Lesson #15

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Hosea

September 21, 2015

Lesson #01

January 6, 2010

Lesson #02

January 6, 2010

RETURN TO SYLLABUS

HOSEA 14
Lesson #15
RECEIVING A GIFT

• Memory Verse: Psa 128:1
• The admission of guilt is difficult for people and for a nation. The human tendency is to justify our mistakes and/ or to blame others.
• In this last chapter of Hosea, the prophet encourages Israel to come to God for forgiveness. However, forgiveness will not come to a person or to a nation until there is repentance. Then God can begin to rebuild and restore.

• Read Hos 14:1-3
• The three necessary conditions for reconciliation: (1-2)
• Forgiveness and reconciliation are free and merciful gifts from God. In the reception of a gift, the person on the receiving end usually acknowledges in some way the person that is giving him a gift.
• If a person hands you a gift, and you walk by him without looking at him, you do not receive his gift. This was the current condition of Israel.
• When you acknowledge the presence of the person with the gift for you, he hands you the gift. If you do not take it from his hand, you do not take possession of his gift.
• When you reach out and take it from his hand, you have taken hold of his gift. However, if you do not open the gift, you really have not received it because you have not made it yours.
• Therefore, the three necessary conditions for receiving a gift are:
• =1= Recognition or acknowledgement that a gift is being given.
• =2= Possession of the gift.
• =3= Ownership of the gift.
• In this same way, this is what Israel needed to do, and this is what any person does that comes to the Lord for the gift of forgiveness and reconciliation.
• =1= There is need for a sincere prayer asking for forgiveness of sins.
• The penitent person or nation must acknowledge that a gift is being offered.
• God offers forgiveness but if there is no sincere prayer from the heart that acknowledges God’s grace and power to give that gift, the gift of forgiveness is never received.
• =2= The need for a petition to remove specific sins.
• The penitent person must meet the conditions to receive the gift of forgiveness.
• God’s conditions are to see sin (iniquity) from God’s perspective and then to reach out to God and to ask him to forgive those specific sins.
• The word “iniquity” (1) is an interesting word.
• It is often used as another word for sin.
• The word technically means = injustice, unrighteousness, a deviation from what is right.
• The phrase “the calves of our lips” (2) refers to giving birth to actual words that come from the heart. In other words, we need to speak our repentance to God.
• The person or nation that reaches out to God to take possession of God’s gift of mercy is ready to receive God’s forgiveness.
• =3= The need to accept God’s gracious gift of mercy.
• A prayer of thanksgiving means that the penitent person or nation has made the gift his own personal possession. He will now begin to use it and live in that gift.
• The person that truly receives God’s gift of mercy and forgiveness, knows that he must live in the shadow of God’s forgiveness. He does not RETURN to his life of sin and live as though he never received that gift.
• The New Testament personification of God’s gift:
• Read Joh 3:15-16
• Jesus Christ is God’s personification of His love, mercy, forgiveness, and reconciliation to eternal life.
• What must Israel do to reap God’s forgiveness?
• In sincere repentance Israel must stop practicing three important sins:
• =1= She must forsake her trust in foreign alliances.(3)
• Instead of trusting government and politics, people should trust in God for protection, and for military, and political success.
• The word, “Asshur” in verse 3 refers to Assyria.
• =2= She must forsake her trust in military equipment.(3)
• Horses and chariots were imported from Egypt.
• In Deu 17:16 God forbid the Jews to multiply horses.
• Instead of putting great trust in a big military defense for national protection, the people should trust in God. God is all powerful and has all knowledge. He is better able to protect a nation and a people.
• =3= She must forsake her trust in idols and foreign gods.(3)
• Foreign gods and idols are useless and without real power. They cannot protect, they only deceive and drag people down to the depths of the pit for eternity.
• Remember Hosea’s family?
• Here at the end of the book, we are reminded of Hosea’s children.
• Remember that the names of his children were messages to the people.
• Hosea’s first child:
• The name Jezreel means = God scatters; God sows.
• Hosea’s second child:
• The name Loruhama means = she never knew a father’s pity.
• Hosea’s third child:
• The name Loammi means = not my people; or not my child.
• Two of Hosea’s children were probably not from Hosea. They were probably the results of Gomer’s prostitution.
• Hosea uses this fact to tell Israel that his people had cut off their relationship with God, their heavenly Father. They were fatherless. (3)
• However, only in God can they find forgiveness and mercy.
• Only in God can they experience a true family relationship with a heavenly Father.
• Hosea loves his three children even though two were probably not his. However, he treated them as though they were.
• Hosea was the model to Israel, that God would treat his rebellious people in the same way as Hosea treated his children. God would love the Israelites like true children.
• Read Hos 14:4-9 Restoration
• God promised restoration after repentance.
• There are three areas of restoration:
• =1= God will heal their backsliding (their rebellion or apostasy). (4)
• This healing includes curing her idolatry, her immorality, her rebellion, and her broken covenant.
• =2= God will love them unconditionally and freely.
• This is the same unconditional love that the New Testament believer experiences today in his personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
• =3= God will renew Israel’s blessings. (5)
• God uses various picturesque phrases to demonstrate this prophetic aspect that will be fulfilled in the future Millennial Kingdom of Jesus Christ.
• “I will be as the dew unto Israel…” (5)
• The night dew brings moisture to the dry land so that in the morning it will produce in a new day.
• “…he shall grow as the lily…”

(5)

• The lily in the Middle East grows rapidly and flowers abundantly, but it has a shallow root system.
• “…cast forth his roots as Lebanon.”

(5)

• Instead of shallow roots, the blooming lily (Israel) will have long firm roots like the cedar trees in Lebanon. These trees grew strong and tall.
• This phrase prophetically refers to the planting of Israel in the Promised Land with the Jews. This planting means that she will never lose the land again for her roots will grow deep.
• “His branches shall spread…”

(6)

• Because Israel will be planted in the Lord, she will prosper and multiply numerically.
• During the Millennial Kingdom, the birth rate throughout the earth will increase among the Jews and among the Gentiles.
• “… and his beauty shall be as the olive tree…”

(6)

• The reference to the olive tree needs some New Testament explanation:
• Read Rom 11:17-24
• The true branches are the Jews.
• The Jews were cut off because of unbelief.
• Then God grafted in His kingdom new wild branches into the olive tree. These wild branches are the Gentiles
• Finally, God will graft in the true olive branches, the Jews, once again.
• Therefore, in the Millennial Kingdom, there will be both Jews and Gentiles all of which will be the children of God in service to Jesus Christ.
• “…his smell as Lebanon.”

(6)

• The lovely, sweet smell refers to the Jew’s acceptance to God and the Jew’s acceptance to all other people on the earth.
• The Jews will no longer be considered the scum of the earth.
• “They that dwell under his shadow shall RETURN …”

(7)

• In the Millennial Kingdom, Gentiles will seek relationships with the Jews so as to better learn scripture.
• “… they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.”

(7)

• In the Millennial Kingdom, Israel will grow, prosper, and produce fruit as God had always desired from His people.
• The Jews will experience the same marvelous personal relationship that New Testament believers have through Jesus Christ.
• Through Hosea’s prophecies we see the beautiful repentance and restoration that will occur in God’s family when God’s wife, Israel, turns to the Lord at the Second Coming of Christ.
• We began this book with the parallel between Hosea’s family and God’s family.
• Now, through prophecy, we know that God’s wife will RETURN and repent in the future.
• What about Hosea’s wife, Gomer? Did she ever repent of her prostitution and Return home to be restored to Hosea as a faithful wife and mother?
• Unfortunately, the Bible does not tell us.
• However, perhaps it is not necessary that the Bible tell us specifically.
• From this book we know God used the parallel between Hosea and Gomer to illustrate God’s relationship with Israel.
• God told Hosea to marry Gomer in the same way that God chose Israel.
• God showed us the future restoration of His people, Israel.
• Surely God would complete the parallel in the life of Hosea in the same way that He will do it in Israel.
• Because God tells us the end of the story of Israel, I am convinced that the end of the story for Hosea would be equally happy and blessed.
• Application:
• What is it that a wise believer will do?
• Like Israel in the future, the wise believer will repent when the Holy Spirit convicts the heart of sin. (8)
• The wise believer will repent of idolatry in any form.
• The wise believer will listen to God and be obedient.
• The wise believer will produce fruit for the kingdom of God.
• The wise believer will know the Word of God so that he has understanding.
• The wise believer will walk in God’s ways.

May you be one of the wise in God’s Kingdom! The End