Bible Study Notes 8/12/2025

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Jehoahaz (read about Jehoahaz in 2 Kgs 13:1-9 and 13:22)
 
Jehoahaz also “did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat which he made Israel to sin” (2 Kgs 13:2).
God is angry with him and sends the Arameans to wage war against Israel.
- Jehoahaz seeks God’s favor, and God in his compassion delivers his people from the Arameans (Syrians).
Regardless, the people continue to worship the golden calves!
Jehoahaz dies and his son, Jehoash becomes king.
 
Jehoash (also called Joash)
(read about Jehoash in 2 Kgs 13:10-25, 14:8-16; 2 Chr 25:17-24)
 
Jehoash continues in the sins of Jeroboam, doing evil in God’s sight (2 Kgs 13:10-25; 14:8-16; 2 Chr 25:17-24).
Jehoash fights against Amaziah, king of Judah, and defeats him because Amaziah has worshiped the gods of Edom (2 Chr 25:14-28).
- Jehoash enters Jerusalem, tears down some of the city wall, takes plunder from the temple, and takes it to Samaria (2 Chr 25:17-25).
During this time, Jehoash visits Elisha, who is mortally ill.
- Before Elisha dies, he tells Johoash that God will give him victory over the Arameans (2 Kgs 13:14-19).
After the death of Elisha, the Arameans oppress Israel, but “the LORD was gracious to them and had compassion on them, and he turned toward them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, nor has he cast them from his presence until now” (2 Kgs 13:23; cf. 2 Kgs 14:27).
 
Even though God’s people continue to worship idols, God is gracious to them because of the covenant he had made with the patriarchs twelve hundred years earlier – God keeps his promises regardless of Israel’s repeated failure!
- Even though Jehoash continues in the sins of Jeroboam, he gains control over a number of cities because God is gracious.
- After he dies, his son Jeroboam II, who has been reigning as co-regent (793-782 BC), becomes sole king.
 
Jeroboam II (793-753 BC) – Co-regency with Jehoash (793-782 BC)
(read about Jeroboam II in 2 Kgs 14:16 and 14:23-29)
 
While minimal information is given about Jeroboam II (2 Kgs 14:16, 23-29), we are told that he does evil in the sight of God by continuing in the sins of the first Jeroboam (2 Kgs 14:24).
Jeroboam’s idolatry sets the scene for the entire history of the northern kingdom, yet God continues to be gracious to his people during the reign of Jeroboam II.
God sees the affliction caused by their enemies and the borders of Israel are temporarily restored at this time (2 Kgs 14:25-26).
- God’s people are saved from their enemies through the hand of Jeroboam II, for we are told that “the LORD had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven” (2 Kgs 14:27).
- Jeroboam II is an important northern king, primarily because there are three northern prophets (Hosea, Amos, and Jonah) prophesy during his single reign.
The very existence of prophets displays the mercy of God, for God seeks to restore an individual or nation through them.
- Failure to listen to the words of the prophets is tantamount to not listening to the LORD who sent them.
- Their ministry also builds on the expectation of a coming prophet “like Moses,” whose words will be decisive for the people of God (Deut 18:15-18).
 
The Prophet Hosea
 
Hosea is an 8th C BC northern prophet during the days of “Uzzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel” (Hos 1:1).
Hosea exposes Israel’s sin of worshiping other gods, which he describes as “harlotry” or “whoredom” – the major theme in the book of Hosea.
Why?
Bear in mind that God’s covenant relationship with Israel established at Mount Sinai is likened to a marriage (which is also a covenant, Mal 2:14).
Also, the prophet Jeremiah later refers to God’s covenant with Israel, noting that they broke his covenant “though I was their husband” (Jer 31:32; Ezek 16:8).
- Since the covenant relationship God establishes at Sinai requires fidelity to the covenant partner (as marriage does), Israel’s breach of this relationship is described as “harlotry,” “whoredom,” “unfaithfulness,” and “prostitution.”
This language indicates that God’s people have forsaken the covenant with their God and are serving other “lovers,” that is, foreign gods.
            - Israelites were to worship the one true God, and him alone (Deut 6:5; Hos 13:4).
- God repeatedly warns Israel through the prophet Hosea that he will judge his people for their whoredom (spiritual adultery) if they do not return to him (see Hosea 1:2; 2:1-13; 3:1-4; 4:11-19; 5:3-4; 6:10; 8:5-6; 9:1; 11:1-2; 13:1-2; 14).
God often instructs prophets to act in symbolic ways, many of which involve public actions, which invoke ridicule and scorn.
Example: - Isaiah walks around publicly naked as a sign of impending judgment (Isa. 20:2-4).
- Jeremiah wears a yoke around his neck to show that God’s people must submit to his judgment by the Babylonians (Jer. 28).
- Ezekiel is tied up and made to lay down on the ground in public for over a year, baking his bread in the sight of the people over human dung (Ex 4).
During this period in the northern kingdom, the prophet Hosea is called to marry a harlot named Gomer to symbolize the spiritual condition of the nation.
            - Very few things are more destructive to a marriage as unfaithfulness.
            - God has designed marriage to reflect his own relationship with his people (Eph 5:32; Rev 22:17).
- Yet, Hosea is called to marry an unfaithful woman, for his marriage represents God’s covenant relationship with unfaithful Israel.
God tells Hosea to marry Gomer, who is described as a “wife of whoredom.” He is to “have children of whoredom for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD” (Hos 1:2).
- Gomer is like every Israelite, whose affections are turned away.
The language of harlotry is used some years later by Jeremiah and Ezekiel when they describe Israel and Judah as two unfaithful and “whoring” sisters (Jer 3:1-14; Ezek 16:1-59; 23:1-47).
Obedience to the stipulations of the covenant will lead to God’s blessing upon his people (Lev 26:1-14; Deut 28:1-14), but failure to obey God’s law will lead to the curses coming upon Israel (Lev 26:14-39; Deut 27:1-26; 28:15-68).
- Consequently, disastrous consequences are coming upon Israel because of her unfaithfulness to God, demonstrated in their turning to foreign “lovers” (gods).
- Hosea announces to Israel that because they have transgressed God’s covenant and rebelled against his laws, God’s judgment will be forthcoming, in accordance with the stipulations of the covenant.
- Hosea laments that there is “no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land” (Hos 4:1), so he calls Israel back to obedience to God’s law.
- Hosea urges the people to listen to the word of the LORD, as not only are the Israelites whoring after other gods but there is “swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed” (Hos 4:2-3).
- God’s people are warned that they are in life-threatening violation of his law.
 
Hosea’s Three Children: Jezreel, No Mercy, and Not My People
 
Hosea and Gomer have three children.
Their names communicate words of Judgment to Israel: Jezreel; No Mercy; Not My People
Jezreel (Hos 1:4-5) is a name associated with a number of bloody events:
            - Naboth was murdered at Jezreel (1 Kgs 21:1-23)
            - Jezebel was murdered by King Jehu at Jezreel, and the dogs licked up her blood there (2 Kgs 9:30-37)
            - Jeroboam’s body had been tossed to the ground at Jezreel (2 Kgs 9:24-25)
            - The heads of Ahab’s 70 sons were brought to Jezreel (2 Kgs 10:1-11)
Now we learn that Hosea’s first son is called Jezreel!
God tells Hosea that he will judge the household of Jehu for the blood that was shed, and that He will bring an end to the kingdom of Israel “in the valley of Jezreel.”
            - Jehu’s household will, indeed, come to an end with the murder of Zechariah a few years later.
A second child is born, a daughter who is named “No Mercy” (Hos 1:6-7).
            - God announces at the birth of “No Mercy” that he will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel.
- The northern kingdom has been serving idols for almost 200 years, but God has been compassionate and slow to anger.
            - Now, he announces that he will no longer have compassion on his people – judgment is surely coming.
A third child is born, a son who is named “Not My People” (Hos 1:8-9).
- God declares that Israel is “Not My People” because of the violation of the covenant bond that has occurred due to Israel’s worship of foreign gods.
 
Hope of Restoration After Judgment
Amidst this context of Judgment, Hosea amazingly announces a word of hope that hearkens back to the Abrahamic promises: despite Israel’s sin, one day “the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered, and in the place where it is said, ‘Not My People,’ it will be said of them, ‘children of the living God’” (Hos 1:10; cf. Gen 22:17).
- Even though God’s wrath will be unleashed, there is hope for the restoration of God’s people (Hos 2:14-23).
- God’s plan of redemption through history will not end with judgment, but mercy will triumph! As God will indeed provide a way for the sin of his people to be forgiven, and his blessing will extend to all nations, as promised long ago.
- We gain a glimpse of this by noting that the Apostle Paul quotes Hos 1:10 many years later in reference to the Gentiles, who become a part of the people of God.
- He observes that those who were “not my pwoplw,” namely, the Gentiles, have become God’s people (Rom 9:25-26).
- God’s plan from the beginning was that the nations would become apart of the worldwide people of God (Gen. 12:1-3; 17:1-8).
- His people would increase in number “as the sand of the seashore” (Gen 13:16; 15:5; 26:4; 28:14; Exod 32:13; Deut 1:10; 10:22).
Hosea sees this from afar!
With this redemptive plan in view, there is hope beyond the judgment, for Hosea announces a time of restoration (Hos 1:10-2:1; 2:14-23; 3:5; 6:1-3;10:12; 11:8-11; 14:1-8). READ Hos 2:16-23.
When the time of restoration arrives, God will betroth his people forever in faithfulness and in righteousness.
            - This will be like a second Exodus, a wedding celebration, the dawn of a new creation.
            - Hosea sees those days from a distance, but in the meantime, he himself must live within the reality of God’s impending judgment, which is symbolized in his marriage to Gomer and their children of harlotry, Jezreel, No Mercy, and Not My People.
(Much gratitude is given to Dr. Carol Kaminski for her Old Testament Survey course at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and the study materials that accompany and inform this teaching.)