Hosea and Reconciliation

While studying this I encountered SO much revelation. This book is linked to Jesus (and His willing sacrifice), who is linked to the entire Old Testament in and through more patterns than one could count.  I decided to share just a few of my favorite things…

Hosea’s name literally means “salvation” (Strong’s H1954)

The name Hosea comes from the Hebrew word “yasa” (H3468) which means: to save, deliver    [look this up in BLB app and read all the verses it’s used in- it’s used 206 times in the Old Testament and many times about God’s deliverance]

*Name breakdown in Chapter 1 gives us a beautiful picture of God’s love and sacrifice that leads us to reconciliation with Him.

Hosea= salvation

Beeri= “my well”( the well is used over and over again to represent what is good, needed and God’s provision, including Jesus and contains what we cannot live without both physically and spiritually)

Uzziah= “my strength is Jehovah”

Jotham= “Jehovah is perfect”

Ahaz= “he has grasped” (which is a noun, which makes it mean “the         possessor”)

Hezekiah= “Jehovah is my strength” (comes from the word hazaq (H2388) and means to become firm, stronger, to tie fast, to bind and this word is used a lot when Moses is opposing Pharaoh!)

Judah= “praised” (comes from the word yada (H3035) and means to shoot arrows, cast down, praise, confess the name of God)

Jeroboam= “the people will contend” “whose people are many” (quarrel, strive, shout)

Joash= “given by the Lord” (comes from the word aysh (H784) and means fire, burning, God’s anger)

Israel= “God prevails” (comes from the word sara (H8280) and means to place in a row, to set in order, to be leader, to fight)

Here we can see a story of sorts, of both what the book of Hosea holds and also the love letter from God to His people…maybe something like this:

Salvation, my well

My strength is Jehovah and Jehovah is perfect

I was grasped and held by the possessor, but Jehovah is my strength, I will praise Him and confess the name of God and He will take possession of the ones who contend with me and they will have what is given to them by the Lord: fire, burning and God’s anger.  God will lead, fight, set in order, He will prevail.

Jeremiah 15:21  “I will save you from the hands of the wicked and deliver you from the grasp of the cruel” (NIV)

*Hosea 3:1-2  The LORD tells Hosea to “Go again, love a woman (Gomer) who is beloved by her husband and yet is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love the raisin cakes [used in the feasts in pagan worship].  So I bought her for myself for 15 pieces of silver and a homer and a half of barley [the price of a common slave].”

1.    If the first time Hosea enters covenant with Gomer represents the covenant God made with Israel on Mt. Sinai, then this second would represent the new covenant.  Hosea redeems Gomer and God sends Jesus to redeem His people.

2.     Leviticus 20:19 says   “The man who commits adultery with another’s wife, even his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall most certainly be put to death.”

God sending Hosea to retrieve Gomer and be his wife again would have been nothing short of total humiliation. In a time when women were viewed by many as a commodity, it would have been unheard of for a man who was culturally above a woman to do what God told Hosea to do.  He told Hosea not only to take her back, but to go seek her out to take her back.  AND not to just take her back but to pay a price for her.  This to me is crazy because in a man’s eyes she would have been worth NOTHING.  In fact, according to the verse above, she deserved to be sentenced to death.  But in God’s eyes, she/her life was worth more than her debt that Hosea paid.

Can you imagine what Hosea’s friends, family, neighbors, household was thinking and most likely saying to him about her?  Why are you chasing her? She doesn’t want you.    But that’s what God did for His people… They betrayed and ignored Him and He still pursued His beloved…. And I’m so thankful!  

3.    The price that was paid monetarily was 15 pieces of silver and a homer and a half of barley… the price of a common slave   I’d like to point out that this verse looked up in Strong’s concordance, the “fifteen” here is the Hebrew word “hames”(H2569) and means 5 or a multiple of 5.  The number 5 in Hebrew is associated with the letter “hey” and is the number of grace, favor and redemption! 

Gomer/Israel	Hosea/God/Jesus
was sought out for covenant	sought out a beloved for covenant
unfaithful and rejected covenant	was faithful, yet betrayed
refuge with another	longed for his beloved
deserved death	did nothing wrong
was sought out again for covenant	went in pursuit of his beloved
accrued a debt she could not pay	endured humiliation and suffering
was redeemed by covenant keeper who paid the price of a slave	paid a debt for the price of a slave to redeem the debtor

4.    I couldn’t help but notice a pattern or sorts here.  I found myself thinking about the woman who was said to be caught in the act of adultery that was brought before Jesus in John 8.  This seems relative to what we are talking about.  Hang with me…

Let’s begin here:

A.   The more you study the Old Testament you realize that everything Jesus does is connected to it.  Even the story in John 8.

B.    Also, keeping in mind the Law had been taken and added to and twisted and at the same time, disregarded in other areas.  Sexual acts and adultery being one of those things.  During this time in the New Testament adultery is so common that it dealt with more often by divorce than Old Testament Law.  This is found in lots of other writings from the same time.  So, when we read John 8 we might view it through that lens to bet a better understanding.

C.    What did the law say about adultery?  Great question 

Leviticus 20:19 says   “The man who commits adultery with another’s wife, even his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall most certainly be put to death.”

Numbers 5 tells us all about the Adultery Test ….. sounds ominous, right?!  It is…. Here’s the gist of it:1. A husband can bring his wife before the priest in the temple if he suspects she’s cheated on him but he has no evidence or 2 witnesses. 

2. There’s some barley involved, but the crazy part is that the priest takes a cup and fills it with water from the sacred basin…aka Holy Water...aka, Living Water…

3. The priest then takes DUST from the floor in the temple (that’s Holy ground) and adds it to the cup of water.

4. Then the priest has the woman take an oath to God that God would be her judge and the guarantor of the oath.  It begins with God’s name and ends with Amen.  The priest would write this down on a scroll in ink and then wash the ink off into the water the woman was to drink. 

5. It was said that if she was guilty then she would have the curses in the oath happen to her and if not then she would be fine.

D.   Now let’s examine the story of the woman in John 8. 1. Leading up to this story we read that the Pharisees are angry that the guards haven’t arrested Jesus.  They say that the people who believe Jesus is the Messiah are delusional and it’s because they do not know the law.  Then Nicodemus asks in verse 51 of Chapter 7, “Does our Law convict someone without first giving him a hearing and finding out what he is accused of doing?”  (a clue about the next passage?)

2. This story takes place in the temple.

3. A woman is brought to Jesus by the scribes and Pharisees and they tell Jesus she “has been caught in the very act of adultery. Now the Law of Moses commanded us to stone such women to death.  So what do You say?”

4. Jesus began writing in the dust with His finger.

5. He told them “he who is without any sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”

6. Jesus went back to writing again in the dust

7. All the accusers left one by one from oldest to youngest. (this verbiage is the same as when Samuel anointed David- the brothers were judged oldest to youngest one by one and found not worthy!!)

8. Jesus stopped writing and asked her where they are and who condemn her and she said, no one and He said neither does He condemn her and to go and sin no more.

Taking all this information that’s been laid out, let’s begin to put all the pieces together.    

According to Lev.20, the Pharisees and scribes had no reason to bring the woman before Jesus.  If they were planning to stone her, they could have just done so.  In their quest to manipulate Jesus into speaking against the law, they actually put Him in a position to fulfill it. 

We find in Deut. 17:6-11  that the law says that “on the evidence of 2 or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death” and that those witnesses are the ones who should cast the first stones!  WHOA  It goes on to say that, “if any case is too difficult for you to judge….you shall come to a Levitical priests or to the judge who is in the office at the time…and they will declare the verdict. “

It goes on to say that they must act in accordance to the verdict given, or they will die!! 

So, we gather that by not invoking Lev.20 (which the never intended to do anyway) and by instead bringing the woman before Jesus to judge that their plan totally backfired in their faces.    None of them were willing to cast the first stone.  The Romans didn’t allow the Jews to carry out their own executions. John 18:31 tells us this.  They would have been in trouble with the Romans, and according to Deut. 17 they would have to be the ones to cast the first stones.  And once again, stoning for adultery wasn’t something that was common at that time because adultery was so rampant, besides the fact that the Romans didn’t allow them to do their own executions. 

But do you know what was still common at that time? 

The Adultery Test!

The woman never admits her guilt in the words we read.  So, the adultery test would have its place here. 

The men bringing her before Jesus and literally asking Him to judge her put her fate in His hands.  They didn’t know Jesus was a priest and a judge. Their plan backfired.

Let me show you how I see the adultery test played out here in John 8.

Elements of the Adultery Test (Numbers 5)	Elements of the Adultery Test(John 8)
Location: Temple	Location: Temple   AND Jesus is the temple (John 2:19-21)
Earthen Vessel	Jesus’s body is an Earthen Vessel (2 Corinthians 4:7)
Living Water	Jesus is the Living Water (John 7:37-38)
Dust from the temple floor (Holy Ground)	Dust from the temple floor(everywhere Jesus is, is Holy Ground) (Exodus 3:5)
Writing of the Oath	Jesus Writes