Hosea

 My time in Hosea has been quick, less than a week or so. Honestly, it's one of those prophetic books that feel like a long lecture from a parent--not that the parent doesn't need to lecture--but it's hard to hear all the same. 

Hosea is best known as the prophet whose marriage becomes an object lesson. His wife is unfaithful as Israel has been unfaithful to God, whoring around with pagan idols.  The particulars beyond this I've studied, but seem less the point.

Context 

(from Jack Abeelen)

Speaker: Hosea, a prophet to the Northern Kingdom for 50 years beginning in 755 BC.

For 33 years he preached to the North before the fall to Assyria. For the last 17 years, he spoke to a scattered people.

His contemporaries were Amos (North), Isaiah (South), and Micah

Jack Abeelen's sermon focused on this verse, the idea that we sow what we reap:

Hos 8:7  For they sow the wind,. and they shall reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads; it shall yield no flour; if it were to yield, strangers would devour it.

The focus of the sermon was that God is patient, long-suffering, but that in the end, we reap what we sow and should be careful what we sow.

Bullock's chapter on Hosea was much more technical.  It dives into different critical theories about the book's construction, authorship, and unity. I probably should give it another day, as I'm certain there is more I need to think about, but here's the basic situation which I did pull out and think through.

God's word came to Hosea. It was for him to marry a prostitute to symbolize the Northern Kingdom's unfaithfulness. He married Gomer, and they had a son God told them to name Jezreel. Jehu was to punished for the massacre at Jezreel. Then Gomer conceives a girl, and God tells them to name her "No Mercy" for He will have no mercy on Israel but will on Judah. When she weaned No Mercy, Gomer conceived again and had a son who was to be named "Not my People." But a time will come that in the same place, they will be called "children of the living God." On that day, Judah and Israel will chose one leader and return from exile together.

So, this entire idea of naming children as object lessons is weird too. For me, it highlights the distance between God's perspective and mine, between the time period and mindset of these prophets, this culture, and my own. It's just so weird that I don't know what to make of it.

Another question I had was about the significance of the reference and naming of the oldest son, Jezreel.  Here is the Bible Knowledge Commentary's explanation:

"The first child (a son) was named Jezreel. At this point the significance of his name was not in its meaning (“God sows”), but in its association with past and future events at the place Jezreel (cf., however, Hos_1:11; Hos_2:22-23). Jezreel was the site of Jehu’s ruthless massacre of the house of Ahab (Hos_1:4; cf. 2 Kings 9-10). In the future it would be the scene of Israel’s military demise (Hos_1:5)." -BKC

I may get back to this....or I may not, but I'm publishing and moving on for now.