Africa Study Bible Sampler - Flipbook - Page 55
H O S E A 2 : 4
I will leave her to die of thirst,
as in a dry and barren wilderness.
4 And I will not love her children,
for they were conceived in prostitution.
5 Their mother is a shameless prostitute
and became pregnant in a shameful
way.
She said, ‘I’ll run after other lovers
and sell myself to them for food and
water,
for clothing of wool and linen,
and for olive oil and drinks.’
“For this reason I will fence her in with
thorn bushes.
I will block her path with a wall
to make her lose her way.
7 When she runs after her lovers,
she won’t be able to catch them.
She will search for them
but not find them.
Then she will think,
‘I might as well return to my husband,
for I was better off with him than I am
now.’
8 She doesn’t realise it was I who gave her
everything she has—
the grain, the new wine, the olive oil;
I even gave her silver and gold.
But she gave all my gifts to Baal.
6
9
“But now I will take back the ripened
grain and new wine
I generously provided each harvest
season.
I will take away the wool and linen
clothing
I gave her to cover her nakedness.
54
2:5
Jer 2:25; 3:1-2
Ezek 23:16-17,
40-45
2:6
Job 19:8
2:7
Jer 2:2; 3:1
Ezek 23:4
Hos 5:13
2:8
Ezek 16:18
Hos 8:4
2:9
Hos 8:7
2:10
Ezek 16:37
2:11
Isa 1:13-14
Jer 7:34; 16:9
2:12
Jer 5:17; 8:13
2:13
Jer 7:9
Ezek 23:40-42
Hos 4:13; 11:2
2:14
Ezek 20:33-38
2:15
Josh 7:26
Jer 2:1-3
Ezek 16:8, 22
2:16
Isa 54:5
Hos 2:7
I will strip her naked in public,
while all her lovers look on.
No one will be able
to rescue her from my hands.
11 I will put an end to her annual festivals,
her new moon celebrations, and her
Sabbath days—
all her appointed festivals.
12 I will destroy her grapevines and fig
trees,
things she claims her lovers gave her.
I will let them grow into tangled thickets,
where only wild animals will eat the
fruit.
13 I will punish her for all those times
when she burned incense to her
images of Baal,
when she put on her earrings and jewels
and went out to look for her lovers
but forgot all about me,”
says the Lord.
10
The Lord’s Love for Unfaithful Israel
“But then I will win her back once again.
I will lead her into the desert
and speak tenderly to her there.
15 I will return her vineyards to her
and transform the Valley of Trouble*
into a gateway of hope.
She will give herself to me there,
as she did long ago when she was
young,
when I freed her from her captivity in
Egypt.
16 When that day comes,” says the Lord,
“you will call me ‘my husband’
instead of ‘my master.’*
14
2:15 Hebrew valley of Achor.
2:16 Hebrew ‘my baal.’
Pro ver bs & S t or i es
Desiring God Above All Others
Hosea and his unfaithful wife illustrated the state of the rela- as Baals because of the blessing the people of Israel thought
tionship between God and people who had left him to follow the gods would give. Like the wild chick, God snatched out of
other gods. A Kinyarwanda proverb translates to say, “Any the Israelites’ hands what they were after so that they could
chick that spends a night in the bush becomes wild. For you hear him and return to him.
to receive it back, you must pick out what [the chick] was
We are chosen for fellowship with God, which means that
[going] after in the bush, and in its disappointment, it will we must not go into the bushes to find any other treasures.
remember home.”
We already have what we seek—a relationship with a loving
The Israelites abandoned God to follow foreign gods known Father.
Applica tio n
The God Who Longs for Us • Hosea 2:14-15; 3:1
After all Israel’s rejection of God, their neglect of the law, their
As we read through the prophets in this part of the Bible,
idolatry, and their immorality, God still longed for a relationship we find incredible details of God’s angry judgement. But here
with them. He instructed Hosea to illustrate this by actually we see the other side: God’s anger is motivated by a great
paying the price of a prostitute to be with his wayward wife love. We are not usually so angry when a distant relative’s wife
again. Can you imagine having the rights of marriage, and leaves him, but we are very angry when our wife leaves us.
instead of demanding loyalty, buying back that loyalty? The We are angry at the unfaithfulness of the one we love greatly.
love that would motivate this laying down of marriage rights That is the way it is with God. His great love motivates both
is difficult to understand, yet that is how God feels towards his anger over unfaithfulness and his great longing to see the
his wayward children of Israel.
relationship restored.