Book Report-Hosea

Notes taken from New Spirit Filled Life Bible~

Author: Hosea
Date: About 750 B.C.
Theme: Return to God
Key Words: Sin, Judgment, Love

God chose Hosea, whose name means "Salvation" or "Deliverance", to live out His message for His people. He told Hosea to marry a loose sort of woman who would be unfaithful to him. Even as God would go after His unfaithful children, so Hosea went after his wife, Gomer, buying her back from slavery, even after she was unfaithful to him. Even the names of their children reflected her unfaithfulness to Hosea. I wonder what happened to those children. I wonder what happened to her. I think she eventually received Hosea's love and truly became his bride.

Hosea and Gomer demonstrated in the natural what Yahweh and Israel reflected in the spiritual. He demonstrated the love God had for Israel by the way he loved Gomer.
In spite of Israel's sin and God's judgment on their sin, God promises to forgive them and restore them to Himself. That's why I think Gomer stayed with Hosea when it was all said and done.

I get a lump in my throat when I read Hosea. He must have been some kind of man-to obey God in this matter. I wonder what his options were. I guess he had the same options we all have. He could have said 'No.'

Some of my favorite verses in Hosea are the following:

Chapter 2:19, 20, 23-"I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, In loving kindness and mercy; I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, And you shall know the LORD...
And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; Then I will say to those who were not My people, 'You are My people!' And they shall say, 'You are my God!'

3:5b-"They shall fear the LORD and His goodness in the latter days."

6:1,3-"Come, let us return to the LORD; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up...Let us know, Let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like rain, Like the latter and former rain to the earth."

14:2, 4, 5a-"Take words with you, And return to the LORD. Say to Him,"Take away all iniquity; Receive us graciously, For we will offer the sacrifices of our lips..."
"I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, For My anger has turned away from him. I will be like the dew to Israel and he shall grow..."
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I love that. "Take words with you..." He makes it almost easy to return to Him. He even gives us the words to say. And then, He responds to those words and heals, loves, and makes us grow and bear fruit. Amazing love, how can it be?...