Hosea 1 & 2

Study No. 8

THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH HISTORY
DEPICTED BY ONE ALLEGORICAL FAMILY
HOSEA 1 & 2

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Introduction

This symbolism of the Old and New Testament church shows that although the 12 tribes of Israel and Judah were dispersed, God is to gather together the outcast of Judah and the remnant of Israel in this last period of the church by a revival and reformation.

Prayer Thought: 8T 250-251

“Unless the church, which is now being leavened with her own backsliding, shall repent and be converted, she will eat of the fruit of her own doing, until she shall abhor herself. When she resists the evil and chooses the good, when she seeks God with all humility and reaches her high calling in Christ, standing on the platform of eternal truth and by faith laying hold upon the attainments prepared for her, she will be healed. She will appear in her God-given simplicity and purity, separate from earthly entanglements, showing that the truth has made her free indeed. Then her members will indeed be the chosen of God, His representatives.” {8T 250.3}

1. Read Hosea 2: 18-21.

2. Read Hosea 1: 1-2

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.

2 When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea:

“Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry
And children of harlotry,
For the land has committed great [a]harlotry
By departing from the Lord.”

Explanation:
The marriage (wife and children) was visionary. It portrayed the sad and abominable condition, which then obtained in Israel. Also, according to Lev. 21: 13-15; 1Cor.6:16, God would not literally have His prophet marry a prostitute.

3. Read Hosea 1: 3-5.

3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. 4 Then the Lord said to him:

“Call his name Jezreel,
For in a little while
I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu,
And bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.
5 It shall come to pass in that day
That I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”

Explanation
•Jezreel the first-born son of Hosea’s visionary marriage foreshadowed the termination of the ten-tribe Kingdom Israel, and the place in which its army was to be defeated – in the valley of Jezreel (2 Kg. 10:11, 32; 17:23; 18:11) for the shedding of the blood of Jezreel, a symbol of the prophets whom Israel rejected and killed (1Kg. 18:13).

•The “breaking of the bow” of Israel, signifies the destruction of the princes of the nation when Jehu slew all seventy sons of Ahab and all that pertained to Ahab’s house - 2Kings 10: 1-7, 11.

4. Read Hosea 1: 6-7

6 And she conceived again and bore a daughter. Then God said to him:

“Call her name [a]Lo-Ruhamah,
For I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel,
[b]But I will utterly take them away.

7 Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah,
Will save them by the Lord their God,
And will not save them by bow,
Nor by sword or battle,
By horses or horsemen.”

Explanation
•Lo-ruhamah (not having mercy) foreshadowed no mercy upon the house of Israel, its end had already come. The 10 tribe kingdom had been spared until the birth of Lo-ruhamah. The coming destruction upon the house of Israel was accomplished when the king of Assyria scattered them (2Kings 18:11). Thus was fulfilled the prediction made at Jezreel’s birth.

•However, the house of Judah, the two-tribe Kingdom was to have mercy and be delivered by a miracle. This was demonstrated when Sennacherib came to take Judah captive. Through the prayer of Hezekiah, Judah was saved (2 Kg. 18: 13, 17; 19:1, 15, 19, 20, 35).

5. Read Hosea 1:8-9

8 Now when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son.
9 Then God said:

“Call his name [a]Lo-Ammi,
For you are not My people,
And I will not be your God.

Explanation
The third child, Lo-ammi (not my people) foreshadowed the departure of God’s mercy even from the house of Judah, because of their continual course of backsliding. The fulfillment of this took place when, as a nation, they crucified Christ. (Matt. 23: 37, 38; Luke 23: 18). This verse brings us to the Christian era.

6. Read Hosea 1:10-11.

10 “Yet the number of the children of Israel
Shall be as the sand of the sea,
Which cannot be measured or numbered.
And it shall come to pass
In the place where it was said to them,
‘You are [a]not My people,’
There it shall be said to them,
‘You are sons of the living God.’

11 Then the children of Judah and the children of Israel
Shall be gathered together,
And appoint for themselves one head;
And they shall come up out of the land,
For great will be the day of Jezreel!

Explanation

•The multiplication of Israel and Judah and their reacceptance as individuals into the Christian church (1Pet.2: 9, 10; Rom.9: 25, 26). Thus the present identifiable Jews of today are not necessarily those that are seen in the fulfillment of this prophecy

•After the scattering and rejection of Israel, the nation consequently lost their racial identity as they were assimilated by the Gentile nations. Thus, many of them became Christians, and are unidentified in the world today.

•The gathering of God’s saints in the last days and their organization into a theocratic government ruled by antitypical David (Dan. 2: 44, 45; Hos. 3: 4, 5).

7. Read Hosea. 2: 1-5

1 Say to your brethren, [a]‘My people,’
And to your sisters, [b]‘Mercy is shown.’

God’s Unfaithful People
2 “Bring[c] charges against your mother, [d]bring charges;
For she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband!
Let her put away her harlotries from her sight,
And her adulteries from between her breasts;

3 Lest I strip her naked
And expose her, as in the day she was born,
And make her like a wilderness,
And set her like a dry land,
And slay her with thirst.

4 “I will not have mercy on her children,
For they are the children of harlotry.

5 For their mother has played the harlot;
She who conceived them has behaved shamefully.
For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
Who give me my bread and my water,
My wool and my linen,
My oil and my drink.’

Explanation

•Note that the prefix "lo" has been omitted from the names Loruhamah and Loammi, thereby rendering Ruhamah to mean "mercy," and Ammi to mean "my people." This change of status implied by the change of names, denote a division of church history, and brings us to the New Testament period.

•Ammi and Ruhamah represent the laity (the church members) both brothers and sisters. This is brought out from the fact that the children are here pluralized. (Brethren and Sisters).

•The mother to whom the children are commanded to take the message is symbolic of that part of the church which is responsible for bringing converts, the ministry. Since it is the children (laity) not the mother (ministry) who deliver the message, it is clear that it is a message of revival and reformation to the church (1SM 128).

•This description portrays a reformatory movement in the church as a result of "mother” (the ministry) playing the harlot.

8T: 250 “Who can truthfully say: "Our gold is tried in the fire; our garments are unspotted by the world"? I saw our Instructor pointing to the garments of so-called righteousness. Stripping them off, He laid bare the defilement beneath. Then He said to me: "Can you not see how they have pretentiously covered up their defilement and rottenness of character? 'How is the faithful city become an harlot!' My Father's house is made a house of merchandise, a place whence the divine presence and glory have departed! For this cause there is weakness, and strength is lacking."” {8T 250.2}

•Jezreel must be the one to whom God is speaking since this is the only name omitted from this verse. Jezreel delivers a message from God to the laity, who in turn delivers it to the church. Jezreel must therefore be God's mouthpiece--a prophet.

•Children of whoredoms are untrue converts

6T: 370-371 “…The Lord does not now work to bring many souls into the truth, because of the church members who have never been converted and those who were once converted but who have backslidden. What influence would these unconsecrated members have on new converts? Would they not make of no effect the God-given message which His people are to bear? {6T 370.3}

R.H Jan. 10, 1893 “We have great need to search the Scriptures that we may be representatives of Christ, and act our part as laborers together with God to build up the church in the most holy faith. There is not enough careful, prayerful, painstaking investigation in accepting members into the church…. There is one thing that we have no right to do, and that is to judge another man's heart or impugn his motives. But when a person presents himself as a candidate for church membership, we are to examine the fruit of his life, and leave the responsibility of his motive with himself. But great care should be exercised in accepting members into the church; for Satan has his specious devices through which he purposes to crowd false brethren into the church, through whom he can work more successfully to weaken the cause of God.” {RH, January 10, 1893 par. 2}

6. Read Hosea 2: 6-11 - The Church’s experience

6 “Therefore, behold,
I will hedge up your way with thorns,
And [a]wall her in,
So that she cannot find her paths.

7 She will [b]chase her lovers,
But not overtake them;
Yes, she will seek them, but not find them.
Then she will say,
‘I will go and return to my first husband,
For then it was better for me than now.’

8 For she did not know
That I gave her grain, new wine, and oil,
And multiplied her silver and gold—
Which they prepared for Baal.

9 “Therefore I will return and take away
My grain in its time
And My new wine in its season,
And will take back My wool and My linen,
Given to cover her nakedness.

10 Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers,
And no one shall deliver her from My hand.

11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease,
Her feast days,
Her New Moons,
Her Sabbaths—
All her appointed feasts.

Explanation

Verse 7 shows that instead of the Church Christianizing the heathen, “overtaking” her “lovers”, the heathen paganized the church. Thus we see that because of a departure from God, the early Christian church was to suffer adverse circumstances as a means of calling her back. This was the reason for the Dark Ages of religion from 538 to 1798 A.D. By permitting Rome to gain control of the church, the true Sabbath was lost and substituted by a false one. Dan. 7:25.

7. Read Verses 12-14.

12 “And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees,
Of which she has said,
‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me.’
So I will make them a forest,
And the beasts of the field shall eat them.

13 I will punish her
For the days of the Baals to which she burned incense.
She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry,
And went after her lovers;
But Me she forgot,” says the Lord.

14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
Will bring her into the wilderness,
And speak [a]comfort to her.

Explanation
In fulfillment of these verses, the church fled into the wilderness, into the lands of the Gentiles. See Rev. 12:6.

8. Read Verse 15. What Is The Valley Of Achor?

I will give her her vineyards from there,
And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope;
She shall sing there,
As in the days of her youth,
As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.

Explanation

•The only door of hope for the church, the only way out of her present predicament.

•It was in the typical Valley of Achor that Joshua stoned the sinners in Israel--Achan and his household. (Joshua 7:24-26).

•The significance of the valley is that God is to thoroughly purge his house, cutting off the sinners in her midst just as in the case of Achan. Then she shall return to her former position of purity.

5T:157 “We profess to be governed by the same principles, to be influenced by the same spirit. But instead of giving all for Christ many have taken the golden wedge and a goodly Babylonish garment and hid them in the camp. If the presence of one Achan was sufficient to weaken the whole camp of Israel, can we be surprised at the little success which attends our efforts when every church and almost every family has its Achan?…” {5T 157.1}

3T 265, 270 “…One sinner may diffuse darkness that will exclude the light of God from the entire congregation…” {3T 265.1}

“…God's displeasure is upon His people, and He will not manifest His power in the midst of them while sins exist among them and are fostered by those in responsible positions. {3T 270.2}

1T:190 “Many, I saw, were flattering themselves that they were good Christians, who have not a single ray of light from Jesus. They know not what it is to be renewed by the grace of God. They have no living experience for themselves in the things of God. And I saw that the Lord was whetting His sword in heaven to cut them down. Oh, that every lukewarm professor could realize the clean work that God is about to make among His professed people!...” {1T 189.2}

9. Read Verses 16-17 - The Church Married To Her Lord

16 “And it shall be, in that day,”
Says the Lord,
“That you will call Me [a]‘My Husband,’
And no longer call Me [b]‘My Master,’

17 For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals,
And they shall be remembered by their name no more.

Explanation
After the hypocrites and sinners are taken out of her, the church shall no longer call the Savior Baali (Lord), but she shall call him Ishi (husband). She will then truly become his wife, indicating a much closer relationship.

10. Read Verses 18-23

18 In that day I will make a covenant for them
With the beasts of the field,
With the birds of the air,
And with the creeping things of the ground.
Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth,
To make them lie down safely.

19 “I will betroth you to Me forever;
Yes, I will betroth you to Me
In righteousness and justice,
In lovingkindness and mercy;

20 I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness,
And you shall know the Lord.

21 “It shall come to pass in that day
That I will answer,” says the Lord;
“I will answer the heavens,
And they shall answer the earth.

22 The earth shall answer
With grain,
With new wine,
And with oil;
They shall answer [a]Jezreel.

23 Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth,
And I will have mercy on her who had [b]not obtained mercy;
Then I will say to those who were [c]not My people,
‘You are [d]My people!’
And they shall say, ‘You are my God!’ ”

Explanation
•Peace and prosperity will be in all her borders.

•When these events take place the Lord is to be in the midst of His people. That is, His presence is to be manifested among His people. (9T:16).

•There shall be no want of spiritual food, for the earth shall hear Jezreel, a symbol then of the church leadership messengers (144,000 included). This is the crowning event in the finishing of the Everlasting Gospel.

Conclusion

Thus we see that God's plan for ancient Israel will be fulfilled through their descendants today who become Christians, particularly SDA Christians, and who start a revival and reformation in the church which will at last restore peace and happiness to God's family, and complete the proclamation of the gospel.