Hosea 3
If it was hard for Hosea to marry such a person as he had been told Gomer would prove to be (chapter 1), now that her character had come out in full display it cannot have been pleasant for him to go on with her again. She cannot now be owned as his wife, but Hosea is to love her as “a woman beloved of a friend, and an adulteress.” He bought her to himself for the price of a female slave (verse 2), and told her, “Thou shalt abide (literally “sit”) for me many clays; thou shalt not commit lewdness, and thou shalt not be to a man; so I also toward thee.”
This action on Hosea’s part toward his fernier wife was an illustration of the love of Jehovah for the children of Israel though they turned to other gods and loved, as it is said, flagons of wine (really cakes of grapes, or raisins offered to the “queen of heaven”—see Jeremiah 7:1818The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. (Jeremiah 7:18) and 44:19). Though estranged from His earthly people because of their sins, He yet cares for them; has not finally given them up.
Verse 4 in a remarkably brief summing up, describes the condition of the earthly people of God, following the rejection of their Messiah. For many centuries now the children of Israel have remained a nation without a king or prince, or any sort of government. Nor have they offered the sacrifices required under the law of Moses, the reason being that their genealogies are entirely lost, so that they do not know who among them are of the priestly family.
They are not idolaters any more— “without image” (or idol statue); “without teraphim” (domestic idols, used in some way for divination). They are “without ephod” too, a part of the priestly garb worn when inquiring or professing to inquire of God, or an idol; there is no priesthood, and God does not acknowledge Israel now as His people.
The description exactly fits the present state of the Jews, —a nation which continues to exist, century after century, in the face of the lurking jealousy, and at times sharp persecution, of the Gentiles among whom they seek to live; having no national home of their own, except in the limited measure in which Palestine has, particularly of late, appealed to them apart from faith in God. What a witness to the truth of the Bible is the Jewish people today!
Verse 5 promises a return; they shall seek Jehovah their God, and David their king, and shall turn with fear toward Jehovah and toward His goodness, at the end of the days. (See Romans 11).
It was not given to Hosea to tell of the preaching of the gospel of God’s grace to Jew and Gentile alike; we know that when Israel was set aside because of the cross of God’s beloved Son, a new work was begun, —the gathering out by the Holy Spirit of a people for heaven, who know God as their Father, and Israel’s Messiah as their exalted Lord and Saviour.
ML 10/04/1936