Prophet: Hosea

When God chose Jeroboam to rule the northern ten tribes of Israel, He was prepared to establish Jeroboam’s bloodline the same way He’d done for David (1 Kings 11:38). Instead, King Jeroboam set up two golden calves and instituted a pagan priesthood—forever cementing his legacy as the one “who made Israel sin” (1 Kings 13:26).

While most of the Minor Prophets were from the Southern Kingdom, Hosea was from the North and ministered to the North.  In the years leading up to the fall of Samaria, Hosea warned that the people would become slaves in Assyria because they had forgotten God. They had even turned to Egypt for help, rather than trusting in God.

God wished to use Hosea to proclaim some truths to the people, but not by Hosea's words, but by the circumstances of his life. God told Hosea to marry a harlot. Hosea married her, and had children, but she left him and committed more adultery. God told him to go after her and bring her back, notwithstanding her sin. Hosea brought  back his adultrous wife and loved her in an even greater way, just as God would not forget his love for Israel and Judah, nor His promises to them. (Hosea’s marriage is thus symbolic of God’s covenant relationship with a backsliding Israel).

No other prophet so squarely focuses on the intimate relationship God holds with His people, even when they betray Him. Unfortunately, Israel did not listen to Hosea’s warnings (2 Kings 7:13–14). Like Jeremiah and Habakkuk, Hosea lives to see his prophecy of captivity come to pass. Hosea ministered during the days of southern kings Ahaz and Hezekiah (Hosea 1:1), who reigned when the Northern Kingdom was sacked and carried off by Assyria.