Hosea's is a vivid picture of God's redeeming love for His people.
I. Guidance for interpreting and applying the message of Hosea
ADDRESSED TO OUR SPIRITUAL FOREFATHERS
CONTAINS PARTICULAR BENEFITS FOR BELIEVERS NOW ALSO:
- Shares something of God's heart toward spiritual adultery
- Reminds us how we can also fall in to spiritual adultery (nothing new under the sun)
- Shows God's gracious plan to redeem a people for Himself
- Gives a sense of the difficult price God paid for us
- Reveals Gentiles added to the Church is key fulfillment of Hosea's prophecy (and covenant with Abraham)

II. Hosea's difficult calling and message (1)
- Marriage
- Children
- A gut-wrenching mess ...for a purpose

III. Hosea's marriage as a analogy (2-3)
- God's people were unfaithful to God (syncretistic worship)
- God would discipline His people
- God would redeem and restore, ultimately through Christ and the addition of the gentiles to the Church