Hosea 6 - Bible Study, Explanation, and Application

Hosea 6 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.

• Hosea 5 – This chapter continues listing the sins of the people of Israel and includes the unfortunate prophecy that Judah would fall into the same sins. God was tearing down the power of Israel and Judah little by little. He would eventually pour out His wrath on them and withdraw from them for a time, leading them to repentance.

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:

• FUTURE REPENTANCE (6:1-3):

  • It seems to me the opening verses of Hosea 6 should be connected to the final verse of chapter 5.

  • Hosea 5:15 reads, “I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me.”

  • God was going to discipline His people and withdraw from them until they recognized their need for Him.

  • Chapter 6 opens with God describing the words they would use when they were finally ready to repent.

  • They would say, “Come, let us return to the Lord; for He has torn us, that He may heal us; He has struck us down, and He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live before Him.” (6:1-2).

  • *Some people believe the three days mentioned in verse 2 prophesy the resurrection of Jesus (2 days in the tomb, and resurrection on day 3).

• GOD’S FRUSTRATION (6:4-11):

  • God bemoaned His relationship with the people of Israel and Judah. He said their love was like fog and morning dew, it was present for a short time but then quickly vanished.

  • It wasn’t only the immoralities in their lives that frustrated God, it was also their way of worshipping.

  • Evidently, according to verse 6, some were still offering sacrifices to God, but they were doing it without genuine love for God in their hearts.

  • God didn’t want sacrifices and worship ceremonies offered by hearts that didn’t truly know Him or love Him.

  • God expressed further frustration in the fact that they broke His covenant, they were evildoers, shedders of blood, their priests were corrupt, and they committed villainy.

  • Though Israel had defiled themselves beyond repair, God promised Judah a harvest of blessing when He restored the “fortunes of my people” (6:11).

APPLICATION:

• While we don’t offer sacrifices in the same sense as the Israelites, we do offer our sacrifices to God in the form of our worship.

• One key lesson from this chapter is that worship is rendered meaningless if we don’t actually love God outside of a corporate worship setting.

• Many are under the impression that if they attend a worship service each week to offer their “sacrifice” it will keep them in God’s graces and out of hell. So they attend, but they don’t really love God in a way that changes the rest of their week.

• Hosea 6 puts forward the principle that what happens in a building on Sunday morning doesn’t matter unless the rest of a person’s week is given to God.

• Many churches have a really serious problem because they’ve almost reversed this principle. They emphasize attendance to their members but expect very little from them outside of their regularly scheduled Sunday worship.

• Christian living is, as Hosea said, about steadfast love and the knowledge of God that leads to the sacrifice of worship.

• Christian living is not the sacrifice of worship with extra credit for steadfast love and the knowledge of God.