Hosea

Overview

Hosea prophesied to the northern kingdom of Israel during a period of political instability and rampant idolatry in the decades leading up to Israel's fall to Assyria. His prophetic ministry began with a startling divine command: to marry Gomer, described as a wife of whoredoms, and to have children with her, whose very names, Jezreel, Lo-ruhamah ('not pitied'), and Lo-ammi ('not my people'), became living prophetic signs of coming judgment on Israel's covenant unfaithfulness. Gomer's repeated infidelity, and Hosea's costly decision to pursue and redeem her even after she sold herself into what appears to be slavery or prostitution, formed an extended, painful parable of God's own relationship with an idolatrous Israel, unfaithful yet still pursued by relentless covenant love. Hosea's prophecies alternate between severe warnings of judgment and some of the Old Testament's most tender expressions of God's determination to heal and restore his wayward people.