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Bible Overview is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in Bible study. Each month we feature a book of the Bible (in order) by Bible scholar and lecturer, Mary Jane Chaignot.
This month’s entry is Hosea, named for the prophet who preached to the Northern kingdom in its waning years. This is the first book of the Minor Prophets, and it is a book that cannot be understood apart from its historical setting. Hosea was called to preach a message of judgment and destruction beginning at a time when Israel was highly prosperous and terribly disinterested. The blessings and curses inherent in the text are rooted in the Sinai covenant. And though the book seems preoccupied with doom and gloom, there are reminders throughout that God’s blessings will prevail at some point in the future. If you want to read some of the history previous to this selection, you can find the earlier books in our archives.
The Bible Time-Line is another quick reference resource for locating individuals or specific books. We encourage readers to share their Bible Study success stories on this site. Email us at overview@biblewise.com to be included on next month's site.
Hosea
For some scholars, the book of Hosea is nothing short of an embarrassment. On the face of it, the story of Hosea’s marriage to a prostitute leaves much to be desired in terms of inspired reading. Yet, Hosea was able to take that experience and transform it through his preaching into one of the most powerful and intimate images involving God’s ways with the world. Indeed, it has earned him the designation of being “the prophet of love.” It is a story that is rooted in its historical setting.
Despite having very little biographical information about Hosea the person, scholars have been able to date his prophecies with some accuracy. It is believed that he began his ministry before the death of Jeroboam II (747-746 BCE). Most accept that it was sometime between 760-753. Hosea stopped short of describing the actual fall of Israel to Assyria in 722 BCE, so it is thought that his work ended before that. But some scholars think he might have worked right up to that time. In short, then, his prophetic ministry might have extended 30-40 years and included both the northern and southern kingdoms. And what turbulent decades those were!
Jeroboam II had reigned in the northern kingdom for forty-one years. He was one of those kings who “did evil in the eyes of the Lord” because he did not undo the sins of his predecessor. Nonetheless, Jeroboam was a gifted administrator. Together with his counterpart in Judah, King Uzziah (who also had a long and prosperous reign), they were able to restore their borders nearly to what the Israelites had enjoyed during the glory days of David and Solomon. The kings were a force to be reckoned with, both economically and politically. They, of course, benefited from the fact that the major international powers were jockeying among themselves for position during that time. While the powerful nations were preoccupied with each other, the smaller nations prospered and grew. Unfortunately, Jeroboam’s administrative skills did not include concern for Israel’s covenantal religion, and during those flourishing years, the people degenerated into sinning openly. “High places” were common, and people regularly worshiped Baal and Asherah. Part of their worship may have included the sexual activity typically associated with those religions.
This was the atmosphere that compelled God to command Hosea to marry a “woman of harlotry.” It was an atmosphere wherein people were outwardly prosperous but inwardly bankrupt. Nor should it come, then, as a surprise that shortly after the death of Jeroboam, the country found itself facing the intrigues and pressures of the international community. Having turned away from God for decades, they naturally turned to other kingdoms for aid, ultimately to no avail. Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria invaded Israel in 733 BCE. The next king, Shalmaneser V, put the capital city of Samaria under siege in 724. When it capitulated in 722 BCE, it signified the end of Israel as a sovereign nation.
Into this deteriorating situation, Hosea preached a message for the nation. But what a message! Hosea had a completely different perspective on everything. He saw how God had become like a husband to Israel, from the time he had delivered them out of Egypt. He had made a covenant with them, as binding as any marriage contract. He had cared for them throughout the wilderness and showered them with gifts (land, prosperity, abundance). But Israel had been a rebellious people from the start. As soon as they had entered the Promised Land, they ran after other gods. And the more God tried to woo them back, the less obedient they had become, until, finally, God was all but forgotten.
Hosea identified this as a sin of harlotry, and primarily held the religious leaders accountable for leading the people astray. Judgment against them would be especially severe. The political leaders didn’t fare any better; their sin was that they turned to human alliances for their security. The people, in choosing to follow these leaders, had also contributed to the sealing of their own fate. Hosea’s message, then, was one of inevitable destruction. He felt it was too late for Israel to repent and return to God. The country was doomed. But unlike some of the other prophets who only focused on judgment, Hosea also preached that obliteration would not be the final word. Ultimately, God, and God alone, would save Israel – but no one would know when or how.
The most amazing thing about Hosea, of course, is that his life embodied his prophetic commission. His unfaithful “wife” represented unfaithful Israel; his three children represented increasing degrees of hopelessness. He understood firsthand the suffering occasioned by such faithlessness and spoke of his pain. His world, his life, his wife, became a prophecy of what God would do to Israel. Needless to say, this raises many issues for modern readers. The violence and oppression towards women and children is patently offensive. The threats of public humiliation and prayers for miscarriage are hardly consonant with “love.” The question, of course, is whether this is literally true or only metaphorically true. Some have argued that God would never have called upon a prophet to marry a prostitute – someone inherently unclean. Others point out that only priests were prohibited from marrying anyone unclean. Nothing was ever said about prophets. Additionally, there is little indication from Hosea that this was only symbolic. Most scholars agree that the allegory between Hosea’s marriage and God’s relationship to Israel works best if Gomer became unfaithful after they were married. In that case, God’s instruction to him to marry a “woman of harlotry” was proleptic, foreshadowing his trials to come. In like manner, God had chosen Israel despite his knowing that they would become unfaithful to him. The central theme, then, in Hosea concerns the breaking of the covenant. And despite Israel’s running after other gods, God continued to love Israel and wanted them to return to him. So notwithstanding Hosea’s harsh message, he returned again and again to the message of hope, of restoration, of the glad time to come when God would “speak tenderly” to Israel and “sing as in the days of her youth.”
There are two main divisions: Hosea’s Marriage and Children 1-3; Israel’s Punishment, Indictment, and Restoration 4-14.
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