Hosea 2

CHAPTER 2THEME: Gomer proves faithless; Israel proves faithless; God proves faithfulThis chapter opens with the fifth very remarkable prophecy concerning the nation Israel. In the last two verses of the preceding chapter we saw that (1) Israel will experience a great increase in population; (2) in the nation there will be a great turning to God; (3) the northern and southern kingdoms will reunite so that the twelve tribes will again form a single nation; (4) they will appoint themselves one head, who will be the Messiah; and (5)

Hosea 2:1

Ammi means “my people,” and Ruhamah means “pitied.” God is saying to the nation that the day is coming when He is going to say, “You are My people.” My friend, God is not through with the nation Israel, as we will see in chapter 3. This is very important to understand. Those who teach that God is through with Israel either spiritualize or discount a great deal of the Old Testament. If you can strip the Old Testament of its literal meaning, that gives you the liberty to do the same to the New Testament. Do you want to rob the Epistle of Romans and even Joh_3:16 of their literal meaning? You cannot do that with the New Testament, and I don’t believe you can do it with the Old Testament either.

Hosea 2:2

“Plead” carries the thought of a great contention, because Israel like Gomer was unfaithful and went back to practicing prostitution. God is applying Gomer’s sin to the nation. Hosea married a girl who had become a harlot, and, even after they had been married for some time and had three children, she went back to prostitution again. And all the while this man Hosea loved her! The greatest sin in all the world is not murder or theft or lying or possibly, under certain circumstances, adultery. But judging from what Scripture teaches, the worst sin one can commit is to become unfaithful to one who loves you. Applying this to our own lives, what is the greatest sin a Christian can commit? Many people feel that it is murder or lying or even coveting, but the greatest sin is unfaithfulness to God who has redeemed you and who loves you. There is no sin greater than that, my friend. God says, “Go to your mother and contend with her. Tell her to come back to Me. Tell her to turn away from her idolatries.”

Hosea 2:3

If she does not repent, God will judge her. Regarding Hosea, the implication is that he was not quite as tenderhearted as the prophet Jeremiah was. I imagine he said, “I intend to have her stoned if she continues this kind of lifeI have no alternative.”

Hosea 2:4

“And I will not have mercy upon her children.” God is applying the sin of the nation to the individuals who compose the nation. They are illegitimate children, and God will judge them. At this time in Israel’s history apparently the entire nation had turned to idolatry. God says that He will not have mercy on the children of Israel, for they are the children of harlotry.

Hosea 2:5

She is doing it for money! There is money in prostitutionit is one of the big rackets in our day also. This may imply that Hosea was not a wealthy man and was not able to provide the luxuries which Gomer wanted; so she practiced harlotry on the side. Israel’s sin was the same: she had turned to idols, which was spiritual adultery. The people of Israel were giving the idols credit for providing for them. “I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water"those are the necessities; “my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink"those are the luxuries. And all the while it was her loving God who was providing all these things for her. Oh, the ingratitude of the human raceand especially professing Christiansfor all that God has provided! I hear a great deal of complaining about rising prices today. If you are one of those who are complaining, let me ask you something: You had at least one good meal today, didn’t you? You have clothing in your closet, haven’t you? Perhaps you even have some luxuries. Who do you think provided these? “Well,” you may say, “I am an intelligent, hard-working person; I provided them for myself.” I have news for you: God has provided all of those material things for you.

He is the one who gave you intelligence. He is the one who gave you a measure of health and strength, and He is the one who provided the job for you. In fact, He is the one who created this earth with a well-stocked pantry and with clean air and clean water and sunshine. And yet you are ungrateful. You can’t sin much worse than that, my friend. It is true that we live in a day when terrible crimes are being committedstealing, lying, murderingbut the worst sins are being committed by the children of God who are ungrateful.

I realize this is not a popular thing to say, but here in the Book of Hosea, this is His charge against Israel.

Hosea 2:6

And it is my opinion that it was God who sent the Depression to my country, then the “dust bowl.” I think He was speaking to us in judgment. If we had repented and had heard God at that time, we would never have had to fight World War II. We would not have been involved in warfare in Korea and then in Vietnam. If we had been sending our boys over there as missionaries to give those people the gospel, we would not have had to send our boys over there to die or to suffer in the prison camps. Back of all our problems is the big problem that we are not recognizing God.

Hosea 2:7

There comes a day when that girl who has become a harlot is no longer beautiful and her lovers lose interest in her. She finds herself being put out. This was exactly what was happening to the nation Israel. The people were saying, “Now we will go back to God.”

Hosea 2:8

God says that He will judge Israel. I think we can apply the same thing to our own nation. We entered into difficult times beginning in World War I because we thought we were such a sophisticated nation. We have become so sophisticated that we think homosexuality should be considered normal in our society. We don’t like to punish murderers anymore; we would rather accept them into our society. God calls murder and homosexuality sin, and He says that when these things become prevalent in a nation it is a sign that the nation is going down the tube. We have too many judges who know a great deal about the law but know nothing about how God overrules even the laws of a nation, especially when the laws are wrong and the wrong men sit on the benches of our judicial system.

Hosea 2:10

The greatest sin in all the world is to forget God.

Hosea 2:14

The valley of Achor literally means “the valley of trouble.” It refers to the incident recorded in Joshua 7. You will recall that when the children of Israel entered the Promised Land, they faced three major enemies in the center of that land who had to be conquered first so that Joshua could divide the enemy and then concentrate on taking one section at a time. The first enemy was Jericho; Jericho represents the world, and God got the victory for them at Jericho. Next they made an attack upon Ai, and they thought it would be an easy victory because Ai was a small city. Ai represents the flesh, and a great many people think they can live the Christian life in their own strength; that is, by means of the fleshwhich always means defeat. Joshua was defeated at Ai, but a great lesson was learned there.

God had instructed the men not to take any of the unclean things at the destruction of Jericho, but one man disobeyed. As a result, the army suffered a great defeat at Ai. Joshua went down upon his face and cried out to God. He was as pious as I have been at times, complaining to the Lord. The Lord said to him, “Get up off your face. Israel has sinned. You must deal with the sin before you can have a victory.” So they had to ferret out the one who had sinned and finally found him to be Achan. Achan and his property were taken to the Valley of Achor where they were destroyed and buried. From then on it was victory for Israel under General Joshua. And, friend, when you and I deal with the sins of the flesh, we will have victory in the Christian life. “And the valley of Achor for a door of hope.” In effect, God is saying, “I’ll judge your sin, and after I have judged your sin, there will be a glorious, wonderful hope for you in the future.” “And she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.” My friend, even today in the land of Israel, you don’t find it quite like this. Although Israel is back in her land, this particular area is up near Shechemnear the place where Joseph is buriedan area characterized by Arab/Israeli conflict and not by singing. The fulfillment of this promise is still future. The day is going to come when God will bless them there.

Hosea 2:16

This is interesting, and the meaning of it is quite lovely. Ishi means “my husband,” and Baali is connected with Baal and means “my lord or my master.” You see, the people of Israel were placing the true God on the level of Baal and were trying to worship both. Of course, it is impossible to do that, and God says to them that the day is coming when Israel will call Him, “my husband.” Now let’s think about this for a moment. The husband relationship implies that which is intimate and personal and is based on love. It is the highest relationship in the human family. The loveliest expression of it is found in the Song of Solomon where the bride says, “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine …” (Son_6:3). When you have that relationship in a marriage, you have a happy home. You won’t have to attend seminars that instruct you on how to live as man and wife. The secret is love; when you don’t have that, you don’t have anything. But if you have love, you have everything. You can work out your financial problems; you can adjust your personality conflicts; you can work together in dealing with your children if you love each other. However, if you don’t love each other, you can’t work out anything. My friend, it is wonderful to have that kind of relationship with God. We can go to the Lord Jesus and say, “I love You. I belong to You.” When that kind of relationship exists, Paul says, “…For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s” (1Co_3:21-23). Can you call Christ yours? Do you belong to Him, and does He belong to you? If He does, then you have something good going. There is no relationship equal to that. And one day Israel will say to God, “You are my husband.” “And shalt call me no more Baali.” As we have seen, Baali is connected with the hideous idol Baal, and means “my lord"that is all it means. Remember that the Lord Jesus said, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Mat_7:21-23). Oh, my friend, the all-important thing is a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christit is not to mouth platitudes about His being your Lord and claim to be doing great things for Him. It narrows down to the thing He said to Simon Peter by the Sea of Galilee, “Lovest thou me?” Do you love Him?

Hosea 2:17

Even the name of Baal will be forgotten. They will turn from idolatry.

Hosea 2:18

In that land, as in our own land, there is a danger of many species of animals becoming extinctsome already have. God created the animals and placed them here. They have a right to this world, and in that future day He will make a covenant with them. In that day, which we designate as the Millennium, the lion and the lamb will lie down together. In our day when they lie down together, the lamb is always inside the lion, but in the Millennium they will lie down together in peace. As I am writing, there is a new interest in ecology and in the preservation of animal life.

Have you ever noticed that all through the Bible God has considered the animals? Also He has considered the land itself and speaks of blessing the land. It is man who is the polluter. Man is a sinner on the inside, and he is also a sinner on the outside. He contaminates everything he touches. I recall a drive home from the Mojave Desert when the rays of the setting sun were hitting the road at an angle, and lining both sides of the road were beams and flashes of light.

I have never seen anything like it. Do you know what it was? It was the broken beer bottles and whiskey bottles and perhaps a few soft drink bottles reflecting those rays of the sun! Man is a polluter everywhere he goes. Well, God says that He is going to take care of this earth. I thank God for that, because I don’t think man will be able to do it.

Hosea 2:19

We are seeing something very wonderful here. The word betrothed means literally to “woo a virgin”; it means to court a girl. If you are a married man, you can remember when your wife was a girl, and how pretty she was and how you courted her. You said a lot of sweet things then. One evening some time ago my wife and I were sitting out on the patio. I was recuperating from surgery, and we were just talking about the fact that we are getting old.

I took a look at her, and I would have to say that she is getting old like I am, but I can remember that girl I first saw down in Texas with her hair as black as a raven’s wing and those flashing brown eyes. She had a sultry look, let me tell you, because her complexion is dark. As we remembered those wonderful days, we got just a little sentimental. We talked about the times when we used to drive up to Fort Worth to eat in a restaurant there. We ordered steaks, and do you know what we paid for a steak in that day? It was fifty cents apiece!

She was a school teacher, and I was a poor preacher; so I made her pay for her owneven at fifty cents! I’ve tried to make up for that through the years since then, I can assure you. To woo a virgin is a wonderful experience. That is what God said He would do to Israel. What a beautiful, lovely picture this is. God says, “I intend to win you for Myself.” How is God going to do this? He says, “I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.” You see, there was mercy under the Mosaic system, too. You will find that there was love in law just as there is law in love. You cannot completely segregate one from the other. This is another reason why I do not think the present return of Israel to their land is a fulfillment of prophecy. It certainly does not fulfill this one. God says that when He woos Israel and brings her back into the land it will be in righteousness and in justice and in lovingkindness and in mercies. Today Israel is just like any other nation. Some think they are unnecessarily brutal, but they are on the defensive and their survival depends on a strong defense system. They are not back in the land of Israel in fulfillment of prophecy. Although they have returned to the land, they have not returned to the Lord. When they do return to the Lord, there will be blessing. “I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness.” They never were faithful in the past. In fact, they are very much like the apostate church in our day. “And thou shalt know the LORD.” They certainly do not know Him today.

Hosea 2:21

“In that day” is a technical expression which refers to the last days as they pertain to the nation Israel, the Great Tribulation period, and the coming of Christ to set up His Kingdom on earth. “I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth"heaven and earth will be in tune.

Hosea 2:22

“Jezreel” means that God will scatter or sow them, but in that future day God will regather them.

Hosea 2:23

These final two verses are a play upon the names of Gomer’s children. Not only will God regather them, but they will no longer be Lo-ruhamah, like the unpitied daughter of harlotry. God will have mercy upon them. In our day Israel is Lo-ammi"not my people,” but in that future day God will say, “You are My people,” and they will say, “You are my God.” My friend, they are not saying that today; they are not turning to God. This is a prophecy for the Millennium.