Hosea 2:14-23

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TALKS FOR GROWING CHRISTIANS

The Good News of the Future Restoration of Israel

BACKGROUND NOTES



DOCTRINAL POINT(S)

  1. The nation of Israel will be forgiven and restored.

  2. The land of Israel will be safe and blessed.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

  1. Your Valley of Achor can become a door of hope.

QUESTIONS

  1. How does Hosea’s marriage to Gomer illustrate God’s relationship to Israel?

  2. How did Israel commit spiritual adultery?

  3. Hosea’s message to Israel contained both bad news and good news. What was it?

  4. How is the good news illustrated in Hosea ’s marriage?

  5. What is the theme of the book of Hosea?

ANSWERS

  1. God told Hosea to marry Gomer, who became a prostitute. Just as she turned away from Hosea’s love and care, so Israel turned away from God’s love and care for them.

  2. By turning away from the Lord and by chasing after the foreign gods and the sinful practices of the foreign religions.

  3. The bad news was that the judgment prophecies would literally be fulfilled when the Assyrian Empire conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The good news is that there will be a future restoration of Israel, a spiritual restoration of her people, and a physical restoration of her land.

  4. Hosea was directed by God to go and buy his wife back from the prostitute slave market, and continue to love her. This is a picture of God’s love for His wayward people.

  5. God’s Redeeming Love.

DISCUSS/CONSIDER

  1. The idea in the use of the word “betrothed” is the sense of a new beginning. The sin of Israel’s spiritual adultery is forgiven and they will return to the honeymoon days. Remember, the promise of forgiveness in this passage was given to Israel, not to the Church of today. Israel had forsaken the Lord and had broken the covenant. Thus this promise of forgiveness and restoration was made to the Jewish people and will be kept with them in the future. However, the promise in Hosea 2:23 can be applied and extended to all believers, as it is in the New Testament in Romans 9:25-26 and 1 Peter 2:10. This does not mean that we take the promise away from Israel, but we have the same promise of forgiveness and restoration if we return and obey the Lord.

  2. What a difference there is from the devastation of the land we read about in the first half of Chapter 2 and in Hosea 2:18, “In that day…” God will send material blessings on the land of Israel in a coming day. See Deuteronomy 30:9, God’s promise of blessing on the land. We see some of this happening now. Think of what it will be like in “that day”!

CHALLENGE

  1. Read Hosea 2:14-15 (Joshua 7 gives the background). This is a beautiful picture of the Lord’s loving relationship to His people. The wilderness is no longer a desert place, but a place of comfort because the Lord is there. Are you facing any deserts right now? The desert may be a blessing in disguise. God loves to bless us in the very area in which we have failed. What is your Valley of Achor, where God is dealing with you? Remember, your Valley of Achor can become a door of hope.

KEY VERSES

  • “I will bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her. ” Hosea 2:14

  • “…the Valley of Achor is a door of hope. ” Hosea 2:15

  • “In that day I will make a covenant…I will betroth you to Me forever…in righteousness and justice; in lovingkindness and mercy…I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord. ” Hosea 2:18-20

  • “I will say to those people who were not My people, 'You are My people!' And they shall say, 'You are my God!'” Hosea 2:23



Hosea, Old Testament, TalksDeb HarmsHosea 2:14-23