Hosea 1                                                           The Book of Hosea 

 

Minor Prophets "The Lord of all the earth" giving restored possession of the Land, and foretelling final and unending possession.

 

Hosea was a prophet to the ten tribes or (Northern Kingdom), but he had been warnings Judah also, as well as promises of future blessing.

 

Hosea prophecy is dated as being in the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, King of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, King of Israel.

 

The period covered must have been about seventy-two years. The book of Hosea points to the events immediately preceding the fall of Samaria (The capital of the ten tribes), which took place in the sixth year of Hezekiah; and the last statement, in chapter 13:16, is a terrible prophecy of Samaria's end.

 

This took place in 611 B.C. and Hosea's latest date would therefore be 613 B.C., if chapter 13:16 were, say, two years before Samaria's fall 611 B.C.

 

This gives us, for the whole period covered by Hosea's prophecy, some seventy-six or seventy-eight years from 689-611 B.C.

 

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 means Salvation
• Beeri = Jewish tradition identifies Be'eri with Be'erah, of Reuben = OT:882 = fountained
• 1 Chronicles 5:6 Beerah his son, whom Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria carried away captive: he was prince of the Reubenites.
• Christian tradition makes Hosea of Issachar.
• Both names are symbolical, like the other names in this book.
• This clause not "evidently inserted by a later hand", as alleged.
• Hosea prophecy is dated as being in the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, King of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, King of Israel.
• Jeroboam = Jeroboam II, the last king of the house of Jehu.
• This carries us back to the first fourteen years of Uzziah's long reign.
• For the significance of Jeroboam's name here.
• 2 Kings 10:30 And the LORD said unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.
• 2 Kings 14:23  In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, and reigned forty and one years
  24 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord: he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.
  25 He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gath-hepher.
  26 For the Lord saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter: for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel.
  27 And the Lord said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven: but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.
  28 Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might, how he warred, and how he recovered Damascus, and Hamath, which belonged to Judah, for Israel, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
  29 And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, even with the kings of Israel; and Zachariah his son reigned in his stead.

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.

• Symbol = The First Wife. "Go, Take."
• Signification = The Land departs from God
• The beginning = This may be understood not merely of Hosea's prophecies, but as referring to the fact that Hosea was the first (canonically) of fifteen prophets included in the Hebrew canon.
• By = in, through
• Numbers 12:6 And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.
• 7 My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house.
  8 With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?
• Habakkuk 2:1 I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.
• Zechariah 1:9 Then said I, O my lord, what are these? And the angel that talked with me said unto me, I will shew thee what these be.
• A wife of whoredoms =  a woman of the northern kingdom, and therefore regarded as an idolatress.
• Whoredoms = idolatries.
• Jeremiah 31:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
• The one term is used for the other (of the Subject), because both were characterized by unfaithfulness; the former to a husband, and the latter to God, Who sustained that relation to Israel.
• And = and beget
• Children = offspring.
• The mother is symbolical of the kingdom, and the offspring of the people.
• For the land = Note this reason
  
• Which explains what is meant by, and gives the interpretation of, "whoredoms".
• Land  = earth. Put by (of the Whole), for the land of Israel. Rendered "land"
• From = from after
• Whoredoms means idolatry or whoredom = they were worshipping others gods = the ways of the world
• Jeremiah 3:8 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.
• Ezekiel 6:9 And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.
• 2 Peter 2:14 Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:

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.

• The house of Judah knows who they are
• But The tribes of Israel they don't know who they are
• What did Jehu do?
• 2 Kings 10:15 And when he was departed thence, he lighted on Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him: and he saluted him, and said to him, Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart? And Jehonadab answered, It is. If it be, give me thine hand. And he gave him his hand; and he took him up to him into the chariot.
• 1 Chron 2:55 And the families of the scribes which dwelt at Jabez; the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, and Suchathites. These are the Kenites that came of Hemath, the father of the house of Rechab.
• Jehonadab = the head Kenites

5 And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.

6 And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Lo-ruhamah: 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.

• God didn't say anything about the tribes of Israel

8 Now when she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived, and bare a son.

9 Then said God, Call his name Lo-ammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.

• Lo-ammi: for ye are not My people

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.

• These are the Christian Nations of today
• Why do you think US is a super power?
• USA =  A Nation Under God

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.

• Ezekiel 37 Most of The house of Israel are spiritually dead to God's word
• Ezekiel 37:10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.
  11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.
• God knows who these tribes are.
• It's the people that don't know who they are. Because they have listen to man

 

• Exactly 2520 years from the exile of Benjamin, Iceland became an independent nation.

 

•  The first tribe to be conquered by the Assyrians was Manasseh, in 745 B.C. Exactly 2520 years later America became a nation on July 4, 1776.

 

• Study the book: Abrahamic Covenant, (A study outline of the identity of God's people) By E. Raymond Capt - page 25