How to Misunderstand the OT Book of Hosea

Religious and theological heresies come in all shapes and sizes. While driving, I recently listened to a pair of fairly well-known Arminian radio personalities* speak on the subject of “unconditional love and acceptance” using the OT book of Hosea for support. Such so-called love is a postmodern perversion which "tickles the ears" (2Tim.4:3) of today's mega-church attendees. According to the radio voices, the prophet Hosea displayed unconditonal tolerance and serves as a "grace" role model for Christian husbands. Put mildly, I was dumbstruck by their failure to understand either the historical significance or the spiritual message of the book of Hosea. Little do they realize how they’ve substituted their own humanistic and twisted view of so-called "love" for the Cross of Christ mention by Paul.

But God forbid that I should boast except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Galatians 6:14

In Hosea are two analogous stories—Hosea and his adulterous wife, Gomer; God and his adulterous nation,

Israel

. The two stories are intertwined in the narrative, so one must read carefully to understand whether the object of discussion is Gomer or God’s earthly people, Israel. However, the book’s emphasis is largely on the moral and spiritual degradation of Israel. This is the point God is seeking to impart to the prophet, as well as to us. God is neither uninformed or impotent in these matters. Both Gomer's and Israel's lack of response to God's love and nurture is meant to expose the inherent nature of sin--our congenital inheritance from mankind's first parents. So not to “miss the forest for the trees,” the book should be seen as a summary indictment of the evil and incorrigible character of all mankind (First Adam) as put on display in God’s chosen nation.

In Chapter One, God commands the prophet Hosea to enter into marriage with Gomer, a women given to whoredom. Under normal circumstances this would be morally forbidden. Verse two explains God’s motive, “…because the land [collectively the Jewish people] is guilty of the vilest spiritual adultery in departing from the Lord.” Yes, God is seeking to instruct by eliciting some ‘first-hand’ empathy from the prophet Hosea. I encourage you to find your Bible and read Hosea (it's short), in one sitting if possible.

Chapter One also highlights three children born to Gomer, each uniquely symbolic, possibly only the first actually being the product of Hosea’s seed. 1) a son Jezreel (meaning God scatters and symbolizing God’s judgment and punishment upon Israel), 2) a daughter Lo-Ruhamah (meaning love withdrawn as a result of being a child of adultery), and 3) another son Lo-Ammi (meaning disowned -- “… for you are not my people, and I am not your God”).

Verse one of Chapter Three reads:

The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”

Like Israel, Gomer has violated her covenant relationship with her husband. "But like men they transgressed the covenant; There they dealt treacherously with Me" Hosea 6:7. Hosea is instructed to temporarily overlook Gomer's transgression, but only judgment remains for the unrepentant.

While the book occasionally gives the reader a prophetic glimpse of a future repentance and redemption for that nation (e.g. Hosea 3:4,5), the overriding message is of God’s judgment, condemnation, punishment, and destruction, not some so-called “unconditional love and acceptance” for either individuals or humanity. The need to address the subject of sin may upset religious liberals and ersatz-evangelicals, but a message of unconditional love and acceptance is certainly neither genuine or "classic" Christianity.

Further, to suggest that Hosea displays a “Christian” marriage principle for either husbands or wives is a gross mishandling of the Word as well as an ethical abomination. No such thing is being taught here. Marriage is a covenant institution with definitive principles. God’s exclusive permission and command to Hosea to marry the whore/prostitute Gomer was for the purpose of illustrating how Jehovah had endured the wayward nation of Israel. And, for all His longsuffering and love, neither Gomer nor the Jewish nation would turn and repent. Lesson? Unconditional love and acceptance alone does not have the power to transform! What does?? God's sovereign power of salvation--Christ's new life available through an exclusive new birth.

The point of Hosea is that be it Gomer, be it Israel, or be it all mankind, all are alike, all are by nature incorrigible. Thus, God must and did bring an end to the First Adam and begin anew with a New Man, a Last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Head of a New Creation and a new birth. Christian, you are a New Creation.

How to Misunderstand the OT Book of Hosea

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