Hosea 3 Commentary
The LORD orders Hosea to take his cheating wife back! And he pays for it! Calvary displayed in high definition!
It would cost the LORD something. Israel won’t come back without payment.
Gomer must be loved again even if she is in bed with her latest boyfriend! We are not saved when we show signs of life. We are not saved because we show signs of godliness. The LORD fetches us out of the mud when we are hopeless! This is the gospel that the world needs. Christ came for the lost and not the partially found!
What does the evangelist look for before he or she begins the sermon? Inclination? Interest? A slight tilt towards godliness? What qualifies a man to be on the list of those to be visited?
Then the prophet points to the time of the exile and post-exile; both exiles – the Assyrian exile and the Babylonian exile. It commenced a period of zero kings in Israel. There is more to this picture. The Book of Samuel gave us our first king. King Saul wasn’t the right kind and so David came in and the nation had the resemblance of progress. Yes, only a resemblance as the LORD told David he wasn’t the one to build the right environment for the LORD to dwell among his people. His son would do it.
The son in question was Solomon. Yes, Solomon build the temple but he confessed his building wasn’t good enough to house the Creator God. So he said:
“But will God really dwell on earth with humans? The heavens, even the highest heavens cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!”
This short chapter points to yet another David as Israel’s king. It is a direct reference to Immanuel or the Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9. Yes, the son born to us with the government on His shoulders. It is an everlasting reign of righteousness!
Hosea 3 combines the Messiah’s roles of the Servant and of the Ruler. He becomes the Servant when he must pay for His bride with the price of His own life. The process leading to Calvary is nothing but servanthood. But He is the promised David who sits on the throne eternally. A cleansed Gomer is no longer a prostitute. Dressed in white and all joy and smiles, she spends her eternity in the blessed presence of her loving Husband. That is the hope for the hopeless sinner. The future will be that for them that accept the free gift of salvation. Free for us but paid for by Christ’s life at Calvary.
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