Finding Your Way Back Home

The Backstory of Hosea

• Hosea’s ministry was to the Northern Kingdom – (also called Ephraim) – in the years prior to 722 B.C.

930 B. C. Northern Kingdom begins; first king is Jeroboam
722 B. C. Assyria destroys the Northern Kingdom

• The first three chapters tell the story of Hosea’s marriage to his wife, – a story of unfaithfulness, redemption, and restoration.

And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” (Hosea 3:1, ESV)

• The remaining 11 chapters are mainly “oracles of judgment” – God’s of his people for their unfaithfulness, with a few pointers to the way of salvation.

13 When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling;
he was exalted in Israel,
but he incurred guilt through Baal and died.
²  And now they sin more and more,
and make for themselves metal images,
idols skillfully made of their silver,
all of them the work of craftsmen.
It is said of them,
“Those who offer human sacrifice kiss calves!”
³  Therefore they shall be like the morning mist
or like the dew that goes early away,
like the chaff that swirls from the threshing floor
or like smoke from a window.
⁴  But I am the Lord your God
from the land of Egypt;
you know no God but me,
and besides me there is no savior.
⁵  It was I who knew you in the wilderness,
in the land of drought;
⁶  but when they had grazed, they became full,
they were filled, and their heart was lifted up;
therefore they forgot me.
⁷  So I am to them like a lion;
like a leopard I will lurk beside the way.
⁸  I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs;
I will tear open their breast,
and there I will devour them like a lion,
as a wild beast would rip them open.
⁹  He destroys you, O Israel,
for you are against me, against your helper.
¹⁰  Where now is your king, to save you in all your cities?
Where are all your rulers—
those of whom you said,
“Give me a king and princes”?
¹¹  I gave you a king in my anger,
and I took him away in my wrath.
¹²  The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up;
his sin is kept in store.
¹³  The pangs of childbirth come for him,
but he is an unwise son,
for at the right time he does not present himself
at the opening of the womb.
¹⁴  I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol;
I shall redeem them from Death.
O Death, where are your plagues?
O Sheol, where is your sting?
Compassion is hidden from my eyes.
¹⁵  Though he may flourish among his brothers,
the east wind, the wind of the Lord, shall come,
rising from the wilderness,
and his fountain shall dry up;
his spring shall be parched;
it shall strip his treasury
of every precious thing.
¹⁶  Samaria shall bear her guilt,
because she has rebelled against her God;
they shall fall by the sword;
their little ones shall be dashed in pieces,
and their pregnant women ripped open.

1. God will eventually judge and persistent and unrepentant rebellion and unfaithfulness . . .

• of ,
• of , and
• of .

14 Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,
for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.
²  Take with you words
and return to the Lord;
say to him,
“Take away all iniquity;
accept what is good,
and we will pay with bulls
the vows of our lips.
³  Assyria shall not save us;
we will not ride on horses;
and we will say no more, ‘Our God,’
to the work of our hands.
In you the orphan finds mercy.”
⁴  I will heal their apostasy;
I will love them freely,
for my anger has turned from them.
⁵  I will be like the dew to Israel;
he shall blossom like the lily;
he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon;
⁶  his shoots shall spread out;
his beauty shall be like the olive,
and his fragrance like Lebanon.
⁷  They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow;
they shall flourish like the grain;
they shall blossom like the vine;
their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon.
⁸  O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols?
It is I who answer and look after you.
I am like an evergreen cypress;
from me comes your fruit.
⁹  Whoever is wise, let him understand these things;
whoever is discerning, let him know them;
for the ways of the Lord are right,
and the upright walk in them,
but transgressors stumble in them.

2. God promises to heal and to restore those who to him in repentance, faith, and obedience.

3. If you are a or a ,  now is the time to come . . . before it is too late! (cf. Luke 15:11-32).