Last week we went through chapter 2. Hosea Chapter 2 uses the heartbreaking reality of Hosea’s broken marriage as an intense, extended metaphor for God’s fractured relationship with Israel. In this chapter, God alternates between fierce judgment against Israel’s spiritual unfaithfulness and a deeply tender promise of future reconciliation. God commands the children of the family to plead with their mother (symbolizing Israel as a corporate nation) to stop her “whoredoms.” To stop her destructive behavior, God promises…

Last week I gave you the background, and we went through chapter 1 of Hosea. The LORD commanded Hosea to take a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms to be an illustrative message to Israel who had “played the harlot” with many Canaanite gods. Hosea took Gomer to be his wife and she had three children. The first was fathered by Hosea while the other two were products of her unfaithfulness. The three children were named by God and were a sign of judgment that was coming upon Israel. Jezreel – God scatters, Lo-ruhamah – no mercy, Lo-ammi – you are not my people. The chapter closes with the promise of restoration and blessing for Israel in the last days.

The prophecies given by Hosea took place in the eighth century BC. The northern kingdom of Israel experienced a deceptive mix of surface wealth and deep moral decay before being crushed by the Assyrian Empire. Hosea’s name means “salvation” or “deliverance” and his prophetic ministry spans roughly 40 to 60 years. That makes his time as a prophet one of the longest recorded of any in the Bible.