Lesson #07

HOSEA 6
Lesson #07
GOD’S STRANGE WORK AND HIS SEASONS OF RAIN

• Memory Verse: Hos 6:6

• Read Isa 28:21
• Isaiah tells us that God has a strange work to do. What is this strange work?
• We actually find that it is described in the first verse of Hos 6.

• Read Hos 6:1-11
• The strange work of God: (1)
• The strange work of God is a paradox. It is “tearing and healing”, “smiting and binding”.
• God loves His people: His Old Testament people, the Israelites, and His New Testament people, the Christians.
• God’s desire is that His people love Him and serve Him in obedience because He wants to bless His people with all good things.
• However, when His people do not love Him and serve Him in obedience, God must punish His people. Like any good parent, this is not something God wants to do. Disobedience forces His hand because rebellion demands judgment.
• In God’s punishment of a disobedient people, He will permit other nations to gain the victory over His people even when those other nations are very far from righteousness themselves, and even when they do not know God or care about Him.
• This destruction by other nations is the “tearing” process. (Hos 5:14)
• And for these terrible hurts, God promises healing in the end.
• In God’s punishment of a disobedient people, He will chastise them with endless problems in their daily lives like poor crops, devastating weather, famine and pestilence, etc.
• These daily problems that plague their path are the occurrences of “smiting”.
• And for these hurts, God promises to bind them or put a bandage on them to give them comfort.
• We can say that God’s “strange work” clearly tells us about the character of God.
• God’s love is balanced by God’s justice, but once justice is satisfied and the wages of sin are paid, God’s mercy and love bring healing and restoration.
• How does this “strange work” relate to Hosea and Israel?
• Just as Hosea must wait until Gomer’s lifestyle reaped its reward, so will God wait until Israel’s idolatry reaps the reward of destruction and captivity before He will heal and restore them.
• The people in Israel knew this aspect of God’s strange work. Notice in verse 1 the people say that if conditions get as bad as the prophets say, they will turn to God for healing. But their words were not sincere. They had no intention of turning to God in true repentance.
• “After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up…”

(2)

• The phrase, “two days…and in the third day” is a Jewish saying which means quick action.
• This is an intriguing prophecy concerning Israel’s spiritual revival and her elevation as a nation to a position above all other nations.

• We have already discussed Israel’s spiritual revival as an event that occurs at the second coming of Jesus Christ when they recognize Him and receive Him as their Messiah. (Zec 12:10)
• In the Millennial Kingdom of Jesus Christ, Israel will be raised to a favored nation position above all other nations to fulfill God’s promises. (Isa 14:2-3 Isa 61:5-6)

• Notice the time mentioned in this verse.
• After two days is the revival and on the third day is a resurrection.
• There are two types of revival of which the Bible speaks for Israel. One type is a physical revival and another type is a spiritual revival. Both of which are referenced in verse 2.
• The physical revival of the nation of Israel:
• When Israel RETURN ed to the Promised Land after the Babylonian Captivity, she became a nation once again. This is the “first day”.
• However, in 70 AD they lost the land and remained dispersed throughout the world until 1947.
• In 1947 God revived the nation of Israel once again. This is the fulfillment of the “second day” mentioned in verse 2.
• Yes, many people believe it was the United Nations that revived Israel, but no, it was the hand of God that fulfilled this prophecy to revive Israel in 1947.
• The spiritual revival of the nation of Israel is different from its physical revival.
• When Israel loses the land once again in the future, under the reign of the Antichrist in the Tribulation period, she will finally turn to God for salvation during the Battle of Armageddon. It is in the midst of this battle that Jesus Christ will descend to this earth to save Israel physically and spiritually and to establish His kingdom.
• This is the spiritual resurrection of the third day.
• Of what New Testament event does verse 2 remind us?
• Jesus Christ was raised from the dead on the third day. Therefore, when the Jews saw the resurrection of Jesus after 3 days in the tomb, it should have reminded them of Hosea’s words that promised a national resurrection.
• That makes the resurrection of Jesus Christ a first fulfillment of Hosea’s prophecy while the second prophetic fulfillment is the resurrection of the nation of Israel in the Millennial Kingdom of Christ.
• Read Eze 37:4-5 (the physical revival of Israel)
• Read Eze 37:9-14 (the spiritual revival of Israel)

• “…he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.”

(3)

• The phrase “latter and former rain” is a frequent prophetic phrase with a specific prophetic meaning.
• The latter rains are the heavy rains that occur in Israel in the spring during the months of March and April just before the harvest.
• The former rains are the heavy rains that occur in Israel in the autumn during the months of September and October.
• Read Joe 2:23,28
• What is the symbolic meaning of the rain in verse 3?
• The rain symbolically refers to the observant manifestation of the Holy Spirit through signs and wonders.
• Read Jam 5:7
• This verse in James gives us the prophetic significance of the two seasons of rain.
• The two seasons of rain refer to the two Spirit-anointed comings of the Lord Jesus Christ to this earth.
• The righteousness of Israel:
• God asks this question twice, “what shall I do unto thee?” (4)
• He asks it of Ephraim, the Northern Kingdom, and of Judah, the Southern Kingdom.
• This question represents God’s perplexing problem (His strange work) of wanting to bless His people, but instead having to punish them for sin according to His perfect justice.
• “…your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.”

(4)

• In the same way that the morning dew is dried by the noon day sun, the righteousness of Israel was just as fleeting. When heat and pressure of problems arose and God tested their faith, their zeal for the things of God quickly disappeared. (2Pet 2:17-22)
• There is no difference between Israel and many New Testament believers. They follow God when it is convenient. There is a great show of potential rain from their cloud, but the moisture (Spirit) in that cloud quickly evaporates when problems arise to test their faith.
• What spiritual attitude is expressed in verse 4?
• Read Jam 1:2-8,11
• This is the attitude of double mindedness or an unstable, fickle faith of which reaps nothing in the kingdom of God.
• This alternating pattern between belief and unbelief was Israel’s downfall that caused her to be open to the deceptions of other gods.
• “Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets…”

(5)

• The prophets that God sent to both the Northern Kingdom and to the Southern Kingdom used the Word of God to cut to the heart of the people to show them their sin.
• Read Heb 4:12-13
• “…I have slain them by the words of my mouth…”

(5)

• The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit. (Eph 6:17)
• There was not a lack of knowledge concerning the will of God in Israel, for God had given them His Word and the prophets that proclaimed the truth of it.
• The problem was the stubbornness of the people that purposefully turned their back to God.
• What are God’s greatest desires? (6)
• God’s greatest desires for His people are these:
• Mercy
• Through love comes mercy.
• The legalistic system of Judaism was made by God to move them to recognize their need of God’s love and mercy through a loving Messiah.
• Instead of bringing them to the point of recognition of their inability to keep the Law, they created a religious system without the Spirit of God in it.
• To justify their disobedience, they hid themselves behind the endless animal sacrifices.
• The form of godliness without the power of God profits nothing. (2Tim 3:5)
• Because they did not accept God’s mercy and forgiveness through the blood of the Messiah at His first coming, the people could not extend mercy to others.
• In their system of legalism, there is only a judgmental attitude toward others and never an attitude of mercy and forgiveness. Religiosity covered this judgmental attitude and that did not please God.
• Instead of bring the people to God for mercy and forgiveness, their religion through animal sacrifice did just the opposite. It kept the people at a distance from coming to God.
• Knowledge
• As we have already seen, God gave them knowledge but they refused to walk in that knowledge. Jesus Christ is the truth that came down from heaven, but they would not acknowledge that truth as coming from God. (Joh 1:14,17 Joh 3:21)
• It is the acceptance of God’s knowledge that leads one to the truth of Jesus Christ and opens the heart to the light of God’s wisdom and results in a personal relationship. (5)
• It is this progression that God desires:
• Knowledge of the Word of God ? Truth about Jesus Christ ? The Light of God’s wisdom ? A personal relationship through Jesus Christ.
• What was Israel’s great failure?

• “…they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.”

(7)

• The covenant to which God refers here is the covenant made with Moses. This is what the Bible calls the Law. However, from the beginning, all men, like Adam, transgressed the covenants that God made with man in every period of time.
• The treacherous actions are the idolatry and the worship of other gods.
• God had given the Israelites great benefits and blessings that no other nation received.
• God had miraculously brought them out of slavery in Egypt.
• Instead of love and gratitude to God, they turned to false gods that did nothing for them.
• A descriptive play on words: (8)
• Gilead is a city polluted with blood.
• The city of Ramoth-Gilead was well known for a healing salve used for medical purposes. (Jer 8:22) However, instead of healing Ramoth-Gilead was becoming known for violence, robbery, and murder. It was a rendezvous point for wicked men.
• Originally this city was one of the cities of refuge and peace (Jos21:38) but had now become just the opposite.
• Schechem
• Though this city was not specifically named, verse 9 refers to this city that was also one of the original cities of refuge. (Jos 21:21)
• This city had become a place where gangs of robbers waited in ambush. This band included some priests who were guilty of taking life instead of giving life. (9) They attacked the people that travelled to Jerusalem for the Jewish feast days and even murdered them to prevent them from going to Jerusalem to worship God.
• These priests involved in the worship of Baal included religious prostitution.(Lev 19:29)
• The “horrible thing” = the nature of prostitution that pollutes. (10-11)
• Just as the sin of prostitution polluted Gomer’s life and Hosea’s family, the Bible says that it is a sin that also pollutes society, and even the land. (Lev 19:29 Pro 23: 27)
• In the same way spiritual prostitution pollutes the soul of the individual and eventually it pollutes all of society as well. This is exactly what happened to Israel in both the Northern Kingdom of Ephraim and the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
• God’s promise of restoration (11)
• God promised to restore His people after they paid for their sin of idolatry in the Babylonian captivity. However, that restoration would not occur until after the Southern Kingdom of Judah also suffered destruction and captivity in Babylon.
• That restoration would be the Israelites freedom from idolatry.

HOMEWORK
HOSEA 7
This is a self-study. Please do not send homework answers to the teacher forcorrection.

• Application of Hos 6
• Which specific topic from Hos 6 spoke more strongly to your personal life?
• God’s chastisement
• God’s forgiveness, healing, and restoration
• The deception of an empty religion (2Pet 2:17-22)
• The sharp nature of the Word of God
• God’s greatest desires
• Explain your selection.

• How will the truths in Hos 6 change your life?

• Preparation for Hos 7
• Read Hos 7:1-16
• What was the wickedness of Samaria? (1) (Read Joh 4:4,7,22-24)
• What is the meaning of the parable of the dough and the hot oven? (4-5)
• What is the significance of the cake not turned? (8)
• What is the deceptive trap? (11-12)

Memory Verse: Hos 7:10