 Hosea 1 - 14 Questions and Answers |
| Q. When was the Book of Hosea written? | A. 710 B.C. |
| Q. Who were Hosea's contemporaries? |
A. Micah - 700 B.C. Isaiah - 740 B.C. Amos - 755 B.C. The writers of the Books of Chronicles - 1000 - 425 B.C. The writers of the Books of Kings - 950 - 550 B.C. |
| Q. Was Israel in the North still standing at the time of this writing? | A. Yes. |
| Q. Who was king of Israel at this time? | A. Hosea 1:1 = Jeroboam, son of Jehoash (i.e., Joash). |
| Q. Who was king of Judah at this time? | A. Hosea 1:1 = Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, respectively. |
| Q. What is typical prostitute behavior? | A. Hosea 1:2 = To have children from more than one man, even though she is married. |
| Q. Why did Hosea marry a prostitute? | A. Hosea 1:2 = Because God told him to, in order to illustrate clearly to Israel the way His people had been untrue to Him. |
| Q. How are people untrue to God? |
A. Hosea 1:2 = In worshiping other gods. Note 1: Any kind of behavior that occupies the majority of your time, keeping you away from God, is idolatry and uncommitment to God. Learn how to be in God's presence throughout the day. If parts of your daily routine exclude thoughts of God, then either stop that activity or bring it into God's presence, focusing and committing it to Him. You'll know if it's an activity you really shouldn't be doing, if this is hard to do. Note 2: Idolatry is such a blatant and rebellious sin. Yet God had to demonstrate it to His people so that they could begin to see idolatry as actual sin. As ridiculous as it is to have multiple fathers of one's children while married to one man, it is the very same atrocity to worship both God and idols. |
| Q. Did Israel totally forsake God? | A. No. They had fond memories of God; they strayed out of boredom. In peaceful times, people look for entertainment. So preplan what you will do at those times and avoid trouble! |
| Q. What is God's point here? | A. Hosea 1:2 = God is committed and true to His people no matter what we do to Him. |
| Q. Did God punish King Jesu for the murders he committed at Jezreel? | A. Hosea 1:4 = Yes. Vengeance was carried out against Jehu's dynasty in the Jezreel Valley. |
| Q. What else did God do in the Jezreel Valley? | A. Hosea 1:5 = God put an end to Israel's independence by breaking its military power. |
| Q. What signified this prophecy? | A. Hosea 1:3-4 = Hosea's wife, Gomer, had a son, whom God named Jezreel, to signify Jehu's doom. |
| Q. Did Gomer have other symbolic children? | A. Hosea 1:6 = Yes. She had a daughter, whom God named Lo-ruhamah. |
| Q. What does Lo-ruhamah mean? | A. Hosea 1:6 = "Not loved." |
| Q. What did this signify? | A. Hosea 1:6 = God would no longer show love to Israel in the North, orgive them. |
| Q. What about Judah? | A. Hosea 1:7 = God would still show love to Judah. |
| Q. How? | A. Hosea 1:7 = God would personally free them from their enemies without any help from weapons or armies. |
| Q. Did Gomer have a third symbolic child? | A. Hosea 1:8-9 = Yes. A son, whom God named Lo-ammi. |
| Q. What does Lo-ammi mean? | A. Hosea 1:10 = "Not my people." |
| Q. What does this signify? | A. Hosea 1:9 = Israel in the north was no longer God's people. |
| Q. Was that a permanent thing? | A. Hosea 1:10 = No. One day, they would be restored. |
| Q. And what is the fate of Gomer's three children? | A. Hosea 1:11 = Their sad names will come to mean the opposite -- The day of Jezreel will be monumental; instead of Lo-ammi, it will be Ammi -- which means 'My people." Instead of Lo-ruhamah, Ruhamah -- 'The ones I love.' |
| Q. What is this time between Israel's abandonment of God and her restoration? | A. Hosea 2:1 = The time of calling Israel to account for her sins. Verse 16 = of calling God Master instead of Husband. |
| Q. What does this mean? |
A. Hosea 2:2 = 1) God not acting like her loving husband and Israel not behaving as His wife 2) A plea to choose to stop worshiping idols. |
| Q. If she doesn't stop worshiping idols? |
A. Hosea 2:3 = 1) God will take everything He gave her and abandon her 2) God will abandon future generations. |
| Q. Why would God abandon Israel's children? | A. Hosea 2:4 = Because they were conceived in adultery. |
| Q. Is it shameful to conceive as a prostitute? | A. Hosea 2:5 = Yes. |
| Q. Is prostitution just another career, in God's view? |
A. Hosea 2:5 = No. It is shameful. Note: Prostitution is a desperate career choice. No woman enjoys it. I wish men would see it for what it is. |
| Q. Where do the necessities that prostitution provides monetarily for come from? | A. Hosea 2:8 = God. |
| Q. Where do the gold and silver men use to worship idols come from? | A. Hosea 2:8 = God. |
| Q. So what is man's problem? | A. Hosea 2:8 = Man doesn't realize God provides all that is good because of His loving care as a Father to us. |
| Q. If we don't give God the credit for providing for us, what might He do about it? | A. Hosea 2:12 = God may let life get out of control to get our attention. |
| Q. Why do people return to God? | A. Hosea 2:7-8 = Life without God gets scary and they remember how much better it was before. |
| Q. But what is missing that makes people stray over and over again? | A. Hosea 2:8 = God provided before, during and after. He is the provider. [One doesn't make a choice to receive fromGod. One just does. If he didn't, he'd die.] |
| Q. How do people return to God? | A. Hosea 2:14 = God leads them out of the desert; talking tenderly to them in the desert, so they will follow. |
| Q. Why are Jewish folks so blind to God now? |
A. Hosea 2:16 = They don't see God as Husband yet. They are in an era of knowing God as Master. Note: Israel as wife is still to come. This coming union is similar to that of marriage. A godly marriage -- Husband is head, loving and providing and leading. Wife is co-leader -- under husband -- in a very good place; protected, loved and provide for. Israel, the wife, knows her Husband would die for her. She knows how hard He works because He loves His family. Won't it be great when Israel finally knows her God as Husband? |
| Q. Will we remember our past sins? | A. Hosea 2:17 = We won't care to because (among other things) we'll be too overwhelmed with the phenomenal, new behavior of animals under a new covenant with God -- one that spells peace for the first time since Eden between animal and man. |
| Q. What will help people to forget their idols? |
A. Hosea 2:18 = World peace. Note: People ranto their idols for deliverance from enemies. But God will remove all weapons. Peace and safety will be made by God Himself. |
| Q. Will Israel one day see God for who He is? | A. Hosea 2:19-20 = Yes. |
| Q. What things does God look forward to showing Israel? |
A. Hosea 2:19-20 = 1) Righteousness 2) Justice 3) Unfailing love 4) Compassion 5) His faithfulness to Israel 6) What it means to be God's bride 7) Their seeing their place as God's bride as absolutely right and true. Note: If people are preoccupied with God, they forget to sin. When people are preoccupied with sin, they forget the goodness of living in God's presence, along with all it comes with, i.e., righteousness, justice, unfailing love, compassion, God's faithfulness to us, what it means to be God's child, and remembering that this life is absoutely right and true. |
| Q. How is God toward those who love their idols more than Him? |
A. Hosea 3:1 = God will bring them back to Him, even while loving their idols more than Him. Note: What loyalty God has towards His own! |
| Q. How does God bring people back to Him? |
A. Hosea 3:2 = God buys them -- redeems them. Note: There is enough purchasing power in the sacrificial Lamb of God, Jesus Himself, to purchase every life; past, present and future. |
| Q. What prophecy has come about regarding Israel's state? | A. Hosea 3:4 = 1) They have had no king or prince, sacrifices, Temple, priests or idols, since Jesus and won't have these things until Jesus comes again. |
| Q. Who is Israel's king? | A. Hosea 3:5 = David's descendant (Jesus). |
| Q. How will the Israelites react when they get their king and Lord back? | A. Hosea 3:5 = With trembling, in awe of the Lord. |
| Q. Why does land stop producing? | A. Hosea 4:2-3 = Land stops producing when it is sad. |
| Q. Why? | A. Hosea 4:2-3 = People continually sin. |
| Q. Who starts a people sinning? | A. Hosea 4:4 = Leaders or spiritual leaders. |
| Q. What do bad shepherds do? |
A. Hosea 4:4 = 1) They blame the people for famine, while it is their own fault 2) They don't teach people who God is |
| Q. How can this happen? |
A. Hosea 4:6 = The priests refuse to know God, so they can't teach people about Him either. |
| Q. If we neglect God and know better, what will God do? | A. Hosea 4:6 = God will neglect your children. |
| Q. What does an idol take the place of? | A. Hosea 4:7 = The glory of God. |
| Q. How does our thinking become corrupt? | A. Hosea 4:6 = When we stop reading God's Word and begin thinking apart from Him. |
| Q. How does this behavior manifest? |
A. Hosea 4:7 = 1) We make idols to substitute for spiritual truth 2) Priests get enthusiastic for people's personal guilt money, which they use to try redeeming themselves, forgetting that their repentance will free them of guilt. 3) When the priest gets wicked, the people follow. |
| Q. What punishments come down on folks who turn their backs on God? |
A. Hosea 4:10 = 1) Insatiable hunger 2) Barrenness, though they sleep around enough to have children. |
| Q. What is the real damage from alcohol and prostitution? | A. Hosea 4:11 = Alcohol and prostitution rob people of their brains. |
| Q. What is the damage caused by idol worship? | A. Hosea 4:12 = Longing after them, pursuing them eagerly turns people into fools. |
| Q. How? | A. Hosea 4:11 = They convince themselves of a lie -- that a piece of wood can save them. |
| Q. Why do people pursue vain things? | A. Hosea 4:14 = They refuse to understand that what they do outside of God's will is just plain old sin. |
| Q. Was Hosea's message only for the northern kingdom of Israel? | A. Hosea 4:15 = No. It is applied to Judah too (cf 6:11). |
| Q. What is behind man's tendency to sin? |
A. Hosea 4:18 = Their love for shame is greater than their love for honor. Note: People are selfish. The universal practice of psychology would have us believe that we can be cured of our psychoses by taking care of ourselves better through self-analysis. Actually, we are lousy at taking care of ourselves! Remember, we are sheep, in need of a Shepherd. The cure to all psychoses is rather looking up, fixing our eyes on Jesus, and humbly asking God to fix us. We repent of our sin every day, acknowledge our foolishness and our sinful love of selfishness, and God answers us. Our balance is restored in getting out of ourselves, loving God and neighbor, feeding the poor and being a servant through and through. Drowning sin in goodness is the cure. |
| Q. Is this an honorable exchange? | A. Yes! |
| Q. What other sins did priests commit? | A. Hosea 6:9 = Gangs of priests murdered travelers along the road to Schechem and practiced every kind of sin. |
| Q. Why did God not intervene when Israel's kngs were being murdered? |
A. Hosea 7:7 = No one cried to God for help. Note: One asks how a good God could let evil things happen. This is it, folks. You have to ask God for help. |
| Q. Why should we be careful who we mingle with? | A. Hosea 7:8 = We pick up evil ways. |
| Q. What is the natural consequence of idol worship? | A. Hosea 7:9 = It saps our strength. |
| Q. Wouldn't a person notice that occurring? | A. Hosea 7:9 = No. |
| Q. What are godless old people like? |
A. Hosea 7:9-10 = 1) The don't realize they are old 2) They are arrogant and it is obvious to all 3) They don't repent 4) They don't seek after God. |
| Q. What else does the dove represent, besides the Holy Spirit? | A. Hosea Hosea 7:11 = Silly, witless people, who worship everything in sight but God. |
| Q. Why does God withhold help sometimes? | A. Hosea 7:14 = People ask for help with dishonest hearts. They want God's help, but not His Person. |
| Q. Does God give people every advantage? |
A. Hosea 7:15 = Yes. God trains, makes people strong, then people choose wrong. Note: If God didn't succeed in creating loyal people, what makes you think you can totally influence your own children? They must be free to choose God -- or not. You have about 16 years to train your kids. After that, they will be "God-conscious" and on their own spiritual path. We all have to face the decision to walk further with God. |
| Q. What destroyed Israel? |
A. Hosea 7:16 = Their insolence toward God. Note: Not asking God for help is insolence. |
| Q. What is the consequence of living a life of nothingness toward God? |
A. Hosea 8:7 = If you plant the wind (nothing), you'll reap a whirlwind (a whole lot of nothing). Note: It is disaster to live your whole life out without acknowledging God. It is like having seeds and not planting them. In the end, you starve. |
| Q. Why do people reject God's Word? | A. Hosea 8:12 = They act as if God's commandments don't apply to them. |
| Q. How does this happen? |
A. Hosea 8:13 = They replace truth with a form of truth, wrapped in a lie. Israel loved rituals of sacrifice to God, apart from obedience to God. Note: Don't live out your life giving God a pittance of your time. Wrap everything you do in a relationship with God, obeying Him, loving Him and neighbor as yourself, and serving Him in every activity you do. Combine your spiritual awareness with your physical awareness and really begin to live! |
| Q. When Israel went into captivity, what changed? | A. Hosea 9:4-5 = There was no way to offer sacrifices to God because all the food was unclean. Even in repentance, they couldn't go back to God completely. |
| Q. What is the state of mind of a nation headed for judgment? |
A. Hosea 9:7 = 1) Those claling the nation to repent are scorned as madmen 2) The people taunt godly folks 3) The nation is burdened with much sin 4) People show only hatred for those who lvoe God 5) Prophets are in danger, even at church 6) The people are depraved. |
| Q. How did God liken His people the first time He saw them? | A. Hosea 9:10 = Fresh grapes in the desert. |
| Q. Where did Israel go wrong? | A. Hosea 9:10 = They deserted God. |
| Q. How? | A. Hosea 9:10 = They found other gods. |
| Q. Can't you just share gods? | A. Hosea 9:10 = No. |
| Q. Why not? |
A. Hosea 9:10 = There is only one real God. Note: We were created because God didn't want to be alone. God is not too good to be true! |
| Q. Is idol worship harmless to people? | A. Hosea 9:10 = No. Idol worship puts people to shame and makes them vile. |
| Q. Do evil people get rich? | A. Hosea 10:1 = Yes. The money they make is used to pour freely into their idolatry. |
| Q. What else do evil rich folks do with their wealth? | A. Hosea 10:1 = The build a bigger, more luxurious idol. |
| Q. How does justice begin to warp? | A. Hosea 10:3 = Truth is mixed with lies. |
| Q. Explain? | A. Hosea 10:3 = When punished, people declare the truth that they have sinned against God and add a lie to that confession (what could a king do for us anyway?). |
| Q. How else does justice begin to warp? |
A. Hosea 10:4 = People begin to speak empty words 2) People make empty promises (take promises lightly). Note: Today, marriage vows are broken with no thought to the promise it carried. |
| Q. Does this problem affect us negatively? | A. Hosea 10:4 = Yes. Sin grows. Others follow. |
| Q. Is this why we should take civil evils seriously? | A. Hosea 10:4 = Yes. |
| Q. Will people see their folly in idol worship? | A. Hosea 10:5 = No, but they'll mourn, tremble and wail at the destruction it causes. |
| Q. Why? |
A. Hosea 10:5 = They bestow on their idols undue glory. Note: What brainwashing we are capable of! We do it to ourselves! |
| Q. What brings a nation low? | A. Hosea 10:13 = Sowing into its culture a crop of sins and watering it to maturity. |
| Q. What sins? | A. Hosea 10:13 = Trusting in military might, instead of God's might to protect you. |
| Q. Do we have to act out our anger? | A. Hosea 11:9 = No. God chose not to act out His anger, so we live. |
| Q. Does God feel deeply? |
A. Hosea 11:8 = Yes. His heart gets torn within Him and His compassion overflows. His anger burns towards sinners, but His choice is to act like God and not man -- and wait for us to return to Him. Note: God is so awesome! Doesn't this verse help you to be patient with your kids and help you to see your emotions under control? |
| Q. What keeps God from giving up on us? |
A. Hosea 11:9-10 = 1) God knows He is not a killer 2) He wants to live among us 3) He has hope because He knows that in the future, people will return to Him. Note: We don't see future events, but God does -- therefore, we can believe in what He reveals about the future. God doesn't live by faith; He's already been in the future and knows how it all comes out. He has reason to be confident about us! |
| Q. Is Israel's behavior inevitable? | A. Hosea 12:2-4 = Yes. |
| Q. Why? | A. Hosea 12:2-4 = Jacob is their father -- they are just like him -- fighting with brother; fighting with God. |
| Q. Is this behavior the opposite of God's ways? | A. Hosea 12:6 = Yes. Loving God and brother is God's way. |
| Q. Why is there injustice? | A. Hosea 12:3 = Jacob stole his brother's birthright. |
| Q. What is the right way to live? |
A. Hosea 12:6 = 1) God to God 2) Act on the principles of love and justice 3) Always live in confident dependence on God. Note: These words may not look like a mouthful, but whole books could be written on the tapestry of HOW to do this living thing, confidently dependent on God! Here's a hint: Keep your eyes up! |
| Q. What ultimate consequence did Israel suffer from asking for a human king from the very start? | A. Hosea 13:10 = Their kings couldn't save them from the coming captivity. |
| Q. Did God give Israel kings, even though He knew this would happen? |
A. Hosea 13:11 = Yes. Note 1: Because they wanted a king that badly! Note 2: God will give us things we ask, though they may be bad for us -- just because we ask Him to death! Then He saves us from the consequences because He loves us. |
| Q. What does sin do to us? | A. Hosea 14:1 = Sin brings us down. |
| Q. Who ultimately takes care of orphans? | A. Hosea 14:3 = God does. |
| Q. What do orphans need? |
A. Hosea 14:3 = Mercy. Note: When taking care of poor folks, one must apply mercy! Mercy is an attribute of God, not a fruit of the Spirit. God applied mercy throughout history: Especially at the Cross, which was the ultimate act of mercy. Mercy is applied by an act of the will. We all need to practice mercy! |
| Q. How does God save? | A. Hosea 14:4 = God heals us. |
| Q. From what? | A. Hosea 14:4 = We actually need healing from idolatry and faithlessness. |
| Q. Why? | A. Hosea 14:4 = So God's love can wash over us in unimaginable ways. |
| Q. What will happen to God's anger at that time of healing? | A. Hosea 14:4 = God's anger will be gone forever. |
| Q. Is God happy with our occasional attention? | A. Hosea 14:8 = No. |
| Q. What does God do when we ignore Him? | A. Hosea 14:8 = God never stops looking after us, continuing to provide. |
| Q. Are we capable of understanding how much God loves us? |
A. Hosea 14:9 = Only if we live by walking only on the paths of the Lord. Note: This means that if we have a good grasp of God's Word, we will be wise and discerning -- knowing how much God cares for us. |
| Q. If I don't take the time to learn God's Word, what happens? |
A. Hosea 14:9 = I'll sin, stumble and fall along the way. Note: A partial knowledge of the Scriptures is not enough to grasp the big picture of what God has planned for us. Daily reading keeps us attuned to God's ways and keeps us from accepting erroneous teachings and the confusion that comes with it. The devil is always looking for opportunities to make us stumble. Get strong in the Lord! Remember all that God wants for us; all His promises are real. Anything concerning our lives, futures, and destinies are only good in the end. Anything else you hear is a lie. Wouldn't you rather believe God? |