Hosea 2

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Dave Burnette's Commentary

Hosea Chapter 2

Written By: God through Inspiration

Penned By: Hosea

Date Penned: BC 715 (Covering Events BC 753-715)

Overview: Hosea's Wayward Wife (c 1-3)

Theme: Hosea's Faithfulness in a Broken Relationship (c 1-3)

Message: Punishment and Restoration (v 1-23)

Hosea: Chapter 2 Commentary

(2:1) Israel's punishment and restoration are the themes of this chapter. As in a court case the adulteress is brought to trial and found guilty. But after her punishment she is joyful and tenderly restored to God.

(2:3) Hosea had supplied his wife with clothing, and God had provided Israel with plenty of rain for their crops. Whether the picture is of Hosea and Gomer or of God and Israel. It warns of the punishment that results from unfaithfulness. Just as a husband might refuse to support an unfaithful wife, God would not tolerate Israel's unfaithfulness. He would strip the land, and famine would result.

(2:5-6) The Israelites were thanking false gods (Baal) for their food, clothing, and shelter instead of the true God who gave those blessings. Therefore, God would hedge Israel's "way with thorns, and make a wall" by making the rewards of idol worship so disappointing that the people would be persuaded to turn back to God. Despite Israel's unfaithfulness, God was still faithful and merciful. He would continue to see out his people, even to the point of placing obstacles in their wayward path to turn them back to him.

(2:7) Just as Gomer would return to her husband if she thought she would be better off with him, so people often return to God when they find life's struggle too difficult to handle. Returning to God out of desperation is better than rebelling against him, but it is better yet to turn to him out of gratitude for his care.

(2:8) Material possessions are success symbols in most societies. Israel was a wealthy nation at this time, and Gomer had acquired gold and silver but Gomer didn't realize that Hosea gave her all she owned, and Israel did not recognize God as the Giver of blessings. Goth Gomer and Israel used their possessions irresponsibly as they ran after other lovers and other gods. How do you use your possessions? Use what God has given you to honor him.

(2:12) The Israelites were so immersed in idolatry that they actually believed heathen gods gave them their orchards and vineyards. They had forgotten the entire land was a gift from God as outlined in Deuteronomy chapter 32. Today many people give credit to everything but God for their prosperity. Some say luck, hard work, quick thinking, the right contacts, etc. When you succeed, who gets the credit?

(2:13) Baal was the most important of the Canaanite gods, but his name can to be used to describe all the local deities worshipped throughout the land occupied by Israel. Unfortunately, Israel did not get rid of the idols and heathen worship centers as they had been commanded. Instead , they tolerated and frequently joined Baal Worshipers, often through the influence of corrupt kings. One israelite king noted for his Baal worship was Ahab. The prophet Elijah, in a dramatic showdown with Ahab, The prophet Elijiah, in a dramatic showdown with Ahab's hired prophets, proved God's power far superior to Baal's found in 1 Kings 18.

(2:14) God would court Israel in the wilderness of captivity, far away from Canaan's tempting idols. In his great mercy, God spoke tenderly to his people who had forsaken him to worship Baal, wanting to restore his relationship with them.

(2:15) God was promising to bring the people to the wilderness where there were no distractions so he could clearly communicate with them, and to change what had been a time of difficulty into a day of hope. God uses even our negative experiences to create opportunities for us to turn back to him. As you face problems and trials remember that God speaks to you in the desert and not just in times of prosperity.

(2:16) Not until Judah's exile would the entire nation begin to come to its senses, give up it idols, and turn back to God, and not until God rules through Jesus the Messiah will the relationship between God and his people be restored. In that day, God will no longer be like a master or owner to them ("Baali") he will be like a husband ("Ishi") The relationship will be deep and personal, the kind of relationship we can know, through imperfection, in marriage as outlined in Isaiah chapter 54.

(2:19) The time will come when unfaithfulness will be impossible. God will bind us to himself in his perfect righteousness, love, mercy, and faithfulness. Betrothal in Hosea's time was more than a simple agreement to marry. It was a binding engagement, a deep commitment between two families for a future, permanent relationship. God was promising a fresh new beginning, not just a repair job on a tired old agreement as seen in Jeremiah chapter 31.

(2:20) God's wedding gift to his people, both in Hosea's day and in our own, is his mercy. Through no merit of our own, he forgives us and makes us right with him, There is no way for us by our own efforts to reach God's hegh standard for moral and spiritual life, but he graciously accepts us. forgives us, and draws us in a relationship with himself. In that relationship we have personal and intimate communion with him.

(2:21-23) Although Israel was unfaithful and was condemned for its idolatry, God, unchanging in his love, would offer forgiveness and a renewed relationship with himself, one even better than any it had previously experienced. Why? Because he loved Israel with an everlasting love. Have you been unfaithful to God? God loves you still. If you turn back to him, he will forgive you. He wants you to know him as you never have before.

Dave Burnette's Life Application

Loving Discipline

Each day we walk through the Bible chapter by chapter making an application of our text to help us grow in the Lord. Many applications can be made from each day's text. Today we continue in the Book of Hosea with Chapter 2. In our text today we see the story of Hosea with the punishment and restoration of his wife Gomer. This story is a picture of Israel's unfaithfulness to the Lord and how He uses discipline to restore the relationship. In making application we see how the Lord loves us still disciplines us with the goal of restoration. We may stray from the Lord but the Lord loves us and will discipline us with the goal of restoration. How about you? Have you drifted from the Lord? Let us learn from our text today and life of Hosea to see that the Lord loves us and when we stray he disciplines us with the goal of our restoration.

Hosea 2

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Hosea 2

¹Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.

²Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;

³Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.

⁴And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms.

⁵For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.

⁶Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.

⁷And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.

⁸For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.

⁹Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness.

¹⁰And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand.

¹¹I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.

¹²And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.

¹³And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD.

¹⁴Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.

¹⁵And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: 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.

¹⁶And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali.

¹⁷For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.

¹⁸And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.

¹⁹And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.

²⁰I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.

²¹And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth;

²²And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel.

²³And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.

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