HOSEA 2:23

The Bible says in Hosea 2:23, “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.” This is a verse that looks towards the future. God has a plan, and therefore, He is always looking towards the future. Because of His great love, God’s plan always involves His mercy. That is why Jesus came into the world to die on the cross: so that God’s mercy could be offered to everyone, even the greatest of sinners. When God said, “I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy,” He was talking about Israel. God had a plan for Israel and He still does. In order for that plan to be fulfilled, Israel must come to experience the mercy of God through faith in Christ. For centuries Israel has been alienated from God, but never totally cast away. Yes, they were punished, but they were never fully or finally condemned. God uses this same method on individuals too. There are some people who wander far away from God for a very long time, but all the time God was at work; and finally the Lord gets through to them. When that happens, the ones who had not known mercy become experts on how good the mercy of God tastes.

The Bible says in Hosea 3:1-5, “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.[2] So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:[3] And 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.[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:[5] Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.” Once again we are told about Hosea’s wife who was a harlot, and how God used that fact to symbolize to the nation of Israel what they had become spiritually speaking. Yes, God lead Hosea to marry a harlot, but God did not want Hosea’s wife to remain a harlot, just as God did not want the children of Israel to continue in their sins. That is why Hosea said to his wife in verse 3, “thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee.” God will accept anyone, if they will turn from their sins and turn to Him.

God has a long-term plan for everyone in order to accomplish what He is trying to accomplish in their lives. As a matter of fact the most important thing going on in your life is what God is doing in it in order to bring you to Christ, and after that to make you more like Jesus. It says in Philippians 2:13, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” God has not given up on you. It might take a long time, but He has plenty of time. God knew that it was going to take a long time to get Israel into the relationship that He wants with them. As a matter of fact it still has not yet happened, and it will not happen until Jesus returns to destroy the antichrist. Concerning the fact that God’s dealing with Israel would take a long time to get them where He wants them, it says in Hosea 3:5, “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.” It will be such a long time that Israel will not seek the Lord until “the latter days.”

The Bible says in Hosea 4:1-6, “Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.[2] By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.[3] Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.[4] Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest.[5] Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother.[6] My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.” What we see in these verses are several truths: 1. What was wrong with Israel. 2. What the consequences would be for what was wrong with them. 3. A difference between law and grace.

The first thing mentioned about Israel is: “there is no truth.” That is a terrible indictment against a nation to whom the truth had been committed. Be careful of losing what God has given to you. One of the challenges of life will be to hold on to the spiritual truth that has been revealed to you. There will be temptations to depart from truth, and others will fall away because they set the wrong priorities in their lives. The Bible is the source of truth. Read it, think about it, apply it to your life every day, or you will be in danger of falling away just like the Israelites did. That certainly is happening in America. The second thing mentioned about Israel was that there was “no mercy.” A person who is rightly related to God owes everything to the Lord because of the mercy of Christ. We are all sinners. But human beings can also be very critical of others…too critical. Since we rely upon the mercy of God, we should also be merciful people to others. Jesus said in the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6:12 to pray, “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” And then after teaching us the Lord’ prayer, the one point that Jesus expanded on was this important need to be forgiving of others. Jesus explained in Matthew 6:14-15, “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men your trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

The third thing mentioned about Israel in Hosea 4:1 is that there was “no knowledge of God in the land.” We see the exact same thing happening today: this decrease in the knowledge of God. In the age in which we live, we come to know God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way that the knowledge of God will increase is if more people come to know Jesus as Savior. That definitely needs to be one of our constant prayer requests to the Lord: that more people would come to know Jesus as their personal Savior. If that does not happen, the knowledge of God will die away in our land too.

The nation of Israel had lost the good things: truth, mercy, and the knowledge of God. But they had acquired bad things to fill up the void. In Hosea 4:2 the fact is mentioned that the Israelites were breaking several of the ten commandments: “lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery.” There is always a direct correlation between going away from God and committing more sins on an individual basis and on a national level too. In addition to breaking these important commandments, it also says about the Israelites that they were “swearing.” As a matter of fact, swearing is the first thing mentioned about their sins. In a negative context “swearing” refers to cursing and taking God’s name in vain. In other words we are talking about sins of the tongue. One of the results of turning away from God will be an increased use of foul language and vulgar language. That is because only God can control such an unruly evil as the tongue.

After listing the four commandments that they had been violating, it says in Hosea 4:2, “they break out, and blood toucheth blood.” The phrase “they break out” refers in this context to committing violent acts. The phrase “blood toucheth blood” means that one violent and bloody crime scene touches the next one. There are so many acts of such violence that there is a continuous flow of them.

With such sin, and such violence, and such ungodliness going on in a country, of course there will be an impact even on the land and the animals. It says in Hosea 4:3, “Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.” Sin will always have its bad consequences. It will even harm the land and the animals. If you love the environment and want to take care of it, then repent of your sins and turn to Jesus and encourage others to do the same. Without such repentance even the land shall “mourn.” Selfish (sinful) human beings will not properly take care of the land or the animals that live on it.

Hosea 4:5 is another verse that reveals the terrible destruction that would result from a nation turning away from God. It says, “Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother.” The consequences of the sins will affect everyone. Just ask a parent who has a grown child who has gone astray and maybe is sitting in a prison cell some where, or in some other way has reaped what they have sown. When sin takes its full course and has brought its greatest result the best people of the land will also suffer, symbolized by mentioning “the prophet” and by mentioning “thy mother.”

It is interesting that Hosea 4:4 says, “Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another.” Since everyone is a sinner, who can condemn another? One of the ways to get on the right track with God is to stop looking at others and start looking at yourself honestly. That is exactly what Jesus was talking about when He said in Matthew 7:1-5, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.[2] For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.[3] And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?[4] Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?[5] Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.” Another characteristic of a sinful society is that people will be pointing fingers at each other instead of at themselves.

In Hosea 4:5-6 is an emphasis on the destruction that is pronounced against Israel. No one can sin and get away with it. But let’s remember one important thing when we look at this passage: we studying in the Old Testament and we are reading about people who were living under the covenant of the law. That is why it says in verse 6, “seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God.” There is a difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. It says about Jesus in Mark 14:24, “And he said unto them, This is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many.” Jesus is the great teacher. He was the first one to use the phrase “new testament,” and He taught us what it means. A testament is a covenant. The old covenant brought a curse for those who did not obey it and did not follow it perfectly. No one except for Jesus Himself followed the old covenant perfectly. That is why it says in Galatians 3:10, “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.” And then it says in Galatians 3:13, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree.” How fortunate we are to live in the age of grace and to be recipients of the promises of Christ.

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