quote:
Hosea 2:16

And it shall be, in that day,”
Says the LORD,
“That you will call Me ‘My Husband (Alef Yod Ayin) eesh ,’
And no longer call Me ‘My Master (Bet Ayin, Lamed, Yod) Bah-al-ee,

I wanted to address this one thing because, the Holy Spirit seems to love using puns in the book of Hosea. The word used for husband here is the 'Eesh' (Alef Yod Ayin). I think the Holy Spirit is pointing to something greater in this entire book (and the very history of Israel, the Cross and the world of gentiles now able to come to the feet of their redeemer). The Holy Spirit correctly uses the word bah-al-ee (Bet Ayin Lamed Yod H1180) Strong's Concordance Bah-al-ee which is similar to Baal (or Lord). It is an intentional play on another Hebrew word for Husband (bah'-al, made up of the Bet Ayin Lamed without the yod H1167). Strong's Concordance bah'-al , because God loves us and desires to dwell with us even though we as people mess up over and over again. I think the whole point of Hosea is confusing story until you understand God's love for his bride... His people. In the Old Testament Israel practiced idolatry over and over again, which was analogous to harlotry in this book made clear...going after other gods, even though His everlasting covenant of the law with them was already established with them. He did not forget them nor forsake, nor did he cast them off, nor did the Church replace Israel, rather there is a separate plan for for the Church as there is for Israel. But the eyes of Israel will be opened when the full harvest of the gentiles comes in (paraphrase of Romans 11:25). Some of the mysteries of book of Ruth unravels (many generations before Christ). It tells the story of how the remnant of Israel (Naomi) and the Gentiles (Ruth) need to work together for the total plan of redemption. It tells the story of how Naomi's husband died. (Jesus also died), and how the her family was scattered and sown throughout the world, just like Israel was scattered and sown throughout the world within a hundred years of the death of Jesus. It also tells of their return to reclaim their land, just as bitter Naomi did without her family, except for Ruth (a gentile bride). The story takes place during the harvest of the barley and the wheat, (right in line with the times of Passover at the time of Barley harvest - Old Testament saints) to Pentecost at the time of the Wheat harvest the Church age saints, the threshing and gathering the grain and staying/sleeping with the precious harvest into the long hours of the night (midnight is mentioned) to protect the harvest to protect the seed from a thief in the night. (Images of Matthew 3:12 seem to come to mind here) The bride coming to rest at the feet of (Jesus?) to ask Him to redeem take her as His own and for Naomi to redeem her land. The book shows how the kinsman redeemer (Boaz a "type of" resurrected Christ) redeems both the people and the land, and he does it by His own free will out of love as it is already His inheritance to possess.

Romans 7:1-4 explains reconciles how the bride is both Israel and the Church and that when God himself (Jesus) died and resurrected, it changed everything! (That is good news to those that will believe)!

quote:
Romans 7:1-4

1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law rules over a man as long as he lives? 2 For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. 4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.