Hosea Introduction

Hosea claimed that his message was the “word of the LORD” (1:1). God’s call came in the form of a command to marry an unfaithful woman, and so the prophet’s family life became a model for God’s relationship with Israel. Like his predecessor Amos, Hosea preached to the entire people of God, both Israel and Judah, but he stressed the coming judgment against the northern tribes (Israel).

Hosea wrote in a highly emotional tone, showing the Lord, as it were, agonizing over the consequences of judgment against his beloved Israel. This literary technique was intended to seal the message of God’s everlasting love for his people in their hearts more powerfully.

At the exodus from Egypt, the Lord established a covenant with Israel. Hosea told the nation that they had broken not only the covenant but also the Lord’s heart. God had loved them from the beginning, still loved them, and would always love them; but the people had spurned his love like an adulterous woman rejecting her husband. In following after false gods they participated in various rites of drunken and sexual debaucheries. They resorted to violence and relied on foreign nations to solve their political problems.

Hosea preached a tough love. God had to judge Israel’s destructive behavior. The Assyrians would destroy Israel and send her into captivity. That disaster would set into motion a process of refinement that would result in restoration. God’s covenant love is not like Israel’s—fickle and quickly evaporating. God’s love endures forever. Someday those who are no longer God’s people will once again be called “my people,” and once again they will say of the Lord, “You are my God” (2:23).

The book of Hosea gives insight into the character of God. He is the sovereign Lord over history and has the absolute right to bring judgment against his people, but he exercises that right only after bearing with them with long-suffering mercy. Eventually sin requires drastic action, but the Lord still has plans to give his people a future.

The Lord requires that all people must worship him alone, and they must treat each other justly. Hosea shows us what it means to “love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Dt 6:5) as well as to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Lv 19:18). Hosea’s message that God loves his people even when he has to discipline them is needed for any people who ignore their Creator and treat their fellow human beings as things that get in the way of personal pleasure.