Love Divine and Unfailing: The Gospel According to Hosea

Gospel According to the Old Testament

by Michael P.V. Barrett

After establishing the historical and theological backdrop for Hosea, the book focuses on the connection between Hosea's marriage to Gomer and the Lord's marriage to his people. Though many were deaf to Hosea's preaching, even the dullest could see his grief, sympathize with his sorrow, and wonder at his persistent love. Hosea's marriage was a living sermon: What Hosea did for Gomer, God did for Israel; what Gomer did to Hosea, Israel did to God.

Genres: Nonfiction, Old Testament, Theology, Christian, Religion, Devotional

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Dr. Michael P. V. Barrett is the Vice President for Academic Affairs of the Whitefield College of the Bible, the Theological Seminary of the Free Presbyterian Church of North America. For almost thirty years, he was a professor of Ancient Languages and Old Testament Theology and Interpretation at Bob Jones University Seminary. His other works include "Complete in Him: A Guide to Understanding and Enjoying the Gospel."

Reviews

[Dustin Battles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael Barrett is perhaps one of the most unsung exemplars of modern theological writing. His writing is thoroughly Reformed, but doesn't simply accept Reformed teaching as truth, instead ensuring it matches the truth of the Bible by careful exposition. This book's topic is Hosea, but this does not mean that it is a commentary. Instead, it is a book discussing the message and apparent problems in Hosea, and includes an appendix on the issue surrounding Matthew's quotation of Hosea. Highly recommend this book for layman and scholar alike.

[Stephen Hoogerhyde · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1961, Frank Sinatra recorded Hoagy Carmichael's famous "Stardust" for the second and last time in his career. This time, however, he only recorded the verse, and not the entire song, which meant the recording was over very quickly. Reading this book left me with a similar feeling, as though Barrett was just getting started.

Relax; the book is good (as was Sinatra's recording). Barrett's intention as expressed in the Introduction should have clued me in: "this is not a commentary. Rather, this will be a theological overview of Hosea's message with a view to its gospel application." And so it is.

Barrett begins by discussing the biographical background of Hosea, and the historical context in which he lived and prophesied. Next he gives the prophetic and especially the covenantal context in which Hosea prophesied. Chapter 3 is a terrific chapter on its own as a summary of God's covenant as expressed throughout the Old Testament and pointing forward to Christ the Redeemer.

In Part 2, Barrett examines the biblical model of marriage as a symbol of the relationship between God and his people, and looks specifically at Hosea and Gomer's relationship and what that signified to Hosea's audience. In Part 3, Barrett reviews the main points of Hosea's prophecy: God's gracious covenant with his chosen people, their rebellion and breaking of that covenant, his continuing love despite their rejection, and the way for them to repent and return.

Although the book is not a commentary on the book of Hosea, it does contain multiple references throughout, to verses in every chapter of the book. Barrett consistently shows how Hosea points to Christ, and does so not in a forced way, but by demonstrating how the text and the context of Old Testament prophecy and theology show the way. The book also contains an appendix in which he treats Matthew's reference to Hosea in Matthew 2:15, and demonstrates how Matthew by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit understand Hosea's pointing to Christ.

I highly recommend this book, and not just for how it illumines the book of Hosea.

[Bob Price · Rating 2 out of 5]

When you write about a book of the Bible, you probably should mainly stick to that book.

Michael Barrett's Love Divine and Unfailing is ostensibly about the Biblical Prophet Hosea. However, it suffers from the fact that he wants to import his own theological constructs onto the book that he spends very little time actually dealing with Hosea.

Hosea is the first of the minor prophets and he has bad things to say about Israel. He is also most famous for his marriage to a prostitute.

Barrett presents three main sections. Part one is background setting, part two deals with the marriage and part three deals with the covenant.

Barrett's background is done very well but he gets into trouble when he starts talking about the marriage. He, like many other interpreters don't want to accept that God commanded Hosea to marry a prostitute. His solution is to default to Reformed theology in order to explain that Hosea was commanded to marry a woman who might become a prostitute. He tries to both accept the text of the Bible, but only as interpreted through Reformed eyes.

While acknowledging that he is not giving us a commentary, Barrett spends too much time describing concepts from other parts of the Bible. While this might be good Biblical theology, it doesn't give us good exegesis from Hosea. I would have rather Barrett do more exegetical work to demonstrate how the text of Hosea supports Reformed theology.

The best part of the book is the appendix where Barrett deals with Matthew's quotations of Hosea 11:1. I suspect this is because of the recent controversy within certain Presbyterian denominations, but it would have been nice to see this type of work throughout the book. I would rather have Barrett demonstrate how Hosea's prophesy contribute to the gospel than have a book written to explain Reformed theology with reference to Hosea's work.

Barrett's writing is clear and non-technical. This is a book for lay people, not for clergy. However, if you are interested in the Old Testament or in Hosea, you may want to consider reading it.

I have enjoyed other volumes in the Gospel According to the Old Testament and I am disappointed that this volume did not live up to the work of the others in the series.

Grade: C

[Benny Hensel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve never read an Old Testament commentary! This was a great one to start with. I like how accessible Barrett’s writing is and how he deals with overall themes instead of going verse by verse

[Vanessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent insight on what I consider one of the most important books in the Bible

[Jonathan Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good introduction to Hosea. Now I have to admit I was going to give this two stars early on, but then it dawned on me....this is not a commentary on the Book of Hosea, it is a Biblical Theology/Gospel According to Hosea. Now I know what you think, doesn't it say that in the title? Well yes, but honestly I am a little slow and dense. And I probably missed it in the introduction, but it all clicked when I read "If you have picked up this book expecting an expositional commentary, you have been disappointed....My concern was to put in focus the big picture that will ultimately help us understand the details and grasp the significance of Hosea's message." Long story short this book shows us how the gospel is clear in the Book of Hosea, and that makes this book invaluable. You really need to read this book. Recommended

[Bendick Ong · Rating 4 out of 5]

The subtitle explains the emphasis of this excellent book - focusing on the gospel contained in the Old Testament book of Hosea, the writer concentrates on the covenantal relationship between God and His people through Christ, symbolised by the marriage of Hosea and Gomer. To get the gist of the writer's main thrust, one can read the conclusion first (which even he himself think is not a bad idea) - this would help the reader stay focus on the main point. However, it is also good to read from front to back, keeping conclusion for the last - following the writer as his delivery unfolds.

[Kelton Zacharias · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good example of how your theology of the covenants informs your understanding of the gospel in the Old Testament – but contains typical Covenant Theology errors.