God loves His people with a relentless love.
The prophet Hosea heard and obeyed one of Scripture’s most disconcerting commands—an instruction from the Lord to take for himself “a wife of harlotry” (Hos. 1:2). Hosea married a woman named Gomer, who bore him two sons and a daughter, then left her family and resumed her adulterous lifestyle (1:1—2:5). When Hosea found her in the marketplace on sale as a slave, he bought her and brought her home, showing her relentless love (3:2).
Hosea preached to the northern kingdom of Israel during years of temporary prosperity. Although four of the six kings who reigned during this period were assassinated, Assyrian weakness enabled Israel to expand its territory and reinvigorate its financial systems. What was good for the nation’s economy, however, was bad for its spiritual life. In the midst of affluence, people rejected God and turned to idolatry as never before. The nation found itself in a pattern of chronic rebellion against the Lord.
The kingdom found it easy to turn a deaf ear to the prophet Hosea’s message. But Hosea endured his wife’s infidelity as an illustration of God’s love for wayward Israel. Through the prophet’s life and pleading messages, we see and hear the impact of human infidelity toward God. There is more at stake than unkept commands. God is a brokenhearted husband who longs for a pure relationship with His people. He vows, “I will betroth you to Me forever; yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and mercy” (2:19).
Hosea proclaimed his prophecies during the last thirty years before Samaria fell and Israel was taken captive by the Assyrians (722 B.C.). The book sometimes refers to Israel as Ephraim, which was the largest tribe among the ten tribes of the northern kingdom (5:3, 5, 11, 13).
Key Verses in Hosea
• “You are sons of the living God” (Hos. 1:10).
• “I will say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people!’ ” (Hos. 2:23).
• “I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (Hos. 6:6).
• “Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD, till He comes and rains righteousness on you” (Hos. 10:12).
• “O Death, I will be your plagues! O Grave, I will be your destruction!” (Hos. 13:14).