The book of Hosea is the first of what is called the Minor Prophets. Of course, this doesn't mean their messages are little, but their books are not as long as some other ones like Ezekiel, Isaiah and Jeremiah.
Hosea was a contemporary of Amos, Isaiah and Micah, but Hosea prophesied in the Northern Kingdom, and saw it fall to the Assyrians.
The name Hosea means Salvation in Hebrew, so when you hear Hosanna in songs of worship, it means Save Us.
Hosea focuses on the love of Israel in God, and how God so wants the people to return to Him. We will see some typology here with Hosea and his wife Gomer...it depicts the love of God to us undeserving and rebellious people He created.
Hosea 1
(v.2) God has Hosea take a harlot for a wife, and tells Hosea what is going to happen to his children. How many of us would go through with that, knowing how bad it was going to turn out? Hosea is a man we should admire and emulate. His faith was great.
Here we see the children's names, and their names mean what God is going to do with Israel:
Jezreel ~ means Scattered, and the valley where God is going to give the Northern Kingdom of Isreal to Assyria
Lo-Ruhamah ~ her name means Unloved, and God is going to hold His mercy upon Israel for their idolatry and fornication.
Lo-Ammi ~ Her name means Not My People and this is a sign to all of us, that if we reject Him and push Him away, He will grant our wish and keep us from Him for eternity.
Hosea 2
We can see the imagery here, where the wife of Hosea, Gomer, is a harlot, and she is a type of Israel in their idolatry and fornication. God is showing Israel's fate by His Word to Hosea.
(v.7) God shows us that Israel will eventually return to God, and that will be in the Great Tribulation, where they finally accept and see that Yeshua is their Messiah!
(v.13) God allows hardships to befall on us, especially if that's what it will take to bring us back to Him. He is our refuge, and sooner or later, we will remember that. Unfortunately for Israel, she will not remember until the last days.
(v.16) This is more typology of the Bridegroom (Jesus) and His bride (all believers in His Church).
(v.23) After God has retrieved His Church, He will focus again on Israel, and they will be once again His people, and they will call Him their God.
Hosea 3
(v.4) Many scholars believe this verse and chapter describes the Diaspora, where after the Romans sacked Jerusalem in 70 AD, all the Jews went all over the earth. They don't have a Temple to this day to do their Mosaic rituals. But one day, after Yeshua has returned, they will do them again!
Hosea 4
The Northern Kingdom had immense wealth, vast lands, and much power...but as God says in verse one, they didn't have love, and they didn't know their God. I tremble when I read this, since I believe the USA has gone the same route. We are the great Superpower, but we are empty and without God, we are lost.
Hosea 5
(v.15) This is an important verse...God is speaking of Himself, in the person of Jesus.
I will return again to My place till they acknowledge their offense.
Who else but Jesus, came from heaven to earth and returned? Notice that God says offense in the singular...He is not holding onto their many daily sins, but the one sin that separates them and us from Him...the acceptance of His Son!
Then they will seek My face, in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.
Not until the Great Tribulation will Israel as a group of people seek Jesus. They will finally see and acknowledge their denial, and cry out to God. Then the Father will say to His Son, "Go get 'em" and save Israel!!!
Hosea 6
(v.1) God allows us to hurt and have trials, but He will mend us and use them to make us stronger. I remind my kids, that when we tear a muscle, when it heals, it ends up being stronger than before. This is the same with God using trials to mold us to what He wants us to be.
(v.2) This is a verse that applies to Jesus in the grave, and shows us the timing of God. We often want God to help us NOW, but He does it when it's the right time, and never too late. The body starts to decay in the grave on the fourth day, so that's why Jesus was raised on the third day, and Israel will be saved before they are wiped out.
(v.6) God desires love and obedience more than rituals and sacrifices. If our hearts are with Him, then we will act accordingly...not the other way around.
Hosea 7
(v.3) We get the leaders we deserve. I believe our current President is the result of our apathy and rejection as a nation of God. If we don't repent and put God first, then we will get more of the same from our leaders.
(v.14) This whole book is a mirror image of America...we have pushed God out of all our institutions, and we seek the wisdom and leadership of man. The United Nations is the Tower of Babel of our time, and we will have the same fate if we don't repent and return to God.
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