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 2:2-7

2 “Rebuke your mother, rebuke her,
    for she is not my wife,
    and I am not her husband.
Let her remove the adulterous look from her face
    and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.
3 Otherwise I will strip her naked
    and make her as bare as on the day she was born;
I will make her like a desert,
    turn her into a parched land,
    and slay her with thirst.
4 I will not show my love to her children,
    because they are the children of adultery.
5 Their mother has been unfaithful
    and has conceived them in disgrace.
She said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
    who give me my food and my water,
    my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.’
6 Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes;
    I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.
7 She will chase after her lovers but not catch them;
    she will look for them but not find them.
Then she will say,
    ‘I will go back to my husband as at first,
    for then I was better off than now.’

A. Find Out:

1. What is he commanded to do? v.2a
2. Why? v.2b,5a
3. What does the Lord threaten to do? v.3,4
4. What had Israel done? v.5b
5. So what did the Lord say He would do? v.6,7a
6. With what result? v.7b

B. Think:

1. What picture was the Lord using of His relationship with Israel?
2. How had that relationship broken down?
3. What was He intending to do about it?

C. Comment:

The Lord pictures Israel as His wife, the nation as the mother of the people alive that day. But then He says, “She is not my wife, she has become adulterous and unfaithful and has left me for others, so I am no longer the one she is solely committed to”. True marriage is two people solely committed to each other, and adultery breaks that commitment.

Very well, says the Lord, rebuke her, so that she might come back, otherwise I will completely expose her for what she is. I will no longer show love to those who are alive today, her children, because they haven’t grown up in relationship with me but in relationship with others.  Israel had relied upon others instead of God.  They have looked to others for their provision, and not the Lord, therefore He says, I will block her off from them in the hope she will come back to me.

Here we have first an angry and rightly jealous God who has been rejected. But we also find that His desire is still to bring them back to Himself if that is possible. Still there is grace in the midst of discipline, mercy in the midst of judgement. Look back to the Special Note on Jezreel and see again how the Jehu and those who had followed after him continued in idol worship.  No wonder God is angry!

D. Application:

1. When we turn from the Lord to get provision elsewhere, God is rightly  jealous.  We belong to Him. This form of jealousy is right.
2. God will not sit back and just let it happen. See Heb 12:7-11

Passage: Hosea 2:8-13

8 She has not acknowledged that I was the one
    who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil,
who lavished on her the silver and gold—
    which they used for Baal.

9 “Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens,
    and my new wine when it is ready.
I will take back my wool and my linen,
    intended to cover her naked body.
10 So now I will expose her lewdness
    before the eyes of her lovers;
    no one will take her out of my hands.
11 I will stop all her celebrations:
    her yearly festivals, her New Moons,
    her Sabbath days—all her appointed festivals.
12 I will ruin her vines and her fig trees,
    which she said were her pay from her lovers;
I will make them a thicket,
    and wild animals will devour them.
13 I will punish her for the days
    she burned incense to the Baals;
she decked herself with rings and jewelry,
    and went after her lovers,
    but me she forgot,”
declares the Lord.

A. Find Out:

1. What has Israel not acknowledged? v.8
2. Therefore what will the Lord do? v.9
3. How will it appear to others? v.10
4. What will the Lord stop? v.11
5. What will He then do to the land? v.12
6. Why will the Lord punish her? v.13

B. Think:

1. How many different sins can you identify in this passage?
2. How may we commit the same ones today?
3. What was God’s answer to them, but what would be better?

C. Comment:

Let’s first observe the various sins of Israel that are identified in this passage. First there is the sin of ungratefulness as they refuse to acknowledge who it is that provides for them (see also Rom 1:21 ).

Second, there is idol worship as they offered food to Baal.

Third, there is spiritual adultery (which is just another aspect of idolatry) as they went to others rather than God. Ultimately all this can be lumped under the one heading: rejection of God . All sin is ultimately that, rejection of God.

We are the same when we take for granted our daily provision, when we take for granted the good things that come to us, and fail to give thanks to God for HIS good provision. When we place our reliance in anything other than God, we too are turning to idols at the expense of our personal relationship with God.

The Lord’s intentions were quite clear: He would take away all of His provision for Israel and He would let their bankruptcy be seen by all nations round about. We need to be quite clear, this is no capricious act of a piqued God; this is the action of an all-wise God who knows that how all nations think of Him is all important. He wants to reach the whole world with His love but if they appear to be His people yet worship idols, that conveys a very wrong message.

D. Application:

1. You cannot serve God and false “gods”. They are mutually exclusive.
2. God will not sit back and let lies about Himself prevail.

Passage: Hosea 2:14-23

14 “Therefore I am now going to allure her;
    I will lead her into the wilderness
    and speak tenderly to her.
15 There I will give her back her vineyards,
    and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she will respond as in the days of her youth,
    as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

16 “In that day,” declares the Lord,
    “you will call me ‘my husband’;
    you will no longer call me ‘my master.’
17 I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips;
    no longer will their names be invoked.
18 In that day I will make a covenant for them
    with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky
    and the creatures that move along the ground.
Bow and sword and battle
    I will abolish from the land,
    so that all may lie down in safety.
19 I will betroth you to me forever;
    I will betroth you in righteousness and justice,
    in love and compassion.
20 I will betroth you in faithfulness,
    and you will acknowledge the Lord.

21 “In that day I will respond,”
    declares the Lord—
“I will respond to the skies,
    and they will respond to the earth;
22 and the earth will respond to the grain,
    the new wine and the olive oil,
    and they will respond to Jezreel.
23 I will plant her for myself in the land;
    I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.[i]’
I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’;
    and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”

A. Find Out:

1. What does the Lord say He will do? v.14
2. With what results? v.15
3. What will happen in respect of relationship? v.16,23
4. What will happen about past idolatry? v.17
5. What will happen in respect of the land? v.18,22
6. What characterise the betrothal mentioned? v.19,20

B. Think:

1. How, in the light of what was said before, is this passage surprising?
2. How is the Lord’s relationship with them pictured?
3. What is said of the duration of this relationship?

C. Comment:

What a shock! The previous passage spoke of judgement and discipline and destruction and we might expect the “Therefore” of v.14 to continue it, but instead it goes exactly the opposite way! Future restoration is promised (see the following Special Note on Fulfilment) and a graphic picture is given to emphasise it.

First is the call of a lover who will win over the loved one, who promises to change trouble into hope, by the re-establishing of a loving relationship whereby God will be the husband and Israel the betrothed one. Idols will be removed so there will be no competition!

Second is the promise that this restoration will affect their entire lives and the very land will be changed and blessing and security will come again.

Third is the indication of the means of the re-establishing of the relationship, or, if you like, the characteristics of it. The rejoining will be eternal (v.19a) and it will come about through righteousness and justice; it will also involve love and compassion and the Lord’s faithfulness. In other words it will not involve just turning a blind eye to sin, but dealing with it, yet with the Lord’s love.

D. Application:

1. God always wants to restore relationships with us.
2. He will not turn a blind eye to our sin, but will deal with it through the  Cross so justice is done, yet love can still prevail.