Hosea says this, Israel is going to become not the people of God but some day brought back to being the people of God. That's what it's saying. Now listen very carefully. Obviously was... The prophet was referring to the rejection by Israel of God. And then the judgment that came on them and the restoration. And he really lived to see that. He lived to see that northern kingdom conquered by the Assyrians, devastated by the Assyrians. The people of Israel became, in a very real sense, not the people of God. What does that mean? God took His hands off and they were scattered, weren't they? And there was no more pity for them. And they were not His people. And yet after all of the devastation of the conquering of the northern kingdom, all the devastation of the conquering of the southern kingdom, God brought them back, didn't He? God brought them back to the land. God gave them back their land, gave them back their temple, gave them back their nation, gave them back their identity. And so historically then what you have here is a prophecy related to Israel being scattered, not any longer pitied or cared for by God, and no longer having a relationship with Him and yet some day being brought back from that and becoming a people who were once not a people.
Now when you read in verse 25 of Romans 9, "I will call them My people who were not My people and call her beloved who was not beloved," you know what he's talking about, don't you? He's talking about Israel. There's no other way to explain it. He has to be talking about Israel because that's who Hosea is talking about.
You say, "Why is this important?" Listen carefully. It's important because what it means is that the prophets of old saw that Israel would enter into unbelief. So listen, when Hosea wrote, that had an immediate historical fulfillment, didn't it? As the people were severed from God, and carried off into captivity from which eventually God brought back the southern kingdom and a remnant of the northern kingdom. So the prophecy was historically fulfilled in the restoration after the Babylonian captivity. But that was only the first and historical fulfillment. There was yet a future prophetic perspective. And Paul here identifies it with the unbelief of the Jews during the time of Christ. He says, "Look, we are not surprised now when we see Jewish unbelief and we see them separating themselves from God and we see them denying the gospel. We are not surprised now when they enter into unbelief and sever themselves from God. Because Hosea said that that's the kind of people they were. And Hosea saw it in the immediate sense and the Spirit of God saw in the very words He gave to Hosea the future sense."
So the Holy Spirit applies through Paul what Hosea saw historically to the time of Christ. And the Israel of Christ is also a prostitute, also a harlot who has abandoned God and forsaken God. And the truth was in 70 A.D. what happened to them? Scattered, not pitied and not My people. The whole historical scene took place again at the devastation of Jerusalem when the Jews were scattered. And have they suffered? Have they suffered? It's as if God does not pity them, isn't it? They're not His people for this period of time.
And so when we read the passage in Hosea then, we say yes, God anticipated the unbelief of Israel both in Hosea's time and here the Holy Spirit tells us even in the time of the apostle Paul, the time of Christ. So the unbelief of Israel doesn't violate God's plan, it does what? It fits it. It's a tremendous thing. It fits God's plan. Israel is not now the people of God. They are a not pitied people. They are a scattered people.
You say, "Is this permanent?" No it's not permanent, look back at verse 25 again and see what it says. "I will call them My people who were not My people and her beloved who was not beloved." It even refers to the time of restoration, doesn't it? It even refers to the time when they'll be called back. Israel is not now the people of God but they will be. Look at chapter 11 verse 1. "I say then, hath God cast away His people?" I mean, is this permanent? "God forbid." Verse 2: "God hath not cast away His people." Look at verse 26 in the same chapter. "And so all Israel shall be (What?) saved." And verse 27 says, "For this is My covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins."
In other words, those who are not now a people will become a people. Those who are not now beloved will become beloved. But the point of the text is just to show you that for the time we are not surprised at the unbelief of Israel. We saw it historically. And that historical unbelief became prophetic of the unbelief that exists since the time of Christ until their belief comes during the time of the tribulation prior to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. So we're in the time when Israel fulfills the prophecy of Hosea. They are a scattered, not pitied, not My people.