How Do We Find the Gospel in Old Testament Book of Hosea?

“Go marry a promiscuous woman.” 

I doubt that is on your BINGO card for commands from a holy God. Yet, that is precisely what God called the prophet Hosea to do. It’s the thing that sticks out about the story of the prophet Hosea. He, like so many of the other prophets, was called to live out God’s message to His people. 

But what is that message? And how can we find the gospel in this strange call upon Hosea’s life? 

How Do You Find the Gospel in the Old Testament? 

I suppose before understanding how to find the gospel in the OT, it’d be helpful for us to define the gospel. The simplest definition is one given by JI Packer: God saves sinners. If you’d like to put a bit more meat on your gospel presentation, I use two different frameworks with four points each. The first is God—Man—Christ—Response. The second is more of a story: Creation—Fall—Redemption—Glory. 

The first presentation centers upon God’s character and how humanity fails to meet God’s holy standard, as such the judgment of God is upon us. But the good news is that Jesus Christ fixes this by fulfilling what is required through his life, death, and resurrection. Our only fitting response, then, is to respond to Him in repentance and faith. When this happens, we are united to Christ and his record becomes our record. 

The second presentation centers upon the overarching story of the Bible. God lovingly created us to love Him and enjoy Him forever. We were made for rest, rule, and relationship. But we made shipwreck of this, and so rather than having the blessings of obedience we are under the curse of disobedience. Rather than having peace (rest), purpose (ruling), and healthy relationship we often experience the opposite. Ultimately, we are alienated from God. But thankfully God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to bear our curse and to fulfill what God intended for humanity. As such we now experience the blessings of Jesus’ obedience in our place. He restores the rest, rule, and relationship we were created to enjoy. Someday everything will be ultimately restored, and we will live in a new heaven and a new earth. 

We could write entire books focusing on these various themes of the gospel. But every gospel story follows this basic skeleton. No matter where you find yourself in the Old Testament (or the New Testament) you can find one of these various threads. Every place in Scripture is either telling you something about God, something about our rebellion, something about His rescue, or something about our future restoration. If you can spot this, then you can fill out the rest of the story. 

How Do We Find the Gospel in Hosea?

“God, what’s it like to be you,” asks a curious Hosea, with little idea of what he is actually asking.

“You want to know what it’s like to be me? I’ll tell you. Go marry a woman who is going to be unfaithful to you. Marry a woman who will engage in harlotry. Do that, Hosea, and then you’ll understand.” 

That’s a fictious conversation, but it’s not entirely different than what actually happens in the book of Hosea. God calls Hosea to live out this parable. He is called to marry an unfaithful wife. His experience will model that of God with Israel. 

To understand what is going on in Israel during the time of Hosea, it is helpful to know a little geography. Israel was a tiny nation sandwiched between two super-powers, Assyria and Egypt. Jeroboam II was a crafty dude. He thought he’d make a treaty with both the Assyrians and the Egyptians and play them against one another. 

This was a genius strategy for a season. It led to one of the most prosperous seasons for the nation. But what they considered a brilliant strategy the LORD considered adultery. They were using the gifts which God had given them to pursue these other lovers. They were seeking protection and blessings from these foreign nations and foreign gods. 

But isn’t this the story of humanity? Hosea 13:6 says it well: 

“When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.”

Hosea is a story, though, about a God who refuses to give up on people. It’s a story about steadfast love, or chesed, a love that refuses to not love. God lovingly called Israel to himself, they rebelled, they went after other lovers, they came up empty. They had to bear the consequences of their rebellion and the kingdom collapsed on itself. Both Assyria and Egypt squashed them. 

But God still wanted them. He still pursued the broken Israelites. And this is the gospel message. We make a shipwreck of things and God lovingly pursues us. He rescues us simply because He has dedicated Himself to our rescue. Ultimately, he does this through Jesus. 

There are a few places in the New Testament where the writer makes a connection to the Old Testament and we are left scratching our heads. One of these is a quotation of Hosea in Matthew 2:15. When Jesus and his family flee Egypt, Matthew quotes Hosea 11:1, “When Israel was a child I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” But their situation has nothing to do with what is taking place in Hosea. What is happening here? 

Tom Schreiner explains wonderfully: 

“Matthew identified Jesus as the true Israel and as the fulfillment of the promises made to David. Hence, a text that refers to Israel may legitimately be applied to Jesus because he is the true Israel…Even though Israel deserved to be wiped out entirely, the Lord will have mercy on them. Assyria will capture them and deport them, but the nation will not be utterly extinguished as Admah and Zeboiim were. The Lord will preserve a remnant.” (Schreiner, 73-74)

Jesus is both the expression of God’s steadfast love for humanity, and He is what makes it possible for a holy God to forgive adulterous sinners. 

Where Do We Find the Gospel in Hosea 2? 

Hosea 2 is an absolutely shocking chapter of the Bible, and it is filled with such beauty. The first thirteen verses are filled with the Lord’s displeasure at his unfaithful bride. “Plead with your mother, plead, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband…” 

Hosea 2:5 is an apt picture of the human condition. We use the gifts that God has graciously given us, but we use them to pursue lesser loves. She calls them, “my bread, my water, my wool, my flax, my oil, and my drink.” And she uses them to allure her other lovers. Historically, this is what Israel was doing with Egypt and Assyria – they were using the blessings which God gave them to pollute themselves with foreign gods. 

It's as if a husband lavished gifts upon his wife. He gives the finest dress, sweet smelling perfume, expensive makeup, flowers, candies, jewelry. And rather than using these gifts to show affection and love to her own husband, she uses them to lure another man. That is the picture which God gives to us in Hosea 2. 

But that’s not the only picture. There is also a picture in Hosea 2 of wreckage. When God removes His hand of blessing from them — when he lets them pursue their other lovers — they end up unsatisfied. Hosea 2:13 ends with Israel alone, naked, with nothing left to offer anyone. It is where humanity finds ourselves in life outside of the Garden – when humanity chose other loves instead of a humble trust in God. 

The shock to the whole chapter, though, comes in Hosea 2:14. After 13 verses outlining her apostasy, the consequence of that apostasy, and her desperate position it says, “Therefore…” 

What do you expect at the “Therefore”? We expect judgment. We expect wrath. We expect rejection. We expect it to be the end of their story together. She has nothing left for anyone to desire. She has turned on her husband. She has been used and abused by these false lovers. Her life is a wreck. But look at what God says…

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.”

Are you kidding me? This is God putting on a suit, dabbing on cologne, getting his best tie, going to the barber and getting a haircut and a shave, buying some more flowers and pursuing His bride. He woos her. Astonishing. “Speak tenderly to her” are not words you would expect after everything we read in 2:1-13. But it is precisely what God does. 

In Hosea 3 we see that this romance requires rescue. God will need to rescue and redeem His bride from all of the awful decisions and covenants and relationships that she has made. But He will do it. He will buy her back. And this is what we see the Lord Jesus does with us. He pays the price for our sin. He works to fix all the wreckage that we’ve created. And he woos us. 

Unbelievable. 

But this is the God that we serve. 

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