This week we
shall finish the study of the Book of Hosea in the Old Testament.
The previous strophe marks the end of a series almost made up entirely of rebuke and judgment. 9:10 begins the last series of prophecies that always begins with recalling God’s choosing of Israel out of love (9:10; 10:1; 11:1; 12:3 and 13:1) and is marked more and more by messages of hope and restoration:
V. 10—When the Lord first found Israel:
(1) In describing His delight in “finding Israel”, what does the Lord mean by the following?
a. It was like finding grapes in the desert
b. It was like seeing early fruit on the fig tree
c. Does the Lord really mean it? Why or why not?
d. What does it say about Him finding you?
(2) How did Israel turn against the Lord in Baal Peor? (Read Num. 25:1-5)
(3) By citing this early incident, the Lord implies that Israel has continued their sin against Him ever since:
a. What then does it mean that they “became as vile as the thing they loved”?
b. Can the same be said of us today?
Vv. 11-17—Judgment pronounced on Ephraim: His glory probably refers to the pride they take in their increase in both prosperity and number.
(4) Why does the judgment appear to focus on their children? (What is most hurtful, a judgment on the parents or on the children?)
(5) The judgment appears to be two fold:
a. No birth, no pregnancy and no conception: What does it mean, especially to Israel as a covenanted people? (Gen. 22:17)
b. What will happen to their existing children? (9:12, 13, 16)
(6) How was Ephraim once blessed like Tyre? (See Ezek. 28:11-19 to get a sense of the prosperity of Tyre, a coastal nation of Palestine.)
(7) Because of their horrible sins against the Lord (of which the one committed at Baal Peor was typical), even the prophet joins in urging judgment in v. 14: Should the prophet curse his people as well? Why or why not?
(8) How does the Lord respond to the urging of the prophet in vv. 15-16? (Note: The wickedness in Gilgal probably does not refer to any single incident, but points to the general apostasy and rebellion of the ten tribes.)
(9) How might you contrast the judgment in vv. 15-16 to the delight the Lord expresses in v. 10?
(10) In hearing the response of the Lord, what conclusion does the prophet draw in v. 17?
(11) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
In this segment, the Lord reminds them of their good beginning and brings charges against several aspects of their sins:
10:1-3—Misuse of Blessings
(1) The Lord depicts Israel as a vine (vv. 1-2):
a. Why would God bless this vine and cause it to bring forth fruit?
b. For whom should this vine exist?
c. For whom did they bring forth fruit?
d. How did Israel handle its prosperity and why?
e. What will their consequence be?
(2) What will such a consequence lead to according to v. 3? What kind of a confession is it?
10:4-8—Sins Exposed:
(3) A society of liars (10:4):
a. Why would the people of God degenerate into such a state, becoming even worse than some pagan societies?
b. Why would some Christians also behave as such?
(4) Idol worship in Bethel (10:5):
a. Why does the Lord bring up the sin of Bethel (Beth-Aven is a mocking term for Bethel) so many times? (see 1 Ki. 12:25ff)
b. What will happen to the people of Samaria and their priests? Why?
(5) The sin of foreign alliances (10:6) — the mistake of Israel is not in underestimating the power of Assyria, but in seeking them as their alliance: Why is seeking alliance with Assyria such a sin?
(6) Judgment of their sins (10:7-8)
a. What analogy is used to describe the destruction of their kingdom in v. 7? How appropriate is it?
b. What judgment will befall their high places of idol-worship?
c. How severe will the judgment be on them? (See also Lk. 23:30; Rev. 6:16)
(7) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
10:9-10—The days of Gibeah
(1) Why does the Lord again bring up the sin of Gibeah as the sin they “have remained” in? (Hos. 9:9; Jdg. 19)
(2) What “double sin” might it represent?
10:11-14a—Call to return: This is “the poetic portion of the passage” (Word, 169).
(3) This poem first recalls God’s blessings (v. 11)
a. What kind of heifer has God intended Ephraim to be?
- What is the difference between being used to plow and being used to thresh the harvest?
- Apart from not having to be yoked, what is the other benefit in being used in threshing? (Deut. 25:4)
b. Because of their double sin, what will Ephraim (not just Ephraim, but Judah and Israel) be subjected to?
(4) In spite of being subjected to the hard work of plowing, the Lord encourages them to repent using the same farming metaphor:
a. What should they sow?
b. What will they reap?
c. While plowing is hard work, they are asked to break up “unplowed” ground. What ground have they not worked on before?
d. What is God’s promise to them?
e. Why do they have to wait?
f. Is there a message for us today?
(5) What have they planted and reaped instead?
(6) What wickedness have they planted?
(7) What fruit will they reap? (v. 14a)
10:14b-15—Judgment
(8) Presumably the “Shalman-Beth Arbel” event was well-known to the Israelites of the time, but is totally unknown to us today: But what is the emphasis used with this event to denote God’s judgment on them?
(9) What is the main message to you today and how can you apply it to your life?
11:1-7—We have read earlier that the Lord recalls that the finding of Israel is like the finding of grapes in the desert (9:10) and its wonderful beginning like a spreading vine (10:1):
(1) What image does the Lord now use to recall the finding of Israel in the beginning? Is it really imagery?
(2) In that God
adopts Israel as His son, consider the following:
a. How does God describe His relationship with this child, Israel? (v. 1)
b. How did God care for them as if they were a toddler? (v. 3)
c. What did God do when they were hurt or injured? (v. 3)
d. How did God lead them throughout their history? (v. 4)
e. Now the imagery changes to that of a master and his animal (an ox, perhaps). How did this Master feed His animal?
(3) What does the Lord want to tell Israel with the above depictions?
(4) How true have such depictions been to your life?
(5) How did Israel respond or repay this Father’s kindness and love? (11:2, 3)
(6) The answers to the rhetorical questions of v. 5 are obvious:
a. What kind of judgment awaits them?
b. Why is their judgment so inevitable? (11:6-7)
11:8-11—The unfailing love of God: As v. 9 says, “nor will I devastate Ephraim again”, this section deals with the restoration of Israel after their destruction.
(7) Read Deuteronomy 4:25-31 about God’s promise of restoration: What is this promise conditioned upon?
(8) In contrast to the rhetorical questions in v. 5, the Lord now asks four consecutive rhetorical “how can” questions: What is the message the Lord seeks to convey? (See Deut. 29:23 about Admah and Zehoyim.)
(9) The reason for His change of heart is “for I am God, and not a man”: How then is God different from man in this respect?
(10) Although when the Lord roars like a lion (in the last days), Israel will come trembling like sparrows and doves, what will be their final destiny?
(11) Has this promise come to fruition yet? Why?
(12) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
11:12—This verse serves as a heading of the ensuing section in chapter 12, highlighting the core of the charges the Lord is bringing against them (Ephraim, Israel and Judah alike):
(1) What are the charges?
(2) How does the Lord call Himself?
12:1-6—Lying and deception, the nature of Jacob
(3) Why does the Lord describe their attempted alliance with Assyria and Egypt as feeding on and chasing of wind? (Note: The east wind in Israel that comes from the desert is burning hot and bad for their plants.)
(4) What might have prevented them from relying on and pursuing the Lord? (12:1)
(5) The lies and deception of Israel can be traced to their ancestor, Jacob:
a. Instead of recalling Jacob cheating his brother Esau, the Lord mentions his grasping of his brother’s heel even in the womb (Gen. 25:26). Why?
b. In contrast to the womb, the Lord mentions his grasping as an adult, and this time with God (Gen. 32:24-29):
- What does the result of this struggle with God include?
- Do you think it was Jacob who found God or the other way around?
- Why?
c. Why does the Lord emphasize who He is and what His name is at this point?
(6) At the end of recalling this encounter of Jacob with God, the Lord calls on Israel to repent:
a. What does the Lord ask Israel to do in returning to Him?
b. How is this call related to Jacob’s encounter with God?
12:7-11—Wickedness of lies and deception pinpointed
(7) What is the sin that marks the business world of Israel? (v. 7) What is its underlying cause?
(8) Why would Ephraim think that his wealth could hide their iniquity? What kind of a delusion is this? (v. 8)
(9) As God brought them out of Egypt, where did they live? Where do they live now in their wealth?
(10) What then is the judgment that God declares in v. 9?
(11) In spite of repeated warnings and rebukes through the prophets, how have the people from Gilead (east of Jordan) to Gilgal (west of Jordan) responded to the Lord?
12:12-14—God, the Shepherd
(12) How does the Lord recall the humble and bitter beginning of the forefather, Jacob in v. 12? (Note: Jacob basically served as a slave and sheep tending was considered “the hardest and lowest descriptions of servitude”—K&D, 99)
(13) How was Jacob’s fortune changed? (v. 13)
(14) Why does the Lord describe Ephraim’s response to God’s loving kindness as “contempt”?
(15) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
This penultimate message by the Lord through Hosea basically announces the death of Israel:
13:1-3—Ephraim has died
(1) Israel as a separate nation began with Jeroboam who was an Ephraimite (1 Ki. 11:26); while he was exalted in Israel (1 Ki. 12:20), he immediately plunged Israel into the sin of idol worship (1 Ki. 12:25-33), and later on, Israel began Baal worship as well (1 Ki. 16:31):
a. Why does the Lord say that Ephraim has died as a result?
b. If they are dead, how can they sin more and more? (v. 2)
c. In what ways has Ephraim died? (See Eph. 2:1-3)
d. How base is their sin? (v. 2)
(2) What are the images the Lord uses to describe their fate? What do these four images have in common?
(3) These images are not only an apt description of the fate of Ephraim, but for all mankind. Do you agree? (See Ps. 90:3-7; 103:14-16)
13:4-13—Sins of Israel multiply
(4) The sin of forgetting the Lord (vv. 4-8)
a. What grace has God poured upon them in the wilderness?
b. How should they treat the Lord?
c. How did they treat the Lord instead?
d. What images does the Lord use to describe how He will treat them for their sin?
e. What do these images have in common?
(5) The sin of being enemies of the Lord (vv. 9-11)
a. Do you recall what sin Israel had committed by asking for a king? (1 Sam. 8:7)
b. What are they reaping now because of their sin?
(6) The consequence of storing up guilt (vv. 12-13)
a. What metaphor does the Lord use to describe their lack of wisdom?
b. How fitting is it?
13:14a—The Glorious Hope of God’s People
(7) Although the Lord has pronounced them as dead, consider the following:
a. What does the Lord promise them?
b. How will it happen?
c. How does the Apostle Paul speak of its fulfillment in 1 Cor. 15:54-58?
13:14b-16—The present reality
(8) Before their ultimate redemption (through repentance and trust in the one they pierced — see Zechariah 12:10), what fate awaits them?
(9) What do you see as the most severe judgment that will await them? (Read Ps. 137 to get a sense of the severity of the judgment of Judah in the hands of the Babylonians.)
(10) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
Now we come to the final message that the Lord gives Israel through Hosea and it is message of hope that begins with a call to repentance:
(1) Before we reflect on this message:
a. Can you pause and see if you can name most of the sins with which the Lord has charged Israel?
b. Which ones, in your opinion, are the most severe?
c. Should there be hope for Israel? Why or why not?
14:1-3—Call to repentance
(2) What are the sins that the Lord teaches Israel to turn from?
(3) What promises should Israel make to the Lord?
(4) On what bases should Israel ask God for forgiveness?
(5) What can we learn about praying for forgiveness from these verses?
14:4-8—Promises of Restoration
(6) The first promise is two fold:
a. The healing of their waywardness: How could such a people bent on apostasy be healed? (v. 8)
b. The restoration of their relationship: What is this relationship marked by?
(7) Vv. 5-6: Their restoration is likened by three images:
a. They will be like a lily:
- In what way will they be like a lily?
- What does this image depict?
b. They will be like a cedar of Lebanon:
- In what ways will they be like a cedar? (vv. 5-6)
- What two aspects does this image depict?
c. They will be like an olive tree:
- In what way will they be like an olive tree?
- What does this image depict?
d. How are these made possible? (v. 5)
(8) V. 7 uses four more images to describe the restored Israel. What does each image depict?
a. Dwelling in shade
b. Flourishing like grain
c. Blossoming like the vine
d. Having fame like the wine of Lebanon
(9) V. 8: The blessing of choosing God over idols:
a. What does the Lord pledge to a person (or a nation) who chooses Him?
b. What will be the basis of their fruitfulness? (See Jn. 15:1, 5)
14:9—Final words
(10) We know that Israel did not listen to God’s message through Hosea:
a. Why did God still choose to speak to Israel through His prophet in such a dramatic fashion, and through such a long period of time?
b. Who have realized and understood His message? Have you?
(11) What would you say is the main message to you in the Book of Hosea and how may you apply it to your life?