Bible-Hosea, Amos, Isaiah Hosea, Amos,

Bible-Hosea, Amos, Isaiah

Hosea, Amos, Isaiah

There are various figures of speech that are used by Hosea in the book of Hosea that are geared towards portraying God in a supreme and superior manner than man himself. Most of these figures of speech are repeated throughout the book of Hosea and are used with specific purposes, some of which overlap. For instance, in Hosea 11:10, there is a reference to God as the lion that roars and the people of Israel hence should follow Him,"… They will follow the LORD; he will roar like a lion. When he roars, his children will come trembling from the west…" (NIV). This verse uses the figure of speech roar like a lion to invoke obedience and supplication among the Israelites towards the Lord our God. This was after Hosea had seen the wayward behaviors of the Israelites who had strayed to worship other gods. This verse also alludes to Jesus Christ who is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who was initially rejected by many but later they actually came bowing to him and saying surely He is the son of God.

The other very significant verse with figure of speech is Hosea 14:5 where the Lord is likened to the dew, "…I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down his roots…" Here the verse is used to indicate restoration for the people of Israel once they come back to the Lord in reverence. This is a restoration from the Lord after the springs of Israel shall have dried up as indicated earlier on in Hosea 13:15.

The various figures of speech that Hosea has used in reference to God center a lot on the fact that the Israelites had there before forsaken God and had chosen to follow their own hearts desires. They had chosen to worship gods other than the Lord their God and had fascination with idolatry. This caused them to be different from their ancestors whom the Lord says His relationship with the ancestors was "like finding grapes in the wilderness. I viewed your ancestors like an early fig on a fig tree in its first season" (Hosea 9:10). These figures of speech were therefore meant to draw the Israelites back to God and create reconciliation.