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We're going to move on now to our second literary prophet and this is the prophet Hosea. He
was a native of the northern kingdom [northern kingdom, Israel ]. So Amos and Hosea you're
going to associate with the Assyrian crisis and they are prophets of the northern kingdom
of Israel. He's prophesying in the time of Jeroboam II. Jeroboam reigned until about
747. And then he continues to the last king who is, confusingly, named Hosea. So he prophesies
in the 740s, '30s, '20s, somewhere in there. He doesn't seem to have seen the fall of Israel
though. Now, Hosea is considered by many to be the most difficult of the prophetic books.
The Hebrew is very difficult and it sometimes seems rather garbled. It's very hard to render
it intelligibly. But structurally, we can divide the book into
two main sections. Chapters 1 to 3 have a certain coherence to them, and then chapters
4 through 14. 1 to 3 tells of the prophet's marriage to a promiscuous woman named Gomer.
His marriage is a metaphor for Israel's relationship with God. And these chapters also contain
an indictment or a lawsuit. Remember this riv form, lawsuit form. We're going to see
it both in Hosea and Isaiah today. Then chapters 4 through 14 contain oracles primarily, oracles
against the nations but also against the Kingdom of Israel. We're going to be focusing primarily
on chapters 1 to 3 since these are so distinctive to Hosea and we'll refer occasionally to some
of the other chapters where they might pronounce an important theme for Hosea.
So again, the historical background for the Book of Hosea is the Assyrian threat. The
Assyrians are wiping out a number of the smaller states in the Ancient Near East in the middle
of the eighth century. And Israel obviously could not be far behind. The line that was
taken by Hosea was to condemn the attempts that were made by various kings, by Israel's
kings, to withstand defeat or to avoid defeat at the hands of Assyria. If Assyria was going
to conquer Israel, Hosea said, then it was God's just punishment. And to fight against
it, to fight against the inevitable was simply another kind of rejection of God, another
rejection of his plans and purpose. It demonstrated a lack of trust or faith in the power of God.
Hosea 10:13 spells out the disastrous consequences of trusting in human power or foreign alliances
rather than trusting in God. And this is a theme that we'll see occurring again and again.
Hosea 10:13, "You have plowed wickedness, / you have reaped iniquity-- / [And] you
shall eat the fruits of treachery-- / Because you relied on your way, / On your host of
warriors." He was suggesting inaction. Now, that surely would have been viewed by the
king and the court as against all reason. But this was Hosea's insistence. Israel was
faced with a choice. In whom should she place her trust? In God, or in human leaders and
their armies? Hosea 1:7 goes so far as to suggest that actually
the moment of decision has past for the northern kingdom. There's still some hope for the southern
kingdom, but the northern kingdom has obviously made its choice and it was the wrong choice.
Hosea says that God says, "…I will no longer accept the house of Israel
or pardon them. But I will accept the House of Judah. And I will give them victory through
the Lord their God;" -- a victory through the Lord their God. "I will not give them
victory with bow and sword and battle, by horses and riders."
If you think that's what gives you victory you're mistaken. Some see that verse as perhaps
a later interpolation into Hosea; it has such a positive assessment of the southern kingdom.
But there is this sense of impending disaster that resonates throughout the Book of Hosea.
Chapter 8:7, "They sow wind, / And they shall reap whirlwind-- / Standing stalks devoid
of ears / And yielding no flour. / If they do yield any, Strangers shall devour it.
/ Israel is bewildered;" So the catastrophe is unavoidable, and Hosea's often been described
as painting a portrait of unrelieved gloom. He's very grim. He seems to hold out no real
hope for Israel. She has to pay the price for her infidelity to God.