25. Hosea

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25. HOSEA

I. OUTLINE

1. Hosea's Married Life. 1:1-3:5.

A. Wife and Children. 1:1-9.

B. Restoration. 1:10-2:1.

C. Repentance. 2:2-23.

D. Redemption. 3:1-5.

2. Israel's Unfaithfulness. 4:1-13:16.

A. Spiritual Unfaithfulness. 4:1-7:7.

B. Political Unfaithfulness. 7:8-10:15.

C. Love of God. 11:1-11.

D. Ephraim's Doom. 11:12-13:16.

3. Call to Repentance. 14:1-9.

A. Take Words. 14:1-3.

B. The Lord's Response. 14:4-8.

C. Postscript. 14:9.

II. AUTHORSHIP

1. Hosea, prophet to the northern kingdom, wrote the book, probably about 750 B.C.

2. He wrote during the reign of Jeroboam, shortly before Isaiah the First.

3. Soon after the writing a Judaic editor made slight changes and additions.

III. SERMONS AND ADDRESSES

1. He denounced the fertility cults, the calf of Samaria.

2. He preached against political intrigue-foreign alliances.

3. He held up the "covenant of love" and asked Israel to return to its "first love."

4. Much of Hosea's preaching was done at the autumn festival.

5. He made a new presentation of Yahweh as:

A. Almighty Power.

B. Judge.

C. Savior.

D. Giver of Victory.

E. Giver of Rain.

6. He preached a coming retribution.

7. We have every reason to believe that they had written laws at this time.

IV. THE PROPHET AND HIS HOME

1. Hosea had a home in the country, and was a man of the country.

2. He says the Lord instructed "him to marry a harlot. Probably a temple prostitute.

3. Accordingly, he married Corner and they had three children.

4. Gomer left him, returned to harlotry, and ended up in the slave market, where Hosea found her and took her back.

5. Hosea used this experience with Gomer as an illustration of how Israel had gone after other gods, and how Yahweh had forgiven and taken Israel back.

6. He made an allegory of his marriage and applied it to Israel and its relationship to Yahweh.

V. THE BOOK

1. Hosea is a small but very influential book among Old Testament writings. More than 30 direct and indirect quotations from it are contained in the New Testament.

2. Hosea was among the early prophets to teach personal relations with God.

3. His religion sounds like the Second Isaiah and the later New Testament Gospels.

4. Jeremiah knew about Hosea and made use of his writings.

5. Hosea taught that God was righteous in all his acts.

6. His message was: "'Come, let us return to the Lord.'" (6:1)

VI. SELECTED TEXTS

1. Sons of God. "It shall be said to them, 'Sons of the living God.'" 1:10.

2. Hosea marries a harlot. "'For their mother has played the harlot.'" 2:5.

3. Value of knowledge. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." 4:6.

4. Returning to God. "'Come, let us return to the Lord;...he has stricken, and he will bind us up.'" 6:1.

5. Love, not sacrifice. "For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice." 6:6.