Hosea

God commands Hosea to marry Gomer, a promiscuous woman, as a living parable of God's relationship with unfaithful Israel. Their children receive prophetic names: Jezreel (God scatters), Lo-Ruhamah (no mercy), and Lo-Ammi (not my people).

God as the spurned husband will punish unfaithful Israel but ultimately woo her back. He will allure her into the wilderness, speak tenderly, and restore the relationship. She will call Him my husband instead of my master — a beautiful image of renewed intimacy.

God tells Hosea to buy back his adulterous wife, demonstrating His love for Israel despite her unfaithfulness. Hosea pays the price and asks Gomer to wait for him faithfully — a picture of redemption at great personal cost.

God brings charges against Israel: no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God. Priests fail to teach, the people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Spiritual and physical adultery are linked — Israel has left their God to give themselves to prostitution.

Judgment is pronounced against both Israel and Judah. Their pride testifies against them, and God will be like a moth and like rot to them — slow, persistent decay. Yet God will withdraw until they acknowledge their guilt and earnestly seek His face.

Israel's superficial repentance: Come, let us return to the Lord — but their love is like morning mist that quickly vanishes. God declares: I desire mercy, not sacrifice — a verse Jesus quotes twice. True knowledge of God matters more than religious ritual.

Israel is like a half-baked cake — heated on one side, raw on the other. Their hearts burn with intrigue like an oven, mixing with nations, calling to Egypt and Assyria. They are like a faulty bow that misses every target.

Israel sows the wind and reaps the whirlwind. They set up kings without God's consent, make idols from gold and silver, and their golden calf of Samaria will be destroyed. Israel has forgotten its Maker and built temples to itself.

Israel will return to captivity like another Egypt. The prophet is considered a fool, the spiritual man mad. Ephraim's glory will fly away — no birth, no pregnancy, no conception. God found Israel like grapes in the wilderness, but they turned to shame.

Israel is a luxuriant vine that produced fruit for itself. Their heart is divided, their altars will be destroyed, and thorns will grow over their high places. The call: Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap steadfast love, break up your fallow ground — it is time to seek the Lord.

God's tender heartbreak as a parent: When Israel was a child, I loved him — I taught Ephraim to walk, I carried them. But they turned away. God's heart recoils within Him; His compassion grows warm and tender. He will not execute His fierce anger because He is God, not man.

God recounts Jacob's history — wrestling with the angel, meeting God at Bethel — and challenges Israel to return like their ancestor did. Ephraim's lies and violence are condemned, while the prophet's role in delivering Israel from Egypt is affirmed.

God's fierce judgment: I will be like a lion, a leopard, a bear robbed of cubs. Israel's king cannot save them. Yet the stunning declaration: I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues? — echoed by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15.

The beautiful conclusion: Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God. God promises to heal their apostasy, love them freely, and be like dew to Israel. They will blossom like a lily, take root like Lebanon's cedars. Whoever is wise, let them understand these things.