OT Notes Hosea 1

1) Hosea's name is salvation or is related to salvation or deliverance. The names, the names. Jezreel is a place name and means God sows/will sow. The site itself threatens bloodshed. It was the site of Jehu's (I Kings 19) and 2 Kings 9-10    Hosea clearly means it in the sense of sowing trouble.
 Lo-ruhamah=no compassion, not pitied, an lo-ammi, not my people. the last two names read like the prohibitions in the !0 Commandments-not kill, etc.

2) I find it hard to believe that this is enacted prophecy but a way of getting at divine feelings.God's covenant with Israel, as a people, would be similar to our feelings for a spouse. When the people are enticed by idolatry, it feels in its way to a spouse's unfaithfulness in the sense of betrayal, confusion.I was surprised in doing some research that many commentators take the account as literal event. If it did actually happen what doe sit say about the utter identification of a prophet wiht both the triumphs and sins of a people?

3) Look at the power of v. 10 then, in the midst of this threat.for that matter v. 7 has hope in it as well, but in a surprising direction that moves away from God as warrior.Jezreel does not only point backward but forward as well, as one looks at the end of the chapter.

4) One could go a good way with the pwoer of names in this passage and in our lives. How many Myrtles do you meet today?

5) How do we speak of receiving the word fo the Lord today?

6) Can we speak of infidelity in hookup culture?