The Book Of Hosea. Day 9, Reconciliation, Part Four

The Lord has been using metaphorical language to describe His relationship with Israel. In this analogy He is the faithful husband and Israel is the unfaithful wife. The same analogy is being played out in the life of the prophet Hosea; he has been a faithful husband to Gomer but she has not been faithful to him.

For a time the Lord and Israel will be separated, so to speak, because He will allow the nation to be conquered and the majority of its people scattered throughout foreign lands. Just as a husband and wife might separate or even divorce due to one partner's adultery, the Lord and Israel will be living apart (in a sense) for a while. In Chapter 3 we learn that Hosea and his wife are currently living apart too. She has left him for another man. But just as the Lord will instruct Hosea to woo his wife back, the Lord will woo Israel back just as He promised to do in Chapter 2.

Hosea is speaking here: "The Lord said to me, 'Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.'" (Hosea 3:1) 

Does Hosea really love his wayward wife? He must because if that were not the case the Lord could not say, "Show your love to your wife again." The Lord uses the expression "your love" as if it is something that actually exists in Hosea's heart toward Gomer. He also uses the word "again", suggesting that Hosea has felt love and has demonstrated concern and compassion toward her in the past. I think that, in spite of knowing ahead of time that she would not be faithful to him and in spite of having her commit adultery time and time again, Hosea really does love Gomer and really does desire to have a good marriage with her. 

That's not so hard to imagine. Many people continue to love a spouse who has betrayed them, even a spouse who has betrayed them on multiple occasions. In spite of knowing that their spouse has not treated them with love, they yearn to have a monogamous and happy marriage with them. They have a deep desire to see that person's heart change so they can reconcile with them. I believe this is how Hosea feels about Gomer. I believe this is how the Lord feels about Israel too, for He always knew the people would fall into idolatry even though He begged them not to, and He chose them in spite of knowing they would be this way, and He loves them in spite of them doing all the things He pleaded with them not to do. The Lord deeply desires to have a mutually beneficial, loving, faithful relationship with Israel. Because He intends to continue making overtures of reconciliation to Israel, He commands Hosea to go and make overtures of reconciliation to Gomer.

Hosea does as the Lord commands. "So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. Then I told her, 'You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you.'" (Hosea 3:2-3) What does Hosea mean when he says he "bought her"? I think perhaps he bribed her away from the man who was currently keeping her as a mistress by reminding her with this sum of money and barley that he is capable of providing all her needs. Some commentators think she actually ended up in slavery somehow, perhaps by running up debts while she was living apart from him and being unable to pay her debts. Or it may be that she took up with a boyfriend/pimp, which is something that still happens in our own day, and Hosea had to pay the silver and barley to her pimp in order to get the man to release her. 

We don't know for certain what he means when he says he "bought her" but we can compare this situation to the way the Lord bought us. He paid a high price for us with the blood of His Son even though we are unfaithful rebellious sinners just like Gomer was. The Lord still saw something of value in us, not because we actually were valuable or because He needs us, but because He loves us. Love is what places a value on even the most one-sided of relationships. Hosea cares enough about Gomer in spite of her unfaithfulness to pay a sum (to make a sacrifice, to give up something) for her even though she has brought him nothing but heartache. In this same way, when we were lost sinners we brought the Lord nothing but heartache, but He cared enough about us to make a sacrifice for us.

The Bible allows divorce in the case of infidelity. The story of Hosea and Gomer isn't included in the Bible to forbid anyone to divorce an adulterous spouse. The Lord recognizes infidelity as legitimate grounds for divorce and it is not a sin to divorce an unfaithful spouse. But I think the story shows us that working toward reconciliation is always the best course if the unfaithful spouse is willing to repent and be faithful from then on. When Hosea goes to get his wife back, he asks her to be faithful to him and promises that he will be faithful to her in return. When the Lord spoke in our previous chapter about being reconciled to Israel, He wasn't saying He would reconcile even if Israel refused to ever be faithful to Him; He was foretelling a day in which Israel would be faithful to Him. He spoke about how Israel would cling only unto Him, forsaking all others. He said in that time the names of false gods would never again be on her lips but that Israel would call only Him her "husband". So we see that although we have the Scriptural right to divorce an unfaithful spouse, if there is any way to be reconciled and to live together monogamously and happily, this would honor the Lord. If a couple can reconcile and be faithful to each other and live together according to God's commandments for marriage, this will reflect the way the Lord accepts our repentance and enters into a covenant with us. 

The Book Of Hosea. Day 8, Reconciliation, Part Three

We ended yesterday's study with the Lord speaking of a day in which His relationship with Israel will be restored. He said, "I will betroth you to Me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord." (Hosea 2:19-20)

The Lord has been faithful to His wife (Israel) but she has not been faithful to Him. She has gone after her "lovers" as the Lord referred to the pagan gods she's served. But although she has not been faithful to Him, He will court her once again and in time she will respond appropriately to His overtures and give her heart back to Him, forsaking all others. In turn, He will respond to her faithfulness with prosperity.

"'In that day I will respond,' declares the Lord---'I will respond to the skies, and they will respond to the earth; and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and the olive oil, and they will respond to Jezreel. I will plant her for Myself in the land; I will show My love to the one called, 'Not my loved one.' I will say to those called, 'Not my people,' 'You are my people;' and they will say, 'You are my God.'" (Hosea 2:21-23)

The promised land will flow with milk and honey in a way it never has before. I think the majority of this prophecy will be fulfilled in the kingdom age when the Lord reigns over the world but it cannot be denied that the Lord has kept a protective eye on Israel. For many centuries she was ruled over by one master after another (enemy nations), but she is very much an independent nation in the world again. I believe she will remain an independent nation until the day the kingdom comes---until the day the King of kings takes His throne and rules over the world in righteousness and justice. She will cling only to Him then and forevermore.

In the concluding verses of Chapter 2 we find references to the three children of Hosea's household. Jezreel was his firstborn and the only child we can be certain was actually fathered by him, for the Bible told us that Gomer "bore him" a son. His name means something like, "God sows," or "God scatters", which is a reference to the sowing of seed in the manner of a farmer scattering seed in the fields. This name was part of the prophecy the Lord gave Hosea; He is soon going to scatter Israel among the nations. But when the promise of full reconciliation comes true, He is going to sow Israel in her own land. This has already come true in part but in the kingdom age there will be more Jewish people living in the land of Israel than there has ever been since Old Testament times. The use of the name "Jezreel" will be a positive thing in that day. It will no longer mean being scattered among the nations but will mean being planted---and flourishing!---in their own land.

Two other children were born to Hosea's wife and the Bible does not specify that these were fathered by Hosea. It says that Gomer "gave birth to a daughter" and that the Lord instructed Hosea to name her Lo-Ruhamah which means "not loved". Just as the majority of Israel did not love the Lord in the days of Hosea, Hosea's wife did not love him. This made it impossible for the Lord to bless Israel, for she had forsaken Him and He cannot bless sin, and it made it impossible for Hosea to shower blessings upon his wife, for she ran around with other men and will even leave him for another man in the next chapter. But a time will come when Israel will love the Lord in the right way and He will be able to pour out blessings the way He wants to pour out blessings. Then it cannot be said that He is "not loved" by Israel or that Israel is "not loved" by Him.

When a third child is born into the household of Hosea we are told that "Gomer had another son". Again we take note that this child is not said to be the child of Hosea. The Lord instructed Hosea to name him Lo-Ammi which means "not my people". This child is almost certainly not Hosea's and, in the era of Hosea, the Lord could truly say of most of the Israelites that they were not His people. He wanted them to be His people just as Hosea wanted this baby boy to be his son, but that was not the case. But in time the Lord will say to the descendants of Jacob, "You are My people". They will join themselves in fellowship with Him as never before and it will be clear that they are His because they will be so much like Him. They will obey His precepts and take joy in honoring Him. Just as you or I may clearly look like our earthly fathers, if we are truly the children of God we should resemble Him.

The Book Of Hosea. Day 7, Reconciliation, Part Two

The Lord is foretelling a day of reconciliation between Himself and Israel. As we closed yesterday's study we found Him saying she would serve Him in love, willingly, and not compulsorily out of fear. We found Him saying she will serve Him and no other, forsaking her false gods forever.

As we pick back up in Chapter 2 He says, "I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked. In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety." (Hosea 2:17-18)

The complete fulfillment of the verses above won't take place until the Lord Himself reigns over the earth from Israel but some of this restoration has already occurred, in part. Israel is a sovereign nation in the world again today, after many centuries of being under the rule of this or that heathen nation. 

Another way in which some fulfillment has already taken place is that there is no evidence that the Jewish people ever turned to idolatry again (at least not in any widescale fashion such as we've seen in the Old Testament) after the Lord allowed the northern kingdom to fall to Assyria and the southern kingdom to fall to Babylon. He said in verse 17 above, "I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips," and we cannot today find any state-sponsored idolatrous religion in Israel. In the Old Testament there were kings who forsook the Lord in favor of other gods (or who worshiped Him along with other gods) and they sponsored those heathen temples and heathen priesthoods out of the royal treasuries. Idolatry was not only encouraged but was often enforced. But we don't see that in modern-day Israel.

The Lord has been speaking of Himself as Israel's husband. His wife has been unfaithful to Him but He is saying to the people through Hosea that there will come a time when she turns wholeheartedly back to Him, never speaking the names of false gods again. We will learn in our next chapter that Hosea's wife has left him for another man but the Lord will tell him to go and woo her back, just as the Lord plans to woo Israel back.

Hosea and his wife Gomer will recommit themselves to each other. The Lord and Israel will recommit themselves to each other too. The Lord reaffirms His vows to Israel as we close today's study session. "I will betroth you to Me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord." (Hosea 2:19-20)

The Book Of Hosea. Day 6, Reconciliation, Part One

The Lord has been telling Israel that, in light of the fact that their relationship is broken (due to Israel's idolatry), they will separate for a time. Just as Hosea's wife has been unfaithful to him, Israel has been unfaithful to the Lord. In our next chapter we will learn that Hosea's wife has actually left him for another man, much like Israel has left the Lord for false gods. Hosea and Gomer are currently separated and the Lord and Israel will soon be separated in a sense, for the majority of the Israelites will be deported from their land. The Lord has been speaking of the deprivations Israel will feel while separated from Him but now He goes on to speak of a future reconciliation between Himself and Israel.

He concluded yesterday's text by talking about the way Israel forsook Him for "the Baals" (other gods) and said "but Me she forgot". In spite of all this, He is going to take her back, just as He will command Hosea in Chapter 3 to take his wayward wife back. The emotional and spiritual reconciliation won't happen fully overnight, not for the Lord and Israel or for Hosea and Gomer, but will be an ongoing process for quite some time. After the people of Israel have been conquered and taken captive by an enemy, they will consider their sins and will think about how their sins led to their hardships. They will think back on the blessed lives they once lived in the promised land---before they forsook the Lord---and will begin to call upon Him again. 

The Lord says, "Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will respond as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt." (Hosea 2:14-15) Prosperity can be detrimental to our spiritual health if we allow our prosperity to come between us and the Lord. Hosea is preaching the message of the Lord during the reign of King Jeroboam II, which was the most prosperous era of the entire history of the northern kingdom of Israel. The people are enjoying prosperity and have become complacent and lazy, spiritually speaking, and are living as if things will always be this way. They don't believe hardship will ever come. They don't believe the Lord will take them to task for their infidelities; indeed, I don't think they are thinking about Him very often at all. They certainly don't appear to be concerned that He might send judgment their way. 

But when they are scattered among foreign nations they will think about the Lord. When they are separated from the promised land they will consider all the wrong steps they took that led them into defeat and captivity. And there, in the "wilderness" as the Lord phrased it, they will call to Him. He will speak tenderly to them, urging them to repent and rededicate their lives to Him, encouraging them to remember the way He brought them out of Egypt and called them by His name. Then they will love Him as they used to love Him, forsaking idolatry and giving their hearts to the one true God.

He refers to "the Valley of Achor" which was the place where the sin of Achan was judged back in Joshua 7. Achan took and concealed items the Lord forbade the Israelites to take when they conquered Jericho. Because of this sin, the Israelites were defeated when they attacked Ai next. Joshua prayed to the Lord about this defeat and the Lord revealed to him that there was sin in the camp. Achan had taken the valuable items home and had buried them under his tent, apparently with the full knowledge and approval of his family, for both he and his family were judged guilty of possessing these items. Achan and his family were stoned to death in "the Valley of Achor" which means "the Valley of Trouble". So when the Lord says He is going to turn the Valley of Achor into a valley of hope for Israel, He is saying that the trouble that's going to come upon them is going to turn out for their good. Their trouble is going to lead them back to Him.

Everyone encounters trouble in this world. Some troubles are of our own making, such as the troubles the Lord is foretelling for Israel. The Lord allows us to experience the consequences of our disobedience not because He wants to destroy us but because He wants those consequences to teach us not to keep making the same mistakes. He warned the Israelites before He ever brought them into the promised land that if they turned to idolatry He would remove them from the land. They fell into idolatry in spite of this warning and now, after many repeated pleadings to repent, He has no choice but to bring about the consequences that their actions merit. But He does not intend to wipe them from the earth. Neither is He going to remain separated from them forever but will someday restore their nation. What He is going to do, through their hardships, is bring them to the point of longing for reconciliation with Him. He is going to cause them to ask themselves, "Why did we fare better in former times? Why did the Lord defeat armies for us in the past but has now allowed the enemy to defeat us and drive us from our land?" His intention is for them to conclude, "It is because of our sin! It is because we have not been faithful to the Lord, who was faithful to us. Let us now turn back to Him. Let us now call to Him in hope that He will answer."

The Lord will answer, in spite of the people's many infidelities. The Lord will forgive them and take them back. "'In that day,' declares the Lord, 'you will call Me 'my husband'; you will no longer call Me 'my master.'" (Hosea 2:16) Their relationship with Him will be more intimate and more satisfying than ever before. Rather than serving Him in fear because He is a God who judges sin, Israel will unite herself to Him in love. She will not call Him "my master", serving Him out of a sense of compulsion, but will call Him "my husband", being faithful to Him because He has been faithful to her.

The Book Of Hosea. Day 5, A Broken Relationship, Part Two

The prophet Hosea's broken relationship with his wife Gomer reflects the Lord's broken relationship with Israel. Hosea has been faithful to Gomer, just as the Lord has been faithful to Israel. But Gomer has not been faithful to Hosea, just as Israel has not been faithful to the Lord. A person has the right, according to the Scriptures, to separate from or even divorce an unfaithful spouse. The Lord has been announcing His intention to separate (to remove the people from the land) from wayward Israel, if she does not repent of her adulteries (her idolatry and rebellion).

We looked at the first portion of Chapter 2 yesterday, which speaks of the adulteries committed by the Lord's unfaithful wife Israel, and today we will be studying the second half of the first portion. The Lord says of His wayward spouse: "She said, 'I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.'" (Hosea 2:5b) She credits her false gods with supplying her needs when all along it has been the Lord---and only the Lord---who has ever done anything for her.

Because she does not acknowledge Him and insists on going her own way, He is going to make her way difficult. "Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way. She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will say, 'I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.' She has not acknowledged that I was the One who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold---which they used for Baal." (Hosea 2:6-8)

She has forsaken Him in favor of others; therefore He will take His protection and provision away. When He does this, she will call to her lovers (her false gods) and they will not answer. They will not answer because they cannot answer---they do not exist. The Lord is the only one who has ever heard her prayers and supplied her needs, yet she took the blessings He gave her and served other gods with them.

Because she has not appreciated His efforts on her behalf, and because she has offered His blessings to idols, He will cause her to suffer deprivations and humiliations. "Therefore I will take away My grain when it ripens, and My new wine when it is ready. I will take back My wool and My linen, intended to cover her naked body. So now I will expose her lewdness before the eyes of her lovers; no one will take her out of My hands." (Hosea 2:9-10) 

The nations whose heathen gods she has served will observe and be shocked at how the Lord allows her to fall into the hands of the enemy. Up until now the Lord has not allowed Israel to fall to any invader. It is known by all the other nations that He brought her out of Egypt and uprooted the tribes of the promised land and planted her in their place. It is known that He has defended her from all who hate her. But He is going to allow her to be plundered and carried away captive and when that happens the nations will hear about and observe her downfall, her humiliation, and the lack of help she receives from the idols to which she bowed.

The Lord continues, "'I will stop all her celebrations: her yearly festivals, her New Moons, her Sabbath days---all her appointed festivals. I will ruin her vines and her fig trees, which she said were her pay from her lovers; I will make them a thicket, and wild animals will devour them. I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals; she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but Me she forgot,' declares the Lord." (Hosea 2:11-13)

We've talked before about the way some people have to hit rock bottom before they will look up to the Lord. He is going to allow Israel to hit rock bottom and, when she does, she will be ready to listen to what He has to say. Just as the Lord will later instruct Hosea to take back the wife who has left him, the Lord is going to take Israel back. He is going to woo her with His love and she will respond appropriately. Forsaken by the gods to whom she prostituted herself, she will turn once again to her first love---to the only God. His purpose in separating the people from the land (symbolically separating them from His presence) is for reconciliation.

The Book Of Hosea. Day 4, A Broken Relationship, Part One

The Lord continues with the theme of Him as the faithful husband and Israel as the unfaithful wife. 

He says, "Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not My wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts." (Hosea 2:1-2) It may be that Hosea is saying this to the children of his household about their mother, who has been unfaithful to him, because Hosea's troubled relationship with his wife Gomer is intended to symbolize the Lord's troubled relationship with Israel. This scene is like a man saying to the children of his household: "You've seen how your mother goes out and stays out all night. You know the kind of lifestyle she is living while I'm being faithful to her. You are a witness between me and your mother that I have done my best to be a good husband and a good father while she has done everything possible to tear this home apart. While I have worked hard for her, she has harbored passion for other men in her heart."

This statement appears to announce an intention to separate or divorce. The Bible only authorizes divorce in the case of unfaithfulness. This doesn't mean a person is required to remain where they are being abused; a person has the right to protect themselves by removing themselves from a harmful situation. The law of Moses allowed divorce for various reasons other than divorce (Jesus said Moses allowed it because the people were so hard-hearted) and the Pharisees and teachers of the law of Jesus' day allowed divorce for trivial and ridiculous reason reasons, but the Lord Jesus Christ clearly stated that a person was not to file for divorce unless their spouse had been unfaithful. The Lord doesn't blame a person for divorcing an unfaithful spouse, although even in that case I believe He would prefer that the guilty party change their ways and that the couple would reconcile and be devoted to each other. But in other cases it seems as if the goal is to work toward reconciliation, even if that means the couple lives apart for a time before reuniting. The Lord is announcing His intention to live apart from Israel for a time if she does not change her ways.

This living apart means being uprooted from the promised land. It means no longer being provided for in the land flowing with milk and honey. Just as a man separated from his wife would expect her to make her own living, the Israelites will be on their own (where material things are concerned) in the lands where they will be scattered. "Otherwise I will strip her naked and make her as bare as the day she was born; I will make her like a desert, turn her into a parched land, and slay her with thirst." (Hosea 2:3)

A man whose wife has given birth to children who are not his does not have a legal responsibility to provide for those children. The following text lends further credence to the theory that Gomer's second and third children do not belong to Hosea. "I will not show my love to her children, because they are the children of adultery. Their mother has been unfaithful and has conceived them in disgrace." (Hosea 2:4-5a) 

Hosea has the right to cast out Gomer and the two children who were fathered by other men. The Bible only tells us for certain that the firstborn, Jezreel, belongs to Hosea. Just as a man in our day doesn't have to pay child support for children whose DNA tests prove they don't belong to him, Hosea does not have to continue supporting any children born from adulterous relationships. This is still a symbol of the Lord's relationship with Israel, for Israel has committed adultery against Him time and time again by engaging in idolatry. The Israelites who have fallen into idolatry have raised their children in idolatry, and in that sense they are not His children. He has the right to cast out the idolaters and their children, just as a man has the right to separate from an unfaithful wife and to refrain from paying support for children that are another man's.

In tomorrow's study we will continue looking at this passage that describes the broken relationship between Israel and the Lord, and we must keep in mind that it was not the Lord who broke the relationship. Like Hosea, He was not unfaithful to His wife. Like Hosea, He has protected and provided for His wife. But His wife rewarded His love with treachery.

The Book Of Hosea. Day 3, A Day Of Future Restoration

The Lord instructed Hosea to marry a woman who would not be faithful to him. The word rendered into English as "promiscuous" is the same word rendered elsewhere in the Scriptures as "prostitute" or "harlot". We don't know whether Hosea's wife Gomer was a literal prostitute that he took off the street and married or whether she simply began to play the harlot by being unfaithful to him sometime after their marriage. But several times in the Bible we find the Lord accusing Israel of "prostituting herself" as a way of describing her waywardness from the Lord. The Lord often refers to Himself and Israel as if they are a married couple. In this analogy the idolatry of Israel is compared to the adulteries of an unfaithful spouse.

Three children were born in the household of Hosea and Gomer. In our last study session we discussed the theory that one or more of these children were fathered by someone other than Hosea. It seems clear that the firstborn, Jezreel, was Hosea's biological son because the Bible tells us that Gomer "conceived and bore him a son". But when the next child, Lo-Ruhamah, is born, the Bible just says that Gomer "gave birth" to her. And when the third child, Lo-Ammi, is born, the Bible says that Gomer "had another son". Some scholars have come to the conclusion that the second and third child were not Hosea's but were fathered through Gomer's adulterous relationships.

I think this theory is quite likely because the Lord has set up Hosea's household in such a way that He can use it as a symbol of the spiritual condition of Israel in those days. In this symbol, Hosea represents the Lord who has been faithful to provide for and protect His wife (Israel) but whose wife has not been faithful to Him. Gomer, of course, represents wayward Israel; her adulterous affairs symbolize the way the Israelites have turned to idolatry. Some of the citizens have forsaken the Lord entirely for the gods of pagan nations and some of the citizens are dabbling in idolatry by mixing heathen worship practices with their worship of the Lord or worshiping both at the Lord's altar and at heathen altars. Right now Gomer is like those who mix idolatry with the worship of the Lord but a time is coming when she will completely forsake her husband for another man. At that time the Lord will still be using Hosea's troubled relationship with his wife as a symbol of the Lord's troubled relationship with Israel, for He will display His unending love for Israel by instructing Hosea to woo his wife back. Why does the Lord tell the prophet to take back a woman who has been unfaithful to him time and time again? Because the Lord is going to take Israel back, in spite of all she has done.

A time of chastisement and hardship is about to come upon the nation in the very near future in Hosea's day. The nation will be conquered and most of its citizens deported. But this isn't the end of Israel. This isn't the end of the people; they will not be wiped completely out and the survivors will multiply. The Lord will keep this promise He made to Abraham: "I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the sand on the seashore." (Genesis 22:17a)

The Lord restates that promise as we conclude Chapter 1. He has not forgotten the promise. He will not break the promise. "Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, 'You are not My people,' they will be called, 'Children of the living God'. The people of Judah and the people of Israel will come together; they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel." (Hosea 1:10-11)

In Hosea's day there are two kingdoms but the northern kingdom is about to fall and the southern kingdom will also fall in about 130 years. From that point on, there will never again be a separate kingdom of Israel and Judah. It was a very long time before Israel became a sovereign nation in the world again but in our own day, with Israel a sovereign nation, the people who are the descendants of Jacob are all one people. They don't have a divided country where there is a North Israel and a South Israel. And a day is coming in which the eternal kingdom of the Lord is set up in Israel, when the Lord Himself will reign over the world from the throne of David, and in that day there will be no divisions among the Jews and no divisions between Jews and Gentiles. All who belong to the Lord will be of one family---the children of the living God---and all will have only one king---the King of kings---over them.

Earlier in our study of the book of Hosea we learned that the name of Hosea's firstborn son was Jezreel, which means something like "the Lord sows/the Lord scatters seed". The Lord instructed Hosea to name his son Jezreel to symbolize the fact that the Lord is going to scatter Israel throughout other nations just as a man might scatter seed all over a field. But when the restoration comes, the name Jezreel won't symbolize scattering among the nations; it will symbolize the Lord sowing (planting) the people back in their own land.