Week 3 - Amos 8-9, Hosea 1-5 & John 2 (Jan. 15 - 21)
The Book of Hosea
Date of Authorship: Hosea's ministry likely spanned three decades; from 752 to 724 AD. This would take Hosea from the reign of Jeroboam II as mentioned in 1:1 to the period of the Syro-Ephriamite war mentioned in 5:8-14 and elsewhere. These crucial decades witnessed the precipitous fall of Israel from its most powerful position under Jeroboam II to a vassal state of the ascendant Assyrian empire - which would smash Samaria and take Israel into exile soon after the end of Hosea's ministry. Understanding this rapid descent of Israel and the immediate threat of invasion posed by the burgeoning Assyrian empire is key to understanding the message of Hosea.
Author: Hosea is the author of this book. We know little about him other than what his writing reveals. He was from the northern kingdom of Israel and his writing shows an intimate and affectionate knowledge of the geography and husbandry there.
Purpose: Faithfulness is the primary theme of the book of Hosea. Chapters 1-3 serve as the core of Hosea's teaching for which the remaining 11 chapters seem to be an expansion. The opening scene of Hosea's ministry and its conclusion at the beginning of chapter 3 is among the most poignant and striking fables of the Bible. The drama of this Prophet of Yahweh taking a prostitute for a wife who bears him children of unfaithfulness (notice who is said to be the father of Lo-Ruhamah and Lo-Ammi), leaves him completely to pursue her ignoble profession, and God's instruction to purchase her back from harlotry - I believe - matches any of the great theater in history. This scandalous union is a message from God to his people about how they have treated him and the lengths He (God) will go to in order to preserve them regardless. Hosea levies two primary complaints against Israel, they have worshiped other gods (especially the Canaanite god, Baal), and they have been living morally corrupt lives full of injustice and oppression. Hosea is there to tell them that Israel has completely misunderstood what pleases God, and they are out of time to right the ship, but God will preserve Israel because of his own faithfulness to his promise.
Notes
Future Restoration in Amos
Future Restoration
The prophecy of Amos ends with a promise of restoration. Even though the kingdom of Israel has turned their back on God, the promises God made to Abraham will be fulfilled. so when did this restoration occur? Unlike the kingdom of Judah, Israel does not experience a dramatic restoration to the promised land after the exile. Still, this verse is quoted in another very important place in the Bible. When Paul returns from his first missionary Journey, the church in Jerusalem meets to discuss how gentile converts are to be regarded. James, the brother of Jesus said this:
James spoke up. “Brothers,” he said, “listen to me. Simon has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles. The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written:
“‘After this I will return
and rebuild David’s fallen tent.
Its ruins I will rebuild,
and I will restore it,
that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord,
even all the Gentiles who bear my name,
says the Lord, who does these things’—
things known from long ago. (Amos 9:11-12)“It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.
Now James' quotation of this passage does not quite match up with what you read in Amos. That is because James is quoting from the Septuagint, the Greek-language version of the Old Testament, where your English translation is based on the Hebrew-Masoretic Text. Consider that often times "Edom" in the Old Testament serves as short-hand for gentiles or non-Israelites and these two texts line up pretty well.
TIMELINE OF JOHN - clearing the temple
If you remember our other three gospel readings well, then you’ll recall that they all depict the majority of Jesus’ ministry as occurring in Galilee. The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, & Luke) all follow this same timeline where Jesus’ ministry begins or quickly moves to Galilee and remains there until He makes this dramatic, final approach to Jerusalem where he knows that he will face his Death. John, however, records Jesus frequently traveling back and forth from Judea (Jerusalem and the surrounding region) to Galilee during his ministry. How do we reconcile this difference in the accounts of Jesus? Most consider the gospel of John to better reflect a “modern-historical” timeline of Jesus’ ministry, while we allow for the other gospel writers to have arranged the events in their accounts to all dramatically lead up to Jesus’ final ascent to Jerusalem where He would perform His salvific work. This was the reading of the earliest Church as evidenced by a 2nd-century document called the Diatessaron which was written by Tatian (a disciple of my favorite Early Church father, Justin Martyr). This document is a harmony of the Gospels in which the parts (teachings and stories) of each one are separated into individual parts and organized chronologically. When Tatian rearranged all the individual pieces of the four gospels to tell one story, he used the timeline of John’s gospel to put the pieces of the other three all into place.
In the other three Gospels, Jesus clears the temple of money changers right after the triumphal entry very near the end of his ministry (less than a week before his crucifixion - Matthew 21, Mark 11, Luke 19). However, this week, you’ll read of Jesus clearing the temple very early in his ministry, right after the calling of the disciples (John 2:13-17). a few have tried to explain that Jesus must have cleared the temple twice (I think they are wrong). Things fall right into place when you consider the rearrangement that Matthew, Mark, and Luke needed to do in order for Jesus to visit Jerusalem only once in their account. Because Jesus only visits Jerusalem at the end of their account, they (Matthew, Mark, & Luke) have to save this story - which occurs in the Jerusalem temple - until he arrives at that location in their retelling. John is not editing his account of Jesus in this manner, thus his chronology is to be preferred over the other three.
The fact that John’s Gospel is told so differently than the other three is actually really helpful to our understanding of Jesus’ life. As Carson and Moon explain:
More impressive yet are the many places where John and the Synoptics represent and interlocking tradition, that is, where they mutually reinforce or explain each other, without betraying overt literary dependence. A very incomplete list includes the following items:
- John’s report of an extensive Judean ministry helps to explain the assumption in Mark 14:49 that Jesus had constantly taught in the temple precincts, the trepidation with which the final trip southward was viewed (Mark 10:32), and Jesus’ ability to round up a colt (Mark 11:1-7) and secure a furnished upper room (Mark 14:12-16).
-the charge reported in the Synoptics that Jesus had threatened the destruction of the temple (Mark 14:58, 15:29) finds its only adequate explanation in John 2:19.
-Mark gives no reason as to why the Jewish authorities should bother bringing Jesus to Pilate; John provides the reason (John 18:31). Only John provides the reason (John 18:15-18) why peter can be placed within the high priest’s courtyard (Mark 14:54, 66-72).
-Even the call of the disciples in the Synoptics is made easier to understand (Matthew 4:18-22) if we presuppose with John 1, that Jesus had already had contact with them and that their fundamental shift in allegiance had already occurred
An Introduction to the New Testament. D.A. Carson & Douglas Moo (Zondervan, 2005)