Bible Commentaries
Hosea 2

Verses 1-23

Chapter 2

Say to your brethren ( Hsa Hosea 2:1 ),

And here he leaves out the Lo, which is the negative.

Say to your brethren, My people; and to your sister, Ruhamah ( Hsa Hosea 2:1 ).

Or, "having obtained mercy."

So the negative Lo is taken away in chapter 2.

And say to your brother, my people; and to your sister, having obtained mercy. Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts; Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her in a dry land, and slay her with thirst. And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms. For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully; for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, and my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink. Therefore, behold, I will hedge up the way with thorns, and make a wall, and she shall not find her path. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but she shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for it was better with me than now ( Hsa Hosea 2:1-7 ).

So Israel's period of desolation, the period of wondering and wandering until she says, "I'm gonna return to my first husband. I'll return to God. It was at least better for me then that it is now."

For [the Lord said,] she did not know that I gave her the corn, and the wine, and the oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness ( Hsa Hosea 2:8-9 ).

Failed to realize that their blessings had come to them from God. So often, as a nation is blessed of God, they forget the source of blessing. "America, America, God shed His grace on thee." But we forget that. We begin to extol the merits of democracy, the value of the free enterprise system. And we begin to attribute the greatness of America to many other things, forgetting that it was God who gave us the corn, the oil, and the wine, the gold, the silver; it was God that made us great. And we're prone to forget these things. And when you forget the true source of the blessing in your life, the result is the misuse of those blessings. Taking those very blessings that God has bestowed and misusing them, using them against God.

So the children of Israel were taking the wine, the oil that God had given, and they were offering it as a sacrifice unto Baal. They took the gold and the silver that God had blessed them with and they made little pagan idols of Baal or Molech and they worshipped them, taking the very blessings of God and turning them against God, as we so often see today. People who have been talented by God, given beautiful voices to sing with, and yet they are singing songs of blasphemy, suggestiveness. People have a marvelous talent for writing and they're writing pornographic material. Taking the very assets that God has given to them and using them against the Lord. Men that God has endowed with great brilliance, powerful intellects, and they use that intellect to try to prove that there isn't a God or to destroy the faith of others who may believe in God. Taking the very blessings of God and turning them against the Lord.

Now this, of course, God said, "I'll come and take I'll take away the corn in its time." You see, if you abuse those blessings of God, God will take them away. How many have lost those very things that God had given to them because of their misuse of them?

Now God said,

I will discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of my hand. I will also cause her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all of her solemn feasts. And I will destroy her vines, her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them ( Hsa Hosea 2:10-13 ),

Baalim, of course, being the plural of the Baals, the various lords, the various gods that they were burning incense to.

and she decked herself with earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgot me, saith the LORD ( Hsa Hosea 2:13 ).

And thus, God's indictment against Israel worshipping all these false gods, going after these false gods and forgetting the Lord.

Therefore, behold, [the Lord said,] I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her ( Hsa Hosea 2:14 ).

This is a prophecy of that time when during the Great Tribulation God will bare a portion of the nation of Israel down to the wilderness where He will protect them for the three and a half years of the Great Tribulation period. In Revelation, chapter 12, we read where God will give them wings of an eagle that they might be born to the wilderness place where they will be nourished for three and a half years. Jesus mentioning this said, "When you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, flee into the wilderness. Don't bother to go back to your house to get your coat" ( Matthew 24:15-18 ). And God will preserve them and keep them. Isaiah 26 , "He will hide them until the tribulation is over, until the indignation is overpast" ( Isaiah 26:20 ).

"Therefore, behold," the Lord said, "I will allure her." God is going to begin to deal again with the nation of Israel as He preserves them from the man of sin during the Great Tribulation period. "I will bring her into the wilderness, and there I will speak comfortably to her."

And I will give her her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope ( Hsa Hosea 2:14-15 ):

Now the valley of Achor is that valley that comes from Jericho up through to Bethel. It was in the valley of Achor the trouble (the word Achor is "trouble") is where, when they had conquered the city of Jericho and the children of Israel were moving into the land where there was this little town of Ai, and some of Joshua's men said, "Hey, don't send the whole army. We'll go over and we'll wipe out Ai and we'll bring you all of the loot." And so they went over and the men of Ai came out against them and began to defeat them. They came running back to Joshua and Joshua fell on his face and began to pray and the Lord says, "Why are you crying unto Me? Why are you praying now? If everything was all right you would have had victory, but there's sin in the camp." And so the Lord revealed that Achan, one of the men of Israel, had taken some of the loot from Jericho, which was all to be given to the Lord. He said, "You know, the first belongs to Me. The rest, as you go into the land, you can divide among yourself, but the first belongs to Me." Firstfruits always unto God. Jericho, the firstfruit, as they conquer the land, all belongs to God.

Well, Achan saw this beautiful Babylonish garment and he hid it in his own tent and all. And so the Lord reveals the sin of Achan, and it was dealt with there in the valley of Achor, the valley of trouble. They called the place Achor after the trouble that Achan, he said, "For you have troubled Israel." And so this valley where Israel was troubled, of course, coming up out of the Jordan valley into the land again will be the door of hope to the people.

and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt ( Hsa Hosea 2:15 ).

As in, after the Great Tribulation period when the Lord returns and these people then come from the wilderness, they will make their way back up into Israel through this valley of Achor and there they will be singing as they did years ago in the times of Joshua as they were coming into the land that God had promised, with singing and rejoicing. So, therefore, they shall come and sing in the heights of Zion and this glorious day in the future.

And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi [that is, my husband]; and no longer Baali ( Hsa Hosea 2:16 ).

Now Baali is, of course, is lord but it is using that pagan term Baal. So you don't call him, "My Lord," but you'll be calling him, "My husband."

For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name. And in that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and I will make them to lie down safely ( Hsa Hosea 2:17-18 ).

That's equivalent to Isaiah's prophecy where they will beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks and all. And they will make a covenant with the animals. The animals will no longer be vicious. The lion will lie down, or the lion will eat grass with the ox and a little child shall lead them. The animal kingdom will again be at peace. In those days you women won't have to have that abhorrence of snakes or all anymore or worried spiders or things of this nature. God is going to bring peace over the whole earth. No more wars and people will lie down in peace and in safety.

And I will betroth thee unto me for ever ( Hsa Hosea 2:19 );

God is going to just restore forever.

yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies. And I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD ( Hsa Hosea 2:19-20 ).

This is a prophecy that is yet to be fulfilled. Still in the future when this glorious work of God is wrought upon the people of Israel and upon that nation.

And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel. And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God ( Hsa Hosea 2:21-23 ).

And so the restoration. And this of course, you remember, as Peter was speaking in the book of Acts, he said, "As the scripture in all places speaks of the restitution of all things" ( Acts 3:21 ). This is that restitution that Peter was speaking about. Not a universal restitution of all men, but the restitution of the nation of Israel to God and the restitution of this relationship where they say, "You are my God," and God says, "You are My people." And God betroths them again in faithfulness and in love and in mercy and all. This undying love that God has for these people. God's incurably in love with them. In this glorious time when they are restored, when they acknowledge God, He acknowledges them. "