Hosea: Heartbroken Prophet
| A Living Parable of an Unfaithful Wife, 1-3 | A Loving Plea to an Unfaithful Nation, 4-14 |
| Hosea’s family, 1 | Israel’s sin, 4-8 |
| Hosea’s people, 2 | Israel’s judgement, 9-13 |
| Hosea’s response, 3 | Israel’s restoration, 14 |
Major characters
- Hosea (“Salvation”) – Prophet during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah; and Jeroboam II, king of Israel
- Gomer (“Complete, vanishing”) – Unfaithful wife of Hosea
- Jezreel (“God sows,” or “God will scatter”) – Firstborn son of Hosea and Gomer
- Lo-Ruhamah (“No mercy”) – Daughter of Gomer
- Lo-Ammi (“Not my people”) – Son of Gomer
Major themes
- Israel’s unfaithfulness to God
- Also called Ephraim or Samaria
- God’s broken heart, 7:13-16; 11:1-8; 14:4-9
- God’s judgement of Israel
- God’s restoration of Israel, 1:10-11; 2:14-23; 3:5; 14
- The knowledge of God, 4:1-6; 6:1-3; 8:1-2; 13:4
“The only message I find whenever I come to the close of one of these prophecies is something about God’s love… I expected to study a very magnificent section of prophecy in which I should hear stern, hard, magnificent Hebrew prophets thundering against sin. I found this even more than I had expected, but the supreme thing in every one of their prophecies is that the God with whom these men were intimate was known by them to be a God of tender love, of infinite compassion, angry because He loves, dealing in wrath upon the basis of His love, and proceeding through judgement to the ultimate purpose of His heart. It is the heartbeat of God that throbs through these pages.”
G. Campbell Morgan, The Minor Prophets: The Men and Their Message (Fleming Revell, 1960), pg. 111-112.
Christ in All the Scriptures
While there are no clear Messianic passages in the book, there is a strong parallel between Hosea and Gomer, God and Israel, and Christ and the Church. The desire of Christ is to call out a Bride for Himself, that He can present as spotless (Ephesians 5:27).