Old Testament Walk Through: Hosea

Introduction
Hosea means salvation or deliverance. The Book of Hosea is a record of God’s complaint against His people Israel. He primarily uses the symbolism of a wife going astray from her husband into an adulterous relationship to tell the people that they had sinned greatly against their God (their Husband) (Hosea 2:2). At the same time the Book of Hosea is about God’s plea to His backsliding (a term used to refer to those who keep on sinning after knowing God) people to return to Him (Hosea 6:1-3, 14:1, 2). He promises them restoration. Thus the Book of Hosea ends on a note of hope.

Life Lesson: Like the people of Israel we too might have failed God by rejecting His love and going our own ways. God is grieved. His heart is that of a heart-broken lover. He is calling you back to Himself. He will never give you up (see Hosea 11:8) because His heart is full of compassion towards you. He will yet bring blessing to your life (Hosea 14:4-8).

Characteristic: Hoses uses a lot of “Word Pictures” which makes it easy to understand the message.¹

I The Symbolism of Hosea’s Marriage (Chapter 1)
God asked Hosea to marry an adulterous wife (Hosea 1:2). This was a command specifically to Hosea the prophet (and not to anyone else). The reason is also given there. God wanted the people to know through this marriage that they had departed from the Lord to such an extent that in His eyes they were “guilty of the vilest adultery.” So Hosea obeys and marries Gomer. “Gomer” means corruption.

The Lord gives names to the children born to Hosea. Even the names spoke of God’s judgement. At the same time God also extended hope.

God asked that the first child, a son, born to them be called Jezreel. By this God was saying that he was going to punish the house of Jehu for his killing off the descendants of Ahab even though God had approved of it then (2 Kings 10:30). But perhaps, some commentators say, that God was punishing the house of Jehu because in spite of killing off Ahab’s descendants Jehu continued to worship the golden calves set up by Jeroboam (2 Kings 10:28, 29, 31). Word Picture: God said that He will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel in that day. The breaking of the bow shows the waning strength of royal power.

God asked the second child, a daughter, to be called Lo-Ruhamah, which means “not loved.” God was not going to show mercy to the 10 northern tribes (called sometimes as Ephraim because it was the largest tribe and mostly as Israel). They were destroyed and carried into exile soon. But Judah (the southern kingdom along with Benjamin) were shown mercy by God. They were saved by the Lord in a miraculous manner (Hosea 1:7 and Isaiah 37:36, 37).

Then they had another son. God asked that he be called Lo-Ammi which means “not my people.” This signified the total devastation of the tribes including Judah when they would be carried captive to Babylon. God disowns them, but not for long. For soon God spoke of their restoration (“they will be called `sons of the living God’–Hosea 1:10) and their being reunited as one people under one leader (Hosea 1:11).

This prophecy is now 2700 years old. And we are living now decades after its fulfilment in history. [On 15th May 1948 Israel became a nation, no longer divided into two, but united with the Star of David in their flag].

II A Relationship Restored (Chapter 2)
God first of all speaks of Israel as an adulterous wife [Word Picture]. Her unfaithfulness to her husband (God) is mentioned in particular (vv. 2 and 5). She was chasing after her lovers for favours (v. 5b). But God in His love for her blocked her path with thornbushes so that she could not find her way. This was to make her realize that she was much better off with God. Remember that the younger son in Luke 15 also came to this realization after he was stripped of every privilege he had.

Life Lesson: Sometimes God takes away every comfort from us so that we will realize what a great sin we did by running away from Him.

Even though Israel had forgotten Him (v. 13b), God was going to allure her into the desert to speak tenderly to her. He promises to make the Valley of Achor (Achor means trouble) a door of hope [Word Picture] for Israel (v. 14). Achor was the place where Achan and all that was his were stoned to death (see Joshua 7:26b).

Life Lesson: Deserting God can make your life a Valley of trouble (Achor). But in His mercy, God makes that Valley of trouble a DOOR OF HOPE for you.

God then speaks of a restored relationship. Instead of a slave-master relationship between Israel and God, it would become a wife-husband relationship with all purity (vv. 16, 17). God will enter into this relationship with righteousness and justice, in love and compassion and in faithfulness. In turn Israel will acknowledge the Lord whom she had forgotten thus far (vv.19, 20). God then speaks of a restored security (v. 18) and a restoration of blessing (vv. 21-23).

Life Lesson: Once you return to a right relationship with God, you’ll soon find that God gives you more than what you had expected when you ran in pursuit of “food, water, wool, linen, oil and drink” which your lovers gave (ref. v. 5b). This experience of abundance is Jezreel (v. 22) which means God plants!

III Hosea Buys Back His Wife (Chapter 3)
Hosea’s wife deserts him and becomes an adulteress. She is thus a symbol of unfaithful Israel who was unfaithful to their God. But God commanded Hosea to show love to his wife in spite of her adultery (v. 1). So Hosea buys her for 15 shekels of silver (v. 2). And he asked her to live with him without getting into an adulterous relationship again. On that condition Hosea promises to live with her.

God was showing through this symbolism that after a long time without relationship with Him, the Israelites will be won over to Him. “Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days” (Hosea 3:5 NIV). We might be living at the time when this is going to be literally fulfilled.

Life Lesson: God is ever-willing to buy you back (redeem) you from the pit of evil you’ve dug for yourself. It does not matter HOW LONG you’ve been away. If you return, with trembling, blessings await you. For He is a merciful God.

IV God Presents His Case Against Israel (Chapter 4)
Word Picture: Israel is like a stubborn heifer (v. 16). [Heifer is a young cow, especially one that has not yet had a calf.] [Being stubborn is your determination not to change opinion or attitude.] So Israel was like a stubborn heifer, jumping around, not yielding to the correction of the Lord. Why did God bring in this comparison? This chapter tells us that story:

In verse 1 God summons the Israelites to hear His charge against them: He finds no faithfulness. He finds no acknowledgement of God in the land. Instead He finds cursing, lying, murder, stealing, adultery and bloodshed. And the land and everything in it is affected (vv. 1-3). Both priests and people are alike in their wickedness (v. 9). They not only went into idol worship (vv. 7, 10), but the priests also fed on the sins of the people (v. 8). Further there was widespread prostitution in the land (v. 14).

God therefore laments: “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge” (v. 6) and “a people without understanding will come to ruin” (v. 14b). Their sin was: “they exchanged their Glory for something disgraceful” (v.7).

Life Lesson: Do you have knowledge of God? Do you know His laws? Do you exchange His rightful place as LORD (Master) in your life and substitute it with other “first loves” in your life? If so, you’re inviting ruin!

V God’s Judgement Against Israel (Chapter 5)
Word Pictures: God said: “I am like moth to Ephraim, like rot to the people of Judah” (v. 12). “For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a great lion to Judah. I will tear them to pieces and go away; I will carry them off, with no one to rescue them” (v. 14). If moths get inside a cupboard of clothes, we might not realize the damage it would have caused until very late. So silently God would also destroy His people. But not always so. At times He comes with fiercer judgements. He will come like a great lion whom none can resist. He will destroy with fury.

Now why does God judgement fall like this? “Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. A spirit of prostitution is in their heart; they do not acknowledge the Lord” (v. 4). They went for their God-appointed festivals with flocks and herds to seek the Lord. But this was only outward show. Their heart was not in it. This is the spirit of prostitution.

Therefore they could not find God because God had withdrawn from them. God’s Word elsewhere says, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13 NIV) and “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth” (Psalm 145:18 NIV). Now because of God’s judgement the people would admit their guilt and seek His face; “in their misery they will earnestly seek me” (v. 15).

Life Lesson: Do not make an outward show of religion. God searches the heart and your motives. So seek Him earnestly and in truth. If you don’t do so, someday His judgement will fall on you. Do not wait for judgement to fall so that you will be seeking Him in your misery.

VI God the Healer (Chapter 6)
Word Picture: He will bind up our wounds (v. 1). In Ch. 5 v. 13, we can find the people turning to the Assyrian king for help when God judged them instead of turning to their God. But now the people express their confidence in God saying, “Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds” (v. 1).

Life Lesson: Have you been hurt and wounded by God’s judgements on your life because of your sins. There is hope yet. Return to Him. Take words with you saying “Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously” (Hosea 14:1, 2). Then He will heal you and bind up your wounds. Read also Exodus 15:26 and Isaiah 12.

“After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us” (v. 2) might be a sure prophecy of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And verse 3 says, “Let us acknowledge the Lord” and repeats, “let us PRESS ON to acknowledge him” [emphasis added]. Then God will appear as the sunrise and like the rains that water the earth and make it fruitful.

Life Lesson: We have to “press on” to God. That is an active effort. We need to make seeking God the highest priority in our lives. Only then will He visit us in mercy and bring healing to us. Read also Malachi 4:2 which says, “But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings” (NIV).

But there was a problem with the people. Instead of pressing on to meet God, they made an outward show of love. God uses yet another Word Picture to describe that: “Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears” (v. 4b). See, mist and dew are not permanent. They disappear when the sun shines brightly. Love for God should come from the depths of one’s being and not from outward show. God therefore wounded His people with the words of His mouth (v. 5). Remember that the “word of God is living and active” and “sharper than any double-edged sword” and “penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit” (Hebrews 4:12). His judgements flashed like lightning upon them. Why?

Let us see: “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6 NIV). The people were sacrificing animals (i.e. outward show of religion). But they did evil, instead of showing mercy to people. God uses another Word Picture here to describe the evil of this people. He says, they are like “marauders” lying in ambush for a man. Marauders are those who go around a place seeking to steal or people to attack.

Life Lesson: Outward show of religion will bring God’s judgement on your. True religion is showing mercy to others. Read also James 1:27.

VII Israel Continues To Be Unrepentant (Chapter 7)
God wanted to do good to Israel. But then: “Whenever I would restore the fortunes of my people, whenever I would heal Israel, the sins of Ephraim are exposed and the crimes of Samaria revealed” (6:11b, 7:1). Imagine it like this. In some places the bursting of pipelines is a common occurrence. They would repair the leak in one place and think that everything is fine. Within a few days a crack and leak would develop in another place. God was saying something similar here. God uses some striking Word Pictures in this chapter. Let us see them one by one.

He compares the people as “burning like an oven whose fire the baker need not stir” (v. 4). This image is repeated in verses 6 (“Their hearts are like an oven”) and 7 (“All of them are hot as an oven”). “An unclean heart is like an oven heated. The baker kindled a fire in his oven and laid sufficient fuel in it. In the morning he finds his oven well heated, and ready for his purpose. So these wicked people, when they formed a plot for the gratifying of some covetous or unclean lusts, have their hearts so fully determined to do evil that, though they may stifle them for a while, yet the fire is still glowing within, and, as soon as there is an opportunity for it, their purposes break out into open acts, as a fire flames out when it has vent given it” — Matthew Henry Commentary.

Then God uses another Word Picture: “Ephraim mixes with the nations; Ephraim is a flat cake not turned over” (v. 8). God had called the nation of Israel to be a treasured possession, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:5, 6). But the Israelites not only sinned against the Lord but also went around seeking the help of pagan kings and kingdoms around them. Instead of being a light to the nations they presented to others a sorry picture. They had lost their holy character by mixing with other peoples. So they were like a flat cake not turned over. On one side it is cooked, the other side full of dough. It could not be eaten; therefore useless.

Now God uses one more Word Picture to illustrate the above truth: “Foreigners sap his strength, but he does not realize it. His hair is sprinkled with grey, but he does not notice it” (v. 9). It is interesting to observe that one hair turning grey is the first sign noted by a man. He will simply not ignore it. In our day, many will go to hair-cutting saloons and try to get their hair dyed black to look young. But here Israel is unable to realize that her strength is declining. It is so obvious but he does not seem to notice it.

The next Word Picture that God uses is that of a dove: “Ephraim is like a dove, easily deceived and senseless-now calling to Egypt, now turning to Assyria” (v. 11). “To be harmless as a dove is commendable; but to be stupid as a dove is a shame. This dove does not lament the loss of her young that are taken from her, but will make the nest again in the same place; so they have their people carried away by the enemy, but continue their dealings with those who deal barbarously with them. She is easily enticed into the net, and has no heart, no understanding, to discern her danger.” — Matthew Henry Commentary. Even though God had taught them that “the help of man is worthless” (Psalm 60:11), Israel was always trying to get the help of other nations. So God said, He will throw His net over them and pull them down and catch them when He heard them flocking together.

God wanted to remind them that He did remember their evil deeds (v. 2). His complaint was that they made only a show of outward religion but did “not cry out to me from their hearts” (v. 14). Though He had trained and strengthened them, they plotted evil against God (v. 15). And they did not turn to Him the Most High God (v. 16). So God uses yet another Word Picture to describe them: “They are like a faulty bow” (v. 16). When a faulty bow is bent and drawn and strength applied, either the bow or the string breaks. And the arrow fails to hit the target. “Hamartia” the Greek word for sin in the New Testament carries this same idea. It means “missing the target.”

VIII Israel Will Reap the Whirlwind (Chapter 8)
Israel had broken her covenant with God and rebelled against His law. Though with their lips they acknowledged God, by their deeds they rejected Him: They set up kings without God’s consent and made idols and worshipped a golden calf. Therefore God’s anger was burning against them. He asks, “How long will they be incapable of purity?”

Life Lesson: Our words of devotion to God must be matched by our obedience to His laws. God here used the imagery of sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind (v. 7) to tell us how much trouble will come to our lives if our words of devotion to God and our deeds are at variance with each other. Our wrong acts are like sowing the wind. It will not help us. Instead you’ll find God (like a whirlwind) against you. [Sir Winston Churchill made this imagery famous in his speech to the Canadian Parliament on 30 December 1941, when he said, “Hitler and his Nazi gang have sown the wind; let them reap the whirlwind.”]

Now God uses more Word Pictures to describe the pitiable condition of Israel: He said, “Israel is swallowed up; now she is among the nations like a worthless thing” (v. 8). As we read Ezekiel 5:5 we find that God put Jerusalem in the centre of the nations. But He laments that in her wickedness she had rebelled against God more than her neighbouring countries. So God was saying through Hosea that Israel would be destroyed by foreigners and will be swallowed up by others. (It might be interesting for you to think of an Anaconda or Python swallowing a giant prey it had crushed in this context.).

The next Word Picture is Israel being “like a wild donkey wandering alone” (v. 9). A wild donkey is headstrong and does not yield to the master’s commands. Thus she had sold herself to other nations, her lovers. She had forgotten his Maker (v. 14). All the altars built for sin offerings became altars for sinning (v. 11). It is an example of how the good things in our life can easily turn into sinful things if we are not careful.

IX Israel’s Punishment (Chapters 9 and 10)
God makes it clear that “the days of punishment are coming” (v. 7). He points out the fact that his prophet is considered a fool by the people (v. 7), so that he faces “hostility in the house of his God” and “snares await him on all his paths” (v. 8). Therefore, “God will remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins” (v. 9).

God had delighted in them like a weary traveller would when he found grapes in the desert or seeing the early fruit on the fig tree (v. 10). But God reminds them of their shameful consecration to the idol Baal at Baal Peor (Numbers 25:1-3). So God was going to punish them mercilessly (v. 16). Note on Verse 15. “Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal, I hated them there.” Gilgal was a place which had witnessed some godly moments in the history of Israel. But later it turned to a place of idolatry.

God now uses another Word Picture here: “Israel was a spreading vine” (10:1). A vine is useless if it does not bear fruit for others to enjoy and benefit from. See Ezekiel 15 also. Their fault was that their hearts were deceitful and not loyal to the God of Israel (10:2). Then God reminds them of the sins of their fathers and also lists their many sins. And they are encouraged to seek the Lord by preparing their hearts (“break up your unploughed ground”) and sowing for themselves righteousness. But God also tells them that since they had depended on their own strength (10:13), the roar of battle will rise against them (10:14) and the king of Israel will be destroyed completely (10:15).

X The Father-Heart of God (Chapter 11)
God here speaks like a father speaks of his child. “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son” (v. 1) is said to have been fulfilled in Christ (Matthew 2:15). But God laments here that the more he called Israel the more he went away from him and sacrificed to idols (v. 2). The next two verses are filled with the imagery of the sheer loveliness of God’s compassionate Father-heart. Let us look at it: “It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them” (vv. 3 and 4).

Life Question: Can you picture God removing the burden of sin from your back? Can you picture God taking you by the arms and teaching you to walk? Can you picture God bending down to feed you, O little child? But have you realized it was He?

But these people were determined to turn away from God (v. 7). God therefore said even if they prayed to Him, He would not help them (v. 7b). But then God cries out, “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel?” (v. 8a).

Can you see the heart of God laid bare open here. He has seen your turning away from Him. Yet He is not willing to give up on you. He says, “My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused” (v. 8b). Therefore, He will not carry out His fierce anger against you (v. 9). He, the Holy One of Israel, will roar like a lion (Word Picture) and gather His people from other countries and He will settle them in their homes. Earlier we saw that God said that He would tear His people like a lion. Now He is roaring for them. What a comfort to know this!

Matthew Henry comments: “They shall be corrected, but not consumed. The reason for this determination: For I am God, and not man-the Holy One among you. He is Lord of his anger, whereas men’s anger commonly lords it over them. It is a great encouragement to our hope in God’s mercy to remember that he is God, and not man.” [Read v.9b]

Life Lesson: There are moments of compassion and seasons of grace that God grants you. Seize them. It might not last forever. “I tell you, now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2b NIV). Therefore do not delay to make peace with God.

XI Israel’s Sin and the Lord’s Anger Against Them (Chapters 12 and 13)
These are some of the sins of the Israelites listed here: He multiplies lies and violence (12:1). He makes treaties and trade agreements (12:1b). He uses dishonest scales in trade (12:7). He boasts of his riches and that others will find no sin in him because of his wealth (12: 8). He became guilty of Baal worship and making of idols and human sacrifice (13:1, 2). They became proud when they became satisfied after God fed them and forgot God (13:6). They rebelled against their God (13:16).

God’s Reminders
In response, God reminds them of some important events in the history of their nation when He dealt mercifully with them: He reminds them of Jacob. He reminds them how Jacob was a deceiver before he met the angel of God, struggled with him and overcame him and wept and begged for his favour. His encounter with God at Bethel is also mentioned (12:3, 4).

God reminds the people His names, The LORD God Almighty and the LORD (12:5). This was to remind the people of His mighty power as well as His relationship with His people (see notes on Exodus). Therefore the people are asked, “But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always” (12:6 NIV).

Then God reminds them, that He is the Lord their God who brought them out of Egypt and He will cause them to live in tents again (not as in the days when they wandered in the desert), but as in the days of their appointed feasts when they celebrated with joy (12:9). So God wanted them to acknowledge no God and Saviour except Him (13:4).

Another reminder is of Jacob who fled to the country of Aram and how he served to get a wife and to pay for her he tended sheep (12:12). Then mention is made of Moses who led the people out of Egypt (12:13). God also reminds them of how they asked for a king and He tells them how the king was given and taken away (the king is Saul) (12:10, 11).

The Purpose of These Reminders
There is a two-fold purpose for these reminders: One, to show God’s faithfulness to the people and how He had cared for them in the past. To tell them how from one simple man Jacob, the nation was formed. Second, to highlight for the nation how much they had gone away from their God and therefore justly deserved the punishment about to be given them (12:14, 13:3, 7—9, 12, 15, 16).

Life Lesson: God always gives you reminders when you have forgotten Him and gone away from Him. He does so to give you a chance to think about His faithfulness [faithfulness means the character of one who keeps his word; in God’s case His promises]. If you do not return to your God when He gives you a chance, definitely judgement will overtake you.

God’s Judgement
In Chapter 13, God uses a series of Word Pictures to depict the severity of His judgement on these sinful people. God said that because of their sins these people will be like “the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears, like chaff swirling from a threshing floor, like smoke escaping through a window” (13:3). All these images point out how little substance or character they had and how insignificant they would become when judgement comes.

Again God said, “I will come upon them like a lion, like a leopard I will lurk by the path. Like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will attack them and rip them open. Like a lion I will devour them; a wild animal will tear them apart” (Hosea 13:7, 8 NIV). All these images communicate to us the mighty power of God, and in contrast the powerlessness of the people when God’s judgement strikes.

Life Lesson: Every single person on earth will face God’s judgement. For believers and unbelievers there will be separate judgements. The Bible says that “man is destined to die once, and after that that to face judgement” (Hebrews 9:27 NIV). Hebrews 10:30 says that “The Lord will judge His people” and v. 31 says “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Therefore live your lives in reverent fear of the holy God.

The King Who Will Deliver
God uses a powerful contrast. He talks about Saul who was given to them as king because they demanded a king. As we read the Book of 1 Samuel we understand that the people wanted a king for themselves to be like the nations around them. God would have given them a king in His own time, but they rejected God and His plan for them. So God thunders and asks His people, “Where is your king, that he may save you?” (13:10). (God is also referring to all their kings who rejected Him). And He uses another image of a child without wisdom who does come to the opening of the womb when it is time for delivery (13:13). This shows the inability of the kings to rescue the people in the hour of crisis.

In contrast, God paints a grand picture of His deliverance. He talks about Himself (the King) and His power to redeem His people not only from evil but also from the power of death: “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues?

Where, O grave, is your destruction?” (Hosea 13:14 NIV). This is a clear reference to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave and thereby also redeeming us from the power of the grave. Paul quotes this and applies this passage to the resurrection of God’s people from the dead when Jesus returns to take us home to heaven (1 Corinthians 15:55 NIV).

Life Lesson: Who is your king? If God be your king, even death is defeated before you, because Jesus Christ died and rose again. Are the joy and triumph and the hope of the resurrection stamped on your life? Think about it.

XII Repentance and Blessing (Chapter 14)
Life Lesson: No matter where you are today, you can return to your God. When you repent (i.e. turn away from your sins and come back to God), God will restore to you blessings. Read also Joel 2:25!

The call to return to God is sounded in this chapter. That is our only hope because sin has been our downfall (v. 1). We should go with words of repentance in our mouth: “Say to him: `Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips’ “(v. 2b). These words should come from the heart and not just from the mouth. We should give up our dependence on human sources of strength (Assyria) and idols we have made (v. 3).

God’s Promise
On the condition of people repenting, God said, “I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them” (v. 4). Then God uses some more Word Pictures to tell the people how He was going to restore blessing to them. God said that He will be like dew to Israel and that Israel will blossom like a lily (v. 5a). Dew talks about refreshing that descends from heaven quietly. The blossom of the lily talks about purity that will be restored because God would heal their waywardness. What a lovely image of restored beauty!

Then God says that like a cedar of Lebanon Israel will send down his roots and his young shoots will grow (v. 5b). This talks about strength being restored and new beginnings. Then it was said that his splendour will be like an olive tree and his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon. When that happens, “Men will dwell in his shade. He will flourish like the grain. He will blossom like a vine, and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon” (v. 7).

God’s Demand
In response to His promise of blessing, God demands that His people no more be captive to idols. God wanted them to understand that He would answer His people and care for them. He uses another Word Picture here to show His relationship with His people: “I am like a green pine tree; your fruitfulness comes from me” (v. 8 b). We are also called to remember that without God we can do nothing and that only if we remain in Jesus, like branches remain in a vine, can we bear fruit (see John 15).

The Book of Hosea closes by saying that the wise will understand the ways of the Lord and the righteous will walk in them. Are you one among the wise?

¹[The recorded radio messages on the Book of Hosea by Rev. Dr. Theodore Williams, originally delivered in 1987-`88 helped me to understand “Word Pictures” in the Book of Hosea. It is gratefully acknowledged.]

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