The Chosen Key Word in this Chapter is “Lovers” it comes from the Hebrew Word “ahav” which means “lovers.”
God describes Israel’s unfaithfulness while promising a beautiful, renewed covenant relationship. Welcome to Bible Life Basics Chapter Reviews, I am Chris and this is Hosea 2.
Hosea is instructed to plead with his mother, since she is not his wife, neither is he her husband, urging her to put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts, lest He strip her naked, and set her as in the day she was born, describing how she said, she will go after her “lovers,” “ahav” in Hebrew, who give her bread and water, wool and flax, oil and drink.
Hosea describes God’s response, that He will hedge up her way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths, so she shall follow after her lovers, but not overtake them, and she shall seek them, but not find them, then she shall say, she will go and return to her first husband, for then it was better with her than now, describing how she did not know that He gave her corn, wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.
Hosea delivers a beautiful, tender promise, “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her… and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth,” describing how in that day she shall call Him Ishi, meaning my husband, and shall no more call Him Baali, meaning my master, promising, “I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD,” closing with a promise that He will sow her to Him in the earth, and will have mercy upon her who had not obtained mercy, and will say to them who were not His people, “Thou art my people,” and they shall say, “Thou art my God.”
God’s tender promise, I will allure her and speak comfortably to her, using the wilderness as a place of renewed courtship rather than mere punishment, reveals genuine, patient love pursuing restoration rather than simply abandoning an unfaithful relationship. His beautiful renaming, from Baali meaning my master to Ishi meaning my husband, illustrates the intimate, affectionate nature of genuine covenant relationship God ultimately desires with His people.
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