Hosea 1:1

Superscription.

Consider here—

I. THE PROPHET . "Hoses, the son of Beeri." Hoses, whose name (Hoshea, "salvation'') remittals of Jesus ( Matthew 1:20 ), was:

1. A native of Israel . One, therefore, who lived in the midst of the evils which he describes, and felt a patriot's love for his people.

2. A man of gentle, pensive, and confiding nature . This made his anguish at the thought of the nation's sins and impending ruin the more poignant. There are striking resemblances between this prophet and Jeremiah, who sustained a relation to Judah similar to that which Hoses sustained to Israel.

3. A man sorely tried by domestic sorrow . Hoses was no mere spectator of the evils of the time. The iron had entered his own soul. He had been tried in the sorest way a man can be tried, by the unfaithfulness of his with. It was, however, in connection with this sorrow that God's word came to him (verse 2). It was his own experience which enabled him to enter so deeply into the mystery of God's love to Israel.

II. HIS TIMES . "In the days of Uzziah, Jotham," etc. He dates by the reigns of the legitimate kings of the house of David. Israel, after the fall of Jeroboam's house, was governed by usurpers (Menahem, Pekah, Hoshea, etc).

1. The chronology of the times . This has important bearings on the duration of the prophet's ministry, and on the time which elapsed before the downfall of the kingdom. We cannot here, however, enter at length into the tangled questions raised by the apparent conflict of Hebrew and Assyrian dates (cf. Robertson Smith, 'Prophet of Israel,' Leer. 4. and notes), It seems to us

2. The character of the times . They were evil exceedingly. The state was tottering to its downfall. Revolution succeeded revolution ( Hosea 7:7 ). The land was filled with idolatry and with every species of wickedness ( Hosea 4:1 , Hosea 4:19 ). Priests and prophets, instead of reproving sin, openly encouraged it ( Hosea 4:5-9 ). The result was a general dissolution of social ties ( Hosea 4:2 ). To internal miseries were added the horrors of foreign invasion ( Hosea 5:8-11 ). Yet in their distress the people sought not to God, but turned instead to Assyria and Egypt ( Hosea 5:13 ; Hosea 7:11 ; Hosea 8:9 ; Hosea 10:6 ; Hosea 12:1 ). The nation, in short, was reeling to its ruin, and remonstrance and warning had no longer any effect upon it. The blow fell in the capture of Samaria, followed by the captivity of the people ( Hosea 13:16 ).

III. HIS MISSION . "The word of the Lord that came unto Hoses." Hosea's task in Israel was:

1. To testify against Israel for its sins; to hold up to the people a mirror which should show them to themselves.

2. To show them the root of their transgressions in apostasy from God.

3. To show them how God felt to them in their backslidings—how strong, pure, consistent, and unchanging was his affection towards them.

4. To warn them of the inevitable destruction they were bringing on themselves by sin.

5. To blend promise with threatening, and declare how grace would triumph even over Israel's unfaithfulness. Though sharing in many of the calamities of the latter days of the nation, Hosea seems to have been removed before the final stroke fell. This was God's mercy to him; he was "taken away from the evil to come" ( Isaiah 57:1 ).

IV. HIS BOOK . Hosea's prophecy preserves to us the substance of his public teaching. The materials wrought up in it belong to different periods of his ministry. Hosea 1-3, belong to the, reign of Jeroboam ( Hosea 1:4 ). They show no traces of the anarchy which set in after that monarch's death. Hosea 4-6; belong to the succeeding period, the reign of Menahem, and earlier years of Pekah. Hosea 7:1-16 . and 8. may be a little later. They speak of a time of busy political intrigue, and of chastisement by the Assyrians. We are disposed to refer them to the middle of the reign of Pekah, when the Assyrians were frequently in Palestine. The key-note of Hosea 9:1-17 ; "Rejoice not," suggests a gleam of returning prosperity. This answers to Pekah's later days when at war with Ahaz ( 2 Chronicles 28:1-27 ), prior to the crushing of his power by Tigtath-pileser ( 1 Kings 15:29 ). Hosea 10:1-15 . plainly takes us unto the times of Hoshea, while Hosea 11-13; refer to the very last days of the kingdom. The abruptness, pathos, and quick emotional transitions which have been noted as characteristic of the prophet's style appear in these chapters in an exceptional degree. Hosea 14:1-9 . is the fitting conclusion to the whole. Calm succeeds to storm. The language is soft, gliding, peaceful, and laden with tenderness; the imagery is idyllic; glorious vistas open themselves into the future. Keil's division of the second part of the book into three sections, viz. Hosea 4-6:3; Ho 6:4-11:11; Hosea 12:1-14 .-14; each section rounded off by promise, is as good as any.—J.O.