Hosea 2
In verse 1 a believing remnant is owned of God. Hosea is directed to “Say unto your brethren, Arnmi (“My people”) and to your sisters, Ruhamah (“Having obtained mercy”). Some had humbled themselves before God because of their sins and the sins of the nation, and to these He had respect; they were His people, while Israel as a whole was worshiping idols.
Verse 2: “Your mother” is Israel, and Jehovah was her Husband (Jeremiah 31:32), but now, because of her turning to the idols of her heathen neighbors, He cannot acknowledge a relationship to which she has been habitually untrue. (Isaiah 1:21; Jeremiah 2 and 3; Ezekiel 16 and 28; 2 Kings 17:7-23, 23:26-27, etc). Hosea was used to recall to Israel their departure from God, but their after-history has shown that though several prophets were raised up at this time, their testimony was unheeded by the mass of the people.
Verse 4: “Her children” are the separate kingdoms of Israel and Judah as already seen in Ezekiel 23. Forgetful of God, who had brought them out of Egypt to be to Him a people of inheritance (Deuteronomy 4:20), they had gone after idols. The “lovers” of verse 5 were these false gods, owned by Israel as the source of the blessing’s enjoyed. (See as an example of this 2 Chronicles 28:23).
Verse 6: In mercy, God would hedge up the way with thorns, and fence guilty Israel in with a wall, so that they should not find it easy to go on in ungodliness. 2 Kings 15 and 16 give the circumstance’s which God employed to that end: attacks from the neighboring nations and conspiracy and murder within Israel. There were moments when the voice of conscience stirred the people to a measure of repentance (verse 7), but there was no permanency about it, and God had resort to famine (verse 9). (See 2 Chronicles 20:8). Worse days were however to come, for though there were godly kings (over the two tribes of Judah only) the nation knew no lasting repentance. The ten tribes were soon removed into captivity, and the two tribes ere long followed them, fulfilling the promise of verses 10-13.
Verses 14-23 await their fulfillment in the day to come, when God will bless His earthly people in such measure as they have never known heretofore. First they are to be “allured” by Him, and brought into the “wilderness”, where He will speak to their heart (see margin). This points to the time of trial and of searching. judgment through which both the Jews and the long lost ten tribes will be passed. See Ezekiel 20:10-26, 33-49, verses 33-38 relating to the ten tribes who will be dealt with before they reach the land of their forefathers, while the two tribes will be judged within its borders.
The valley of Achor was a scene of judgment when the children of Israel first entered the promised land (Joshua 7:24-26). Equally unsparing will be the judgments yet to fall upon Israel, but a remnant will be saved, so that the valley of Achor (trouble) will be a door of hope. Then shall they know Jehovah in their hearts, and no longer in an unbelieving profession. His name will be “my Husband” instead of “my Master”, —a term also used for a husband in the Old Testament.
ML 09/27/1936