Hosea 5 - Bible Study, Explanation, and Application

Hosea 5 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.  

• Hosea 3 – God told Hosea to buy his wife back after she was unfaithful to him. This was a picture of God’s grace to Israel after their unfaithfulness. Israel’s immediate future was going to be spend enduring the consequences of their sins, but God promised He would show them grace in the “latter days” when they were reunited under “David their king.”

• Hosea 4 – Hosea described the sorry sinful state of the people of Israel. They were decaying as a nation because they lacked knowledge of the law of God. The priests were piranhas that fed on the sins of the people. Hosea described their unfaithfulness to God as whoredom and adultery.

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:

• THE SINS OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH (5:1-15):

  • God announced judgement on the house of Israel, the priests, and the kings.

  • They were leading people into their snare of corruption and sin in places like Mizpah and Tabor.

  • They were deep in sin and deep in the slaughter of other souls (5:2).

  • None of Israel’s sins were hidden from God.

  • They had gone too far to return, and nothing was left for them except judgement.

  • It wasn’t only the current generation that was evil, they were also raising up an “alien” generation that knew only idols, and nothing of the God of Abraham (5:7).

  • Unfortunately, Hosea prophesied that Judah (the southern kingdom) would stumble into the sins of Israel.

  • They should have avoided Israel’s behavior at all cost, but unfortunately they adopted it.

  • Ephraim would be crushed by God’s punishments because they were determined to pursue a life of “filth” (5:11).

  • The princes of Judah would feel God’s anger as He poured out His wrath on them.

  • God would be like a moth to Israel (Ephraim), slowly tearing them down, like a moth slowly eats a piece of cloth.

  • He would be like dry rot to the strength of Judah.

  • Israel would try to make alliances with the Assyrians but they would fail.

  • Judah would be pounced on and torn as though by a lion.

  • When His judgements were complete, God would withdraw until the people were ready to “acknowledge their guilt and seek My face, and in their distress earnestly seek Me” (5:15).

APPLICATION:

• The last verse of this chapter is insightful in understanding a key feature of God’s punishments.

• At least some of the time, God punishes people so that they recognize their guilt and repentantly seek Him.

• There is grace even in the punishment.

• Punishment experienced on earth is not the end of God’s grace, it is often a correcting rod meant to redirect a child He loves from behavior that will destroy them.

• So, if you’re in the midst of a punishment for some crime or sin you committed, know that the punishment doesn’t necessarily signify the end of God’s patience with you. The punishment may have been given because God knows its what you need to get right with Him and get your life back on track.

• God disciplines those He loves because He doesn’t want to see them consumed by sin.