Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’
“Rebuke your mother, rebuke her,
    for she is not my wife,
    and I am not her husband.
Let her remove the adulterous look from her face
    and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.
Otherwise I will strip her naked
    and make her as bare as on the day she was born;
I will make her like a desert,
    turn her into a parched land,
    and slay her with thirst.
I will not show my love to her children,
    because they are the children of adultery.
Their mother has been unfaithful
    and has conceived them in disgrace.
She said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
    who give me my food and my water,
    my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.’
Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes;
    I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.
She will chase after her lovers but not catch them;
    she will look for them but not find them.
Then she will say,
    ‘I will go back to my husband as at first,
    for then I was better off than now.’
She has not acknowledged that I was the one
    who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil,
who lavished on her the silver and gold—
    which they used for Baal.
“Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens,
    and my new wine when it is ready.
I will take back my wool and my linen,
    intended to cover her naked body.
So now I will expose her lewdness
    before the eyes of her lovers;
    no one will take her out of my hands.
I will stop all her celebrations:
    her yearly festivals, her New Moons,
    her Sabbath days—all her appointed festivals.
I will ruin her vines and her fig trees,
    which she said were her pay from her lovers;
I will make them a thicket,
    and wild animals will devour them.
I will punish her for the days
    she burned incense to the Baals;
she decked herself with rings and jewelry,
    and went after her lovers,
    but me she forgot,”
declares the Lord.
“Therefore I am now going to allure her;
    I will lead her into the wilderness
    and speak tenderly to her.
There I will give her back her vineyards,
    and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she will respond as in the days of her youth,
    as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
“In that day,” declares the Lord,
    “you will call me ‘my husband’;
    you will no longer call me ‘my master.’
I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips;
    no longer will their names be invoked.
In that day I will make a covenant for them
    with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky
    and the creatures that move along the ground.
Bow and sword and battle
    I will abolish from the land,
    so that all may lie down in safety.
I will betroth you to me forever;
    I will betroth you in righteousness and justice,
    in love and compassion.
I will betroth you in faithfulness,
    and you will acknowledge the Lord.
“In that day I will respond,”
    declares the Lord—
“I will respond to the skies,
    and they will respond to the earth;
and the earth will respond to the grain,
    the new wine and the olive oil,
    and they will respond to Jezreel.
I will plant her for myself in the land;
    I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’
I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’;
    and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”

• Hosea 2:1-23

Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

Hosea 1-3 ‘The Book of Hosea’: “Hosea is the only native northern Israelite among the writing prophets. Although active at the same time as Amos, Hosea’s message is quite different in its focus. Where Amos spoke about oppression, poverty, and injustice, Hosea speaks against the worship of the Canaanite deities, such as Baal and Asherah. These religions stressed rituals that were designed to promote the fertility of the land; among these rituals was sexual intercourse with official cult prostitutes.
“Prostitution, or harlotry, becomes a major theme in Hosea, partly through the prophet’s own family experience (Hos. 1–3). Israel is the bride of God, and once the marriage was happy (Hos. 2:14, 15; 11:1). By worshiping other gods, though, Israel has become a harlot. God alternately rages against His unfaithful wife and tenderly longs for reconciliation (6:4; 11:8, 9). The book ends with an impassioned appeal for Israel to ‘return’ and a promise that, if she will, then God will become the true fertility God to His wayward people.”

• Timothy B. Cargal, et al., The Chronological Study Bible

Hosea 1:10-2:1 ‘Future Reversal and Restoration’: “The judgment described in Hosea 2:2-9 will one day be reversed. First, there will be a reversal of Jezreel from ‘God scatters’ to ‘God sows’ (verse 10). In the sense of judgment Jezreel means ‘God scatters,’ and God will scatter His people out of the land. In the sense of blessing Jezreel means ‘God sows,’ and He would someday ‘sow’ them in the land. As a result there will be a tremendous increase in Israel’s population.
“Second, Hosea predicts a national conversion (verse 10). Israel, who was once Lo-ammi, ‘not My people,’ will again become Ammi, ‘My people.’ Because of this concept of going from ‘not My people’ to ‘My people,’ these verses are used by Paul to illustrate the salvation of Gentiles in Romans 9:24-26. The Gentiles also were for a long period of time ‘not My people,’ but now have become ‘My people.’ Peter also quotes Hosea in 1 Peter 2:9-10 when he speaks about the believing Jewish remnant. Before these Jews were believers, they were Lo-ammi, or nor God’s people. But as believers in Jesus the Messiah, they become Ammi, or God’s people.
“Hosea then goes on to prophesy a future national reunification (verse n). The kingdoms of Israel and Judah will again be reunited under one national leadership. There will be one head, which will be the Messiah, with David as the co-regent. Then ‘the day of Jezreel’ will come, which will be a national day of sowing of the people of Israel in the land (verse 11).
“The third reversal is mentioned in 2:1. In this reversal, the name Lo-ruhamah, meaning ‘no mercy,’ is changed to Ruhamah, meaning ‘having mercy.’”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

Hosea 2:2-23 ‘Application to Israel, the Wife of Jehovah’: “ In Hosea 2 appears a more derailed application of Hosea’s marriage and children to Israel as the wife of Jehovah. Israel was guilty of adultery (verses 2-5). This adultery has led to a separation between husband and wife (verse 2). The wife, Israel, must put away her adultery. Idolatry is spiritual adultery, so the putting away of adultery means purring away idolatry (Genesis 35:2; Joshua 24:14; 2 Kings 18:4; 23:19).
“There were two results of Israel’s adultery (verses 3-5). The first result emphasizes the Lo-ammi, ‘not My people,’ aspect of God’s judgment (verse 3). Hosea predicts the stripping of Israel by God, meaning that she will be treated as an adulteress. Women in those days who were guilty of adultery were stripped naked. This pictures how Israel would be stripped of its productivity and become a ‘wilderness …like desert land’ (verse 3). The second result emphasizes the Lo-ruhamah, ‘no mercy,’ aspect of God’s judgment (verses 4-5). There will be no mercy upon the children (the individuals of the nation), and there will be no mercy on the mother herself (the nation as a whole) because she misinterpreted where her gifts had come from. Rather than recognizing them to be gifts from her husband, Jehovah, she assumed that these gifts came from other gods, and for that she will be punished.
“The adultery of Israel will lead to the punishment of Israel (2:6-13). God states that He will throw a ‘hedge’ around Israel (verse 6). Elsewhere, the throwing up of a hedge is used with a good connotation (see Job 1:10; 10:11-12). But the result of this hedging (verse 7) is that Israel will not be able to find her lovers, the gods with whom she committed adultery, and they will prove themselves to be nonentities. She will eventually see her need to return to her first husband, God. The reason for the hedging (verse 8) is her failure to recognize the true source of her material benefits. Because of her disobedience, Israel’s material blessings will be withheld. Israel had assumed these material blessings came from other gods, but they had not, and she is about to recognize this.
“Furthermore, these material gifts that Jehovah gave Israel were used by her as worship gifts to the other gods, especially the god Baal. The throwing up of the hedge involved the stripping of Israel, which is the raking away of material blessings. Israel will be stripped of food and clothing, resulting in ‘her nakedness,’ or the land becoming barren (verses 9-10). The result of the punishment will be a cessation of ‘all her gaiety’ and festivities (verse 11). These festivals were ordained by God and refer to Jewish festivals: the new moons, the Sabbaths, and the solemn assemblies. Instead of using these festivals as acts of worship directed to God, Israel used them as acts of worship for the god Baal. Thus, God is going to take them away from her.”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

Hosea 2:2 ‘charge of adultery’: “God brought an indictment against Israel: The charge was adultery, a flagrant violation of the covenant of love. Gomer also betrayed Hosea and offered herself to those to whom she did not belong. Hosea’s personal experience of having an unfaithful wife enabled him to understand in part God’s heartbreak over his unfaithful people.”

• Dorothy Kelley Patterson, General Editor, NIV Woman’s Study Bible (Karen H. Jobes, Minor Prophets contributor)

Hosea 2:2 ‘Gomer-Selfish Adulterer’: “During a time when the nation of Israel defiantly turned her back on God and gave herself to idolatry, God called Hosea to pursue an unusual prophetic role among his people. Hosea’s job was to prophesy by both words and actions—he was commanded to marry Gomer (Hos 1:2). Gomer was apparently pure when she married Hosea, but she had adultery in her heart. The life Hosea and Gomer had together was symbolic of the relationship between God and his people.

Gomer conducted her adultery in a shamefully flagrant manner, judging from Hosea’s descriptions. What drove her to this sin? Whatever her reasons, the consequences of her actions, especially the agony she caused her husband and children (see Hos 2), were the unavoidable realities of her selfish behavior. Gomer sought her own enjoyment so irresponsibly that she ultimately wound up in some sort of bondage from which she had to be redeemed (see Hos 3:1–3). As Hosea paid the price for her and took her back to himself, he restored her as his wife after a preliminary period of discipline to help her direct her life afresh to the vows she had made to Hosea in marriage.
“The meaning for all who love God is profound: God himself likewise paid the price to redeem his people, demonstrating that the aim of his love is reconciliation, restoration and forgiveness (see Titus 2:14).”

• Dorothy Kelley Patterson, General Editor, NIV Woman’s Study Bible (Karen H. Jobes, Minor Prophets contributor)

Hosea 2:5 ‘I will go’: ”Lit. ‘Let me go,’ it denotes strong desire and bent. Israel attributed her prosperity to the idols of her heathen neighbors, ‘her lovers’ (cf. vv. 7, 10, 12). She would not be deterred from pursuing them.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Hosea 2:7 ‘the work of the Holy Spirit’: “What some do, others may do. If one man falls, another may. If one professor turned out to be a hypocrite, so may another. If one minister reels from the pinnacle of honor and is dashed on the rocks beneath, so may another. Age and habit are no security against apostasy. The continual keeping and anointing of the Holy Spirit is essential. Let us watch against the beginnings of backsliding. Let us take care of the little sins; let us watch against coldness of heart. No one backslides all at once. Few people who profess to be saints become outward sinners in one step; it is usually by little and by little. If our love of Christ has grown cold, we need to not stay in that state of dan-ger but pray to the Master to inflame our hearts again. If any of us have in any respect fallen from our first love-if that old enthusiasm that was in us has disappeared-pray God to give it back. If any of us are not bearing such fruit for God as we used to do, we should be suspicious of our-selves. Carnal security may be the heaven of fools, but it is the ruin of believers.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Hosea 2:8 ‘Baal’: “Baal (lit. ‘lord,’ ‘husband,’ or ‘owner’) was a reference to the Canaanite gods of the autumn and winter rains that were so vital to good crops. Using the analogy of Baal as a husband fertilizing the land, temple prostitution was practiced with the hope that such acts would induce Baal to fertilize the earth. The people refused to recognize God as the source of their blessings of grain, wine and oil (basic household needs) as well as silver and gold (metals used in trade). They failed to express gratitude to God for these; then they actually used God’s blessings (silver and gold) to fashion idols.”

• Dorothy Kelley Patterson, General Editor, NIV Woman’s Study Bible (Karen H. Jobes, Minor Prophets contributor)

Hosea 2:8 ‘using God’s mercy against Him’: “It is a sad sin when we take God’s mercies and use them in rebellion against him. Just think of it–the gifts Jehovah gave to these people, they presented in sacrifice to Baal. Some people in comfortable circumstances spend their wealth for sin. They have health and strength, and they use them in the service of their own evil passions. The gifts God has enriched them with become weights to sink them deeper and deeper in the gulf of transgression. God has of-ten brought people down to poverty, to sickness, to death’s door, in order to wean them from their sin. He saw that they were going to hell full handed, and he judged it better that they should go to heaven empty-handed. He knew if they had health, they would misuse it, so he stretched them on the bed of sickness that they might turn to him. God has severe remedies for desperate cases: he will do all that mercy and wisdom can suggest on order to prevent people from being their own destroyers.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Hosea 2:10-11 ‘no half measure’: “When God deals with people, he uses no half measures. If they have been happy in the ways of sin and he intends to save them from their evil courses, he will take away all their joy, They will have none of the merriment in which they indulged. He will give them better happiness by and by, but for the time being, ‘I will put an end to all her celebrations.’”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Hosea 2:10 ‘I will uncover her lewdness’: “God pledged to expose Israel’s wickedness. The phrase is linked to being taken forcibly into captivity in Ezek. 16:37–40. her lovers. The idols were personified as if they could see, though they could offer no help.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Hosea 2:11 ‘feast days’: “Ever since the Exodus from Egypt, Israel had intermingled the worship of the Lord with the worship of false gods (cf. Amos 5:26; Acts 7:43).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Hosea 2:14-20 ‘A Metaphor of Union with God’: “Throughout Scripture the marriage union is a metaphor or picture of the relationship between God and his people. In the Old Testament, Israel is pictured as the wife of Yahweh. When Israel became unfaithful and worshiped other gods, she was described as a prostitute (Jer 3:1; Eze 23). Her spiritual adultery became so despicable in God’s sight that he issued a writing of divorcement (Jer 3:8). Actually, this was a separation, as God in his great love for his chosen people could not bear to cut off Israel without a promise of renewal (Hos 2:14–20; 5:15).
“In the Epistles and in Revelation, the church is described as the bride of Christ. The experience of obtaining a bride is similar for both Adam and Christ—Adam was put to sleep; Christ was laid in a tomb. When Christ came to earth in human form, he left his Father. When he began his earthly ministry and ultimately died on the cross, he left his mother. This was for the purpose of cleaving to the object of his love—his people. As he is received into the heart of each sinner, they become one flesh (Ge 2:24; 1Co 6:15).
“The whole focus and course of a life is changed both by marriage and a personal experience with Jesus Christ. Marriage (1Co 7:3) and becoming a child of God (Mk 8:34; 1Co 6:20; 7:23) both demand death to self and accountability to God and to others. A wife or husband cannot be faithful to more than one partner, as a Christian cannot serve any other God (Mt 6:24). Believers should have no hesitation in giving themselves in totality to God because of the high price he paid for them (1Pe 1:18–19). God has given all he has to give; he now expects our all in response (Ro 12:1–2).
“In marriage two hearts are grafted together, making them dependent on one another for life. This is depicted in John 15, with Jesus as the vine and believers the branches. Through the in filling of the Holy Spirit and his control in the life of both partners, this picture of marriage and the parallel relationship of Christ and his bride come into focus. The Holy Spirit fills and fulfills both.”

• Dorothy Kelley Patterson, General Editor, NIV Woman’s Study Bible (Karen H. Jobes, Minor Prophets contributor)

Hosea 2:14 ‘she went astray’: “She that went so far astray, God will come and draw her back from the path of sin. He will bring her into a place of grief and sorrow, a wilderness; and then he will come near and speak sweet words of comfort into her ear, for God knows how to speak not only into the ears but into the heart.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Hosea 2:15 ‘sing as before’: “God can give back our early joy, our early love, and yes, our early purity. And he can make us sing as at the beginning. Therefore, we may be of good comfort and come to our Lord-with all our sins-and he will receive us.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Hosea 2:16 ‘they never called God their husband’: “They had never called God by that name. They had stood in awe and dread of the Most High, but as to calling God their husband, that they had never done, though he was truly a husband to them. He had lavished on them all the kindness and tenderness a husband renders toward his beloved wife. Yet God’s people had never given him that love that was due in return, and they had never dared to call him by so sweet and endearing a name as ‘my husband.’ But the Lord said they would. Grace has won us when it has won our hearts. When we yield to God not with a mere external obedience but the affection of our hearts, then all is won and all is well.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Hosea 2:16 ‘the love content’: “There’s a love content in Christianity. And discounting all the irresponsible things people do, there is nevertheless a deep, healing, emotional content in the Christian life. That’s why the Bible calls the Church the Bride and Christ the Bridegroom. He means that His people should know His love and that we should feel it and sense it. I’m trying to analyze love, yet you can’t describe love; you’ve got to feel it. You can see how it works, but you can’t describe it. And you don’t know it until you’ve felt it. So it is with the love of God.
“It says in Hosea 2:16 that the time would come when they would no more call God Baali (a rejected name for God},-but ishi, meaning ‘husband.’ That means that God wants to be to us what a husband is to a new wife. He wants to shelter and care for and love and cherish us.”

• A. W. Tozer, The Attributes of God II

Hosea 2:17 ‘God takes the old from our lips’: “Oh, the love of God! He does not want us to remember our old ways. I do not like to hear people talk about their old habits except if they do it tenderly, with many tears and many complaints, and tell the story to the praise and glory of divine grace. God takes the old names out of our lips-we forget them; and having done away with them, we bury the dead past and live in newness of life.“

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Hosea 2:18-23 ‘on that day, protection …’: “On that day, the Lord will protect his people and enable them to rest securely (2:18). I will take you to be my wife forever, he says (2:19). What a glorious promise! Then the land will again yield its harvest (2:21-22). God will have compassion on those named ‘No Compassion,’ and he will say to those named ‘Not My People,’ You are my people (2:23). Don’t ever think you can’t experience a reversal of fortune. God delights in welcoming back his wayward children (consider the parable of the Prodigal Son; Luke 15:11-32).”

• Tony Evans, The Tony Evans Bible Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Hosea 2:18 ‘a heavenly glow once washed in the blood’: “They had been much troubled by war. It had killed their children, destroyed their homes, and made them poor and wretched. Now God says he will shatter the bow and the sword and other weapons of war. How often God gives a heavenly calm to us when we are once washed in the blood of Christ and covered with his righteousness. I remember how the storm within my heart was hushed into a deep calm as soon as I had seen my Lord and had yielded my heart to him. “

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Hosea 2:19-20 ‘marital union’: “The ingredients of the betrothal relationship included ‘righteousness and justice’ as the legal requirement, ‘love and compassion’ as the personal ties of affection, and ‘faithfulness’ as the seal of exclusive and permanent commitment. These qualities should mark every marital union.”

• Dorothy Kelley Patterson, General Editor, NIV Woman’s Study Bible (Karen H. Jobes, Minor Prophets contributor)

Hosea 2:22 ‘Jezreel’: “As in 1:11, used here in the positive sense of scattering seed to sow it.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Hosea 2:23 ‘mercy amid chaos’: ”Even while God was pronouncing judgment, He was offering and demonstrating His love and grace. “

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

My Thoughts

The first verse speaks of God showing compassion in retaining a remnant during the End Times.

The next seven verses are a metaphor comparing Israel, the mother of all its inhabitants, as the wife of God, just as Gomer was the wife of Hosea.  Their “mother” chased after lovers, anyone that would give her food, drink, wool, etc.  Yet, it was her husband, God, who provided all those things.  And “mother” gave that stuff to the Baals.

Baal was a god of the harvest.  Baal brought rain at the right time to produce a great harvest, or so the neighbors said.  God provided all that, but the neighbors, who were supposed to be irradicated or driven from the land, must have convinced them that the God of the Universe had universe issues, but the Baals (used for any number of “local” gods) had nothing better to do than to provide the harvest.  There had to be something that attracted the attention of the people after all the miracles God had done for them.

So, starting in verse nine, God says that He will take back the food, drink, wool, etc.  All the things that He had rightfully given them, He was withdrawing from them, since they never gave Him credit for having provided those things.

Why did this metaphor and the object lesson of the unfaithful wife hit home, at least for some, possibly?  The Baals were into reproduction, thus their “religious” ceremonies were heavily focused on sexual misconduct.

They took what God had created as good, in a marital setting, and they corrupted the practice.  Thus, Hosea taking a prostitute as a wife and this metaphor show the corruption that the people of Israel had performed.

But one day, God will call them out of the wilderness.  The Baals will be destroyed, and they will truly worship God again.

I often ponder who this remnant is the offspring of.  When Elijah ran from Jezebel’s fury, he thought he was the only one who worshipped God that was left.  God said that He had reserved seven thousand who had not bowed a knee to Baal (1 Kings 19:18).  Abraham plead for the city of Sodom, and the Lord promised to not destroy the city for the sake of ten (Genesis 18:32).

From one point of view, there is a number.  From a different point of view, would it provide the faithful who were sent into exile that much more hope to know that their offspring would be spared in the End Times?

When the exile came, they did not spare the faithful.

That kind of reminds me of today, when so many people are afraid of losing their friends in the neighborhood by telling them about Jesus.  Did these faithful God-fearing people also fear their neighbors?

And that number of seven thousand may have dwindled from Elijah to Hosea.  The time between these prophets was 100-120 years.  The “7000” of Elijah’s day were all gone, but how many did God reserve?

Some Serendipitous Reflections

Hosea 2 1. Since we become slaves of whatever we yield ourselves to (see Ro 6:16), what are the ‘baals’ (or masters) in your life? In what ways might you be serving them instead of God? What promise do these masters make to lure you into their service?
“2. How is the Lord’s authority in your life different from these other masters? (Is God less demanding, or more so? Less forgiving, or more so?)
“3. When, if ever, have you outgrown your need for God? Have you ever felt ‘booted out’ by him? What for?
“4. What ‘desert experience’ or other trying circumstance brought you back to him? If you are not looking for God (as Gomer was not), how do you know if God is still pursuing you (as he did Gomer)?
“5. Using the marriage metaphor, how would you describe your present relationship with God: (a) Getting acquainted? (b) Good friends? (c) Engaged couple? (d) Newlyweds, still honeymooning? (e) On the rocks, or unfaithful? (f) Growing old together?
“6. What ‘adulterous wife’ or ‘prodigal son’ are you burdened for these days? How could you be God’s instrument of discipline and restoration in their lives? What effect would this have on you? On them?”

• Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups

Hosea 2 has one set of questions.

Substitute whatever group for any reference to a small group or ask who could come to your aid.

If you like these Thursday morning Bible studies, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Thursday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.