though the marriage was broken by adultery, was divorce or reconciliation sought? Why? The second challenging statement in these verses is Hosea s statement about having no compassion on the children (vv. 4-5). Don t get so caught up in the fairness of this statement that you miss the point that God is serious about sin. On the national level, many of Israel s citizens had identified themselves with the pagan gods of their neighbors. They were Israel s children, but they weren t the Lord s children. In their idolatry, they stood outside the Lord s mercies; they had no reason to expect to receive His compassion. 3 of 8
Analyze how Gomer illustrates God s people then and now. What s the sobering warning for all people? Instead of trying to hide, justify, ignore, or redefine our sins, how does God want us to deal with them? How does the example of Hosea and Gomer point to the redemptive love of Jesus Christ? Read 1 John 1:9. What does God do when we confess our sins? Hosea 2:2 is the first call to repentance in this book. Sin is a part of our nature in this broken world, and as we should know by now, even salvation in Jesus Christ doesn t eradicate our sinful tendencies. When we do sin, genuine repentance - being broken over our sin and seeking God s forgiveness - is the response He desires. We must confess and remove attitudes and actions from our lives that identify with our culture rather than Christ. Have a volunteer read Hosea 2:6-13. Since we become slaves of whatever we yield ourselves to (see Rom. 6:16), what are the baals (or masters) in your life? In what ways might you be serving them instead of God? What effect would further punishment have on Gomer? What does this show us to be true of God s character? In a greater sense, Gomer s sins were Israel s sins. Gomer paid a huge price for her sins, and so would the Israelites. God, the true Source of His people s well-being, would bring their delusional thinking crashing down on their heads. He would devastate (Hos. 2:12) the land and punish (2:13) the nation, because the people, like Gomer, forgot (2:13) their Lord and Sustainer. Yet in the end grace would win. The Lord would take back His wife, in righteousness, justice, love, and compassion (2:19). Though the nation didn t deserve it, He would speak tenderly to her (2:14) and would remove the names of the Baals from her mouth (2:17), thus giving the Israelites a gateway of hope (2:15). As a result, the people would once again call the Lord My God (2:23). How can God remain holy and yet enter into such a deep relationship with sinners and the difficult situations that sin produces? Have another Volunteer read Hosea 2:14-23. When, if ever, have you outgrown your need for God or turned your back on Him? What desert experience (v. 14) or other trying circumstance brought you back to God? 4 of 8
Although Yahweh declared that Hosea s generation was no longer His wife and He was no longer her husband, a time would come when He would renew the covenant. A converted Israel would again declare Yahweh to be her husband, and He would assure her of His permanent commitment to her as His wife. What do we learn about God s faithfulness in these verse? What adulterous wife or prodigal son are you burdened for these days? APPLICATION Help your group identify how the truths from the Scripture passage apply directly to their lives. What does the reality that God would picture Himself as a maligned husband seeking to woo back an unfaithful wife teach us about the closeness of His relationship with us? How does this passage of Scripture change the way you think about the gospel? PRAY Pray for a better understanding of God s love. Thank God for the ultimate expression of His love, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. COMMENTARY Hosea 2 2:1. This verse looks both backward and forward. It is optimistic in tone and concludes the reversal of the three names. Just as Jezreel would become a name of salvation, so Lo-Ruhamah and Lo-Ammi would be transformed into My loved one and My people. On the other hand, it also looks ahead to the next verse in that it begins with an imperative and directly addresses Hosea s children. The change of name reflects a real change of status. It can be negative (Ruth 1:20) or positive (Gen. 17:5, 15; Isa. 62:4; Jer. 3:17; Matt. 16:18). Here the name change reflects an authentic act of grace and is no insignificant label. 5 of 8
2:2. This verse begins with Hosea doing almost the unthinkable: ordering his children to denounce their mother. The law of Moses directly commanded children to honor and respect their parents (see Ex. 20:12; Lev. 19:3). Children who struck or dishonored their parents were deserving of death (Ex. 21:15,17; Prov. 20:20). And yet, in this verse the prophet twice demanded that his children speak words of rebuke to their mother. The hope was that if the children directly confronted her with her sin, she would remove the promiscuous look from her face and her adultery from between her breasts. Hosea exhorted his children to acknowledge and denounce their mother s sinful ways lest they become like her and also suffer the shame of exposure. Prophetically, the children s rebuke of their mother expressed a larger reality about the nation. The children symbolized the need for the Lord s prophets to rebuke the people of Israel for their spiritual adultery. 2:3. Hosea s words move increasingly toward being a prophetic warning to the people of Israel. The description is of a husband s humiliating his wife for wrongs she committed. In the ancient Near East, clothing was associated with social status and prestige. For the prophet thus to strip his wife naked and expose her publicly would be an extreme act of humiliation (see also Ezek. 23:29; Nah. 3:5). For Israel, the description depicted that the Lord would bring humiliating defeats to the nation, resulting in great loss of prestige and resources. The prophetic reference to Israel becomes clearer in the conclusion of the verse. The Lord promised to make the nation like a desert and like a parched land, and let her die of thirst. The Lord would withhold needed rains in response to the Israelites sin (see Lev. 26:19; Deut. 28:23; 1 Kings 17:1). 2:4. Through His prophet, the Lord declared that He would show no compassion to the children of promiscuity. Children born under those circumstances would ve been considered illegitimate and thus would ve been banned from the Lord s assembly (see Deut. 23:2). Gomer s children of promiscuity were placed at a supreme disadvantage because of their mother s sins. On the national level, many of Israel s citizens had identified themselves with the pagan gods of their neighbors. They were Israel s children, but they weren t the Lord s children. In their idolatry, they stood outside the Lord s mercies; they had no reason to expect to receive His compassion. 2:5. Hosea s wife, their mother, had been promiscuous. In a culture in which honor and a good name were more valuable than material wealth (see Prov. 22:1), Gomer had acted shamefully. However, she didn t see it that way. Foolishly, Gomer believed that her illegitimate lovers were the sources of her food and water,... wool and flax,... oil and drink. Like the pitiful church at Laodicea (see Rev. 3:17), she thought she was rich when in fact she was wretched. Whatever fantasies she may have cherished, they proved tragically wrong. In a greater sense, Gomer s sins were Israel s sins. Gomer paid a huge price for her sins, and so would the Israelites. God, the true Source of His people s well-being, would bring their delusional thinking crashing down on their heads. He would devastate (Hos. 2:12) the land and punish (2:13) the nation, because the people, like Gomer, 6 of 8
forgot (2:13) their Lord and Sustainer. Yet in the end grace would win. The Lord would take back His wife, in righteousness, justice, love, and compassion (2:19). Though the nation didn t deserve it, He would speak tenderly to her (2:14) and would remove the names of the Baals from her mouth (2:17), thus giving the Israelites a gateway of hope (2:15). As a result, the people would once again call the Lord My God (2:23). 2:9-10. The word for I will take back is essentially the same Hebrew word as I will go back in verse 7. If Israel did not return to her husband, the Lord, He would take back His blessings. On expose her shame, compare verse 3; Isa. 47:1-3; Jer. 13:22; Ezek. 16:36-37; 23:29; Nah. 3:5. The noun translated shame refers literally to a woman s private parts. Israel s punishment would include the disgrace of having her sins exposed for everyone to see. 2:11-13. In spite of Israel s idolatry, they had continued the hypocrisy of worship in Yahweh s name. Outward religious activity can outlive the death of true faith. This verse echoes verse 5 in exposing the lie Israel believed - that their blessings from Yahweh (v. 8) were just payment earned from their service to idols. The words of rebuke (vv. 1-13) conclude with the common prophetic refrain This is the Lord s declaration, then God s promised eventual redemption and restoration in verses 14-23 follow. 2:14-15. God would not give up on Israel. He would lovingly pursue and restore the people; He would bring them back to an intimate relationship with Him. The word therefore commonly begins an announcement of judgment following an indictment for sin in the writings of the prophets. It is so used in verses 6 and 9. But here, following the indictment in verses 12-13, begins an announcement of salvation. Israel s sin will not only result in judgment, but because of God s covenant promises it will also result in salvation. The Hebrew word midbar can mean desert (v. 3) or wilderness. The place of judgment, the desert, will also be the place of salvation. Speak tenderly is literally speak to her heart. It occurs elsewhere of Joseph s comforting assurance of favor and forgiveness to his brothers, who had done evil to him (Gen. 50:21; Gen. 34:3; Jdg. 19:3; Isa. 40:2). Although Israel had forgotten Yahweh, He would carry her back to the wilderness where He would renew and restore her faith as it had been in her youth (13:5). Achor means trouble and alludes to the trouble that Achan caused Israel (Jos. 7:24-26; see Isa. 65:10). 2:16-20. These verses are parallel to verse 2. Although Yahweh declared that Hosea s generation was no longer His wife and He was no longer her husband, a time would come when He would renew the covenant. A converted Israel would again declare Yahweh to be her husband, and He would assure her of His permanent commitment to her as His wife. 2:16-17. The phrase the Lord s declaration is repeated in verses 16 and 21 to echo its use in verse 13 and highlight Israel s radical change from Baal s mistress to Yahweh s restored wife. The Hebrew noun ba al could mean husband as well as the name of the Canaanite deity (see Dt. 24:4). Israel s popular religion often merged concepts and practices of Baal worship with Yahweh worship, an idolatrous practice that angered God because it defiled His name (Lv. 18:21; 20:3; Ezek. 20:39). In the future day of Israel s 7 of 8
final conversion, God would remove Israel s promiscuity (v. 2) when He removed any reference to the Baals (the plural indicates that Baal worship occurred at various locations) from her vocabulary (Zech. 13:2). 2:18. Wild animals... birds, and creatures alludes to Gen. 1:20-25; 8:17-19 as well as Hos 2:12. The covenant refers figuratively to the peace God will bring between man and beast (Job 5:23; Isa. 11:6-9; Ezek. 34:25). 2:21-23. These verses are parallel to 1:3-2:1 in that they refer back to Hosea s three children. God will respond to Israel s cries for help and the earth s need for rain. Jezreel generally meant bloodshed, but here it means God plants and refers to Israel. 8 of 8