For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Hosea 1:1-5

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 king of Israel:

2 When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said 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 Gomer daughter 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.”

A. Find Out:

1. Through how many kings’ reigns did Hosea prophesy? v.1
2. What sort of wife and children was Hosea to have? v.2a
3. Why? v.2b
4. So what did Hosea do and with what result? v.3
5. What was Hosea to call him? v.4a
6. Why? v.4b,5

B. Think:

1. What do you think Hosea would have felt about his instructions?
2. How would it help him appreciate how the Lord felt?
3. What was soon to happen to Israel ?

C. Comment:

If today a prophecy came to a young man, “Take a wife who is of poor character, who will be unfaithful to you, have children who will be a grief to you”, we would probably denounce it as a false prophecy because prophecy “speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort” (1 Cor 14:3). Yet this WAS God’s intention for this young prophet, with the greater aim that he would learn to feel as God felt.

We tend to think that prophetic gifting is something good, something that brings blessing immediately, but the word that comes to Hosea is going to bring him pain and anguish and it will be over the long term. God wants his servant to feel fully as He feels so that he can communicate the truth about Israel more adequately. Israel had been unfaithful to God and so after many years of warning, the Lord was going to destroy the northern kingdom of Israel, but He was not doing it harshly, He was doing it with all the anguish of a husband who has been deserted, and Hosea, as His servant, is to share in that anguish through very practical means.

D. Application:

1. God looks for servants who will feel as He feels, so that they can more adequately bring His love and His word.
2. Are we willing to feel as God feels? It will cost us our comfort and ease and make us a prayer warrior. 

Passage: Hosea 1:6 – 2:1

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.

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.

1 “Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’

A. Find Out:    

1. What was Hosea to call his daughter? v.6a
2. Why? v.6b
3. Yet what did the Lord promise? v.7
4. What was Hosea to call his second son? v.8,9a
5. Why? v.9b
6. Yet what did the Lord promise? v.10,11,1

B. Think:

1. What did the two new names indicate?
2. How must this have made Hosea feel?
3. Yet what was God also promising for the future?

C. Comment:

Hebrew names so often had a meaning, so that every time they were spoken the meaning would be spoken out and the people reminded. How terrible therefore, that every time the two children were called there would be the awful proclamation that God no longer loved this people and indeed declared they were no longer His people. What a prophetic couple of children!

Despite this, the Lord declares His long-term intention for Israel and Judah IS GOOD! He will show love to them, He WILL save them, He WILL bring them into a new relationship with Him whereby they WILL be called sons of God, and they WILL be a mighty people and they WILL be united under one ruler! There is nothing indefinite about all this: in the short term He will deal with their apostasy, and yet in such a way that His long-term purposes will continue.

In Rom 8:28 Paul said that God would work all things together for good for us. That doesn’t mean that “all things” are good, for some times the sin of the world or even our own sin gets us into difficulties, yet this wonderful God of grace and mercy will still work these things through for our long-term good. In the short term there may be discipline and pain but in the long-term….. blessing!

D. Application:

1. God will bring discipline in the short-term.
2. In the long-term He purposes restoration and blessing.