Hosea Chapter Three
Read Hosea
3:1-3 – The Atonement for
v.1 “Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who
look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.”
In
the Hosea 1:2 the prophet is
instructed by God to take a wife from among the harlots, in this verse he is
telling the prophet again that he should love an adulteress, one who cannot be
faithful to her marriage vows. This is
the relationship between
v.2 “So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of
barley:”
The
price of a slave, man or woman, was about 30 pieces of silver; the price to be
paid if a manservant or maidservant was accidentally killed.
Exodus
The buying of a wife was common practice in
those cultures as we are told by inspiration in:
Ruth
4:10 “Moreover Ruth the Moabitess,
the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the
dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among
his brethren, and from the gate of his place: ye are witnesses this
day”
The fact that Hosea was able to buy Gomer for 15 pieces of silver and 1˝ homer’s of barley
would indicate that she was past her prime; that her beauty and desirability
had been diminished by time and the ravages of her profession.
v.3 “3And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt
not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee.”
When
Gomer is returned again to him, she will be placed
into a situation where she will not be able to have access to men, even
Hosea. She will not be allowed to play
the harlot, will not be in a position to seek after other men. During this time Hosea will see if there is
fruit brought forth worthy of repentance as in:
Matthew
3:7-8 “7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and
Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who
hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8Bring forth
therefore fruits meet for repentance:”
The prophet says that she will abide in this
manner for “MANY DAYS”, a long, long time.
The parallel is applied also to the nation of
Read Hosea
3:4-5 – The Desolation of
v.4 “For the children of Israel shall abide many
days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without
an image, and without an ephod, and without
teraphim:”
The
children of
They
were without a king or a prince. They
ceased to exist as a people and were but captives and slaves to those who owned
them. We don’t know where they were
because neither secular history nor the scripture tell us. All we know is that they were carried away
from their homeland by king Sargon of Assyria and were not returned as
Hosea
God will be their king in due time, when
their exile from him is ended.
They
will have neither the things necessary nor the opportunity for worship. They will not be allowed to sacrifice,
neither would
Exodus
28:4 “4And these are the garments
which they shall make; a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a broidered
coat, a mitre, and a girdle: and they shall make holy garments for Aaron thy
brother, and his sons, that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office.”
They were required to come before God in
worship properly dressed; a lesson that many folks need to learn today.
In
addition to not having the proper garments to worship God as proscribed under
the Mosaic Law they would also would not have a teraphim. What is a teraphim? It is a household image or idol, highly
prized and regarded as the keeper and protector of the household. When Jacob left Padan-aram
Rachel stole Laban’s teraphim:
Genesis
31:19 “And Laban went to shear his
sheep: and Rachel had stolen the images that were her father’s.”
This was a major reason why Laban chased
Jacob all the way to
For
more than 700 years they would be without prophet, priest or king but there
would be an afterward, those years will pass and then.
v.5 “Afterward shall the children of
We
find this prophecy also in the book of Jeremiah, another recorder of the Word
of God, given him by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Speaking specifically of
Jeremiah
31:9 “They shall come with weeping,
and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the
That all of
Jeremiah
50:4 “In those days, and in that
time, saith the LORD, the children of
Here Jeremiah writes that the children of
John
And the Apostle writes:
I
John 2:2 “2And he is the propitiation for our sins: and
not for ours only, but also for the
sins of the whole world.”
Anywhere the gospel of Christ was preached,
and it was preached over the entire world during the 1st century,
the descendants of
William L. Schwegler, Sunset