HOSEA - CHAPTER 3
A
Bible Study - Commentary by Jim Melough
Copyright
2001 James Melough
3:1.
“Then said the Lord unto me, Go yet (again), 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.”
Whether Hosea had put Gomer
away, or whether she had left him, is unclear, but as is revealed in verse 2,
she had fallen into desperate straits: slavery, from which Hosea is now
commanded to redeem her, to take her back, and to continue loving her. In
this enjoined redemption and restoration of Gomer by Hosea, God is presenting
us with a typological picture of His own undying love for equally guilty
Israel.
“... beloved of her friend” is
also translated as “beloved by her husband; beloved by one other than her
husband; beloved by an evil man,” beloved meaning truly loved, or merely
desired sexually. In the case of Israel, God loved her unconditionally, while
Satan, who as noted already was the one actually worshiped by those who bowed
to the images of Baal, desired only to have from her what rightly belonged
only to God, that is, worship. In forsaking Jehovah her spiritual Husband,
and worshiping the Baalim, Israel made herself a spiritual adulteress.
“... flagons of wine” is
understood by most commentators to mean the raisin-cakes that were used in
connection with the worship of the Baalim. See Jer 7:18 and 44:19 for other
references to Israel’s idolatrous worship involving the presentation of these
raisin cakes to the queen of heaven (Ishtar, or Astarte the Babylonian goddess
of love and fertility). In either case, the association with grapes, the
source of wine which is one of the biblical symbols of joy, suggests the
pleasure Israel found in the gross immorality associated with Baal worship.
He is spiritually blind who
refuses to see that the same conditions prevail today in Christendom, for many
of those who occupy church pews on Sunday, live immorally during the rest of
the week, and worship money, education, pleasure, and a host of other “gods.”
Nor should anyone fail to note that the very same idolatry is practiced today
in the Roman Catholic adoration of Mary - and under the very same title: “the
Queen of heaven.”
3:2.
“So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of
barley, and an half homer of barley:”
In Hosea’s redemption of Gomer,
God is presenting us with a typological picture of His redemption, not only of
apostate, idolatrous Israel, but of every person on earth, through the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Silver is the biblical symbol of redemption, 1 Pe
1:18-19 reminding us that we “were not redeemed with corruptible things, as
silver and gold ... but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot.” Also in Ex 30:11-16 God commanded that in
connection with the numbering of Israel every man was to give a half shekel as
the token redemption price of his soul.
Others have pointed out that
her ransom price was that of a slave (Ex 21:32), for the quantity of barley
was worth fifteen shekels of silver, so that the total redemption price was
thirty pieces of silver
Inasmuch as the factors of
fifteen are three and five, three being the biblical number of resurrection;
and five, of responsibility, the lesson being conveyed in these fifteen pieces
of silver is that resurrection and responsibility are both involved in the
redemption of men’s souls. First, Christ had to be willing to assume
responsibility for our sins, He Himself being made sin at Calvary (2 Cor
5:21). But it wasn’t sufficient that He die for our sins: if we were to have
the assurance of being justified by His vicarious death, He must be raised
again (Ro 4:25).
The three and five, however,
apply also to men. Those who would be saved are responsible to acknowledge
that they are sinners, and to believe that their only salvation lies in
trusting Christ as Savior, that faith bringing them resurrection out of
spiritual death into the possession of eternal life.
But barley was also involved
in Gomer’s redemption from the consequences of her folly, and like all grain,
it is a symbol of the Word of God as food to nurture spiritual life, just as
literal grain nourishes physical life. There is, however, a special
significance attached to barley typologically. It was the food of animals and
of the poor, and the lesson being taught in this is that it is almost
invariably the poor who eat (believe) the gospel, the rich for the most part
despising it just as they did literal barley. Its being part of the price of
Gomer’s redemption reminds us that apart from the gospel men cannot be saved.
The quantity of barley, one
and a half homers, has also something to teach us, for the mention of a half
in Scripture is the symbolic announcement of the truth that what is portrayed
by the symbol falls short of the reality which it represents. Relative to our
redemption, its true value cannot be known here on earth. Only in heaven will
we understand all that was involved in the ransom paid at Calvary to save us
from hell and fit us for heaven.
Dr Ironside, commenting on
this verse, very aptly calls attention to Isa 44:22, “I have blotted out, as a
thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me;
for I have redeemed thee.”
3:3.
“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.”
This seems to have reference
to Israel during the “many days,” the two thousand years of the Church age,
for during those twenty centuries, in spite of her spiritual blindness, she
has never been guilty of literal idolatry. However great her lack of
knowledge, her worship has been of Jehovah, even though it be rendered
according to a very imperfect understanding of what that involves. She has
not played the harlot by ignoring God and worshiping idols. And as for God,
during those two millennia He has been to her what Hosea was to Gomer
following her redemption: the Husband Who loves her in spite of her sin. As
we are reminded in Ro 11 (which the reader is urged to study carefully here),
Israel is yet to be restored to her proper relationship with Jehovah in the
coming Millennium, during which she will be blessed above all the nations on
earth, every promise made to Abraham being fulfilled to her in that glorious
age.
It seems clear that during
those “many days” normal conjugal relations between Hosea and Gomer were
suspended, and in this we see a typological picture of the relationship
existing between God and Israel during this present Church age. Israel is
still the object of His love, and she in turn acknowledges Him as her God, but
it won’t be until the Tribulation judgments will have brought her to
repentance that she will return to a right relationship with Him, and enter
into the enjoyment of all the blessings that attend that relationship.
3:4.
“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.”
Since the Babylonian captivity
of Judah, Israel has been without a king, she herself in her blind folly
rejecting her King, and declaring to Pilate, “We have no king but Caesar,” Jn
19:15.
Incidentally, “without a king”
isn’t the same as “without a prince,” for a prince is the son of a king, so
that the truth being declared here is that in the long interval between the
Babylonian captivity of Judah and the inauguration of the millennial kingdom,
Israel will have neither a king nor a prince, but in the Millennium she will
have both, for during that age Christ the King will be reigning from the
heavenly Jerusalem, but a prince, a literal descendant of David, will be
reigning over Israel from the earthly Jerusalem. The government will be
theocratic as it was during the reigns of David and Solomon who reigned as
Christ’s regents, the glory of Solomon’s reign being but a shadow of the
greater glory that will mark the government of the millennial earth.
“... without a sacrifice” has
been literally fulfilled since AD 70 till the present, for without a temple
and a priesthood, sacrifice according to the Levitical order is impossible.
“... image” is the translation
of an original word meaning something set upright, such as a pillar or stone,
a statue or idol, and seems therefore to have a bad connotation associated
with idolatry. The absence of such an image emphasizes what has already been
discussed: Israel hasn’t worshiped idols since the Babylonian captivity.
“... without an ephod.” While
usually ephod refers to a part of the uniform of Israel’s high priest, here it
is believed to refer to a statue or image of an idol, so that the truth
continuing to be declared is that which has been discussed above.
If the word is taken in its
usual sense as being part of the high priest’s uniform, then their being
without it implies their being without means of ascertaining the mind and will
of God, for connected with the ephod was the breastplate containing the Urim
and Thummim, two stones by which the mind and will of God were ascertained.
The method of their use isn’t disclosed in Scripture, but it has been
suggested that one stone may have represented Yes, and the other No, requiring
the question to be couched in such a form as to limit the answer to Yes or No,
e.g., Shall we go war? The High priest then reached into the breastplate
without knowing which of the two stones he was withdrawing, and thus obtained
the answer.
“... teraphim” refers to small
household images or idols, and Israel’s being without them continues to
emphasize that since the Babylonian captivity she hasn’t worshiped idols.
All of this simply adds up to
the truth that while Israel hasn’t been guilty of idolatry since the
Babylonian captivity, neither has she really worshiped Jehovah, what passes
with her for that worship falling very far short of what constitutes true
worship; nor will she offer that worship until the Millennium when the
believing remnant coming out of the Tribulation will worship Him according to
the order which He Himself has appointed. The worship in the Millennium will
be according to the Levitical ritual, the difference between the millennial
worship and that of the OT age being that in the past the Levitical ritual
anticipated Christ’s sacrifice: in the Millennium it will be the commemorative
celebration of that sacrifice completed.
3:5.
“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.”
“Afterward” very clearly
refers to the Tribulation and the Millennium which will follow that long
period of the Church age, which has lasted for two thousand years, but which
will end with the rapture of the Church, an event which is now imminent. In
the ensuing seven years of the Tribulation a remnant of Israel will trust in
Christ as Savior, and look with eager expectation for His return to end that
terrible era of judgment, and inaugurate His millennial kingdom. The living
believing survivors of those seven years will be the new Israel that will
remain on the earth, together with multitudes of Gentiles who will also have
trusted Him as Savior during that same period, and who will constitute the
nations in the Millennium.
The reference to “David their
king” is to the Lord Jesus Christ as David’s greater Son. They will be
looking anxiously for His return to deliver them from the terrible
persecutions which will be the lot of all believers during the Tribulation.
The fear mentioned here is not
the slavish fear of a merciless tyrant, but rather that reverential awe of God
begotten by the contemplation of His love, grace, mercy, and power exercised
for their blessing.
The latter days obviously
refer to the Millennium.
[Hosea 4]