OLD TESTAMENT | MINOR PROPHETS
The Book of Hosea
THE SYMBOLIC PROPHET
I won’t lie to you, this prophet is incredibly strange but wow, what a commitment to the symbolic and prophetic message that God gave him! Hosea outworks his prophetic message through his life and demonstrates the message of forgiveness in his marriage and his family as a symbol of God’s forgiveness to Israel. This book will inspire and, perhaps, weird you out a little, but you have to read it to truly grasp all it is saying. Its message of the bride of Christ echoes into the New Testament.
Part One
DIVE - LET ME SHOW YOU WHAT A BROKEN HEART FEELS LIKE | Dr Katie Haldane
There is no way to dress this one up or step around the fact that the Book of Hosea is a little weird. From the beginning you are like, “What! Did I read that right! Did the LORD really say to Hosea, ‘Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the LORD’?” Talk about commitment to the prophetic message! Hosea is a Jewish prophet, so to marry a promiscuous woman goes against his religion and calling. Imagine him telling his relatives, “God told me to marry her!” I love the prophets of the Old Testament, they are truly committed to the prophetic symbolism of God’s message!
DEEP DIVE - A REDEMPTIVE KIND OF LOVE | Ella Hickey
Hosea lived roughly in the mid-eighth century BCE, around the same time as the prophet Amos. However, what makes Hosea so unique in the Bible is that his prophetic activity and insights are the only ones in scripture that are about the Northern Kingdom of Israel from a local’s perspective, whereas Amos viewed Israel through the eyes of a Judahite. Amos tends to focus more on ethical issues, and Hosea religious, namely, Yahweh being the one and only God and Saviour.
Studying Hosea?
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Continue your Old Testament journey - Joel