“The Bible is as up to date as the morning newspaper.” George Bernard Shaw
What I am seeking to do through our study is to show that Shaw’s words are true! There are messages in the past that need to be heard and heeded by the people of God in the present. There are powerful Truths therein which can lead to the transformation of our lives as well as our generation. Do we not need that in our times??? Considering our moral degeneration and cultural upheaval, God’s call through all the Minor Prophets - and particular for us through Hosea – is a Word for our times. Read Romans 1:18-32 where the Bible describes the pattern of evil becoming the lifestyle of the people:
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen. 26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. 28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. Romans 1:18-32 (NIV)
“Forgetfulness is the fuel for idolatry (Deuteronomy 4:23). Spiritual amnesia often leads to faithlessness. This is the most important lesson for us in Deuteronomy 4. God's concern is that his people might ‘forget the things’ that they had seen and that the memory of their gracious deliverance might ‘depart’ from their hearts (Deuteronomy 4:9). Thus we read here of the critical importance of remembrance, of calling to mind again and again the history of God's dealing with us and His faithfulness at every turn.” Sam Storms
23 Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the Lord your God has forbidden. 24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. Deuteronomy 4:23-24 (NIV)
Shema: 4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. 10 When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you--a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, 11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant--then when you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Deuteronomy 6:4-12 (NIV)
Robert Morgan’s September 11 All In All (1).
The main thing to remember is that we are all sinners in desperate need of a Savior. Revival must first begin in our own hearts before awakening can begin in our culture. We must get our lives right - keep our own accounts short with quick repentance, being in God’s Word and allowing Him to work in and through us for our good and His glory, all bathed in sweet prayer. It matters greatly how we live. It is then that we can leave the aroma of Christ in our encounters as He did when He walked this earth. We, too, as Christ’s followers are to be fit to meet this hour that we have been perfectly placed in by Him.
Spurgeon Morning and Evening September 12 Morning 512 (2)
In this study we will seek to observe, interpret and apply the Truths we find within this precious jewel of Hosea who lived in times not unlike our own. We will discover God speaking directly to us through His Word. At times the message may be uncomfortable as the messages of the prophets are not always comforting. Social injustice, rotten religion, poisonous hypocrisy – these and so much more come under the scrutiny of God’s searing holiness. Spiritual heart surgery may well be the outcome of our study as we apply these Truths to our lives. Remember one cannot consistently be in the Word and remain unchanged - it is simply too convicting.
In truth, many of us have the least markings in our Bibles in the twelve Minor Prophets – they are often the cleanest pages in our Scriptures. This is a sad statement in that they give us a clear grasp of how God’s chosen servants reacted to the massive political, social and religious changes that swept through Israel and Judea during their lifetimes. We will see the devastating effects of corruption eating away the moral fibre of a nation and we are given breathtaking glimpses of God’s sovereignty, His hatred towards sin as well as His amazing love. As we attested to, we face many of these same challenges in our day. This study will equip us to get a firmer grasp of God’s dealings with mankind in general and with His people in particular.
The Minor Prophets consist of the last 12 Books of the Old Testament beginning with our Book Hosea and ending with Malachi. They were all seen as a unit and not as twelve unconnected tracts or documents. It was Augustine who first gave them the name “Minor Prophets” not because they were inferior at all to the other 54 Books of the Bible but because they were the shortest of the Old Testament prophetical Books the longer being Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel and Daniel. The Minor Prophets’ messages are certainly important – every Word of God is important – He has no small talk. Indeed, we find in the Minor Prophets words used throughout the New Testament – examples being Jesus (Matthew 12:7 – “I desire mercy not sacrifice”) He was quoting Hosea; when our Lord rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, He was fulfilling the words of Zechariah; Paul wrote “the righteous shall live by faith” in Romans 1:17 he was quoting Habakkuk. There are many other examples but these should be sufficient to convince us that we must approach the Minor Prophets with a spirit of reverent submission.
The Bible is not only amazing in its diversity but also in its unity – amen? There is nothing more important to us when studying the Bible than to realize that while it uses many different ‘accents’ (reflecting the life and times of the authors concerned) it speaks with one voice – God’s voice. The critic who says that the God of the Old Testament is different from the God of the New Testament and that the two Testaments contradict each other has misread both:
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV)
20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1:20-21 (NIV)
“The Holy Spirit moved men to write. He allowed them to use their own style, culture, gifts and character, to use the results of their own study and research, to write of their own experience and to express what was in their mind. At the same time, the Holy Spirit did not allow error to influence their writings; He overruled in the expression of thought and in the choice of words. Thus they recorded accurately all that God wanted them to say and exactly how He wanted them to say it, in their own character, style and language.” Brian Edwards Nothing But The Truth
I am going to present a small lesson on Old Testament History so we can correctly place when Hosea was written. We will begin counting from 1,500 – 1,400 BC when God’s people, the Israelites, were miraculously delivered from their captivity in Egypt. This event – commonly called The Exodus – began the forty years of wandering in the desert for the Israelites and poor Moses who God chose to lead this murmuring group! After which they arrived in the Promised Land of Canaan led by Joshua. The first five Books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy were all written by Moses and called the Pentateuch. Joshua is next written by Joshua followed by Judges, Ruth, 1&2 Samuel all possibly written for the most part by Samuel. After the Israelites entrance to Canaan, for the next 300 years their national government was in the hands of locally based judges, and then later passed to Eli (a priest and a judge) and eventually to Samuel (a judge and a prophet) who served as both judicial and religious leader.
When threatened by an invasion some time later, the people whined for and demanded a king who could unify the nation and set it on a firm footing which, both Samuel and God took personally as God was to be their king:
6 But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 8 As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. 9 Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.” 1 Samuel 8:6-9 (NIV)
This is a red flag to us as well when we think we know better than the God of all creation what is best for our lives and then proceed to act on it. His “No’s” are always for our greater “Yes”:
“It is natural for us to wish and to plan, and it is merciful of the Lord to disappoint our plans and to cross our wishes. For we cannot be safe or happy until we are weaned from our own wills and made simply desirous of being directed by His guidance. Although we understand this we seldom learn to put it into practice without being trained for a while in the school of disappointment. The schemes we form look so plausible and convenient that when they are broken we are ready to say, ‘What a pity!’ We try again, and with no better success; we are grieved, and perhaps angry, and plan another, and so on; eventually, in the course of time, experience and observation begin to convince us that we are no more able than we are worthy to choose correctly for ourselves. The Lord’s invitation to cast our cares upon Him, and His promise to take care of us, appear valuable; and when we have done planning, His plan in our favor gradually opens, and He does more and better for us than we could either ask or think. I can hardly recollect a single plan of mine, which if it had taken place in the time and the way I wanted would, humanly speaking, have proved my ruin; or at least would have deprived me of the greater good the Lord had designed for me. We judge things by their present appearance; but the Lord sees them in their consequences. If we could do the same we would be perfectly of His mind; but since we can’t, it is an unspeakable mercy that He will manage for us, whether we are pleased with His management or not; and it is regarded as one of His heaviest judgments when He gives any person up to the way of their own hearts, and to walk according to their own wisdom.” John Newton
As a result of this lobbying, God allows them a king and Saul was anointed as the first king of Israel but he proved to be a dismal failure and it fell to David, a young shepherd boy from Bethlehem, to unite the kingdom around the new capital city, Jerusalem. David was in turn succeeded by his tenth son, Solomon, who strengthened the nation’s unity by building an impressive temple in Jerusalem as a focal point of his people’s worship.
Things were looking good but they were about to change. Around 930 BC Solomon dies and his place was taken by his son Rehoboam, whose economic policy and other follies caused ten of the nation’s twelve tribes to revolt and form a breakaway northern kingdom which adopted the name of Israel (though also called Jacob or Ephraim), leaving the two tribes Benjamin and Judah (together usually called Judah) in the south.
During the next 200 years the northern kingdom had no fewer than nineteen different kings, most of whom “Did what was evil in the sight of the Lord” (1 Kings 15:26), often in promoting blatant idolatry. This downward spiral continued until in 722 BC it was invaded by the Assyrians. Most of its population was deported and the northern kingdom was brought to an end. This was God’s judgment on two centuries of rebellion against His ways – two centuries! While He is extraordinarily slow to anger, God does finally reach a point. “And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” (2 Kings 17:7). It was in this period 770 to 686 BC when Hosea’s prophecy occurred.
The southern kingdom of Judah fared somewhat better. It also had a succession of kings, but they were more of a mixed bag. Some, like Hezekiah, “Did what was right in the eyes of the Lord” (2 Kings 18:3) while others, like his son Manasseh, “Did what was evil in the sight of the Lord” (2 Kings 21:2). As a result of these radical changes of leadership Judah went on a spiritual rollercoaster ride of revival and recession until 586 BC, when Babylon (think Daniel), under its founder and ruler Nebuchadnezzar, swept it aside, flattening Jerusalem, destroying the temple and deporting the cream of the population. Yet unlike that of Israel (the Northern Kingdom), the exile of Judah took advantage of the programme and Zerubbabel was appointed to lead the first swathe of 50,000 deportees back to Jerusalem in 538 BC. Others followed in 458 BC and 444 BC and Zerubbabel supervised the rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple, a project that took twenty-two years and was completed in 515 BC. Seventy years later the walls of Jerusalem had been rebuilt and in the years that followed the religious and social structure of the nation was gradually reconstituted. We can now zoom in to get a fix on Hosea’s place in His-story. The united kingdom had been split into Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Hosea prophesied to Israel at some time prior to the nation’s exile in 722 BC.
The prophet or seer’s job description included not only what he said but also what he saw. In other words he was a seer before he was ‘sayer’. Sometimes prophets saw such things as angels and visions, but above all else what they caught was a glimpse of the mind of God. In many ways they were quite ordinary people and were certainly not hand-picked by God because of their exceptional skills or ability (isn’t that so sweet of God!). James says of Elijah – one of the major prophets – that he was a man “with a nature like ours” (James 5:17) – prone to all our failures and weaknesses, exposed to the same temptations and trials and liable to the same mood swings and inconsistencies. The important thing to grasp here is that for the furtherance of His own sovereign purposes God chose to open up His mind to the prophets, to tell them how He saw certain things and what He intended to do as a result. This is important ladies “For the Lord God does nothing without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets as Amos 3:7 tells us – and it is always 100% accurate. One of the most beautiful relationships God had with a prophet was Moses Whom, it is written, He spoke to “face to face, as a man speaks to His friend” (Exodus 33:11).
The prophets job both foretold and forthtold. The prediction of future events is a major element in every prophetic book in the Old Testament some fulfilled in their own times and others in the New Testament, still others upon the Second Coming of Christ and the universal resurrection of the dead to final judgement which, of course, have yet to be fulfilled. The important thing to note is that prophecy was mercifully given by God to bring people to repentance, faith and obedience. God still uses these same words to accomplish the same purpose. The object was not to get people jumping to their feet but falling to their knees in awe and in submission to the will of God – which, of course, is the safest place to be. When they spoke in God’s name they used the very words God wanted them to use, making the source of their message the guarantee of its authority and inerrancy. Old Testament prophecy was a means by which an infallible God used fallible men to bring an infallible word to fallible people. This meant that when exercising their ministries Old Testament prophets never made a false statement, because God guaranteed the integrity of every word He gave them to speak.
We no longer have biblically-endorsed prophets today as we no longer have any need of tem; we have the complete Word of God. Hebrews tells us:
1 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. Hebrews 1:1-2 (NIV)
Instead now we need preachers, expositors, exegetes and teachers of the faith.
“The preacher will take care that what he offers is not his own ideas but God’s message from God’s book, and will see it as his task not to talk for his text, but to let the text talk through him.” J. I. Packer
Lastly, there were five themes which dominated the prophet’s writings which are important to our understanding of Hosea:
The first theme is the utter and undeniable sovereignty of God – not a single atom exists, nor does a single event occur, other than under the settled sovereignty of God. He is never taken by surprise. 24 Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?" declares the Lord. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the Lord. Jeremiah 23:24 (NIV); 9Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. 10 I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. Isaiah 46:9-10 (NIV)
The second theme is God’s inevitable judgement against sin. Just because He is long-suffering does not mean that there will not come a point when He will judge. He is a God of love and mercy but also a God of justice. His desire is for all to come to repentance. Peter tells us: 8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. 11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. 2 Peter 3:8-13 (NIV) The prophets have much to say about God’s hatred of sin and His righteous punishment of it. American scholar Gene Edward Veith states: “Reading the prophets can be an unsettling experience. Here we see God’s utter, absolute fury against sin. The graphic accounts of what God is going to do to His own faithless, immoral, complacent people constitute some of the scariest words in all of literature.” God hates all sin because it always carries with it a death sentence.
The third theme is God’s amazing love. The love of God runs like a river through all the Minor Prophet’s writings reflecting what Joel said: 13 Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Joel 2:13 (NIV). The Minor Prophets reflect both the kindness and the severity of God giving a true picture. If we ignore either the kindness or the severity of God we are left with a lopsided caricature of our own making. Also, many people wrongly think that the Old Testament emphasized the wrath of God while the New Testament emphasized the love of God but this gives a distorted picture. The truth is that there are more references to the love of God in the Old Testament than in the New and the most complete statements about the final wrath of God against sin are in the New Testament rather than in the Old. Canadian D. A. Carson writes: “The move from the Old Testament to the New Testament is not a move from a wrathful God to a loving God. Rather, the New Testament ratchets up both themes.”
The fourth theme is a passionate call to get right with God. While they certainly paint sin and its consequences in stark and dreadful colours, they have a passion for people to repent of their sin, to abandon their backsliding, to stop compromising, to seek after holiness and to enter into the blessing God longs to bring them. They repeatedly draw attention to this fact in statements such as: “Return to me…and I will return to you” (Zechariah 1:3). Paul, too, was much akin to this in the New Testament when he states: 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 1 As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. 2 For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 5:18 – 6:2 (NIV)
Lastly, the fifth theme is the eventual coming of the Messiah (Praise Jesus!). All the prophets, major and minor alike were signposts dotted throughout the Old Testament history pointing to Christ, to great David’s greater Son, the Suffering Servant, the anointed Conqueror of His people’s enemies and the “King of kings and Lord of lords – which God will bring about in His own time (I Timothy 6:15) – to Whom all should submit in repentance, faith and obedience. Luther: “As we go to the cradle only to find the baby, so we go to the Scriptures only to find Christ.” He was correct and the writings of the Minor Prophets lead us to Him again and again. Only in light of the Old Testament can we properly understand the coming of Christ and only through Christ can we properly understand the Old Testament.
These are Beth’s personal notes, due to this fact sources are not often stated.