Hosea 3 - Bible Study, Explanation, and Application

Hosea 3 Bible Study

HOSEA CHAPTER REVIEW:

• Hosea 1 – God told Hosea to marry a wife of whoredom as a picture of Israel’s unfaithfulness to Him. Hosea married Gomer, and together they had 3 children together. Their names were “Jezreel,” “No Mercy,” and “Not My People.” Though Israel had acted very wickedly, God promised them hope for a positive future, but judgement was coming first.

• Hosea 2 – Hosea’s wife returned to her sins and committed adultery, just as Israel had turned its back on God repeatedly. God warned Israel to repent or suffer severe consequences. Israel didn’t realize all of its blessings came from God and God could take them all away. God would punish Israel, but Hosea foretold a day when God would restore His wife (Israel) to Himself by grace.  

TIMELINE:

• The first verse of the book informs the reader that Hosea lived during the reigns of Uzziah (Azariah), Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah in Judah, and the reign of Jeroboam II in Israel.

• Uzziah’s (Azariah’s) reign began around 815 B.C.

• Hezekiah’s reign ended sometimes around 695 B.C.

• Jeroboam II reigned ended in the mid-700s B.C.

• This puts Hosea’s prophetic work squarely in the 700s B.C. The text indicates he did most of his teaching prior to 721 B.C. That was the year God punished Israel by bringing the Assyrians against them and exiling them from the Promised Land.

OUTLINE:

• HOSEA BUYS HIS WIFE BACK (3:1-3):

  • God told Hosea, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress” (3:1).

  • This appears to be a reference to Hosea’s wife, Gomer, who had returned to her sinful life after their marriage (2:2).

  • Hosea was told to take her back even though she had been unfaithful to him.

  • So Hosea “bought her” with 15 shekels of silver and some barley. This was a paltry sum, not even equivalent to the price of buying a slave. Only a truly defiled woman would have been sold for such a price. This was a picture of Israel’s level of defilement.

  • Hosea was either buying her out of prostitution, or this was a symbolic price for her redemption.

  • After recovering his wife, Hosea told her to remain faithful to him and he assured her he would do the same for her.

• THE FUTURE OF ISRAEL (3:4-5):

  • Because of the debauched and defiled state of the nation of Israel, they were going to be punished with a period of having no king, no sacrifices, no ephod (priesthood), and no household gods.

  • This prophecy almost certainly refers to the period of the Assyrian exile. Israel would be kicked out of their land and scattered throughout Assyria’s vast empire.

  • They would be ruled by no king but the Assyrian monarch, their people wouldn’t have priests or a Temple for worship, and they would even be restricted from worshipping the idols they loved so much.

  • This period would last for years, but Hosea prophesied that in the “latter days” the house of Israel would return to the Lord.

  • They would unite underneath “David their king,” and seek God and His goodness.

  • This prophecy was certainly fulfilled when Jesus, a son of David, invited the scattered people of Israel to join His kingdom and be united once again with their brothers in Judah under His headship.

APPLICATION:

• Think about what Hosea paid to redeem Gomer and then think about what God payed to redeem us.

• The price to redeem Gomer made sense. It was a small price to pay for something that was defiled and unreliable.

• But what about the price God payed for us? Are we not also defiled by sin and our faithfulness unreliable?

• Hosea buying Gomer back was a picture of God’s redemptive love, but the cross was a greater picture with a vastly greater price.

• How incredible that God would pay so much for so little… but that shows us how much He loves us!