By Dan
& Brenda Cathcart
The video
version of this teaching is available at: https://youtu.be/s3LWC0nfReM
The
scripture reading is Hosea 1:10-2:20
God uses
two metaphors interchangeably in His message to Israel in this Haftarah. The
first is a marriage and family relationship. Woven through this metaphor is an
agricultural metaphor of planting and harvesting. God instructs Hosea to marry
Gomer, a woman of dubious character. The firstborn son of this union is Jezreel
because judgment will fall on Israel in the Valley of Jezreel, the site of
bloodshed caused by Kings Ahab and Jehu.
Hosea 1:3-4 NKJV 3 So he went and took Gomer
the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. 4 Then the LORD
said to him: "Call his name Jezreel, For in a little while I will avenge
the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, And bring an end to the kingdom
of the house of Israel.
However,
the name Jezreel, number 3157 in Strong’s Concordance, means God will sow. The
meaning of Jezreel’s name brings in the deeper metaphor of sowing and
harvesting. In both of these metaphors, Jezreel represents Israel. What is
God’s message to Israel through Hosea’s son Jezreel? What do these metaphors
tell us about redemption and God’s plans for His people? Finally, how does
Yeshua fulfill these plans?
Hosea
prophesied in the time of King Jereboam the Second of Israel. God told Hosea to
marry a woman who was a harlot. From his marriage, he had three children. The
oldest one as we said was named Jezreel. The next child was a daughter whom God
told Hosea to name Lo-Ruhamah meaning no mercy or compassion. The third child
was another son whom God told Hosea to name Lo-ammi meaning not my people. The
message was that God would sow judgment on the northern tribes of Israel,
particularly on the king Jereboam of the house of Jehu. He would not have
compassion on them. They were no longer His people, nor was He their God.
However, as
soon as these words of judgment were spoken, God promised that His judgment,
His turning away of compassion, and His rejection, would not be complete nor
would it last forever.
Hosea 1:10 NKJV 10 "Yet the number of the
children of Israel Shall be as the sand of the sea, Which cannot be measured or
numbered. And it shall come to pass In the place where it was said to them,
'You are not My people,' There it shall be said to them, 'You are sons of the
living God.'
This
promise begins by restating God’s promise to Abraham at the place where Abraham
brought Isaac to be sacrificed. The Angel of the LORD called out to Abraham
stopping his hand and promising that Isaac would indeed live and through him,
his descendants would be as many as the sand of the sea.
Genesis 22:16-17 NKJV 16 "By Myself I have
sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld
your son, your only son - 17 "blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I
will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which
is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their
enemies.
The promise
continues that this would happen “in the place” where God had earlier withdrawn
His compassion and rejected His people. The phrase “the place” is used over and
over again in the account of Abraham bringing Isaac to Mount Moriah to be
sacrificed as related in Genesis twenty two. We know that Mount Moriah is the
place that David would purchase to build the temple of the LORD. Yeshua’s
sacrifice was accomplished in view of this temple. More broadly, “the place”
refers to the place where God would place His name; that is wherever He
manifests His presence.
Exodus 20:24 NKJV 24 'An altar of earth you
shall make for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your
peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I record My
name I will come to you, and I will bless you.
The
children of Israel were to seek out that place and bring their offerings there.
Deuteronomy 12:5 NKJV 5 "But you shall
seek the place where the LORD your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put
His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go.
In the
presence of God, Israel was judged and set aside. In the presence of God,
Israel will be restored and taken again as His people. The children of Israel
are to seek for that place and go there to meet God.
When God
takes them again as His people, the split between Judah and Israel would be
healed and the two nations would be joined together as one.
Hosea 1:11 NKJV 11 Then the children of Judah
and the children of Israel Shall be gathered together, And appoint for
themselves one head; And they shall come up out of the land, For great will be
the day of Jezreel!
Judah and
Israel together will come out of the land where God had driven them and live
under the rule of one king. This verse ends with the words “For great will be
the day of Jezreel.” Remember, Jezreel means that God will sow or plant. We can
read this last phrase as “Great will be the day that God sows.” God promised
that this day would be a day that Israel would be planted in their land and
never again be uprooted.
Amos 9:14-15 NKJV 14 I will bring back the
captives of My people Israel; They shall build the waste cities and inhabit
them; They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them; They shall also make
gardens and eat fruit from them. 15 I will plant them in their land, And no
longer shall they be pulled up From the land I have given them," Says the
LORD your God.
The day
that God will plant them in their land once again will be a truly great day! On
that day God will show them mercy and take them as His people.
Hosea 2:1 Say to your brethren, 'My people,'
And to your sisters, 'Mercy is shown.'
However,
that day is not yet on us and Hosea was not yet finished describing both the
judgment on Israel and the conditions of its return. Jezreel is instructed to
bring charges against his mother, Hosea’s wife.
Hosea 2:2 NKJV 2 "Bring charges against
your mother, bring charges; For she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband! Let
her put away her harlotries from her sight, And her adulteries from between her
breasts;
Not all the
children of Jezreel’s mother would be the people of God. Hosea’s children
Jezreel and his brother now called Ammi, and his sister, now called “Rehumah,”
are Hosea’s children not born of harlotry. Hosea’s name, by the way, means deliverer
or savior! However, there seems to be other children born to Hosea’s wife Gomer.
Hosea 2:4-5 NKJV 4 "I will not have mercy
on her children, For they are the children of harlotry. 5 For their mother has
played the harlot; She who conceived them has behaved shamefully. For she said,
'I will go after my lovers, Who give me my bread and my water, My wool and my
linen, My oil and my drink.'
It takes
more than a physical relationship to be the “sons of the Living God.” Yeshua
refers to this spiritual relationship in His discussion with some of the
Pharisees at the temple at the place where God’s name dwelled. These Pharisees
sought to kill Yeshua because they rejected His words of freedom. They claimed
that because they were descendants of Abraham, they were free.
John 8:39-41 NKJV 39 They answered and said to Him,
"Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them, "If you were
Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. 40 "But now you
seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God.
Abraham did not do this. 41 "You do the deeds of your father." Then
they said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one
Father--God."
If they
were Abraham’s children by more than just the flesh, they would do as Abraham
did. They would have the faith of Abraham who believed God when He told him
that He would have a son of his own flesh to inherit the promises God had given
him.
Genesis 15:5-6 NKJV 5 Then He brought him
outside and said, "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are
able to number them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants
be." 6 And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for
righteousness.
Yeshua goes
on to explain that, though they deny it, these Pharisees are the children of
fornication or harlotry, and that their father is the accuser.
John 8:44 NKJV 44 "You are of your father
the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer
from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth
in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a
liar and the father of it.
Paul writes
of the rejection of Israel and the salvation of the remnant-those who are the
children of the promise through faith.
Romans 9:6-9 NKJV 6 But it is not that the word
of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, 7
nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, "In
Isaac your seed shall be called." 8 That is, those who are the children of
the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise
are counted as the seed. 9 For this is the word of promise: "At this time
I will come and Sarah shall have a son."
Hosea
pronounces judgment on his wife and lists the ways in which she has been
unfaithful and ungrateful. The words of judgment from Hosea are in reality
God’s words of judgment against Israel who went after other gods and attributed
the gifts God gave to Israel as coming from the other gods.
Hosea 2:12-13 NKJV 12 "And I will destroy
her vines and her fig trees, Of which she has said, 'These are my wages that my
lovers have given me.' So I will make them a forest, And the beasts of the
field shall eat them. 13 I will punish her For the days of the Baals to which
she burned incense. She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry, And went
after her lovers; But Me she forgot," says the LORD.
Even in her
fornication, God was not done with Israel; nor was Hosea done with Gomer. God
would instruct Hosea to take his wife back.
Hosea 3:1 NKJV 1 Then the LORD said to me,
"Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing
adultery, just like the love of the LORD for the children of Israel, who look
to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans."
God, also,
loves Israel. He says that He will speak words of comfort to her heart.
Hosea 2:14 NKJV 14 "Therefore, behold, I
will allure her, Will bring her into the wilderness, And speak comfort to her.
God would
take from her all remembrance of the other gods she went after, and take Israel
as His wife once more.
Hosea 2:19-20 NKJV 19 "I will betroth you
to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me In righteousness and justice, In
lovingkindness and mercy; 20 I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, And you
shall know the LORD.
The word
“betroth” in this passage is “aras,” number 781 in Strong’s Concordance meaning
to engage for matrimony. It seems strange that God would betroth Israel to Him
forever. In the context of this passage, Gomer was already married to Hosea,
and God is already married to Israel. In our culture, a betrothal or engagement
is just a promise to marry without any legal bindings to ensure the marriage
actually occurs. In the ancient cultures, a betrothal was just as binding as a
marriage. In the betrothal process, the actual legal documents about the terms
of the marriage are negotiated and signed. This includes how the groom will
take care of and provide for his wife and the price he will pay to obtain his
wife. The Complete Word Study Dictionary: Old Testament comments on the
word aras.
The betrothed was usually accompanied with
a bride price.[i]
Still, we
ask, how is a betrothal relevant to an already established marriage? First
Fruits of Zion in Torah Club Volume Three: The Haftarah explains:
In a sense, Israel was already God’s
possession. However, practically, He did not have their loyalty, their hearts,
their love and devotion. Here, God says that He will pay the price to gain what
was rightfully His.[ii]
At the time
that God pays for what is His, Israel will know the LORD. The word “know” is
“yada,” number 3045 in Strong’s Concordance, with a wide variety of meaning,
but in its use in the context of marriage, it means to have a sexual
relationship. This is a deep and intimate knowing of the other person-the
coming together in one flesh.
It will be
on that glorious day of rejoicing in the marriage of the bride and groom, that
even the heavens and the earth will respond.
Hosea 2:21-22 NKJV 21 "It shall come to
pass in that day That I will answer," says the LORD; "I will answer
the heavens, And they shall answer the earth. 22 The earth shall answer With
grain, With new wine, And with oil; They shall answer Jezreel.
The
response of the heavens and the earth is “Jezreel, God will sow!” The passage
concludes where it began in Hosea 1:10-11 with God sowing mercy on those who
had not received mercy and taking those who were not His people as His people.
Hosea 2:23 NKJV 23 Then I will sow her for
Myself in the earth, And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy;
Then I will say to those who were not My people, 'You are My people!' And they
shall say, 'You are my God!'"
Paul writes
about the wrath and mercy God poured out on Israel as that of God making known
His power and sovereignty. It is not only the children of Israel who will
receive that mercy and become His people. Paul applies this verse to all those
whom God calls paraphrasing the beginning and end of this passage from Hosea.
Romans 9:22-26 NKJV 22 What if God, wanting to
show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the
vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that He might make known the
riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand
for glory, 24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
25 As He says also in Hosea: "I will call them My people, who were not My
people, And her beloved, who was not beloved." 26 "And it shall come
to pass in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not My people,' There
they shall be called sons of the living God."
In the
place where God’s name dwells and He answers those who seek Him, Jews and
Gentiles alike will be called the sons of the Living God.
Galatians 3:26-29 NKJV 26 For you are all sons
of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as were baptized
into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is
neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one
in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and
heirs according to the promise.
The
spiritual promise is being fulfilled today and has been ongoing since Yeshua
died paying the betrothal price. Israel has been betrothed to God forever. Yet,
not all Israel has received the promise nor will all Israel receive the promise.
Paul’s heart was that all Israel would be saved, but he quotes Isaiah
explaining that only a remnant will be saved.
Romans 9:27-28 NKJV 27 Isaiah also cries out
concerning Israel: "Though the number of the children of Israel be as the
sand of the sea, The remnant will be saved. 28 For He will finish the work and
cut it short in righteousness, Because the LORD will make a short work upon the
earth."
Hosea goes
on to explain that Israel will be many days without king, prince, sacrifice,
temple, or priest. But afterward, they would seek God!
Hosea 3:4-5 NKJV 4 For the children of Israel
shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred
pillar, without ephod or teraphim. 5 Afterward the children of Israel shall
return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They shall fear the
LORD and His goodness in the latter days.
The
children of Israel are even now returning to God. They are seeking Him and
finding Him through Yeshua their Messiah. More and more of the Jewish people
are returning to the land acknowledging that God has visited His people! On
that day, God will gather together all of His people and bring them to the
land. Those of us who belong to God
through Yeshua our Messiah will be among those God returns to the land. There
we will be planted never to be uprooted. Great will be the day of Jezreel!
Study
Questions:
1. Discuss the connection of
this teaching to the Torah Portion Bamidbar, Numbers 1:1-4:20.
2. How is the place where God places
His name both physical and spiritual? What are some of the places God places
His name?
3. The Jezreel Valley is at the
foot of the hill of Megiddo (Armageddon). What are some of the ways God has
sown or planted in the Jezreel Valley? How does this connect with Revelation
16:12-16?
4. How does Romans 9:6-33
connect to this haftarah?
5. Yeshua had a lengthy
discussion with some Pharisees about what makes someone a true son to his
father in John 8:12-56. What additional insight does this teaching about the children
of Gomer shed on this discussion?
6. What new insight did you
gain from this teaching? How do you respond to this new insight? How will you
realign your life based on this new understanding?
© 2016 Moed
Ministries International. All Rights Reserved.
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