Hosea 2

 

Hosea 2

In this chapter God speaks of Israel as his wife, a wife who has committed adultery. The chapter is very neatly tied together. There is the main declaration in 1-5; followed by three therefore (6-8, 9-13, 14-24); the last therefore includes three in that day (16, 18, 21).

2:1 Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.
2:2 Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;
2:3 Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.
2:4 And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms.
2:5 For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.

This is the main declaration of the chapter: Israel has been an unfaithful wife, she has committed whoredoms and adulteries. This is obviously spiritual adultery, the real sin being idolatry. What led to Israel’s forsaking the LORD for idols? The belief that the old gods of the land were the ones who blessed the people with bread and water, wool and flax, oil and drink. It was a land of milk and honey before Israel moved in and they believed the lie that the gods of the Canaanites, the Baalim or Baals, were the reason.

2:6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.
2:7 And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.
2:8 For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.

Therefore – she does not know that I gave her the corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, so I will frustrate her and she will not find her lovers.

2:9 Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness.
2:10 And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand.
2:11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.
2:12 And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.
2:13 And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgot me, saith the LORD.

Therefore – because she went after her lovers and forgot me, I will take away my corn and wine and wool and flax, and cause her mirth to cease.

2:14 Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.
2:15 And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

Therefore – I will allure her, I will woo her, I will win her heart again. The chapter changes here. This is God's grace!

2:16 And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali.
2:17 For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.

At that day / in that day – this is a key phrase in the prophets; a promise is made (I will allure her), and when I do that this is what will happen. Pay close attention to in that day, find the original statement, then follow the in that day statements. Here it is, When I allure her, she will call me ‘My husband’ and not, 'My lord.' Intimacy. I will remove the names of Baalim. "Thou shalt call me Ishi - That is, my man, or my husband; a title of love and affection; and not Baali, my master, a title exciting fear and apprehension." (Adam Clarke)

2:18 And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.
2:19 And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.
2:20 I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.

I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, judgment, lovingkindness, mercy, faithfulness, and thou shalt know the LORD. Such grace!!

2:21 And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth;
2:22 And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel.
2:23 And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.

This is beautiful! I like the way the Septuagint has v 23, “And I will sow her to me on the earth; and will have mercy on No Mercy, and will say to Not My People, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Lord, you are my God.”

O the love, mercy, and grace of God! It is this grace he extends to us. When we were lost in sin and rebellion, God sent Christ to die for us. When Christ rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit to search for us. When we believed in Christ our sins were forgiven and we were reconciled to God. If, after we were born again, we fell back into sin, when we returned to the Lord he forgave and restored us. Truly, “Grace that is greater than all our sin.”

Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,
calling for you and for me;
see, on the portals he's waiting and watching,
watching for you and for me.

Come home, come home;
you who are weary come home;
earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
calling, O sinner, come home!
(Will L. Thompson , 1880)

Hosea 1

 

Hosea is the first book in The Scroll of the Twelve (the last twelve books of the Old Testament, Hosea to Malachi). He ministered at the same time as Isaiah, Amos, and Micah. He prophesied mainly to Israel, the ten northern tribes. Hosea is a great book! It begins with grace. It ends with grace. Ah, but in-between there is some stuff that might make folks today a tad uncomfortable - God’s anger and judgment; but even that is mixed with God’s grace and love.

I will not be doing a detailed verse-by-verse commentary – this is a blog, not a book!! My aim is to give the gist of the chapter, while focusing on key passages in each chapter.

Let’s jump in the deep end of the pool!

Hosea 1

1  The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

Hosea, the son of Beeri – Hosea (Heb. ho-shay'-ah) means salvation.

Hosea gives us some pretty exact dates for his ministry, and it appears to have been a long ministry. This Jeroboam is known as Jeroboam II. Jeroboam I was the first king of the northern tribes (Israel). They were not related.

2  The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.

Second verse and we got questions! I get it, Hosea’s family is a living illustration of God and Israel. The question is: Allegory or actual? There are those who think he actually did this; on the other hand “Almost all the Hebrews [rabbis] agree in this opinion, that the prophet did not actually marry a wife, but that he was bidden to do this in a vision” (John Calvin). Still others understand it to be a parable. I don’t confess I don’t know. I will let you decide, meanwhile I will simply look at what he says. 

3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son.
4 And the LORD said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.
5 And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.

He marries Gomer and they have a son. Jezreel is Yizre`el {yiz-reh-ale}, means to scatter, to sow; seems to be a play on the word Israel {yis-raw-ale}.

Avenge the blood of Jezreel - Jehu slaughtered many people in Jezreel.

Jehu was promised his seed would remain on the throne to the 4th generation. Jereboam was the 3rd generation, he reigned 41 years. When he died his son Zechariah reigned for 6 only months and was assassinated.

and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel – this is much of the message of Hosea. So, where’s the grace the book begins with? It’s coming.

6  And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Loruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away.

Call her name Lo-Ruhamah – that means, no mercy; “for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away.”

7  But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the LORD their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.

I will have mercy upon the house of Judah – He literally did. Assyria captured Israel, but Judah was spared by God’s intervention (2 Kings 19).

8 Now when she had weaned Loruhamah, she conceived, and bare a son.
9 Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.

Lo-Ammi – not my people, for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God. This is serious, very bad. Israel is to be scattered, shown no mercy, and rejected by God. The Septuagint has a very crisp and clean translation, “And he said, Call his name Not My People, because you are not my people and I am not your.” It is interesting that neither the Hebrew nor the Greek has “God.”

This is a major part of Hosea’s message to Israel. “So, where is the grace? This is why I don’t read the Old Testament, it’s nothing but judgment and wrath.”

10  Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.

Here’s the grace! Israel will be increased in number and best of all, “it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.”

Yes, God judged them. Severely. But severe as the judgment was, so much greater will be the grace!

11  Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel.

They were scattered and they will be gathered. Israel will be regathered, restored, and the Lord will reign over them. They will appoint themselves one head - that is Christ will be king!  Praise God!

But it gets better! The apostles Paul and Peter both used v 10 to refer to the salvation of the Gentiles and their inclusion in the people of God, the Church.

Paul: As he saith also in Hosea, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the sons of the living God. (Rom 9:25-26)

Peter:  Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. (1Pet 2:10)

Oh the marvelous grace of God! He is promising restoration to Israel (all Israel shall be saved), and His grace is broad enough, deep enough, to include gathering us Gentiles into the fold, the family, the Church of Christ! And we are not traveling Economy. Oh no no no, it is First Class, baby! We are Fellow-heirs, Fellow-members of the body, and Fellow-partakers of the promises (Eph 3:6)! Wonderful Grace of Jesus!

Repentance in the Epistles

 

This will be a little different. Even though repent and repentance occur nine times in the epistles, I will only be considering one passage, 2 Corinthians 7:8-11, because here Paul offers a good explanation of repentance. I will simply go through it verse by verse.

8 For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent: for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season. 

Obviously, there is a backstory. I believe the letter he is referring to is 1 Corinthians 5:1-13. There was a man, a believer, who was living in sin with his mother-in-law. And the Corinthians were proud of their “Christian love” toward him. Paul chastised them and told them to discipline him.

First, we see repent twice in this verse. In Repentance: A Definition, I said there was another word used sometimes, a synonym of sorts for the usual word for repent (metanoeō), that word is metamellomai. It also means a change of mind, but it is not as robust as repent (metanoeō). Metamellomai means to regret, be sorry about something you did or said. And it is this word that occurs both times in this verse. Throughout this section Paul is speaking of sorrow, regret, and true repentance.

He says, I wrote a letter that made you sorry. Right after I wrote it, I regretted sending it; but no longer, for I see that it worked.

9 Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. 

“I rejoice, not that I made you sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance.” Right away we see: regret is not repentance, being sorry is not repentance. Repentance is something more, something stronger.

sorry after a godly manner – after a godly manner is an interesting expression; literally it is according to God. I don’t really know how to express this in English except to say, this kind of sorrow leads to genuine repentance.

10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of [regretted]: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. 

Paul is juggling sorry, regret, and repentance. This according to God sorrow is the kind that leads me to repent, change my mind and thinking, which obviously means I admit I did wrong, I turn away from it, I stop it, I replace it with the right behavior. This repentance leads to salvation / forgiveness / restoration, which we will never regret.

On the other hand, the sorrow of the world, the sorrow according to the world, works death. Oh you’re sorry, you’re sad you did it or got caught, you may even become depressed, but you are left wallowing in your sorrow and grief, instead of repenting to salvation.

11 For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.

Wow, look how thorough this change was, this turning away from it!

We learn from Paul that sorrow, regret, and repentance are not the same. You can be sorry without regret or repentance. You can regret, yet not repent. Both regret and repent involve a change of mind, but there appears to be one more step that regret often fails to produce, namely replacing the wrong behavior with different, righteous behavior. 

We have biblical examples of people who sinned, regretted it, but did not repent: Cain, Esau, King Saul, Judas.

These are extreme cases that nevertheless show the difference between sorrow, regret, and repentance, which I think can be expressed this way: I am convicted that something I am doing or have done is sin. I am sorry about it and the conviction and sorrow lead me to change my mind about it and change my behavior. If I’m convicted of sin and I’m sorry about it (depressed, distressed), even regret it with all my heart, but do not turn from it to Christ (confessing my sin and forsaking it, calling upon him for mercy to forgive and the grace to change), that is not repentance, nor will it bring forgiveness, salvation, deliverance, and life.

 

Throughout this week I have shared that the most basic definition of repent is, change your mind. But, repentance is more than simply changing your mind, it is changing your mind for the better: a new way of thinking which results in a new way of living. This is a kingdom principle: it is how you begin the Christian life, it is how you continue living for Christ.