1. Hosea derived from Hebrew root “Yeshua (ישוע)” “salvation”
The Prophecy of Hosea
Hosea derived from
Hebrew root “Yeshua (ישוע)”
“salvation”
The names Hosea, Joshua, and Jesus are all derived from the same Hebrew root word. The word “hoshea” means salvation but Joshua & Jesus include an additional idea: “Yahweh is Salvation”. As God’s messenger, Hosea offers the possibility of salvation if only the nation will turn from idolatry back to God.

2. Prophets of the Divided Kingdom
Obadiah: Judah in the days of Jehoram
Joel: Judah in the days of Joash
Jonah: Israel in the early days of Jeroboam II
Amos: Israel in the days of Jeroboam II & Uzziah
Hosea: Israel in the days of Jeroboam II & Uzziah
Isaiah: Judah in the days of Uzziah – Hezekiah
Micah: Judah in the days of Jotham – Hezekiah

3. Kings during Divided Kingdom
Israel
Jeroboam
Nadab
Baasha
Elah
Zimri
Omri
Ahab
Ahaziah
Jehoram
Jehu
Jehoahaz
Jehoash
Jeroboam II
Zechariah
Judah Rehoboam Abijah Asa Jehoshaphat Jehoram Ahaziah Athaliah Joash Amaziah Uzziah Jotham Ahaz Hezekiah
Amos
~ B.C.

4. Kings during Divided Kingdom
Israel
Jeroboam
Nadab
Baasha
Elah
Zimri
Omri
Ahab
Ahaziah
Jehoram
Jehu
Jehoahaz
Jehoash
Jeroboam II
Zechariah
Judah Rehoboam Abijah Asa Jehoshaphat Jehoram Ahaziah Athaliah Joash Amaziah Uzziah Jotham Ahaz Hezekiah
Hosea
~ B.C.

5. Hosea
Although Hosea prophesies about the same time as Amos, his message is very different.
Amos plainly told the people that God’s judgment is coming, why God’s judgment is coming (they deserved this judgment), and that their would be no escape.
Hosea’s message was that God’s judgment was indeed inevitable, but that God’s heart was broken because of their immorality and disobedience.

6. Hosea
Date: around 750 – 725 B.C.
Prophesied to Israel (although Judah is warned to take heed lest she have the same fate as Israel).
Chapter Outline:
Ch. 1-3: Israel’s adultery illustrated by Hosea’s adulterous wife.
Ch. 4-14: Prophetic discourse from God.

7. Hosea Ch. 1 God tells Hosea to go and take a wife of harlotry
Ch. 1-3: Israel’s adultery
Ch. 1
God tells Hosea to go and take a wife of harlotry
This relationship is the key to understanding the book of Hosea
Why?
Because the land (Israel) had committed great harlotry
Through Hosea’s experience with Gomer as she turned from him to take lovers, God revealed His own grief at Israel’s rejection of Him.

8. Hosea Ch. 1 Hosea takes the wife as he was told.
Ch. 1-3: Israel’s adultery
Ch. 1
Hosea takes the wife as he was told.
Gomer bears 3 children while married to Hosea:
Jezreel:
“Jehovah scatters”
Lo-ruhamah:
“without mercy”
Lo-Ammi:
“not my people”
God’s covenant: “I will be your God and you will be my people”
Now: “You are not my people and I am not your God”

9. Hosea
Ch. 1-3: Israel’s adultery
Ch. 1
Yet God looks to the future and sees a day when a purified, spiritual Israel would be His people. They would be united under a new leader.
This passage fulfilled in NT as Jews & Gentiles are united under Christ!

10. Hosea
Ch. 1-3: Israel’s adultery
Ch. 2
God is pictured as the husband of Israel and Israel is depicted as the unfaithful wife, and the individuals within in the nation as the children. Vs 2 & vs 4
God employs the children to beg their mother to give up her harlotry and return lest all the blessings are strip away.
God uses pretty strong language “ I am not her husband, She is not my wife.”- put away your harlotry and return to me.
God will show no mercy on the children of harlotry. These children had been conceived in disgrace.
God states that Israel (that wicked wife) has sought many lovers in Baalim. They have deluded themselves into thinking that these idols will bring them blessing.

11. Hosea Ch. 2 Ch. 1-3: Israel’s adultery
God says He “will hedge her way with thorns so that she cannot find her lovers.”
God hopes that if Israel’s blessings are removed, then Israel will come back to her first love.
God had given many blessings to Israel. Yet she had used these blessings to worship Baal.
God’s judgment against Israel will be so swift that He would turn the land ‘of milk and honey’ into a jungle where wild beast would live.
God is gracious: Baalim had lured Israel away and God seeks to lure them back. An enemy will carry her away into a wilderness, but that enemy is only a means in which God plans to reunite His love.
God’s new relationship will be so completely different. God will betroth his new people in righteousness and justice, in loving-kindness and mercy. And you shall know the Lord.

12. Hosea Ch. 3 Ch. 1-3: Israel’s adultery
To help Hosea understand God’s position, He instructs Hosea to go and find his wife, Gomer, and take her back.
Once again we see the remarkable character of Hosea. He goes and finds his wife and takes her back.
Just as Hosea would speak kindly to his wife so would God to Israel.
But like God’s love, Hosea’s love could not overlook the unfaithfulness of his wife.
Gomer would be required to prove herself to Hosea.
A ray of hope…
Afterward the children of Israel shall return, seek the Lord their God and David their King, and fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days. (vs. 5)

13. Hosea Ch. 4 - 6 Ch. 4-14: Prophetic Discourses
God’s charge against Israel: there is no truth, no goodness in the land.
Why are the people destroyed?
4:6 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.”
They had ceased obeying the LORD. (4:10)
Their whoredom and drinking have taken away their common sense.
4:12 “My people ask counsel from their wooden idols. And their staff informs them.”
The people are completely given over to idolatry and fornication.

14. Hosea Ch. 4 - 6 Ch. 4-14: Prophetic Discourses
Judah is warned to leave Ephraim alone because he is joined to his idols.
4:17 “Ephraim is joined to idols. Let him alone.”
Note: Ephraim was the largest tribe in the northern kingdom of Israel. Therefore, throughout the prophets, the name Ephraim is used interchangeably with the name Israel.
God warns of the impending judgment on Israel and Judah.
Hosea 5: 10-12
The people seek other nations to help them and fail to turn back to God.
What does God desire?
6:6 “For I desire mercy and not sacrifice. And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings”

15. Hosea Ch. 7-8 Ch. 4-14: Prophetic Discourses
The people did not consider in their hearts that God would remember all their wickedness; now their own deeds have surrounded them.
The pride of Israel testifies to his face, but they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek Him.
They call out to Egypt & Assyria thinking they can help them. The should have recognized that only the LORD could help them.
Israel will cry out to God, “My God, we know you!” And yet they made idols from their silver & gold.
They have sowed the wind…and shall reap the whirlwind.
Now God will remember their iniquity and punish their sins…why?
8: 14 “For Israel has forgotten his Maker”

16. Hosea Ch. 9-11 Ch. 4-14: Prophetic Discourses
Ephraim has played the harlot, therefore they will not dwell in the LORD’s land.
Hosea states that, “My God will cast them away because they did not listen to Him, and they shall be wanderers among the nations” (9:17)
The people of Samaria will be in terror because their idols will be carried away to the king of Assyria. (10:5-6)
They had plowed wickedness and had reaped iniquity.
When Israel was a child, God loved him. But the more God reached out to them, the more they sacrificed to their idols. The Assyrian will be their king because they refused to repent. (11:3-5)
The anguish of God…”How shall I give you up?” (11:8)
God shows compassion and will not utterly destroy them. (11:11)

17. Hosea Ch. 12-13 Ch. 4-14: Prophetic Discourses
The LORD will also bring a charge against Judah. God will punish them for their deeds.
Ephraim states that they have become rich (12:8) yet it was God who has blessed them and sought to do only good to them.
Ephraim has provoked God to anger “most bitterly”. Therefore the LORD will leave the guilt of his bloodshed upon him. (12:14)
Ephraim continues to sin more & more (13:2)
God continue to remind them that He is their God who brought them out of Egypt, and that they should know no other God but Him (13:4-5)
Nevertheless, Israel turned away from God. Now, He will stalk them like a lion or a leopard.
An east wind shall come and destroy the nation.

18. Hosea Ch. 14 Ch. 4-14: Prophetic Discourses
“O Israel, return to the LORD your God,. For you have stumbled because of your iniquity” (14:1)
God will heal their backsliding.
God’s anger has turned away from him.
14:9 “Who is wise? Let him understand these things. Who is prudent? Let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right; The righteous walk in them, But transgressors stumble in them.”

19. Lessons from Hosea Lack of knowledge will lead to destruction
Hosea 4:6 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…”
Isaiah 5:13 “Therefore my people have gone into captivity because they have no knowledge”
Luke 11:28 “…blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.”
John 8:32 “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
2 Peter 1:2-3 “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue.”

20. Lessons from Hosea Put your trust in God
Israel had put their trust in the idols they had made with their own hands, and in other nations around them. They failed to trust in God who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. Do we have the faith to put our full trust in the Lord?
Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding...”
Hebrews 11:6 “But without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”