Hosea 3

PRELUDE

• Hosea has fallen deeply in love with his wife, Gomer, whom he marries. She goes astray and he looks for her until he purchases her from a slave market for an astronomical wage. But she does not return his love. She is deeply damaged emotionally and she continues to give her love to low life lovers.

• Love is always sacrificial. It has the best interest of the other person at heart, and Hosea loves Gomer.

• It is like the movie “Casino” with Robert DeNiro and Sharon Stone, albeit a rather twisted version. (Robert DeNiro is part of the mafia).

• Does this sound familiar considering God’s love for His Jewish nation? He calls her beautiful. He gives her everything to elevate and honor her: the promises, the prophets, the land, the kings, the Messiah – but she chooses to debase herself.

• This could be a program for the TV Show “Cheaters”. Gomer is found naked with her lovers.

• Hosea, like God, hurts like a punch in the gut. He had such grand visions of splendor for her.

• Matthew 23:37 Jesus Laments over Jerusalem – “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!

• According to Jewish law, she should have been stoned.

• However; God never deserts His “Gomer”. He works with her until she returns to Him of her own will. The meaning of Gomer is “Complete” in Hebrew. God will complete what He has begun.

• Gomer is the nation of Jews.

Israel Will Return to God

Hosea 3:¹ Then the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover (Lit. friend or husband) and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin/fig cakes (idols) of the pagans.”

• Gomer’s father is dᵊḇēlâ. The root meaning is pressed cakes. Raisin/fig cakes are pressed cakes symbolic of idols.

Hosea 3:² So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and one and one-half homers of barley. ³ And I said to her, “You shall stay with me many days; you shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man—so, too, will I be toward you.”

• God is faithful towards the Jews.

• Silver is the price or value of redeeming a person:

• Joseph was sold into Egyptian bondage for twenty shekels of silver when he was 17 years of age. This was the value of a servant between 5 years old and 20 years old:
  • Gen. 37:28 “Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt.”

• The Old Testament prophesied that Christ would be sold for thirty pieces of silver:
  • Zec. 11:12, 13 “And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was priced at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.”
  • This prophesy was fulfilled as stated in the following passages:
    • 1. Mat. 26:15 “And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.”
    • 2. Mat. 27:3 “Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,”
    • 3. Mat 27:9 “Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value;”

• The value of a male servant was set at 30 shekels of silver in the book of Leviticus if the servant was gored “pierced” by a bull “strong leader”.

• Joseph gave 300 pieces of silver for Benjamin.

• Gen. 45:21 “And the children of Israel did so: and Joseph gave them wagons, according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way. 22 To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver, and five changes of raiment.”
• Rom. 8:29, 30: “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”
  These are the five changes of raiment: foreknow, predestinate, called, justified, and glorified; through our understanding of God’s covenant of redemption that he made before the world began. ^{http://dentonpbc.org/silver2.htm#price%20of%20children}

• Hosea purchased a harlot for 15 shekels of silver. But she was also purchased for one and one-half homers of barley:
  • Lev 27:16 And if a man shall sanctify unto the LORD some part of a field of his possession, then thy estimation shall be according to the seed thereof: an homer of barley (H8184) seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver.

• She was purchased at a great price, a total value of 65 shekels of silver.

Hosea 3:⁴ For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim.

• There is an immediate fulfillment of prophecy and a far distant fulfillment of prophecy.
  Israel, the northern kingdom was conquered in 722 BC taken by the Assyrian, Sargon II. Ten tribes made up the Northern Kingdom. Although they are called the ten lost tribes the book of Esther asserts they were scattered.

• After Herod’s rule in Jerusalem, the Jews ceased as a nation to exist from 70 AD when Titus destroyed the temple until 1948 when they returned to a legal homeland.  “Many days” are 1,878 years of Dry Bones (Ezekiel 37:1-14). However; they still do not have a temple or the Holy Spirit. God’s breath has not yet entered the the dry bones and will not enter until Jesus returns at the end of a seven year tribulation for Israel.

• According to scripture, the third temple will be built either before or at the beginning of the seven year tribulation. So far, there is no king, sacrifice, or sacred pillar; no ephod or teraphim.

• The ephod is a priestly garment, the sacred pillar is a “sacred memorial”, and the teraphim is a household idol.

Hosea 3:⁵ Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God (Yᵊhōvâ ‘ĕlōhîm) and David their king. They shall fear the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) and His goodness in the latter days.

• At the end times the Jews return to God and God returns to the Jews.

• King David was a man after God’s own heart: He is likened to Jesus, the Son of God.
  Acts 13:22 And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’

• The latter days are different from the last days. The last days began at the Crucifixion of Christ but the latter days are days of the end times.

• Every Jewish person will recognize Jesus as the Messiah at His second advent. He returns to them and they “return” to Him.

• THE TIMELINE OF THE JEWISH PROPHECIES:

• Israel, the Northern Kingdom, was taken into captivity by Assyria in 722 BC. They are scattered and seemingly fade into oblivion. Then Judah is taken captive by Babylon in 587 BC.
  
• By 1 AD King Herod rules in Jerusalem during the time of Jesus. After his death Titus destroys the temple in 70 AD. The Jews are without a homeland until 1948 when they become a nation, almost risen from the dead.

• Today they are surrounded by tension and hatred.
  
  However; in the future, a man will come whom they believe is their Messiah. He will sign a seven year peace treaty with them and allow them to rebuild their temple. He will also betray them after 3-1/2 years intent on annihilation. The remnant of Jews will cry out to God in their severe affliction. At the end of the seven years Jesus returns to earth with his saints and angels to save them at Armageddon. He then sets up His kingdom on earth and fulfills all His promises to His Jewish wife, Israel. The Jews are elevated as priests during Jesus’ 1,000 year reign on earth. “Gomer” will be reinstated and lifted up in all her beauty. She is a blessing to all the gentile nations of the earth.