1. Oh Love That Will Not Let Me Go Lesson 1

2.  God first spoke: Jeroboam II was king of Israel and during the times of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah of Judah  Total time could have been 755-714 BC  Micah and Isaiah also prophesied to Judah  Hosea 1-3 BEFORE Assyrian captivity (732 BC)

3.  1:2-3 1 st time God spoke to Hosea  1:4-5 At least 9 months later  1:6-7 At least another 9 months later  1:8-2:1 At least another 9 months or more  2:2-2:3 BEFORE Assyrian exile  3:1-5 God spoke…

4.  Theme: Gomer’s harlotry/land’s harlotry  Take a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry BECAUSE the people committed flagrant harlotry  Hosea’s life showed Israel God’s opinion  Hosea’s life showed how God would deal with them in the future: near AND distant  Is. 20 He went about barefoot and naked  Jer. 13 Linen waistband in the river: worthless. So were the wicked who refused to listen to God

5.  Paul became a Jew to the Jews  To those without the law (Gentiles), he was as without the law  To the weak, he became weak  Picture of Christ  Believers’ lives should be living picture of who God is and how He deals with His people

6.  Jezreel means, “God sows”  1:4 God would punish, put and end, and break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel  He would break THEIR strength, THEIR power and THEIR military  2 Kings 9-10 Jehu’s reign of Israel  2 Kings 15 Most of Israel taken  2 Kings 17 Final exile to Assyria 722 BC  Approx. 200 years after the divided kingdom 931 BC

7.  Lo-ruhamah = No compassion/mercy  However: He WOULD have compassion on Judah and deliver them  King Hezekiah’s reign: 185,000 killed NOT by bow, sword, battle, horses or horsemen  Lo-ammi – NOT My people  “Yet” – God will multiply His people again in the valley of Jezreel  He is the Living God, the Restorer

8.  Theme: Contend/God will punish/Betroth  “Harlotry” – Gomer was the harlot/whore as was God’s wife Israel  Spiritual adultery/whoredom defined:  1:2 Forsaking the Lord  2:5 Acting shamefully  2:13 Forgetting God  God would make it impossible for Israel to get help from anyone (2:6-7)  Eventually she would return

9.  God gave Israel everything she needed but He was about to take it all back and remove them from the land (2:8-9)  He uncovers sin and no one can rescue  He punishes  Israel used things God gave them for idol worship  Hosea 2:8-13 fulfilled when Assyria took them captive in 732 BC

10.  Ezekiel 16:3-14 What God did  Ezekiel 16:2 Abominations…  Ezekiel 16:15-34 What Israel did  Ezekiel 16:39-41 What her “lovers” did  Ezekiel 16:60-63 God WILL have compassion/mercy on Israel once again  He WILL remember His covenant

11.  Israel will forget her idols as they had forgotten God. He will CAUSE them to forget  A day is coming when He will make a covenant for His people with the beasts, the land, etc. No more war in their land  Betrothed forever in:  Righteousness  Justice  Lovingkindness/steadfast love  Compassion/mercy  Faithfulness

12.  Vs. 21-22 “In that day” – future  God will respond….  Israel will again be His people in the future  Romans 9:25-26 “And I will say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people!’”  Gentiles will receive the gospel

13.  Love the adulteress again: Israel returns  Even though they had turned to other gods, He still loved them and would forgive  Hosea bought his own wife  Vs. 4 Israel doesn’t have any of these things  No king who was a descendant of David since Babylonian captivity 722 BC  They have not yet started seeking Him

14.  2 Cor. 11, Revelation 21 Believers are called His bride and the wife of the Lamb  Eph. 5 The marriage relationship is compared to Christ and the church  Christ nourishes and cherishes the church  I Cor. 6 and James 4 To be friends with the world is hostility toward God: prostitution and adultery  I John 5 Eph. 2 This is how the sons of disobedience walk. This is how we WERE!

15.  Do we use the things God has given us for the world?  Is the world our idol because we love it more than God?  Do we spend more time and money on the world, than we do with our Savior?  Can the world TELL that we are His?  Is God using us as a picture for the world to show them what He is like? (As He used the prophets of old)