CHAPTER ONE

Contents: Israel, Jehovah's dishonored wife, repudiated, but to be restored.

Characters: God, Hosea, Uzziah, Hezekiah, Jeroboam, Gomer, Jezreel, Jehu, Lo-ruhamah, Lo-ammi.

Conclusion: Giving glory to any creature which is due to God alone is as much an injury and affront to God as for a wife to embrace the bosom of a stranger, is to her husband. Thus many who have been in covenant relation with God have broken their marriage bond, turning away the mercy of God from their houses.

Key Word: Israel whoredom, v. 2.

Strong Verses:   10.

Striking Facts: v. 11. The day will come (Rom. 11:25) when Israel will come forth out of the lands, acknowledging Jesus Christ whom they crucified, as their head (Zech. 12:10).

CHAPTER TWO

Contents: The chastisement of adulterous Israel. Yet to be restored.

Characters: God, Hosea, Ammi, Ruhamah, Baalim.

Conclusion: Those who exchange the service of God for the service of the world and the flesh will sooner or later be made to own that they have changed for the worse, finding themselves cast off of God and hedged about with thorns. Woe unto us, if God will not own Himself in relation to us.

Key Word: Israel's harlotry, restoration, vv. 5, 18.

Strong Verses:   18, 19, 20.

Striking Facts: vv. 14-23. In the final day of Israel's despair, God has promised to revive her with comforts the sight of their coming Messiah. In that day they will be betrothed to Him anew forever, and the earth shall be filled with His eternal peace and righteousness.

CHAPTER THREE

Contents: Jehovah's undying love to Israel. The future kingdom on earth.

Characters: God, Hosea.

Conclusion: God's people (Israel) who have gone awhoring from Him must take upon themselves the shame of their apostasy and submit to the punishment of their iniquity. If God dealt with them according to the strict rigor of the law, He would have no more to do with them, but He will deal with them according to the multitude of His mercies, and not according to their iniquities. The remnant of Israel will yet seek the Lord and receive their King.

Key Word: Israel's harlotry, restoration, vv. 3, 4.

Strong Verses:   4, 5.

Striking Facts: vv. 4-5. The reference may be to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of David, to whom God gave the throne of His father David Luke 1:32. The Chaldee translates it, "they shall seek the service of the Lord their God, and shall obey Messiah, the Son of David, their King."

CHAPTER FOUR

Contents: Charges against Israel for their sinfulness, idolatry and ignorance. Characters: God, Hosea.

Conclusion: It is a sad and sore judgment for men when God has to say, "let them alone" giving them up to their own heart's lust to walk in their own counsels until the measure of their iniquity is filled. Man's doings will surely return upon him, and his sins against God will be called over to him, either to his humiliation or to his condemnation.

Key Word: Jehovah's controversy, v. 1.

Strong Verses:   9, 17.

CHAPTER FIVE

Contents: Jehovah's face withdrawn from Israel.

Characters: God.

Conclusion: There is a time when Jehovah will not be found when it is time for His judgments to fall on a rebellious, sinful people. He will take no notice of their troubles or prayers, until they become sensible of their guilt, and are brought to humble themselves before Him for it.

Key Word: Jehovah's withdrawal, vv. 6, 15.

Strong Verses:   15.

CHAPTER SIX

Contents: The voice of the remnant of Israel in the last days. Jehovah's response.

Characters: God.

Conclusion: The consideration of God's judgments upon us because of sin should awaken us to return to God by repentance, prayer and reformation.  He who has smitten us will bind us up if we humbly return to Him.

Key Word: Return, v. 1.

Strong Verses:   1, 3, 6.

Striking Facts: vv. 1-3. This will be Israel's resolve in the last days, as the result of the "time of Jacob's trouble." The Lord Jesus will be to them as a refreshing rain after a long drought, and Israel shall be revived.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Contents: Jehovah's response to Israel's cry, continued. Israel's sad state.

Characters: God.

Conclusion: If sinful souls are not healed and helped, but perish in their sin and misery, they cannot blame God, for He could and would have healed them. They are not healed because they will not be, refusing to look to God even when they are reaping the sore results of sin. Let all such remember that all their works are remembered and will have to be faced.

Key Word: Wickedness, v. 2.

Strong Verses:   2.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Contents: Jehovah's response, continued. Sins denounced and captivity foretold.

Characters: God.

Conclusion: Those who sow to the flesh must reap corruption. All the hopes of sinners are cheats, and their gains are snares. Those who break friendship with God make themselves an easy prey to all about them.

Key Word: Sowing, reaping, v. 7.

Strong Verses:   7 (a), 11.

CHAPTER NINE

Contents: Jehovah's response, continued. Israel's coming distress because of sin.

Characters: God.

Conclusion: Joy is a forbidden fruit to those who have broken covenant with God, until they return and make their peace with God. If men make things of the world and flesh their portion, it is just with God to deny them the comfort of them to bring man to a sense of his folly. The day of recompense hastens on apace toward all who go a whoring from God.

Key Word: Days of recompense, v. 7.

Strong Verses:   5, 17.

CHAPTER TEN

Contents: Jehovah's response, continued. Further reproof for Israel's impiety.

Characters: God. Jareb, King of Israel.

Conclusion: If the grace of God prevail not to destroy the love of sin in us, it is just that the providence of God should destroy the fuel of sin about us, and that what men have made idols of should be spoiled. Because God does not desire the ruin of sinners, He does desire their chastisement.

Key Word: Chastisement, vv. 10, 15.

Strong Verses:   12, 13.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Contents: Jehovah's response, continued. His tender love for Israel.

Characters: God.

Conclusion: Though men who have had relationship with God are ripe for ruin because of following their own counsels, instead of God's, God is slow to anger, loth to abandon them, longing to draw them with the cords of His love.

Key Word: Jehovah's love, vv. 1, 4, 8.

Strong Verses:   3, 4, 8, 9.

Striking Facts: v. 1. These words have a double aspect, being applied to Christ (Matt. 2:15). They speak historically of the calling of Israel out of Egypt, and prophetically of the bringing of Christ from Egypt, the former being a type of the latter. Christ's calling out of Egypt is likewise a figure of the calling of all who are His out of spiritual slavery.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Contents: Jehovah's response, continued. Further reproof of Israel's sins.

Characters: God .

Conclusion: Those who make creatures and things their confidence, put a cheat upon their own souls, and prepare vexation for themselves. God has His eye even upon the merchant weighing his goods, and knows his methods and the idols of his heart. If men put contempt upon God, God will let their neighbors look with contempt upon them.

Key Word: Recompense, vv. 2, 14.

Strong Verses:   6.

Striking Facts: vv. 9-10. As great an offense as Israel has been to God throughout the centuries, God's Word assures us that the prophecies regarding their restoration to glory in the earth will be certainly fulfilled in His own time. That time is connected with the time of Christ's Second Coming.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Contents: Jehovah's response, continued. Israel's ruin. Ultimate blessing in the kingdom age.

Characters: God.

Conclusion: Worldly prosperity, which feeds men's pride, makes them forgetful of God, and sends them on a downhill course in which they cannot easily stop themselves. Those whom God has in vain endured with longsuffering, and appealed to with much affection, will finally be made the vessels of His wrath.

Key Word: Ruined (vv. 8, 16), ransomed (14).

Strong Verses:   4,- 6, 14.

Striking Facts: vv. 9-11. God will yet give Israel a King, whom they will receive as God-appointed, a Saviour to their nation. Israel, becoming weary of the theocracy, or divine government, rejected Samuel, crying, "Give us a king." God gave them a king and plenty of trouble with him. Christ is the true heavenly King, and He will at His Second Coming take the throne of His father David.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Contents: Entreaty and promise to Israel. Restoration foretold.

Characters: God.

Conclusion: Though backslidings from God are dangerous diseases of the soul, yet they are not incurable, for God graciously promises that if backsliders will return to be reconciled to Him and to His whole will, He will heal their backslidings and make them conscious of His love.

Key Word: Backsliding healed, v. 4.

Strong Verses:   4, 9.

Striking Facts: vv. 5-7. God will yet be as the dew unto Israel, refreshing them with His comforts, but not until they see it descending upon them in the person of Jesus Christ, their rejected King, when He comes in the clouds of heaven with great glory. Then their branches indeed shall spread, and they shall grow as the vine.