Hosea 1-4: Lured to the Wilderness

We set Hosea 1–4 in the timeline of the Minor Prophets and trace the hard clash of judgment and mercy. God confronts betrayal and idolatry, yet promises a future where names are rewritten and love is renewed in the wilderness.

• context for Hosea within kings and prophets
• Hosea’s marriage as living parable
• meanings of Jezreel, Lo-Ruhamah, Lo-Ammi
• judgment on idolatry, festivals and unjust leaders
• promise of covenant renewal and peace
• the wilderness as a place of tender restoration
• redemption as Hosea buys back his wife
• questions for reflection on resisting or trusting God’s draw

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Transcript

Hosea’s Shocking Call And Family Names

Judgment On Idolatry And False Worship

Promise Of Renewal And Covenant Love

Buying Back The Unfaithful

Indictment Of Priests And People

Wilderness As God’s Place Of Restoration

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Welcome back to the Outloud Bible Project podcast. This is Mike. We're in the Minor Prophets section of the Old Testament. I recommend going into our website, outloudbible.com, go to the resources page, and download a free guide called Kings and Prophets. It will help put into timeline context who these prophets are and when they're speaking, who they're speaking to, and get a sense of the grand, the bigger picture of God calling his people to repentance through the prophets and the people who spoke on God's behalf. And you get a real good sense of how the Old Testament plays out in this very tumultuous, very sensitive time where God is desperately calling his people back to himself because they've been so unfaithful. They turn to other gods and they worship other nations' gods when God is like, you're my people. And you just see this plea from God throughout the Old Testament, throughout the prophets, to invite his people back into a relationship with him. Well, no prophet really embodied this more than Hosea. And we're going to start our read through of Hosea today. Hosea's life ends up being an object lesson to demonstrate God's relationship with his people, and it's it's not a desirable one. Let's check out Hosea 1 through 4 in the New English Translation. This is the Lord's message that came to Hosea, son of Biri, during the time of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the time of Jeroboam, son of Joash, king of Israel. When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, he said to him, Go marry a prostitute, who will bear illegitimate children conceived through prostitution, because the nation continually commits spiritual prostitution by turning away from the Lord. So Hosea married Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim. Then she conceived and gave birth to a son for him. Then the Lord said to Hosea, name him Jezreel, because in a little while I'll punish the dynasty of Jehu on account of the bloodshed in the valley of Jezreel, and I'll put an end to the kingdom of Israel. At that time I will destroy the military power of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. She conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to him, Name her Loruhama, or no pity, because I will no longer have pity on the nation of Israel, for I will certainly not forgive their guilt. But I will have pity on the nation of Judah. I'll deliver them by the Lord their God, I will not deliver them by the warrior's bow, by sword, by military victory, by chariot horses or by chariots. When she had weaned no pity, Lo Ruhama, she conceived again and gave birth to another son. Then the Lord said, Name him Lo Ami, or not my people, because you are not my people, and I am not your God. However, in the future the number of the people of Israel will be like the sand of the sea that can neither be measured nor numbered. Although it was said to them you are not my people, it will be said to them, you are children of the living God. Then the people of Judah and the people of Israel will be gathered together, they'll appoint for themselves one leader, and will flourish in the land. Certainly the day of Jezreel will be great. Then you'll call your brother, my people, Ami. You'll call your sister, Pity, Ruhama. Plead earnestly with your mother, for she's not my wife, and I'm not her husband, so that she might put an end to her adulterous lifestyle and turn away from her sexually immoral behavior. Otherwise I will strip her naked and expose her like she was when she was born. I'll turn her land into a wilderness and make her country a parched land, so that I might kill her with thirst. I will have no pity on her children, because their children conceived in adultery, for their mothers committed adultery. She who conceived them has acted shamefully, for she said, I'll seek out my lovers. They're the ones who give me my bread and my water, my wool, my flax, my olive oil, and my wine. Therefore I will soon fence her in with thorns. I'll wall her in so that she can't find her way, and then she'll pursue her lovers, but she won't catch them. She'll seek them, but she won't find them, and then she'll say, I'll go back to my husband, because I was better off then than I am now. Yet until now, she's refused to acknowledge that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and the olive oil, that it was I who lavished on her the silver and gold that they used to worship Baal. Therefore I will take back my grain during the harvest time, and my new wine when it ripens, I'll take away my wool and my flax that I had provided in order to clothe her. Soon I will expose her lewd nakedness in front of her lovers, and no one will be able to rescue her from me. I will put an end to all her celebrations, her annual religious festivals, monthly new moon celebrations, and weekly Sabbath festivities, all her appointed festivals. I'll destroy her vines and fig trees, about which she said, These are my wages for prostitution that my lovers gave to me. I'll turn her cultivated vines and fig trees into an uncultivated thicket so that the wild animals will devour them. I'll punish her for the festival days when she burned incense to the Baal idols. She adorned herself with earrings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but she forgot about me, says the Lord. However, in the future, I will allure her, I will lead her back into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. From there I will give back her vineyards to her, and turn the valley of trouble into an opportunity for hope. There she will sing as she did when she was young, when she came up from the land of Egypt. At that time, declares the Lord, you will call my husband, for you will never again call me my master, for I will remove the names of the Baal idols from your lips so that you will never again utter their names. At that time I will make a covenant for them with the wild animals, the birds of the air, and the creatures that crawl on the ground. I'll abolish the warrior's bow and sword, that is every weapon of warfare from the land, and I'll allow them to live securely. I'll commit myself to you forever. I'll commit myself to you in righteousness and justice, in steadfast love and tender compassion. I'll commit myself to you in faithfulness, and then you will acknowledge the Lord. At that time I will willingly respond, declares the Lord. I will respond to the sky, and the sky will respond to the ground, and the ground will respond to the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil, and they will respond to God plants. Jezreel, and then I will plant her as my own in the land. I will have pity on no pity. I will say to not my people, you are my people, and he will say you are my God. The Lord said to me, Go show love to your wife again, even though she loves another man and continually commits adultery. Likewise the Lord loves the Israelites, although they turn to other gods and love to offer raisin cakes to idols. So I paid fifteen shekels of silver and about seven bushels of barley to purchase her. Then I told her, You must live with me many days, you must not commit adultery or become joined to another man, and I also will wait for you. For the Israelites must live many days without a king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred fertility pillar, without ephid or idols, and afterward the Israelites will turn and see the Lord their God and their Davidic King. Then they will submit to the Lord in fear and receive his blessings in future days. Listen to the Lord's message, you Israelites, for the Lord has a covenant lawsuit against the people of Israel, for there's neither faithfulness nor loyalty in the land, nor do they acknowledge God. There is only cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and adultery. They resort to violence and bloodshed. Therefore the land will mourn and all its inhabitants will perish. The wild animals, the birds of the sky, even the fish in the sea will perish. Don't let anyone accuse or contend against anyone else, for my case is against you, priests. You stumble day and night, and the false prophets stumble with you. You've destroyed your own people, you've destroyed my people by failing to acknowledge me. Because you refuse to acknowledge me, I will reject you as my priests. Because you reject the law of your God, I will reject your descendants. The more the priests increase in numbers, the more they rebelled against me. They've turned their glorious calling into a shameful disgrace. They feed on the sin offerings of my people. Their appetites long for their iniquity. I will deal with the people and priests together, and I'll punish them both for their ways. I'll repay them for their deeds. Oh, they'll eat, but not be satisfied. They'll engage in prostitution but not increase in numbers, because they've abandoned the Lord by pursuing other gods. Old and new wine take away the understanding of my people. They consult their wooden idols, and their diviner's staff answers with an oracle. The wind of prostitution blows them astray. They commit spiritual adultery against their god. They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills, they sacrifice under oak, poplar, and terebinth because their shade is so pleasant. As a result, your daughters have become cult prostitutes, and your daughters in law commit adultery. I will not punish your daughters when they commit prostitution, nor your daughters in law when they commit adultery. For the men consort with harlots, and they sacrifice with temple prostitutes. It's true, a people that lacks understanding will come to ruin. Although you, O Israel, commit adultery, don't let Judah become guilty. Don't journey to Gilgal. Do not go up to Beth Avon, do not swear as surely as the Lord lives. Israel has rebelled like a stubborn heifer, and soon the Lord will put them out to pasture like a lamb in a broad field. Ephraim has attached himself to idols, don't go near him. They consume their alcohol, then engage in cult prostitution. They dearly love their shameful behavior. A whirlwind has wrapped them in its wings, and they'll be brought to shame because of their idolatrous worship. So far, Hosea has given us a lot of tensions to have to manage when we consider God. God is clearly angry. He is not messing around. However, he clearly does have a plan for his people's unfaithfulness, and he's willing to go through that plan, and he is casting a vision for what a healthy relationship can look like in the future. Now, by no means is that an excuse to go be unfaithful just because he knows what he can do to get us back. No, but we do see this difficult to understand mix of God's just absolute wrath against even his own people for their lack of faithfulness, but also his compassion and willingness to reconcile. The way he does that, did you catch that in chapter 2, verse 14? It says, However, in the future, again, God's looking forward to the future when he's like, I've got a plan, we'll we will be okay in the future. The way he gets there is this I will allure her, I will draw her out into the wilderness, I will lead her back into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. The wilderness, if you want to do a deep dive, go look at all the times that God's people were in the wilderness. Start in Exodus if you want. But look at where God goes and meets his people or draws his people into the wilderness. This is where God does his speaking tenderly and rebuilding a relationship and reaffirming and restoring. However, the wilderness is not a fun place to be, but it's exactly where God will draw you to get you alone, to get your attention, so that he can do the work that he's so willing to do. If he draws you into the wilderness, are you fighting him? Are you letting him lure you there, trusting that he has your best interest and your best relationship with him in mind? That's the thinking out loud thought for the day.