Hosea 1
The opening verses of the book of Isaiah and Hosea reveal that those servants of God gave their testimonies during the same. period that Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah and Micah also prophesied during, or very near to Isaiah’s time is fairly evident, if not in every case disclosed in their writings. The 12 Minor Prophets (so called because shorter than the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel), are, like the 4 Major Prophets evidently arranged in our Bibles substantially in the order in which they were written.
Hosea alone of all the 16 Prophets, addresses all Israel, and in fact his book is concerned with the 10 tribes much more than the 2 of Judah. It is significant that only he names a king of Israel (verse 1) reigning during the time of his testimony. Unlike Daniel, Hosea does not mention the times of the Gentiles.
2 Kings 14:2424And 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. (2 Kings 14:24), and 2 Chronicles 26-29 describe the true inward state of the people in Hosea’s days; it was bad, indeed, but God was not yet willing to give them up entirely. When His word had failed to reach their consciences, He gave them a picture of their condition before Himself in the wife of Hosea.
The prophet must marry a woman with a dark stain on her character; in fact, one who would continue in immorality after her marriage. Deeply painful it must have been to Hosea, whose desire was to be a clean vessel for God to use, to have Gomer as his wife, and later, when she had gone away to live a sinful life, to take her back again.
Israel as a whole had turned away from Jehovah her Husband to the idol worship, of the heathen, and no repentance of her course had occurred (except in individuals, as the Scriptures show). Would He always bear with her guilt? The names of the three children born to Gomer tell the answer very plainly.
Jezreel was the firstborn; this name is connected with blood shedding (verse 4), for it was at Jezreel in Issachar that the wicked king Ahab and his more wicked wife Jezebel lived, and there she met her terrible end (2 Kings 9: see 1 Kings 21 also). The name means “God scatters,” and it is applied in this book both to the taking away of the 10 tribes in judgment, and their being placed again in the land as the sower scatters his seed.
Jehu had been appointed by God for the cutting off of Ahab and his house, and he slaughtered the worshipers of Baal, and destroyed his images and temple; nevertheless he and his sons continued in the sins of the first-Jeroboam (see 2 Kings 15:8-128In the thirty and eighth year of Azariah king of Judah did Zachariah the son of Jeroboam reign over Israel in Samaria six months. 9And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, as his fathers had done: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. 10And Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him, and smote him before the people, and slew him, and reigned in his stead. 11And the rest of the acts of Zachariah, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. 12This was the word of the Lord which he spake unto Jehu, saying, Thy sons shall sit on the throne of Israel unto the fourth generation. And so it came to pass. (2 Kings 15:8‑12)).
The second child was named Lo-ruhamah: “Not having obtained mercy,” pointing to the captivity of the 10 tribes which was soon to occur (2 Kings 17). Mercy was to be shown to the 2 tribes of Judah for a season; they were to be preserved from the hands of the Assyrian conquerors of the 10 tribes (2 Kings, chapters 18, 19). But in time Judah, too, would be rejected as the people of God, and this was prefigured in the name of the third child, Lo-Ammi;— “Not My people.” Judah outlasted Israel as a kingdom only 133 years (2 Chronicles 36).
In verses 10, 11, the forecasts of judgment give place; there God looks forward, past the centuries of Gentile dominion, to the day of blessing for all Israel which is yet to dawn. The use of the latter part of verse 10 in Romans 9 (see. verses 24-26) shows, however, that not only Millennial blessing was in the mind of God when Hosea was inspired to write those words, but the quotation is applied to the present work of grace to the Gentile, as well as the Jew.
ML 09/20/1936