Meet Hosea

Prophets were called to speak for God and deliver God’s messages to the people of Israel and Judah in the form of speeches, sermons, visions and/or life experiences.  Hosea was a prophet in the Northern Kingdom (Israel).  The name Hosea means “salvation”.  Hosea began his ministry when Israel, under Jeroboam II, was at the height of their power and continued through periods of Israel’s political and spiritual weakness. 



Hosea was God’s man for a difficult era spiritually.  Israel in Hosea’s time was a spiritual mess.  “Prosperity had brought an unprecedented degree of cultural corruption.  The much-sought-after political power had opened Israel to foreign cultural influence, including the demoralizing influence of Canaanite Baal worship.⁸ “ (Hosea 2:7, 17; 11:2)

É       With regard to prosperity/power bringing cultural corruption, how/why do you think this comes about?   How do you see this playing out in our society today?

We’ll see a lot of the downfall of Israel coming from their worship of other gods, including Baal.  Here is a reference regarding Baal worship⁹…

Ba‘al religion revolved around the cycles of nature necessary for survival and prosperity in the ancient world, primarily growing crops or raising livestock, as well as the growth of human populations. Not surprisingly, in an arid and agriculturally marginal area of the world the fertility of land and crops played a large role in Canaanite world view. Also as expected, water was a major element of the myth and its images. Likewise, in an environment where human existence was often precarious for a variety of reasons human fertility was an important concern, not only for survival, but also due to the fact that people were one of the most important resources.

The Israelites never abandoned the worship of God (Yahweh). They simply added the worship of Ba‘al to their worship of Yahweh (called syncretism). They had one God for crises and another god for everyday life. The actual worship of Ba‘al was carried out in terms of imitative magic whereby sexual acts by both male and female temple prostitutes were understood to arouse Ba‘al who then brought rain to make Mother Earth fertile (in some forms of the myth, represented by a female consort, Asherah or Astarte).

É       While we don’t worship Baal in our society today, what kinds of things does our culture tend to “worship” to meet our needs (even while often still worshiping God)?

The book of Hosea is broken into two broad primary categories:

·         Chapters 1-3:  The biographical narration of Hosea’s marriage and life with Gomer.

·         Chapters 4-14:  The message, with themes of sin, punishment and restoration.

Throughout the book we can see the behaviors related to Israel’s downfall.  We’ll touch on many of them throughout the study, but here is a sample of what is to come. ¹⁰

·         Swearing, deception, murder, stealing, sexual vice (4:2)

·         Corrupt prophets and priests (4:4)

·         Lack of knowledge of God (4:6)

·         Opportunist religious leaders (4:7)

·         Harlotry & drunkenness (4:11)

·         Idol worship (4:12-13)

·         The more shameful their deeds, the more they loved and flaunted them (4:18)

·         Pride (5:5)

·         Instability, hypocrisy, ritual (6:4, 6:6)

·         Worldliness (7:8)

·         Corruption (9:9)

·         Backsliding (11:7)

·         Idolatry (13:2)

Quite a list!  No wonder they needed a stern message about repentance.  But are we any better today?  I don’t know about you, but all of these are convicting to me upon reflection…both personally and as it relates to our culture today. 

Let’s reflect on these things as we work through the study, recognizing that it is not just Israel God is speaking to through Hosea.  For me, the timeline helps to put it in perspective.  I tend to think of Old Testament events as occurring sooooo long ago and the New Testament being fairly recent, but the messages from God to his people through Hosea was 1,360 years after God called Abraham.  Approximately 770 years later Jesus died for our salvation – still preaching the message, still warning us of the alternative.  As we read this study we are approximately 1,982 years from the death of Jesus.  It is all so relevant and timely for us today.

Something I have really been praying about as I work on this study and dig into Hosea is that it will result in clarity and a positive change in our lives.  I know there is some tough love in this book and I want it to be a wake-up call in a good way, not something that depresses us.  We have the benefit of God’s Word and the ability to learn through the story of others.  Know that Hosea is a beautiful story of God’s love, persistence seeking us out and redemption.  God is the same today as he was in Hosea’s time.  He is still in control and He is waiting patiently for us to fully come back to Him.

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