Hosea 2 - Breaking the Cycle
by Lance Ponder(94)http://fkiprofessor.xanga.com
O Brother
Hos 2:1 Say to your brothers, “You are my people,” and to your sisters, “You have received mercy.” The literary siblings here, like the images of wife or children, represent groups of people close to the heart. The logical reference would be to Israel and Judah, respectively. In the Messianic sense these could be viewed as fellow believers, whether Jewish or Gentile, who have been brought into the family of God through the blood of Christ.
O Mother
Hos 2:2 “Plead with your mother, plead— for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband— that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts; There is a call to God’s children to plead with their “mother,” Israel. Here the nation is seen as distinct from its people. The family imagery accurately illustrates the situation while at the same time communicating powerful instructions. The king is the representative of the people much the way a mother represents her children. The king exercises dominion over his people just as a mother maintains control of her children in her home. Where mother leads, children typically follow. In this case the mother is “whoring.” Sexual sin is symbolic of idolatry. An adulterer is unfaithful to their spouse in much the same way an idolater is unfaithful to God. Like a father stepping in when the mother is out of line, God is warning the people, His children, that they must confront their government leaders and demand repentance for the idols they erected and worshipped. In contemporary application, as individual believers we are called to a personal relationship with God and we are directed to defy false and syncretistic doctrine in the guise of Christianity and the Church.
Or Else
Hos 2:3 lest I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst. If the nation of Israel does not turn from its idolatry, it will be brought down in shame. The nation will be stripped of authority, broken economically, and deserted. These things all came to pass just a few years after Hosea’s prophecy was given. Even today we can and should expect God to overthrow false religion. At the end of time we know that all will face the ultimate Truth and all of the enemies of Christ will be put in total submission, even death itself.
One Sin Leads to the Next
Hos 2:4-5 Upon her children also I will have no mercy, because they are children of whoredom. For their mother has played the whore; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’ In Hos 2:2 God asked the people to rise up against its leadership to save it. The people, however, would face the fate of its government if the government could not be changed. The people would face this same fate because they defied their father and followed their mother’s ways. Although there were various reasons Israel’s kings fell into idolatry, the biggest reason was trade. To make business deals with its neighbors, Israel imported as well as exported goods. Idols were big business, entering Israel along with foreign foods, textiles, wine, and other resources. The foreigners brought their gods, established their cult temples, and sought to integrate with Israel’s society. Promoting religious tolerance in order to attract peaceful trade included leading by example that meant the kings of Israel actively promoted idolatry. In America today we see examples of this happening all around us as political correctness takes the place of traditional Christian values. We see it in Darwinian science philosophy, legalized abortion, gay rights, and every other form of moral relativism. We see it in the acceptance of mystic cults, eastern religions and philosophies, nature and animal worship, astrology, and every other form of new age spiritualism. Satan promotes these distractions because they turn people from the true God.
Reaching Bottom
Hos 2:6 Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths. A hedge is a barrier. God is going to put a barrier up to end Israel’s prosperity and thus its idolatry. Even today God blocks our way when we turn from Him so that we become miserable, sensing our loss, when we turn from righteousness to the ways of the world.
Breaking the Cycle
Hos 2:7 She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them, and she shall seek them but shall not find them. Then she shall say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now.’ Building on the previous verse, Israel’s greedy pursuits will come up short. Israel’s political collapse at the hands of the Chaldeans would cause those left behind from the exile to return to YHWH worship in Jerusalem in the time of Hezekiah. In much the same way when we take our eyes of Christ and begin to conform to the world, when we fall on our faces and realize our loss, God mercifully shows us the error of our way and draws us back to Himself.
Help Was There All Along
Hos 2:8 And she did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal. Foolish Israel did not realize its prosperity was by God’s grace all along. Its riches were spent on idol worship in defiance of its benefactor. God promises never to leave or forsake those whom He loves. We are given freedom to make mistakes, even to wander away or even run away. No matter how disobedient we may be, no matter how miserable we are in our disobedience, God is faithful to receive us with grace and mercy when we repent and return to Him. God is God always, always the giver of good things, always caring for us and giving us air to breath and bread to eat. It is up to us to recognize this, to be faithful, and to give credit where credit is due.
God Is Always Sovereign
Hos 2:9 Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season, and I will take away my wool and my flax, which were to cover her nakedness. Since all that Israel had ultimately came from God and belonged to God, then God had sovereign right to take it all back. All too often we forget that all we have came from God. We tend to whine and complain when we suffer some loss, but we forget it was a gift from God to have ever had any good things at all. God intends for us to be blessed, but if we deny Him our gratitude then we have no grounds whatsoever to complain when He reclaims what is His.
But for Now
Hos 2:10-12 Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her out of my hand. And I will put an end to all her mirth, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her appointed feasts. And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, ‘These are my wages, which my lovers have given me.’ I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour them. If Israel’s people could see through their kings’ apostasy is it any wonder that the surrounding nations could see their hypocrisy? In the decades prior to Assyria’s assault Israel experienced considerable economic prosperity. They built up their military and invested in the popular cult temples alongside their own YHWH places of worship. The figs and vines were literal sources of income as well as figuratively representing the fruit of idolatry. Israel trusted in its own power to gain wealth, literally and religiously. By saying “I will make them a forest,” God was saying that Israel would become full of itself, puffed up with pride and arrogance, all the greater to fall when the beastly Assyrians came. In much the same way we often take God for granted today. We put our trust in our own hands and intellect. We think with our technology or money or even our good works we decide our own fate. We delude ourselves when we think to steal God’s sovereign authority.
Because
Hos 2:13 And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals when she burned offerings to them and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry, and went after her lovers and forgot me, declares the Lord. Simply stated, it was Israel’s idol worship that so severely angered God. The first three commandments, written by God’s own hand in a piece of rock, clearly tell us that God is jealous and we are to have no other gods. The third commandment says not to “take the name of YHWH in vain.” This literally means we are not to associate God’s name with false worship or false oaths. Doing these things is blaspheme because man robs God’s name of authority and power and assigns it a place with falsehood. Any time we forget God and chase after the desires of our carnal nature we break these commandments and anger God.
And In the End
Hos 2:14-15 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor [trouble] a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. When the people went into exile, robbed of their worldly wealth, they would find themselves at God’s mercy. Hope would come back to their hearts as the Lord chastened them. Certainly a remnant survived exile to return after Assyria was destroyed in 612 BC. For Christians who fall into sin, there remains hope. God chastens those whom He loves. He corrects and is faithful to forgive us when we repent and return to Him. Even in Hosea’s time those who believed in YHWH understood the relationship between human repentance and divine mercy.
Cleaning House
Hos 2:16-17 “And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. Continuing the poetic prophecy using marital symbols, God indicates that in that day chastened Israel will forsake its idols and return to God. As it pertains to Israel, this occurred at least in part during the reign of Hezekiah when some of the remnant of Israel joined with Judah to restore YHWH worship. While these events provided a sort of fulfillment to the Israel, the marriage symbolism is also carried forward to Christ and the church. There are numerous references to the marriage of Jesus to the Church at the end of the age. When the marriage of the lamb is celebrated in heaven there certainly will be no memory of false gods.
Eternal Marriage
Hos 2:18-20 And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord. Is 11 also indicates animals are part of the messianic covenant. This reference in Isaiah, even if only symbolic of humanity transformed, obviously points toward a messianic event. Mic 4:3-4 contains similar language speaking of a time of messianic rule when war would cease and people would live in peace and safety. There are no events in the past history of Israel or Judah that would really satisfy these prophecies although the post-exile rule of Zerubbabel, mentioned by Haggai, comes closest to its fulfillment. Betrothal implies a deep intimacy. Even the great reforms of post-exile Jewish society, overseen as they were by Persia, could only be described as a foreshadowing of a much greater fulfillment yet to be realized. Hosea talks about an intimacy that lasts forever. It also talks about knowing the YHWH. Yeshua (Jesus) made YHWH known to the Jews and, through the great commission given to the apostles, God’s Anointed One is made known to people everywhere. Through Christ God is made known to all. The indwelling Holy Spirit reveals God in a deeply personal and intimate way to believers of all walks of life. Born again believers are transformed. One could reasonably argue that the animals of Hos 2:18 symbolize the many peoples once separated from God who come to know Him now through Jesus Christ. Even these fulfillments pale in comparison to the ultimate hope held for the marriage of the lamb at the end of the age which John wrote so much about in the closing chapters of Revelation.
God Takes Action to Bring About His Plan
Hos 2:21-23 “And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth, and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel, and I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’” The closing verses of the second chapter bring this poetic passage of prophecy to its climax. False gods have been vanquished. A few points stand out. First, this passage indicates God answers. So, what is the question? Is it not the call for mercy and salvation? Terrible things happened at Jezreel. It seems humanity – at least those who love YHWH – has had its fill of what is terrible. The day God answers the request for salvation will be a great day indeed. This bride, the people loved by God, God Himself will sow. There are several possible connotations to being sown. These people would be raised as new beings, like plants are raised from seed, in the land. There will be mercy and inclusion with God for those who were previously rejected. To a minor degree this was accomplished when Hezekiah brought some of the house of Israel into the government of Judah where YHWH worship was restored and the Israelites worshipped alongside the tribe of Judah at Jerusalem. A greater fulfillment of this passage came about when Christ was sacrificed for the sins of the world and the Gentiles began to be accepted into the new covenant. All those rejected by God through the ages were granted the opportunity to hear and accept God’s call to return to a right relationship with Him. Our loving Creator answered the injustice of the rejected world when reconciliation was made at Calvary. Jeremiah and Paul both spoke about the changing of human hearts when God’s Spirit would come to reside with us in a new way. When the formerly rejected enter into a saving personal relationship they become new creations – in the world but not of the world.
Majoring in the Minors
Hosea Chapters:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Article submitted Tuesday, January 19, 2010 & read 263 times.
Leave Your Comments:
» left by Teresa(1,457)(188 days 15 hours ago.)
Lance, Very well done. As if I was sitting in church. I appreciate the combination of the historical events and their consequences along with the application for today's church. Keep it coming. I am sharing this on my face book page. Blessings! TeresaRespond to this comment
