A Nation on the Way Down
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THE BOOK OF HOSEA is not a cool, detached, sophisticated study of social and religious conditions in Israel. It is the sobbing of a broken heart. Hosea’s wife had deserted him for another, but still he loved her. Under such circumstances his heart was tortured beyond description. Out of this experience he grasped with rare insight the pain in the heart of God when his people forsake and forget him.
Hosea is not an easy book to study or interpret. Constantly, it leaps from one subject to another. There are very few extended passages dealing with a particular subject. Allusions are made to geographical locations, historical events, and local conditions without any explanation. It remains for us to endeavor to fill in the gaps and rightly relate these rather obscure references to the central theme of the message.
I have thought it best in preparing this guidebook to gather together the verses which seem to emphasize a certain truth and thus to pursue that particular truth as it is revealed in the entire book. To attempt to make an intensive study, chapter by chapter or verse by verse, would be exceedingly difficult because of the lack of orderly arrangement.
In some instances I have quoted entire verses. Sometimes only the reference is given. It will be necessary for the reader to have his Bible in hand at all times. Many verses are referred to frequently, since they shed light on more than one truth or deal with more than one problem.
The language of the book is plain and frank. There is no way to tone it down. To do so is to lose the force of its message. Bear in mind that it is God’s Word. Desperate circumstances call for strong measures.
Hosea’s message is needed in our day when sin is glossed over and soft words are substituted for hard facts. It has been a challenge and a personal blessing to look with Hosea deep into the heart of God and to marvel again at the greatness of God’s love, “in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
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About the Book
Examine some of the illustrations given in the Bible of departure from God’s original plan of monogamy and the resultant jealousy and confusion—Abraham (Gen. 16:4–6), Jacob (Gen. 29–32), and David (I Sam. 11–21).
Consider the meaning of the New Testament teaching concerning the church as the bride of Christ. What obligations does this relationship place upon the individual believer? Would a clearer understanding of the sacred relationship between God and his people strengthen marriage ties and deepen conviction concerning the permanence of marriage? Does this seem to you to suggest the thought that, in a Christian marriage, the relationship between man and wife is meant to be a demonstration to the world of the mutual love between Christ and his church?
Marriage is a divinely planned relationship. It is the first institution. Marriage is a pure relationship. Man and woman were made one for the other. Absolute loyalty sanctifies their relationship. Impurity comes only in the intrusion of a third party. Marriage is a personal relationship. It constitutes the most personal of all the relationships of life. It involves just two people who agree to become one in sharing every area of their lives. Marriage is a permanent relationship. Sin, and sin alone, breaks it and destroys its permanence. In God’s original purpose only death was to sever its ties.
About the Author
Loretta Andrews has always been a spiritually minded person. While growing up she would gather loads of children up when it was time to go to church. She was a pianist from the age of twelve until she was twenty years old. She is married to the same man for forty-nine years; they had two children, four granddaughters, and one great-grandson. She currently lives in Huntsville, Texas.