Hosea

Overview

“The Book of Hosea is the most scandalous book of the Bible.” When I say this to Christians, they nod knowingly, readily accepting the premise. I suppose they are thinking of the escapades of Gomer, the prophet’s nymphomaniac wife. But that is not what I mean at all. Instead I am referring to the book’s theology. The precarious marriage of Hosea and Gomer is used to picture the broken covenant between Yahweh and Israel. The scandal is in the unbelievable lengths to which the metaphor is pushed. Like a jealous husband, Yahweh is portrayed as having conflicted thoughts. He wants to punish Israel, but he also tenderly wants to take her back.

There is much more to Hosea than that, however. If one wants to read an OT book that shows the heart of God, this is the book. His people care nothing for him. If they believed their prosperity came from him, they would not mistreat their fellow Israelites to advance themselves. They would not enter into foreign treaties in order to feel secure. They would not foolishly bow down to wretched homemade gods to thank them for what their covenant Lord has given. What must Yahweh do to get their attention? What will it take to make things right? These are issues the book of Hosea explores. In doing so, it puts the passionate heart of God on clear display.

Title and Author

The book bears the name of the prophet Hosea, son of Beeri, to whom Yahweh imparted his urgent message at a critical time—during the last generation of the northern kingdom of Israel, before final judgment fell. The word of the prophet held out to them their last chance for salvation. In addition to being given prophetic oracles, Hosea was also called to image God—to reflect in his own person the distress and grief and exasperation that Israel’s God felt toward Israel.

While the book makes clear that its main message was given to Hosea (1:1), it does not identify who wrote it down in its final form. Because chapter 3 is written in the first person, it seems plausible to suggest that Hosea himself wrote it, though this is the only chapter of the book in which he speaks in the first person. As far as who recorded the rest of the book, suggestions range from Hosea himself to disciples who copied down his messages.

Another question concerns how many of these oracles Hosea actually publicly preached. We are not told where or when these messages were proclaimed publicly, making it hard to know if they were. It is thus possible that this literary work was always just that—a written (rather than spoken) appeal. (It is convenient, however, to refer to Hosea as “preaching” his sermons.) It seems plausible to suggest that his messages were carried in written form to the southern kingdom of Judah, where they were cherished alongside other inspired works. The book’s divine character was recognized there, and it was eventually incorporated into the prophetic collection of the Bible.

Date and Occasion

According to the title, Hosea’s ministry of receiving and conveying the word of God took place from the reign of King Uzziah to the reign of King Hezekiah in Judah, and during the reign of King Jeroboam II in Israel—roughly from before 753 to after 728 BC. During that time Israel transitioned from peaceable prosperity to the verge of unrecoverable ruin. Israel’s capital city, Samaria, was destroyed in 722 BC, just a few years after Hosea issued his last warnings. Hosea saw the day of reckoning looming closer and closer and sought to warn the people to escape their doom, but instead they spurned the word of God and swaggered along their obstinate ways toward inevitable destruction and death. As dreadful as this was for Hosea to endure, it was even more painful for God.

Setting and Audience

The book of Hosea deals almost entirely with the northern tribes of Israel. This is its first audience. If the book had remained the sole possession of the north, however, it would have perished with Samaria. At some point, faithful scribes must have brought it south to Judah, perhaps as they fled the coming judgment. His warnings then served as a template for how Judah should have comported herself in relation to her God. Indeed, Judah is mentioned ten times in the book.

In the end, Judah also perished as a nation. But unlike in Israel, a remnant of Judah survived to continue as God’s people. This tiny community owned and internalized the prophecy of Hosea. The word of God did not fall to the ground but found a place with a new generation of faithful worshipers. They eventually grouped Hosea with eleven other shorter books of prophecy into a single collection, which today is called the Minor Prophets.

Theology of Hosea; Its Relationship to the Rest of the Bible and to Christ

The Importance of Faithfulness to the Covenant

In the book of Exodus, the Lord enters into covenant relationship with the nation of Israel (Exodus 20–24). Generally speaking, “the word ‘covenant’ (berit) refers to God’s relationship with another entity that is initiated by God and established by his solemn word (promise or oath).”¹ God’s covenant with Israel was to be much more personal than a contract and much more permanent than an ordinary relationship.²

In light of this covenant relationship, the primary task of a prophet in the OT was not to predict the future but to enforce this covenant among the Lord’s people. Prophets “considered themselves spokespersons for Yahweh, who through them called his people back to obedience to the covenant he had given them many centuries before, and reminded them of its curses and blessings, which Yahweh had sworn to honor.”³

Like the other prophets, Hosea frequently reminds the people of these covenant curses and blessings as he calls the nation to turn from other gods and to the Lord. In terms of blessing, in several passages Hosea speaks of future bliss, a day in which the Lord’s people will be restored in their relationship to him and enjoy peace and prosperity in their land, under his loving and watchful eye (Hos. 1:10–2:1; 2:14–23; 3:5; 6:1–3; etc.).

However, the immediate focus of the book of Hosea is on the coming curses (2:9–13; 4:1–6; 5:1–7; etc.). And unlike blessings, which seem to be coming at a time in the distant future, the curses are spoken of as being just around the corner. The reason is not hard to see: by worshiping other gods, Israel has been so unfaithful to the covenant that the punishments for covenant disobedience are about to break out against them.

As Israel’s history continues, the covenant curses do come to fruition, seen most graphically in the covenant curse of exile that fell on Hosea’s audience—the northern kingdom of Israel—in 722 BC. Those who abandon covenant faithfulness can expect covenant curse.

The NT bears similar warnings for the people of God. The book of Hebrews looks back to examples of faithlessness in the history of the nation of Israel and the terrible curses that came as a result, exhorting those who claim to be Christians not to imitate Israel’s example, lest they too suffer God’s judgment (Heb. 3:1–4:13). God is fully aware when faith is not real. Hebrews is particularly adamant that turning away from Jesus is the supreme act of faithlessness and will be met with a fearful response: “Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? . . . It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:28–29, 31). Hosea’s call to repentance and covenant faithfulness is thus not simply for a bygone era; it is a message that rings with equal importance today.

The Lord’s People as His “Household”

In Hosea, the Lord’s relationship to Israel is sometimes compared to that of a husband and wife (chs. 1–3, esp. 2:16, 19–20); at other times, it is compared to that of a parent and child (1:10; 11:1, 3–4, 10). Both of these metaphors come from the realm of the household.⁴ In the ancient world, the household was the basic building block of society, and faithfulness to the relationships within the household was of fundamental importance. Thus Hosea’s household metaphors would have been particularly powerful ways to underscore Israel’s treachery. But Hosea does not use these metaphors only to convict; he uses them to encourage as well, especially as he speaks of the Lord’s commitment of love and faithfulness toward the members of his household.

What must not be missed is that the Lord is the one who takes the initiative with his wayward children. He is the one who is faithful, even amid their unfaithfulness. He continues to show himself to be the God of mercy, compassion, and love. He shows this above all in sending Jesus, the one through whom he reconciles his creation to himself. It is in Jesus that we now experience adoption as children of God (Eph. 1:5); it is in relationship to Jesus that we are made a bride washed clean, as he is the groom who lays down his life that we might be saved (Eph. 5:23, 25–27). It is in Jesus that God restores mankind to his household, returning prodigal sons and daughters to the loving embrace of their father.

God Loves His People but Must Punish Evil

In keeping with the metaphor of the household, the picture of the Lord that emerges in Hosea is of a God who loves his people as a husband loves his wife, or as a parent loves his child, but who also must punish their evil. Seeing his people’s faithlessness, he laments, “What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah?” (Hos. 6:4). This is the cry of a conflicted parent who loves his faithless child and yet, because of that love, must bring discipline to bear. The thought is repeated in 11:8: “How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? . . . My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender.”

How does the Lord reconcile this deep love for his people with the need to bring justice to bear for the evil they have done? These two passions of God that stand out so clearly in Hosea find their ultimate resolution at the cross of Jesus Christ. There the just punishment for sin and the deep love of God meet: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). The book of Hosea thus yearns for the cross and seeks Jesus to fulfill it.

Preaching from Hosea

Throughout this commentary, the Response sections provide ideas and suggestions for how Hosea’s various passages apply to today’s church. There is one aspect of the book, however, of which it may be helpful to speak more broadly: its use of imagery.

The book of Hosea is rich in its use of images. Sometimes the prophet uses similes, comparing one object to another using the word “like” or “as”: “What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away” (Hos. 6:4). Or again, “Ephraim is like a dove, silly and without sense, calling to Egypt, going to Assyria” (7:11). At other times the prophet uses metaphors, comparing one object to another without using “like” or “as.” In Hosea, God is a husband who expects fidelity from his spouse (2:16). He is a lion who will easily kill and leave his prey for dead (5:14). He is a nurturing parent, taking Ephraim tenderly in his arms (11:3).

Images are used for various reasons. First, they allow a great deal of information to be conveyed using few words. Comparing God to a parent can be done in a few words, and yet this comparison teaches a great deal concerning who God is and how we are to relate to him. Second, images communicate powerfully. By using objects and events from our everyday lives, images resonate deeply with our hearts and minds. Third, images help us to understand what is otherwise incomprehensible. God is the great unknowable Being, infinite in his nature and person. He thus often uses images—taken from our finite world—to help us understand what he is like.

In preaching passages that make use of images, there are two dangers to be avoided. The first is to sanitize an image, to blunt its force, because it sometimes feels too raw. For example, in Hosea 11 the Lord compares himself to a parent who is conflicted about the evil behavior of his child, Israel. On the one hand, he knows they deserve severe discipline. At the same time, he loves them, and this pains his heart: “How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? . . . My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender” (11:8). Such emotion and passion does not always fit into the categories we use to describe God, but we must not bend the image to fit our categories; we must bend our categories to fit the image. In this case, because of the extent of God’s love for his people, he feels like a conflicted parent who knows punishment is due and yet seeks to show mercy instead. This is the God Hosea is describing.

The second danger to avoid is to read too much into an image. When an image is used to compare one object to another, there is usually a very limited point of comparison, and the text itself typically makes the comparison clear. In Hosea 11 God is a parent to Israel and, like a parent, is conflicted when he must punish his child; this is the point of the comparison, as the text itself emphasizes. But there are other things that are true about parents that are not true of God: they can be short-tempered or unjust, they have a partner with whom they birthed the child, they need their sleep if they are going to parent well, and so forth. All of these things are true when it comes to parents, but none should be mentioned when speaking of God as a parent in Hosea 11.

In short, there are three questions that are important to ask of any image: What is the person/thing/event being compared? What person/thing/event is it being compared to? What point of similarity is being made? It is the last question that is especially important to answer, and this will require close attention to the image’s context. But when we answer these questions well, we have the key to unlocking the image and making its meaning clear.

Outline

Hosea is not easy to outline. There are many ways to do so, and no two scholars handle it exactly alike. Several times the word “case” (Hb. rib) is found, referring to a legal controversy, plea, or indictment. If this word is used as a structuring device marking major sections, the following outline results:⁵

1. I. Title: Uzziah–Hezekiah, Jeroboam II (1:1)
2. II. Introduction: The Prophet and the Lord (1:2–2:1)
   1. A. Gomer (1:2–3)
   2. B. Jezreel (1:4–5)
   3. C. Lo-ruhama (1:6–7)
   4. D. Lo-ammi (1:8–9)
   5. E. Like Sand by the Sea (1:10–11)
   6. F. Ammi and Ruhama (2:1)
3. III. The Case of the Jilted Husband (2:2–3:5)
   1. A. Plead with Your Mother (2:2–5)
   2. B. Harsh Measures (2:6–15)
      1. 1. I’ll Hedge Her Up! (2:6–8)
      2. 2. I’ll Take It All Back! (2:9–13)
      3. 3. It Will Be Like It Was Before (2:14–15)
   3. C. In That Day (2:16–23)
      1. 1. On That Day She Will Know My Love (2:16–20)
      2. 2. On That Day She Will Be Mine (2:21–23)
   4. D. Gomer Once More (3:1–5)
4. IV. The Case against Israel (4:1–11:11)
   1. A. Israel Is a Whore! (4:1–5:7)
      1. 1. No Faithfulness in the Land (4:1–3)
      2. 2. Rejecting Knowledge (4:4–6)
      3. 3. Cherishing Whoredom (4:7–11)
      4. 4. A Spirit of Whoredom Leads Them (4:12–14)
      5. 5. A Stubborn Heifer (4:15–16)
      6. 6. Joined to Idols (4:17–19)
      7. 7. Judgment on Priest and King (5:1–2)
      8. 8. A Spirit of Whoredom within Them (5:3–4)
      9. 9. Alien Children (5:5–7)
   2. B. Death Sentence and Beyond (5:8–6:3)
      1. 1. Blow the Horn! (5:8–9)
      2. 2. I Am a Moth; I Am Rot (5:10–13)
      3. 3. I Am a Lion (5:14–15)
      4. 4. Come, Let Us Return (6:1–3)
   3. C. What Shall I Do with You? (6:4–7:16)
      1. 1. I Want Love! (6:4–6)
      2. 2. Like Adam (6:7–11)
      3. 3. Thieves and Bandits (7:1–2)
      4. 4. Parable of the Heated Oven (7:3–10)
      5. 5. Birdbrained Ephraim (7:11–16)
   4. D. Israel Has Forgotten His Maker (8:1–14)
      1. 1. Spurning the Good (8:1–4a)
      2. 2. The Samarian Calf (8:4b–6)
      3. 3. Reaping the Whirlwind (8:7–10)
      4. 4. Altars for Sinning (8:11–13)
      5. 5. Strongholds and Palaces (8:14)
   5. E. Woe When I Depart from Them! (9:1–17)
      1. 1. Whoring upon the Threshing Floor (9:1–2)
      2. 2. Back to Egypt (9:3–6)
      3. 3. The Warnings of the “Mad Prophet” (9:7–9)
      4. 4. Israel Is Barren (9:10–12)
      5. 5. Ephraim Is Barren (9:13–17)
   6. F. The Calf and the People (10:1–15)
      1. 1. The Calf Will Go (10:1–8)
      2. 2. Because of the Calf, Terrible Things (10:9–11)
      3. 3. They Will Lose Everything (10:12–15)
   7. G. My Heart Recoils within Me (11:1–11)
      1. 1. I Love Them (11:1–4)
      2. 2. I Will Kill Them! (11:5–7)
      3. 3. No, I Won’t (11:8–9)
      4. 4. They’ll Come Back (11:10–11)
5. V. Bridge: No, They Won’t; Well, Judah Will (11:12–12:1)
6. VI. The Case against Jacob (12:2–14:8)
   1. A. Jacob and His Posterity I (12:2–8)
      1. 1. Jacob Strove and Prevailed (12:2–6)
      2. 2. Power and Iniquity (12:7–8)
   2. B. Jacob and His Posterity II (12:9–13:3)
      1. 1. I Multiply Prophets, They Multiply Altars (12:9–11)
      2. 2. Jacob Kept Sheep, I Kept Jacob (12:12–14)
      3. 3. Kissing Calves (13:1–3)
   3. C. Shall I Redeem Them? (13:4–16)
      1. 1. They Forgot Me (13:4–6)
      2. 2. Tooth and Claw (13:7–8)
      3. 3. I Gave and Took Away (13:9–11)
      4. 4. Too Foolish (13:12–13)
      5. 5. Sheol and Death (13:14–16)
   4. D. Return, O Israel (14:1–8)
      1. 1. Assyria Will Not Save (14:1–3)
      2. 2. A Tree of Lebanon (14:4–7)
      3. 3. An Evergreen Cypress (14:8)
7. VII. Closing (14:9)