Overview

The prophet Hosea lived in the northern kingdom of Israel under the reign of Jeroboam II (2 Kings 14:23-29). His book is a collection of twenty-five years' worth of preaching collected together and organised, much like Isaiah. Hosea’s preaching was aimed at the northern kingdom, warning them of the future destruction and exile that they would face, placing Hosea in the pre-exilic prophets.

Hosea 1-3 - Hosea’s marriage to Gomer

Hosea 4-11 - Israel’s broken covenant

• Hosea 4-10 - Israel’s unfaithfulness

• Hosea 11 - God’s compassion and mercy

Hosea 12-14 - Lessons from the past

• Hosea 12-13 - Israel’s history is one of rebellion

• Hosea 14 - A call to repentance and assurance of forgiveness

The primary names Hosea uses to describe the northern kingdom are ‘Israel’ or ’Ephraim’. Occasionally, he also uses Israel to refer to the whole nation, but normally the context makes that clear.

The key themes of Hosea are Israel’s rebellion and God’s mercy. Hosea highlights that the people were rebellious in the past, they are rebellious now, and will continue to be rebellious. Because of this, God will give them over to the consequences of their rebellion. But despite this, God’s love and mercy will ultimately overcome their sin and rebellion. He will restore them to himself and cause them to flourish again.

These themes are embodied in the opening section of the book, focused on Hosea’s marriage to an unfaithful woman Gomer. Through Gomer, Israel is portrayed as an unfaithful woman turning to other men and then experiencing the consequences of that. Through Hosea, God is a faithful husband who remains steadfast and loyal, committed to redeeming his unfaithful wife.

Hosea 1-5

It all starts with God telling Hosea to marry a prostitute. This was to be a real life demonstration of God's relationship with Israel, who have been acting like the prostitute worshipping other gods.

So Hosea marries a prostitute called Gomer and they have their first child. God says to call this child Jezreel as a prophetic statement, because God is going to destroy king Jehu at the Valley of Jezreel. You may remember Jehu from 2 Kings 9-10. He was the overzealous king that killed everyone he could, but still sinned against God.

Then Gomer has a second child, a girl. God says to call this child 'no mercy' or 'not loved' as a prophetic statement that he will soon no longer have mercy on Israel for their sin. It is likely that this second child was not Hosea's but resulted from Gomer prostituting herself again and committing adultery. God’s command to Hosea was to “take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom” (Hosea 1:2) so this shouldn’t be too surprising.

Gomer then has a third child, also likely not to have been Hosea's. God says this one shall be named 'not my people' because Israel are no longer God's people. But God turns it around, and predicts that there will come a day when he will have mercy on Israel, and while they have not been his people, he will once again call them 'children of God'.

Next is one of Hosea's preaches to Israel. The message is very much to Israel, but it is likely that Hosea is drawing on the imagery of his own life to create this preach. The imagery is that Israel, the mother, has been prostituting herself around, worshipping other gods, and so has born children, a people who, if they are not careful, will continue in her footsteps.

Hosea is encouraging the people of Israel to turn and change the ways of the kingdom of Israel. In his preach, Hosea is speaking from the perspective of God. In it, God identifies that Israel is chasing after different gods, different lovers. So his response is to hem her in with brambles and walls so she can't get to her lovers, hoping she will eventually give up and go back to her first husband, God.

He accuses her of not recognising that he was the source of all her blessing and fruitfulness. So his response is to take all that away and leave her with nothing. He then accuses her of making offerings to the Baals, the different gods.

His response to this one is to woo her back. She will once again call God her husband and he will make a new covenant with her. He will remove all the weapons of war, and renew his commitment to her, and pour out fresh blessing on her. And in that day he will have mercy on a people that he'd had no mercy for, and he will take those who were not his people and call them his people. Can you see how, even though this is a message for Israel, Hosea's personal life bleeds all the way through this?

We then pop back to Hosea. By this point, going from how Hosea is speaking in his preach above, it is likely that Gomer has left Hosea and has gone pack to prostituting herself. During that time, she's got herself enslaved and in debt to other men. So God tells Hosea to buy back his wife. Go love her again as a prophetic example of how God will rescue Israel from slavery and be her husband again.

And so Hosea does exactly that. He buys her back, and though it looks like he's telling her off, he's renewing the covenant vows of their marriage with her. They will live together, and they will not pursue other lovers. They will be dedicated to one another.

This ends the first section of Hosea that focuses on the example of his own marriage. The second section of Hosea is God pointing out how the northern kingdom of Israel has been unfaithful and then telling them how he will respond. God lists out Israel’s offences. They swear, lie, murder, steal, and commit adultery. The very land grieves the sin committed on it.

The people had turned their back on knowing God and so lacked the understanding to live right. The people were greedy, and the more they sinned, the more they wanted to sin. They turned to other gods and to idols. So possessed by this vicious circle, the people are no longer able to turn back to God. The only option is to let them reach rock bottom. To be destroyed and oppressed by other nations, leading to exile.

Psalm 122

This psalm is attributed to king David and is named as a psalm of ascent. These psalms were sung by worshippers as they ascended to Jerusalem for the three pilgrimage festivals (Passover, Festival of Weeks, and Festival of Tabernacles) or possibly by the Levites as they ascended the steps of the Temple. Psalm 120-134 are all psalms of ascent. 

Psalm 122:1-2 - Let’s go to the house of the Lord

Psalm 122:3-5 - Jerusalem, the throne of David

Psalm 122:6-9 - A prayer for the peace and prosperity of Jerusalem

Continuing our journey from a foreign land towards Jerusalem in Psalm 120-121 now the psalmist finds themselves outside the gates of Jerusalem. They are excited because they have come to the house of the Lord. They are nearing the end of their journey.

The psalmist then takes a moment to reflect on the city. It is a secure city in which all the tribes of Israel gather together to give thanks to the Lord. It is the place that the Lord set up his kingdom and his king.

This leads the psalmist to pray a prayer of peace and prosperity over Jerusalem. May Jerusalem continue to be a place of peace and security for the sake of the house of the Lord.

This psalm is written into a context where Jerusalem was the seat of God’s presence. Today, we believe that God’s presence dwells in every believer. Because of this, the modern equivalent for us would be to be to eagerly seek more of God’s presence and to pray for peace and prosperity wherever we go so that God’s presence and kingdom might flourish more in our communities.