An unlikely marriage between a prophet and an unfaithful wife and the first of the ‘minor’ prophets Hosea and Gomer are a picture of grace, a picture of God's mercy board Israel and God's mercy toward the church

1. Hosea and his family
a portrait of grace
Hosea and his family
a portrait of grace
The book
of Hosea

2. An unusual start…
2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea,
the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself
a wife of whoredom and have children of
whoredom, for the land commits great
whoredom by forsaking the Lord.”
An unusual start…
When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the
Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a
wife of whoredom and have children of
whoredom, for the land commits great
whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” Hosea 1:2

3. Background
• Manasseh was king, perhaps worse of the kings of
Israel
• Jeremiah was born around then
• Josiah would re-‘discover’ the Bible in his reign after
• and Hosea would start his ‘love of another kind’
unexpected and long ministry… perhaps the
longest of the ministries of the ‘major’ and ‘minor’
prophets

4. Background
• Hosea means salvation
• It’s similar to Joshua who Moses renamed
Yehoshua (God saves)

5. the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to
yourself a wife of whoredom and have
children of whoredom, for the land
commits great whoredom by forsaking
the Lord.
Hosea 1

6. So he went and took Gomer,
the daughter of Diblaim, and
she conceived and bore him
a son.
And the Lord said to him,
“Call his name Jezreel, for in
just a little while I will punish
the house of Jehu for the
blood of Jezreel, and I will
put an end to the kingdom of
the house of Israel. And on
that day I will break the bow
of Israel in the Valley of
Jezreel.”
Hosea 1:3-5

7. Hosea’s first child was Jezreel
referring back to when Jehu over punished
violently and with injustice. God will recompense

8. She conceived again and bore a daughter. And
the Lord said to him, “Call her name No Mercy,
for I will no more have mercy on the house of
Israel, to forgive them at all. But I will have
mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save
them by the Lord their God. I will not save them
by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by
horsemen.” Hosea 1: 6-7

9. Hosea’s second child was no pity

10. When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and
bore a son. And the Lord said, “Call his name Not My
People, for you are not my people, and I am not your
God.” Hosea 1:8:9

11. Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the
sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered.
And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not
my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living
God.” And the children of Judah and the children of Israel
shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for
themselves one head. And they shall go up from the land,
for great shall be the day of Jezreel. Hosea 1:10-11

12. and third child was not mine

15. And Gomer was put on auction
and the bidding was low but
more money than Hosea had and he had to add some
money plus barley to buy back Gomer

16. “So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver
and a homer and a lethech of barley.” Hosea 2

17. “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.
15 And there I will give her her vineyards
and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth,
as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.
Hosea 2:14

18. “And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My
Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’
A tender husband, not a master
Hosea 2:16

19. And I will have mercy on No Mercy,
and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’;
and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”
Hosea 2

20. Hosea 1:10
Yet the number of the children of Israel
shall be like the sand of the sea,
which cannot be measured or numbered.
And in the place where it was said to them,
“You are not my people,”
it shall be said to them, “Children of the
living God.”
A strange reversal?

21. .. even us whom He called, not from the Jews
but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed He says
in Hosea:
“Those who were not my people I will call My
people and her who was not beloved I will call
beloved. And in the very place it was said to them,
‘ you are not My people.’ there they shall be called
‘the sons of the living God.”
Romans 9:24-46

22. A hope for the future
and a figure in the type of David

23. Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the
Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come
in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.

24. A need for now

26. Hear the word of the Lord, O
children of Israel, for the Lord
has a controversy with the
inhabitants of the land.
There is no faithfulness or
steadfast love, and no
knowledge of God in the land;
Hosea 4:1,2

27. Therefore the land mourns,
and all who dwell in it languish,
and also the beasts of the field
and the birds of the heavens,
and even the fish of the sea are
taken away.
Hosea 4:3

28. With the story of Hosea’s family set
before the readers, Hosea moves on
• the sin of Israel causes even the land to mourn, the
birds, fish and animals to die.

29. Affairs of home move on
to affairs of the nation
Hosea, like Churchill says
war is at the doorstep
and describes battle
cries from several places
within walking distance
of Jerusalem

30. Like Adam, the covenant was transgressed

31. The princes get sick with wine
The King mocks

32. The priests lay in wait like robbers for people

33. Hosea paints a picture of Israel,
like a lump of dough
mixed in with the nations

34. Israel was like a luxurious vine
yet….

35. …yet they turned to idols on every side

37. Woe to them, for they have
strayed from me!
Destruction to them, for they
have rebelled against me!
I would redeem them, but
they speak lies against me.

38. They do not cry to me from the
heart, but they wail upon their
beds; for grain and wine they
gash themselves; they rebel
against me.

39. They sow the wind
and reap the whirlwind

40. It is as if the clouds are filled with rain that never comes

41. Yet God stretches out His everlasting arms

42. Israel grasped at the heel
a look back

43. Looking back in the past, Jacob encounters God
but struggles with issues of sanctification, even idols
used by his favorite wife

44. • Like Jacob, the nation of Israel encountered God
at points in his life but struggled with sanctification
• Hosea recounts turning points in Jacob’s life,
Jacob renamed Israel

45. The striped, speckled or not sheep deals.
A lesson on cheating and being cheated
and problems dealings with his uncle

46. Other issues in the past:
Jacob wrestles God for a blessing
yet struggles with issues with deception with others

47. In the womb he took his brother by the
heel,
and in his manhood he strove with
God.
He strove with the angel and prevailed;
he wept and sought his favor.
He met God at Bethel,
and there God spoke with us—
the Lord, the God of hosts,
the Lord is his memorial name:
“So you, by the help of your God, return,
hold fast to love and justice,
and wait continually for your God.”
Hosea 12:3-6

48. Hosea 12:6

49. ‘Hold fast to love and justice’
Hosea 12:6
Just as Jacob grabbed his
brother’s heel and wrestled with
an angel ( perhaps God?) until
Jacob was blessed by Him.

50. When Israel was a child I loved him and
Out of Egypt I called My son
Hosea 11:1
Out of Egypt I called My son

51. Why go back to the time in
Egypt
• Jesus will be portended by Israel in some ways,
coming out of Egypt
• Unlike Israel, now displaying faithfulness, Jesus
will display true and full sonship of God
• But God will redeem and restore unfaithful Israel

52. They shall go after the LORD;
he will roar like a lion; when he roars,
his children shall come trembling from
the west;
Hosea 11:10

53. 11 they shall come trembling like birds
from Egypt, and like doves from the land
of Assyria, and I will return them to their
homes, declares the LORD.
Hosea 11:11

54. My people refuse to listen

55. They sacrifice bulls in Gilgal;
even their altars will
be like heaps of rocks
on the furrows of a field.
Hosea 12:11

56. “It is said of those who offer
human sacrifice
kiss calves!”
Hosea 13:2

57. God makes a future promise about the
consequence of sin, the sting and bite of death
and the grave
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.
Hosea 13:14

58. The promise will be met much later and
will be left until the death resurrection of Jesus
to be answered more fully
.. then shall come to pass the saying
Death is swallowed up in victory
Death where is your victory
O Death, where is your string
1 Cor 15:34b - 35

59. Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,
for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.
Take with you words
and return to the Lord;
Hosea 14:1-2
Encouragement followed by invitation:

60. …. say to him,
“Take away all iniquity;
accept what is good,
and we will pay with bulls
the vows of our lips.
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.”
Hosea 14:2-3

61. I will heal their apostasy;
I will love them freely,
for my anger has turned from them.
I will be like the dew to Israel;
he shall blossom like the lily;
he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon;
his shoots shall spread out;
his beauty shall be like the olive,
and his fragrance like Lebanon.
They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow;
they shall flourish like the corn;
they shall blossom like the vine;
their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon.
Hosea 14:4-7

62. 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
Hosea 14:8

63. 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.
Hosea 14:9

65. Hosea
is
the
10th
most
quoted
Old
Testament
book
by the
New
Testament