HOSEA - INTRODUCTION
A
Bible Study - Commentary by Jim Melough
Copyright
2001 James Melough
Little is known of Hosea
except that he was of the northern kingdom of Israel, and was a contemporary
of Amos and Isaiah, his ministry extending over many years, perhaps thirty or
forty, the highest estimate being from fifty to seventy years, until after the
fall of Israel, the ten tribes, in 722 BC.
The moral decline of Israel
(and to a slightly lesser degree, that of Judah) was what occasioned his
ministry, he being chosen by God to expose and denounce the sin of the people,
and to warn them of the judgments that must attend such flagrant
disobedience. Though the outward form was retained, the worship of Jehovah
had been virtually replaced by that of Baal with all its accompanying gross
sexual perversion; and as always when God’s standards are rejected, the whole
fabric of moral propriety was cast aside, the leaders of the people being
foremost in the abandonment of the Divine order. Murder, adultery, theft,
judicial corruption, oppression, etc., were, as always, the rampant
concomitants of idolatry.
It is to be noted also that
this depravity was not when Israel was impoverished and oppressed, but when
God had graciously granted her great material prosperity and political
recovery. Only spiritually blind eyes will fail to see, in fact, that the
Israel of Hosea’s day was remarkably similar to our own society, particularly
the affulent and powerful western world. It too is characterized by every
form of sexual perversion and abandonment of Divine standards both in private
and public life. God’s Word may not be taught in our schools, nor may
students pray to Him, yet under the guise of conducting social studies, the
educational system, with virtually no restraint, teaches our children about
systems and cults directly opposed to all that is of God. Our western society
heads the world in murder (which includes abortion), rape, sexual pervertion,
theft, to name only a few of the grosser rampant evils; and we are reading
Hosea wrongly if we fail to realize that God’s warnings to Israel apply also
to our own society, and to us as individuals.
God’s patience is great, but
not infinite. Warning ignored will bring Divine retribution upon today’s
world as it did upon the Israel of Hosea’s day. Those familiar with the
prophetic Scriptures are unanimous in their belief that the end of the age is
upon us: the terrible Tribulation judgments are about to break, resulting in
the global dissolution of the whole social structure, and the sweeping away of
everything that is offensive to God, in preparation for the inauguration of
the millennial kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The book of Hosea has been
preserved, however, not only to inform us of God’s dealings with the Israel of
a bygone day, but to warn us that rebellion in every age inevitably brings
judgment, whether the offender be a man or a nation. It is equally clear,
however, not just in this little prophetic book, but in all Scripture, that
judment is His “strange work,” Isa 28:21, and is designed to bring sinners to
repentance and blessing, being destructive only when repentance is refused,
and mercy despised. God’s tender love for rebellious Israel is set before us
on every page of Hosea’s prophecy, and is designed to point us to Calvary
where that measureless love is displayed in all its fulness, as declared in
the best known verse in the Bible, “For God so loved the world, that he gave
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life,” Jn 3:16.
Believer and unbeliever alike
do well to heed the warnings of Hosea, for the disobediece of the believer
will result in eternal loss of reward at the Bema; and that of the unbeliever,
in the loss of his soul, and his having to endure eternal torment in the
unquenchable flame of the lake of fire.
At this point it may be well
to note that the captivity of the ten tribes (Israel) by Assyria in 722 B.C.,
not only destroyed the autonomy of the ten tribes, but it also ended the
division between Israel and Judah. Some have taught erroneously that Israel
never returned from the Assyrian captivity, hence the myth of the “lost ten
tribes.” It is beyond question, however, that as a remnant returned from the
Babylonian captivity, so over the years did some also return from the Assyrian
captivity, see e.g., Ac 26:7, so that in the four hundred years preceding the
Lord’s first advent there were dwelling in Palestine representatives of all
the twelve tribes, but no longer divided into ten (Israel), and two (Judah).
[Hosea 1]