Hosea: A Prophetic Call to Return to Faithfulness

Have you ever watched a child or student look an authority figure directly in the eyes while getting instructions and then proceed to do the exact action they were instructed not to do? Israel betrayed God with that kind of willful defiance, which led God to call the prophet Hosea to bring a message to his people. Join Groundwork for our series, “Hosea: A Prophetic Call to Return to Faithfulness.” We’ll study the symbolic marriage between Hosea and Gomer, discuss the different sides of God’s heart we see as we examine his scathing judgments of Israel’s idolatry, and relish the grace he offers when he invites his people to return to him. 

God’s People Chose to Be Unfaithful

In the prophetic book of Hosea, God confronts Israel’s spiritual betrayal. One commentary I read used the phrase “willful unfaithfulness” to describe Israel’s behavior. If you’ve ever been a parent, a teacher, or a babysitter and watched a child look directly into the eyes of authority and commit the very act they know is against the rules…then you’ve experienced willful disobedience. They have full knowledge of their choice. It is very, very intentional defiance. It’s a challenge against the rule giver. Israel knew better. Their will and their intent were behind their choice to worship other gods. They couldn’t plead ignorance. Their relationship with God was damaged, and God was justifiably angry. So he sent prophets to warn them about the coming consequences for their actions. 

Hosea, the Prophet

Hosea is identified as the son of Beeri. He lived and prophesied during the final years before the northern kingdom of Israel was overthrown by the Assyrians. Hosea 1:1 identifies the kings who reigned in Israel and Judah at the time of Hosea’s prophecies, which dates his prophecies to about the middle of the eighth century B.C. We find the records of the evil and detestable things that happened in 2 Kings 14:23-20:21. Things were so bad that God sent multiple prophets to Israel and Judah. Isaiah, Amos, and Micah also prophesied around the same time as Hosea, though they were from the southern kingdom of Judah.

 A prophet was God’s mouthpiece to his people, delivering the words God gave them. Often, those messages were both spoken and visual. In Hosea’s case, it was both. The prophetic book opens with God instructing Hosea to intentionally marry an unfaithful, promiscuous woman to show Israel how they strayed from their relationship with him. Repeatedly through Hosea’s marriage to Gomer, God compares Israel’s unfaithfulness to Gomer’s unfaithfulness to Hosea. But in addition to Hosea’s prophetic marriage to Gomer, God also pronounced judgment against Israel through the prophet. 

God’s Grace 

In Hosea, God’s judgment is scathing—there are chapters and chapters of it. Yet judgment is never God’s last word. Through Hosea, the hope of God’s grace is clear. Just as Hosea redeems Gomer and brings her back, God also demonstrates his continuously generous grace and his desire for his people to return to their covenant relationship with him.

An Invitation

Reading Hosea can certainly feel depressing. The forewarned devastations for Israel did indeed come. Nevertheless, having the prophecies of Hosea in the Bible is another form of God’s grace to us. I invite you to discuss what we can learn today about our own hearts from this story and how this ancient prophecy still calls us to return to God through our Groundwork series, “Hosea: A Prophetic Call to Return to Faithfulness”:

• Unfaithful People and God's Grace - Hosea 1-3
• Remember, Repent, and Return - Hosea 4-10, 12-13
• God Longs to Restore His People - Hosea 11, 14

...and together, in the pages of Hosea, we’ll find an invitation to examine our own hearts; to read and ask, “What about me? What is the condition of my heart?”; confess where we have strayed; and let the promises of God’s grace be the last word in our lives, too.