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!

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.