POWER HOUSE CHURCH TAMBARAM
where people matter
POWER HOUSE CHURCH TAMBARAM
where people matter
Day 1 - Hosea’s marriage and children being his prophecies
Hosea is a difficult book to get a grip on. It has some unanswered questions, which I will leave for you to make some inferences from. Here the focus of the book is on worshipping other gods in your life. He prophesied at the same time as Amos to the Northern kingdom of Israel, which was having a boom time of prosperity under Rehoboam the II (2 Kings 14)
Passage
Hosea 1:1-2:1
1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah,kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam son of Jehoash[a] king of Israel:
Hosea’s Wife and Children
2 When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lordsaid to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.” 3 So he married Gomerdaughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
4 Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. 5 In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.”
6 Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means “not loved”), for I will no longer show love to Israel,that I should at all forgive them. 7 Yet I will show love to Judah; and I will save them—not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but I, the Lord their God, will save them.”
8 After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. 9 Then the Lord said, “Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.[b]
10 “Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’ 11 The people of Judah and the people of Israel will come together; they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.[c]
2 [d]“Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’
Questions
1. What does the harlotry of the land in vs 2 refer to? (Harlotry was a symbol of idolatry often in the Old Testament). Does the harlotry of Hosea’s wife mean she was an idolator or she was of loose morals?
2. Wife of harlotry means that Hosea was asked to marry an immoral person or did she become immoral later, the term is referring to what she became? Both views are equally popular.
3. The bloodshed of Jezreel most likely refers to the slaughter of the kings by Jehu (2 Kings 9-10). Jehu was the grandfather of the present king Jeroboam. What does Hosea prophesy about Israel at the birth of these three children?
4. What does vs 10-11 prophesy about Israel and Judah? Why will God restore Israel?