The Book of Hosea

The Book of Hosea

The Book of Hosea
By Richard St.James
Bible 1611.Com / Old Paths Baptist Mission © 2023


Hosea, chapter three:


Verse one: “Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, 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.”


Do you see what I see?  God is their friend!  God loves them!  Israel is the apple of his eye. [See Zechariah 2:8 and Deuteronomy 32:10]


Verse two: “So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:”  


Israel [and Judah here] is a purchased people.  They are purchased!  We can see this clearly stated truth, in the second book of Moses called Exodus.

Exodus 15:16: “Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O LORD, till the people pass over, which thou hast purchased.”

Hosea chapter three:


Verse three: “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.” 


The LORD has commanded Israel to not play the harlot but to be faithful only to HIM.


Verse four: “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:”


BUT they played the harlot!

Now, turn to the third book of Moses called Leviticus.  Go to chapter seventeen.

It is here in this chapter where there is located specific commands that were given to Israel by the LORD their God regulating in the matter of their sacrifices.

Leviticus 17:1-5

“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

Speak unto Aaron, and unto his sons, and unto all the children of Israel, and say unto them; This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded, saying,

What man soever there be of the house of Israel, that killeth an ox, or lamb, or goat, in the camp, or that killeth it out of the camp,

And bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer an offering unto the LORD before the tabernacle of the LORD; blood shall be imputed unto that man; he hath shed blood; and that man shall be cut off from among his people:

To the end that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices, which they offer in the open field, even that they may bring them unto the LORD, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, unto the priest, and offer them for peace offerings unto the LORD.”

What can we learn here?

Conclusion: The children of Israel need a tabernacle or a temple for their sacrifices!

If there is NO TABERNACLE, or if there is NO TEMPLE, then there can be NO SACRIFICE!

 With that established, we need to pause here, and see just what has happened as a consequence for their harlotry to the nation of Israel.  For this, we must to the turn to the Gospel according to Matthew, to chapter twenty-three, and we will start reading at verse thirty-six:

Verse 36: “Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.

Verse 37: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!”

Verse 38: “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.”

Verse 39: “For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

For their harlotry their temple was made empty!

Now, go to chapter twenty-four, and read verse two:

Matthew 24:2: “And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”

For their harlotry their temple was destroyed!

Next, we need to turn to the Gospel according to Luke, to chapter twenty-one, verses twenty through twenty-four:

“And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.

Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto.

For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.

But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.

And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”  [Luke 21:20-24]

For their harlotry their city was destroyed!

Now, SIN has its consequences!  As a series of consequences, Israel would be:

1.       Without a king

2.       Without a prince

3.       Without a sacrifice: No sacrifice, because there was no tabernacle or temple.

4.       Without an image: No images of the idol gods.

5.       Without an ephod: There was no ephod for the priest to wear in the performing of any sacrifice: No sacrifice, because there was no tabernacle or temple.

6.       Without teraphim:  Therefore, no [fashioned with the hands] idol gods. Teraphim = IDOL = gods.  See what Laban said of his teraphim were to him in: Genesis 31:30:

“And now, though thou wouldest needs be gone, because thou sore longedst after thy father's house, yet wherefore hast thou stolen my gods?”

We will find in the BOOK of GOD [in the fifth book of Moses called Deuteronomy] a prophecy concerning Israel, of how they would be plucked from off the land if they played the harlot with another, and would not be faithful to HIM.

We will find in chapter twenty-eight [and clearly spelt out] the consequences to come to Israel playing the harlot.

Deuteronomy 28:63: “And it shall come to pass, that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.”  

Now, note this: Israel is a plucked people!  It now gets worse!

Verse 64: “And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.”

Here we learn that they are also, a scattered people!  It is a historical fact.  They have been dispersed among all the nations of the earth.

Verse 65: “And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:”

Now, turn to the book of Ezekiel.

Ezekiel 20:23: “I lifted up mine hand unto them also in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the heathen, and disperse them through the countries”: 

This is called the diasporaDIASPORA = [The dispersion of the Jews among the Gentiles after their captivity.] 

The two major dispersions of the Jewish people occurred in [B.C. 610] and [A.D. 70] and this resulted in them having to suffer the following maladies. They were to have:

1.       No ease

2.       No rest

3.       No peace. 

Which produced in the people:

1.       A trembling in the heart

2.       The failing of the eyes

3.       A sorrow of the mind

Conclusion: They would have no ease, nor rest, and possess trembling hearts, and failing of the eyes with the sorrow of mind for the next two thousand years!

The Summation: Their unfaithfulness to the God of Israel [in all their harlotry] brought them steadily downhill to visit all these calamities.   Now, for this see more with me in the book of Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 30:5: “For thus saith the LORD; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.”

Here is the very sobering scene that we can see for Israel in this situation.  For this we go to the book of Psalms.

Psalm 137:1-4:

“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.

We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.

For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

How shall we sing the LORD'S song in a strange land?”

There is now found in the people’s hearts a continual sorrow.  Harlotry does this.  Harlotry, or adultery, destroys a marriage.  It dissolves the prior relationship.

Now, hear what the Scripture saith concerning their sorrow:

·         Jeremiah 30:15: Why criest thou for thine affliction? Thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity: because thy sins were increased, I have done these things unto thee.”

·         Jeremiah 45:3: “Thou didst say, Woe is me now! for the LORD hath added grief to my sorrow; I fainted in my sighing, and I find no rest.”

·         Lamentations 1:12: “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.”

·         Lamentations 1:18: “The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.”
Lamentations 3:65: “Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.”

There is more than sorrow that is experienced by this people, hear now what the Scripture saith of this people’s [Judah] perpetual state of mourning and of lamentation:

·         Lamentations 2:5: “The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.”

·         Amos 8:10: “And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.”

There is more, hear now what the Scripture saith of this people’s [Judah] perpetual state of confusion and of their shame:

  • Ezra 9:7: “Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.”
  • Jeremiah 3:25: “We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.”

There you have it!  It is for Israel to have:

1.       Continual sorrow

2.       Mourning and lamentation

3.       Confusion of face and of shame,

And all of this was to continually plague all this people as seen in the last two thousand years of history.

Hosea chapter three:


Verse five: “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.” 


The LORD GOD has a remedy for man’s sin.  It is written in the BOOK!  The LORD has a happy end mapped out for HIS people, Israel.  It will surely happen in the latter days.  Now, the latter days refer to the one-thousand-year Kingdom of Heaven when Jesus Christ will reign over Israel and all the nations of the earth. 


Next - Hosea Chapter Four


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