2005 Bible Reading

This page is not a commentary, nor an outline. It is something to bear in mind in this kind of reading. These materials I learnt from two books by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart (How to Read the Bible for All Its worth; How to Read the Bible Book By Book). You could consult these books if you are interested.

(Pastor Raymond)

Hosea

No one can read this book without coming away with a Biblical high view of marriage, in which faithfulness is as fierce as love. Hosea uses a multitude of figurative languages to describe the relationship between Yahweh and His people.

The Book of Hosea is the first of the group of 12 books most commonly known as the “12 Minor Prophets.” (In the Hebrew Old Testament, these 12 books are considered as one Book in the “Latter Prophets”.) Hosea is rather difficult to follow structurally because it lacks distinct opening words such as “thus says the Lord.” Broadly, it can be divided into two major divisions. The first part includes chapters 1-3 and contains introductory comments alternating between judgment and restoration, to be elaborated in the second part (chapters 4-14). The pattern of marriage, unfaithfulness, divorce, and restoration seems useful in tracing this prophecy.

According to 1:1, Hosea ministered to the Northern Kingdom (Israel, Ephraim or Jacob) “during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel.” This should be around the period described in 2 Kings 14:23-18:16. The names of the kings of Judah also indicate that Hosea probably delivered much of his prophecies during the years of decline after Jeroboam II’s death, when the resurgence of the neighboring Assyria provided the occasions for the Northern Kingdom to seek allies, rather than to rely on Yahweh to deliver them.

Hosea has a very lively way of describing the relationship between Yahweh and Israel. Hosea describes Yahweh with metaphors of lion, leopard, bear, eagle, bird-catcher, husband, lover, parent, and green pine tree. On the other hand, the sinful Israel is compared to: adulterous wife, stubborn heifer, snare and net, heated oven, half-baked bread, senseless dove, faulty bow, headless stalk, and a baby refusing to be born. As her punishment, Israel will disappear like mist, dew, chaff, smoke, and floating twig. Only colorful languages like these could adequately convey the boiling anger of a God who made His people. But it would be wrong to merely see the burning zeal without sensing the deep love behind it. Indeed the alternating pattern of judgment and restoration clearly showed the two sides of the relationship. Ultimately the final invitation from love concludes the book in chapter 14.

What behaviors of Israel really constituted unfaithfulness? In this connection, we should note that on many occasions, Hosea recalled the fact that it was Yahweh who brought Israel out of Egypt, suggesting that since Yahweh ruled over nations and was responsible for bringing about the nation of Israel, it would be a vote of distrust in Him for Israel to instead seek help from other nations, including Egypt, to fight off Assyria. A faithful relationship acknowledges the covenant Lord even in the political realm. In terms of religious faithfulness, making a wood idol and calling it Yahweh led Hosea to call Israel to “throw out your calf-idol, O Samaria! …This calf—a craftsman has made it; it is not God” (8:5-6). Worse still, they even blatantly worshipped other gods such as Baal: “She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold— which they used for Baal” (2:8). Neither worshipping an idol as if it were Yahweh nor worshipping a foreign god expresses religious faithfulness.

Hosea 6:2 has perhaps been interpreted, together with others, to support “according to the Scriptures” Christ was raised from the dead on the third day (1 Cor 15:4): “^After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.”