Does history have meaning? And if it does, how do we learn its lessons?
If we want to learn something about how God was working in and through history to achieve his good and sovereign purposes – and what that history means for us – then we must listen to the prophets that God inspired. So, we will continue to delve into prophecy tonight and for the next few weeks.
The general thrust of all the Minor Prophets is sin, judgment, mercy, and hope.
HOSEA
Context
Hosea 1:1
1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
Hosea prophesied to the northern kingdom of Israel. It was a time of great economic prosperity, and in their comfort the people had slipped into worshipping foreign gods instead of Yahweh.
Outline
Chapters 1-3
These are an extended parable based on the life of Hosea, using his marriage to an unfaithful wife to depict Israel’s relationship with Yahweh. And this image of a broken marriage really serves as the introduction to the entire Book of Twelve, because it provides the basic framework that runs throughout these twelve books…
Israel has abandoned her covenant with the Lord, but, like a faithful husband,
God will
Chapters 4-14
These chapters are made up of statements from God directed to the people. With all the poetry and apocalyptic language, it’s very easy to get lost in these chapters. But there is a basic threefold cycle which is repeated three times, and which can help you to see the overall direction of Hosea’s prophecy:
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Let’s take a look at Hosea and see what it teaches us about what God’s love is really like.
Love’s Strange Story
1.Hosea’s marriage to an
Hosea 1:2–3
2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” 3 So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
Hosea 3:1–3
1 And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” 2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. 3 And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.”
Hosea 2:19–20
19 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.
2.The names God gave to Hosea’s children.
In 1:4, Hosea’s first child is named Jezreel – the same name as the site of a terrible massacre that aroused God’s anger against Israel.
In 1:6, Gomer’s daughter is named Lo-Ruhamah, which means, “not
In 1:9, Gomer’s second son is named “Lo-Ammi,” which means “not
Hosea 2:23
23 and I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’ ”
Hosea 3:5
5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.
Not only Israel, but also all of us are estranged from God because of our sins, and we all deserve to be cast away from His presence for eternity. But Jesus Christ has endured that wrath of God and brings us back into fellowship with him.
As we survey the rest of Hosea, we’ll see how God’s love would be displayed to such a wayward bride. And there are three specific themes that run through these chapters.
Love’s Challenge:
Hosea 4:1–2
1 Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel, for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land; 2 there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
Love’s Recovery:
Hosea 6:1–2
1 “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. 2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.
Hosea 14:1–2
1 Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. 2 Take with you words and return to the Lord; say to him, “Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips.
Love’s Hope:
Hosea 13:14
14 I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol; I shall redeem them from Death. O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion is hidden from my eyes.
Hosea 11:8–11
8 How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. 9 I will not execute my burning anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. 10 They shall go after the Lord; he will roar like a lion; when he roars, his children shall come trembling from the west; 11 they shall come trembling like birds from Egypt, and like doves from the land of Assyria, and I will return them to their homes, declares the Lord.
Hosea 11:1
1 When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
Where could hope for such sinners come from? It would come from a better Son – a perfect Israel.
That’s why, in a surprising demonstration of God’s inspiration of scripture, Matthew quotes the same verse from Hosea – “Out of Egypt I called my son” – this time to refer not to the people of Israel, but to Jesus.
In other words, Jesus perfectly kept God’s covenant like Israel never did. He was the true Israelite. And though all of us have committed spiritual adultery against God, Jesus never did. He was always faithful. And so it is through the death and resurrection of Jesus that we are reconciled to God. And that is a fitting place for us to close this overview of Hosea as a book about love.
JOEL
Context & Theme
If the people do not surrender to God, the “Day of the Lord” will be a day of
The Call to
Joel 1:1–4
1 The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel: 2 Hear this, you elders; give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers? 3 Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation. 4 What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten.
Joel 1:14–15
14 Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord. 15 Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.
Joel 2:11
11 The Lord utters his voice before his army, for his camp is exceedingly great; he who executes his word is powerful. For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome; who can endure it?
The Call to
Joel 2:12–13
12 “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 13 and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.
The Promise of
Joel 2:17
17 Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say, “Spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ ”
Joel 2:18
18 Then the Lord became jealous for his land and had pity on his people.
Joel 2:27
27 You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God and there is none else. And my people shall never again be put to shame.
Joel 2:28–31
28 “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. 29 Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. 30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
This passage is a good example of how many prophecies in the Old Testament are often fulfilled in multiple stages.
Two things are described together, and no mention is made of the time interval between them. As one pastor says, “It’s like looking at a mountain range from a great distance, where all the mountains appear to stand next to one another. But drive into the mountains and you find that great distances separate them.”
• The first “mountain” here is the outpouring of God’s
• The second mountain won’t be fulfilled until Jesus
And that’s the description of the re-creation of the cosmos depicted here in the wonders in the heavens, the darkening of the sun, the turning of the moon to blood. The Day of the Lord is both already and not yet. It already dawned in Jesus’ first visit to earth, but it awaits completion when He comes again.
The Promise of
Joel 3:1–2
1 “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, 2 I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land,
The Promise of
Joel 3:17–18
17 “So you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain. And Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall never again pass through it. 18 “And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the streambeds of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord and water the Valley of Shittim.
Conclusion
The burden of this Book of Twelve is both to reveal the Lord’s indignation against sin and to proclaim mercy and restoration to those who as Joel says “rend their hearts” in repentance (2:13) and put their faith in the perfect Son of God foretold in Hosea 11:1.
By trusting in Jesus, we come to know God as a gracious husband, and we look forward with hope and faith to the Day of the Lord when we will be with him forever.