The Book of Hosea
The Book of Hosea
By Richard St.James
Bible 1611.Com / Old Paths Baptist Mission © 2023
Hosea, chapter three:
Verse one:
“Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman
beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress,
according to the love of the LORD toward the
children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love
flagons of wine.”
Do you see what I see?
God is their friend! God loves them!
Israel is the apple of his eye. [See
Zechariah 2:8 and Deuteronomy 32:10]
Verse two:
“So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces
of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an
half homer of barley:”
Israel [and Judah here]
is a purchased people. They are
purchased! We can see this
clearly stated truth, in the second book of
Moses called Exodus.
Exodus 15:16: “Fear
and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of
thine arm they shall be as still as a stone;
till thy people pass over, O LORD, till the people
pass over, which thou hast purchased.”
Hosea chapter three:
Verse three:
“And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me
many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou
shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for
thee.”
The LORD has commanded
Israel to not play the harlot but to be
faithful only to HIM.
Verse four:
“For the children of Israel shall abide many days
without a king, and without a prince, and without a
sacrifice, and without an image, and without an
ephod, and without teraphim:”
BUT
they played the harlot!
Now, turn to the third
book of Moses called Leviticus. Go to
chapter seventeen.
It is here in this
chapter where there is located specific commands
that were given to Israel by the LORD their God
regulating in the matter of their
sacrifices.
“And the LORD spake
unto Moses, saying,
Speak unto Aaron, and
unto his sons, and unto all the children of Israel,
and say unto them; This is the thing which
the LORD hath commanded, saying,
What man soever
there be of the house of Israel, that killeth an
ox, or lamb, or goat, in the camp, or that killeth
it out of the camp,
And bringeth it not
unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,
to offer an offering unto the LORD before the
tabernacle of the LORD; blood shall be imputed unto
that man; he hath shed blood; and that man shall be
cut off from among his people:
To the end that the
children of Israel may bring their sacrifices, which
they offer in the open field, even that they may
bring them unto the LORD, unto the door of the
tabernacle of the congregation, unto the priest, and
offer them for peace offerings unto the
LORD.”
What can we learn here?
Conclusion: The children
of Israel need a tabernacle or a temple for their
sacrifices!
If there is NO
TABERNACLE, or if there is NO TEMPLE, then there can
be NO SACRIFICE!
With
that established, we need to pause here, and see
just what has happened as a consequence for their
harlotry to the nation of Israel. For
this, we must to the turn to the Gospel according
to Matthew, to chapter twenty-three, and
we will start reading at verse thirty-six:
Verse 36: “Verily I
say unto you, All these things shall come upon this
generation.
Verse 37: “O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the
prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee,
how often would I have gathered thy children
together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under
her wings, and ye would not!”
Verse 38: “Behold,
your house is left unto you desolate.”
Verse 39: “For I say
unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye
shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the
name of the Lord.”
For their harlotry
their temple was made empty!
Now, go to chapter
twenty-four, and read verse two:
Matthew 24:2: “And
Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things?
verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here
one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown
down.”
For their harlotry
their temple was destroyed!
Next, we need to turn to
the Gospel according to Luke, to
chapter twenty-one, verses twenty through
twenty-four:
“And when ye shall see
Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the
desolation thereof is nigh.
Then let them which
are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them
which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not
them that are in the countries enter thereinto.
For these be the days
of vengeance, that all things which are written may
be fulfilled.
But woe unto them that
are with child, and to them that give suck, in those
days! for there shall be great distress in the land,
and wrath upon this people.
And they shall fall by
the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive
into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden
down of the Gentiles, until the times of the
Gentiles be fulfilled.” [Luke
21:20-24]
For their harlotry
their city was destroyed!
Now, SIN
has its consequences! As a series of
consequences, Israel would be:
1.
Without a king
2.
Without a prince
3.
Without a sacrifice: No
sacrifice, because there was no tabernacle or
temple.
4.
Without an image: No images
of the idol gods.
5.
Without an ephod: There was
no ephod for the priest to wear in the
performing of any sacrifice: No sacrifice,
because there was no tabernacle or temple.
6.
Without teraphim:
Therefore, no [fashioned with the hands] idol
gods. Teraphim = IDOL = gods. See what Laban
said of his teraphim were to him in: Genesis
31:30:
“And now,
though thou wouldest needs be gone, because thou
sore longedst after thy father's house, yet
wherefore hast thou stolen my gods?”
We will find in the BOOK
of GOD [in the fifth book of Moses called
Deuteronomy] a prophecy concerning
Israel, of how they would be plucked from
off the land if they played the harlot
with another, and would not be faithful to HIM.
We will find in chapter
twenty-eight [and clearly spelt out] the
consequences to come to Israel playing the
harlot.
Deuteronomy 28:63:
“And it shall come to pass, that as the
LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to
multiply you; so the LORD will rejoice over you to
destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye
shall be plucked from off the land whither thou
goest to possess it.”
Now, note this: Israel is
a plucked people! It now gets worse!
Verse 64: “And the
LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the
one end of the earth even unto the other; and there
thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor
thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.”
Here we learn that
they are also, a scattered people!
It is a historical fact. They have been
dispersed among all the nations of the earth.
Verse 65: “And among
these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall
the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall
give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of
eyes, and sorrow of mind:”
Now, turn to the book of
Ezekiel.
Ezekiel 20:23: “I
lifted up mine hand unto them also in the
wilderness, that I would scatter them among the
heathen, and disperse them through the countries”:
This is called the
diaspora. DIASPORA = [The
dispersion of the Jews among the Gentiles after
their captivity.]
The two major
dispersions of the Jewish people occurred in
[B.C. 610] and [A.D. 70] and this resulted in them
having to suffer the following maladies. They
were to have:
1.
No ease
2.
No rest
3.
No peace.
Which produced in the
people:
1.
A trembling in the heart
2.
The failing of the eyes
3.
A sorrow of the mind
Conclusion: They would
have no ease, nor rest, and possess trembling
hearts, and failing of the eyes with the sorrow of
mind for the next two thousand years!
The Summation: Their
unfaithfulness to the God of Israel [in all
their harlotry] brought them steadily
downhill to visit all these calamities.
Now, for this see more with me in the book of
Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 30:5: “For
thus saith the LORD; We have heard a voice of
trembling, of fear, and not of peace.”
Here is the very sobering
scene that we can see for Israel in this situation.
For this we go to the book of Psalms.
Psalm 137:1-4:
“By the rivers of
Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we
remembered Zion.
We hanged our harps
upon the willows in the midst thereof.
For there they that
carried us away captive required of us a song; and
they that wasted us required of us mirth,
saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
How shall we sing the
LORD'S song in a strange land?”
There is now found in the
people’s hearts a continual sorrow.
Harlotry does this. Harlotry, or adultery,
destroys a marriage. It dissolves the
prior relationship.
Now, hear what the
Scripture saith concerning their sorrow:
·
Jeremiah 30:15: Why criest
thou for thine affliction? Thy sorrow is
incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity:
because thy sins were increased, I have done
these things unto thee.”
·
Jeremiah 45:3:
“Thou didst say, Woe is me now! for the LORD hath
added grief to my sorrow; I fainted in my sighing,
and I find no rest.”
·
Lamentations 1:12: “Is
it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold,
and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow
which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath
afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.”
·
Lamentations 1:18: “The
LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against his
commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and
behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are
gone into captivity.”
Lamentations
3:65: “Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto
them.”
There is more than
sorrow that is experienced by this people, hear
now what the Scripture saith of this people’s
[Judah] perpetual state of mourning and of
lamentation:
·
Lamentations 2:5:
“The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up
Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he
hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased
in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.”
·
Amos 8:10: “And I will
turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs
into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon
all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will
make it as the mourning of an only son, and
the end thereof as a bitter day.”
There is more, hear now
what the Scripture saith of this people’s
[Judah] perpetual state of confusion and of their
shame:
- Ezra 9:7:
“Since the days of our fathers have we
been in a great trespass unto this day;
and for our iniquities have we, our kings,
and our priests, been delivered into the
hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to
captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of
face, as it is this day.”
- Jeremiah
3:25: “We lie down in our shame, and our
confusion covereth us: for we have sinned
against the LORD our God, we and our fathers,
from our youth even unto this day, and have not
obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.”
There you have
it! It is for Israel to have:
1.
Continual sorrow
2.
Mourning and lamentation
3.
Confusion of face and of shame,
And all of this was to
continually plague all this
people as seen in the last two thousand years of
history.
Hosea chapter three:
Verse five:
“Afterward shall the children of Israel return,
and seek the LORD their God, and David their king;
and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the
latter days.”
The LORD GOD has a
remedy for man’s sin. It is written in the
BOOK! The LORD has a happy end mapped out for
HIS people, Israel. It will surely happen in
the latter days. Now, the latter days
refer to the one-thousand-year Kingdom of Heaven
when Jesus Christ will reign over Israel and all the
nations of the earth.
Next - Hosea Chapter Four
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