If you will, take out your Bibles in the Old Testament, be turning with me to the book of Hosea. We're gonna begin in the book of Hosea today by reading chapter one and verse one, and then devote our study in this hour to an introduction to the book and an overview of its contents. We are continuing our study now of the minor prophets by backing up and picking up the first book in that collection. Before we read God's word, let's bow together. Our Heavenly Father, we are very thankful to You for another opportunity to study Your Word and grateful for the privilege of beginning a new series on another book in the Bible. We are grateful, O God, for the ways in which the work of Your prophet Hosea has served as a comfort to Your people for almost 3,000 years. We pray, O Lord, that you would bless us, that we would benefit by its instruction, that you would guide our meditation, not only in this hour, but in the weeks and months to come as we continue to learn from your prophet as his word is applied to our hearts and minds by your Holy Spirit. Please help us, Lord, that we might see Christ clearly in the preaching of Hosea and that we might believe your word as it comes to us in this sacred document. We pray in Jesus, our Savior's name. Amen. Here now, God's Word, Hosea chapter 1 and verse 1. This is the Word of our God. The Word of Yahweh that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel. Thus far is the Word of God and the introduction to this work in the Minor Prophets. Now, when commentators and teachers deliver a series of studies on the Minor Prophets, they usually proceed in one of two ways, either by historical chronology as they understand it, or simply by canonical sequence, that is, studying each of the books as they appear in our English Bibles. Now, in our case, we're doing neither. I would have preferred to adopt a canonical sequence to this series of studies. It had been my intention for some time, once we finished the Gospel of John, to turn to the prophetic literature of the Old Testament. But when the coronavirus came and turned our world upside down, I believed that it would be prudent to pause all of our other teaching series and go immediately to the book of Joel. And hopefully we found the contents of that prophetic work to be very relevant for us in a time such as this. But having now completed our survey and study of the prophet Joel, we want to continue our study of the minor prophets. And so inevitably we have to back up and pick up the one book that we skipped over, the book of Hosea. Now, it is important to remember that this collection, the Minor Prophets, as we call them, from Hosea to Malachi, is one document in the Hebrew Bible. They are twelve books that are collected together, but one collection, a single text, as it were, in the Hebrew Bible, and thus it needs to be read in that way in our English translations. We should expect to find a literary purpose and significance in the order in which these books do appear in our Hebrew and English Bibles. The order is slightly different in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, but the basic units that we've suggested before for this collection, that is, six prophets that belong to the period of the divided kingdom, three prophets that ministered during the period of Judah alone after the fall of the northern kingdom, And then three prophets who prophesied after the return from Babylonian exile. Those three major divisions across the twelve books of the Minor Prophets, that original order persists through both the Hebrew text and the Greek translation. Now, we come to the book of Hosea today, whose name means salvation. It could also be translated deliverance or help, and several men in the Old Testament had this name, most notably, besides this prophet with whom we are familiar, most notably the person Joshua, Moses' assistant and successor as the leader of Israel. Also, the last king of the northern kingdom of Israel was named Hosea or Hosea, although his name is usually forgotten by people or remembered only in infamy. Now, we don't know anything about the prophet Hosea outside of this book that bears his name. He is the son of Be'eri, or Biri, as we sometimes say. His wife's name was Gomer. They had three children together, although the biological paternity of some or all of these children was dubious at best. He was almost certainly a native resident of the northern kingdom. He calls the king of Israel in chapter 7 and verse 5, our king. But unlike his wife, Gomer, Hosea is not truly a man who belongs to the northern kingdom. He is a son of Abraham, a follower of Moses, and a loyal subject of David, as we see in terms of his character and his covenantal commitments. And thus we might say that Hosea is a man who is in, but not of, the godless nation in which God has called him to minister. Now the notes that I've given you for this introductory study are fairly extensive and I'm going to stick fairly closely to those notes for the sake of time trying to move rapidly through some of this material but I will warn you that I am going to skip over entire sections of those notes and so you can expect to find some additional material in the manuscript that you have as opposed to what I present in the pulpit Let's talk first about the historical background for the book of Hosea. He prophesied in the 8th century BC. Now, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah divided back in the 10th century, around 931 BC. Hosea began to prophesy during the reigns of Jeroboam II in Israel and Uzziah in Judah, who was king over the southern kingdom. And his ministry continued until the reign of Hezekiah. Now, this means that he prophesied from at least 753 to 729 BC. A minimum of 24 years, but probably a good bit longer. Some scholars have even suggested that he might have ministered as long as 60 or 65 years. But whether Hosea prophesied for two and a half decades or six decades, he lived and worked during a time of tremendous transition and tremendous strife in the Kingdom of Israel. The reigns of both Jeroboam II in the north and Uzziah in the south were an Indian summer of prosperity for each of those kingdoms. Syria was in decline, the Assyrians were not yet a major threat either to Israel or Judah, and both of these Israelite nations enjoyed a period of general peace and economic recovery. They were free of external threats, and they were enjoying seasons of financial gain. The combination of a strong economy and freedom from war and imminent threats led to widespread complacency, carnality, and corruption. The people in both Israel and Judah, to some extent, became self-indulgent and indifferent to their duties to God and to their neighbors. Israel apostatized from their covenant with Yahweh. As one commentator observes, quote, unfaithfulness towards God and His word begot faithlessness towards men. With the neglect to love God with all the heart, love to brethren also disappeared, end quote. And that's useful because it is a reminder to us that if we want to love our neighbors well, we must begin by giving God all of our heart's devotion. Now this was the audience to whom Hosea had been sent to preach, and it was a very tough crowd. But it's almost always that way with the classical prophets. The prophets were not called to be pastors to the people. The prophet's calling, unlike the pastor's ordinary calling, was always an adversarial one. God sent these prophets to the people because there was a problem, and those people needed to be told to repent. The nation had received great blessings from Yahweh, but they had forsaken Him in their prosperity. Their sin was worse, in fact, than the idolatry of the pagans around them, because whereas the Gentiles did not know the true God, the Israelites did know Him and had a connection to Him through the covenant of grace. God had established this relationship with them. It was not a covenant of works to which all men are subject by creation, but it was that covenant of grace whereby their sins would be forgiven and their souls would be saved. But Israel had rejected that covenant and the God who made it with them. And they'd given themselves to idolatry and lust and self-indulgence. And so, their sin was not spiritual fornication as of an uncovenanted person, it was rather spiritual adultery against the God who had made them His own. Now, this second golden age in Israel did not last. When Jeroboam's reign ended after 41 years, Israel went on to have six different kings in the space of just 30 years. And of those six kings, four of them were assassinated. Three of them reigned less than two years each. One of them reigned for only six months. One of them reigned for only one month. At the end of those 30 years, the Northern Kingdom was destroyed by the Assyrians, who by that time had become the dominant power in the Ancient Near East and were destroying many nations. And how quickly things changed for Israel in Hosea's lifetime. Israel went from their greatest period of economic prosperity, military security, and quality of public life to being annihilated. to no longer being a nation at all. And that changed in just three decades. If you think that a strong economy or military power or a high standard of living guarantees security for a nation, then I would suggest to you, you need to get better acquainted with history and you need to spend some time reading your Bible. Hosea was sent, along with many other prophets of this period, to warn the people that danger lay close at hand. Their only hope of deliverance was in turning to and trusting in the Lord. Egypt could not save them from Assyria. Assyria wouldn't save them from anyone. Only in repentance and faith could the people of Israel hope to survive. But the prophets' preaching, unfortunately, largely fell on deaf ears. Now think with me for a moment about the theological substance of this book of prophecy. The key to understanding the book of Hosea is recognizing the rather obvious parallel between the prophet's troubled marriage that is described in chapters 1-3 and God's relationship with Israel. In the first chapter, God tells the prophet to go and marry a wife of harlotry and to have children of harlotry. This probably refers to the fact that Hosea's wife, Gomer, was a true daughter of the Northern Kingdom. She wasn't necessarily a prostitute when Hosea married her, but she soon begins to act like one. And as each of Hosea's children are born, it becomes increasingly uncertain whether he is the biological father of each of them. Finally, Gomer leaves the house, she goes after her lovers, and most friends of Hosea would probably say, good riddance. But that is when Yahweh tells the prophet to go after her. To reclaim her, to buy her back out of the slavery to which sin had reduced her, and then to bring her home and restore her as his wife. That relationship between the two of them serves as an acted parable. It's not a literary device. It's not a mythological or allegorical narrative. It's an actual historical experience which God called Hosea to endure in order to illustrate the larger theme of his ministry to Israel. Because, like Gomer, Israel has broken covenant with and abandoned her husband. And yet God, like the prophet, stands ready to redeem and rescue and restore His wife if she will heed His word. And this kind of acted parable is not uncommon in the Old Testament prophets in the lives that they lived under the sovereignty of God. We see the same kind of directions, in fact, given to Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. And sometimes, as in Hosea's own case, the will of God for these prophets was very hard to bear. It had devastating personal, emotional, and family consequences. But what does that tell us about the relative importance of the Word of God in the lives and mouths of each of these men? I mean, who wants to marry a woman that you know is going to betray you and break your heart and wreck your home and upend your life? You might imagine Hosea praying, Lord, can't we illustrate this situation in some other way? Can't I just tell them a parable rather than having to be the parable? But God called Hosea to endure that heartbreak and that hard suffering which affected his entire life, his children, and certainly his reputation in the community. God called him to endure that because this is how God intended Hosea to serve Him. Hosea's happiness and his comfort and his emotional security were not God's priority. And that may be startling to us because we want our happiness, our comfort, our security to be high on God's list of priorities. But it simply wasn't in this case. We need to see that the word that God gave Hosea to preach that would be emphasized by the experiences of his life, that word was far more important. than the prophet's own comfort and security. Now, we said that Jeroboam II was king of Israel when Hosea was called to serve as prophet. Jeroboam, in this case, was the third descendant of Jehu to sit on Israel's throne. God had promised Jehu that because of his obedience in wiping out the cult of Baal, which King Ahab and Queen Jezebel had institutionalized, because Jehu had gone to war against Baal and had killed the adherents of that religion, Jehu's sons would sit on the throne to the fourth generation. Jehu had waged war against this religion during his rise to power. He had even destroyed the Temple of Baal that Ahab had built. Jehu purged the outward religion of Baalism from Israel for a time, but he could not purge the worship of Baal from the hearts of an apostate people. Now, Jehu was obedient in seeking to eradicate Baalism, but that does not mean that he himself was a faithful worshipper of God or that instead he promoted the true religion of Yahweh in the land. On the contrary, Jehu reinforced and renewed Israel's devotion to the idolatrous corruption of religion which Jeroboam I had introduced a hundred years before him. And that was a religion that was devoted to Yahweh in name only. They offered sacrifices to Yahweh supposedly, but they did so on altars that had been erected at Dan and Bethel along with golden calves. The priests who administered the sacrifices were not Levites, but could be chosen from any of the tribes of Israel. The religious calendar of holy days that they kept had been changed from what was required in the Law of Moses. All of their prayers was oriented in an idolatrous way. This would be like someone outlawing the religion of Islam, but then requiring instead the religion of Mormonism. This is a corruption of true religion. It is not pleasing to God. Now over time, it became clear that Baalism was not gone. The institutionalized cult which had been established by the government in Ahab's day may not have been revived in a formal way, but the idea of Baal religion was still alive and well. The name Baal means master, and Israel still had many false gods that they confessed as masters in Hosea's day. We'll even see that wordplay in chapter 2 of the book. There is even evidence that their worship of Yahweh had become a kind of Baalism. And God's judgment would purge them in time of that sort of syncretism. And this feature of Hosea's ministry makes the book all the more relevant for us because we live, certainly, in a religiously syncretistic society. Many professing Christians have combined biblical Christianity with pagan and superstitious forms of idolatry. We bring our idols and we bring our idolatrous affections into our faith and our worship, but when we do so, we end up making a new religion which is not authentic Christianity at all. If we want to be the people of God, we must forsake our idols. Now the prophet Hosea, with regard to his theology, is often studied in comparison with the prophet Amos. The ministries of these two men overlap, even though Hosea's appears to have lasted longer. They deal with many of the same issues, but most often people are focused upon the contrast between their content and the approaches that they take. Amos, for instance, emphasizes the justice of God. whereas Hosea emphasizes the love of God. Amos indicts Israel for failing to love their neighbor. Hosea indicts Israel for failing to love God. Amos preaches in a very stern and forceful way. Hosea preaches the same message, but he does so in a more compassionate and anguished tone. But for all of these contrasts that we can observe, what ought to be emphasized, and sometimes is not, is the consistency between these two prophets. They both have a very high view of Yahweh. They both understand Israel's relation to God and Israel's sin in covenantal terms. They both regard God's judgment as certain, imminent, and inescapable. And it is this Consistency, not the superficial disparities that are most important in understanding the ministries of both Hosea and Amos. Now we said earlier that Israel's sin was not merely spiritual fornication like the Gentiles were guilty of. It was a type of spiritual adultery against their covenant God. Hosea's emphasis is on the whoredom of their sin and their infidelity to Him. They did not merely commit adultery with another god, they actually sold themselves like prostitutes to any god, to any lust, to any pleasure that they might be able to obtain. They gave themselves to everyone and everything except Yahweh. And so that wickedness was worse than fornication. It was worse even than adultery. It was the defilement that you see in a serial, unrepentant, remorseless prostitute. Hosea emphasizes, by contrast to that sin, the jealousy, the compassion, and the love of God. The love of God for this wayward and wicked wife. He does not minimize Israel's guilt in any way. On the contrary, by emphasizing God's love, that actually magnifies their sin. Because they did not wander away from God because He was ungracious or unloving or unkind to them. Even now, the love of God is expressed toward them. And He is willing to redeem them and to reconcile them. And that's beyond anything that we might expect. We would never expect a husband who experienced the kind of betrayal that Hosea and Yahweh did in their marriages, we would never expect a husband to be eager to reconcile with his wife. But Yahweh is eager. What spouse would take back an erring mate in this way? But God is prepared to do that very thing. He has zeal for His covenant, He has zeal for His people, and that is communicated clearly and powerfully both in the prophet's preaching as well as in his own painful personal experiences. Now, we've said many times in commenting on the prophets that the central theme of all preaching in both Old and New Testaments is Christ, and the central imperative of all preaching in both Old and New Testaments is repent. Well, that is certainly the case in the book of Hosea. Hosea uses the command to repent or the term repent or repentance or some form of it 22 times in various ways. The people are called to repent to God, And God is said to be ready and willing to turn away, to repent of His judgment, and to turn again toward them, to love them. Now in terms of the literary structure of the book of Hosea, the basic division of the book is clear. Chapters 1-3 tell the story of Hosea's marriage to Gomer, the birth of their children, and provides an introduction to the prophetic content of the book. And then chapters 4-14 contain the prophetic discourse of Hosea. But beyond that basic division, there is no consensus. The bulk of the book does not divide easily into separate messages, as so much of the prophetic literature does. Very often, as we're studying the other books of Old Testament prophecy, we can see, sometimes because there is an introduction, sometimes there is a date, or sometimes there is some type of literary device that helps us easily divide and say, here is one sermon, here is another sermon, here is another... But there's nothing like that in Hosea. Now there are certain features that might suggest divisions, it's just simply not clear. In chapter 4 and verse 1, in chapter 12 and verse 2, we see courtroom scenes in which Yahweh is arraigning His people on charges. In chapter 5 and verse 8, in chapter 8 and verse 1, there are trumpet blasts, warnings of judgment that is soon to come upon the people. There is a three-fold division that some have suggested because there are three sections that seem to be concluded by promises of forgiveness and restoration and comfort. And so that may be useful to you. The first stretches from chapter 4 and verse 1 up through chapter 6 and verse 3. The second from chapter 6 and verse 4 to chapter 11 and verse 11. And the final section, chapter 11 and verse 12 through the end of chapter 14. Now, others have pointed out alternating cycles of judgment and hope, not only in the first three chapters, but that persist into the rest of the book. And that pattern may be an organizing feature, and it may be a helpful way of reading the story. But the lack of a clear structural outline, the lack of any explicit divisions indicates, to me at least, that this book is really more a summary of Hosea's preaching than it is a collection or anthology of specific messages that he preached on particular occasions. And so what I would like to suggest is that the book is profitably read from beginning to end as one discourse rather than as an anthology. And no, that doesn't mean that we're going to tackle chapters 4 through 14 in simply one sermon, but it does mean that those chapters will perhaps be best understood when read in one sitting or in as large chunks as possible. Now, there are several recurring themes in the book of Hosea, a couple of which we've already mentioned and I'll just remind you of briefly, and a few others that we need to develop a little more. One is repentance, as we already said. This is a major theme in all of the prophets. It is the response of faith and obedience which Yahweh looks for and requires of His people. If Israel will repent, God stands ready to turn and relent of His anger and judgment. If they refuse to turn, then there will be no one to blame for their judgment but themselves. Another theme that we mentioned already is God's love and compassion. This is a dominant theme in the book of Hosea. It is emphasized by Hosea considerably more than some of the other prophets. Now that's not to say the other prophets do not describe or speak of God's love, only that Hosea takes it to a greater degree or expresses it in some uncommon ways. For example, we see God as the broken-hearted husband of an unfaithful bride in this book. Not only as the God of righteous indignation, whose justice will punish their transgressions. Hosea has a lot to say about justice and judgment, but it always is set within this context of God's tenderness. This picture of Yahweh as a husband and father to His people. Let me illustrate that for you. Turn over to chapter 11 for just a moment with me. In Hosea chapter 11, look with me at the first 11 verses. When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. As they called them, so they went from them. They sacrificed to the bales and burned incense to carved images. I taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love, and I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck. I stooped and fed them. He shall not return to the land of Egypt, but the Assyrians shall be his king, because they refuse to repent. And the sword shall slash in his cities, devour his districts, and consume them, because of their own counsels. My people are bent on backsliding from me, though they call to the Most High, none at all exalt Him. How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I set you like Zeboim? My heart churns within me. My sympathy is stirred. I will not execute the fierceness of my anger. I will not again destroy Ephraim. For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst. And I will not come with terror. They shall walk after Yahweh. He will roar like a lion. When He roars, His sons shall come trembling from the west. They shall come trembling like a bird from Egypt, like a dove from the land of Assyria. And I will let them dwell in their houses, says Yahweh." Do you see the idea there? Hosea speaks about judgment. He speaks about God's justice. He speaks about the punishment that's about to be unleashed. The sword coming and slashing and devouring their districts. Them being taken away. The Assyrians becoming their king. The people being deported from the land. And yet it's set within this context of tenderness and anguish and compassion and sympathy, where God is saying, I am your father, I taught you to walk when you were a little child, I've carried you and protected you, and even though you are bent on backsliding, even though you are bent on turning away from me, I will not utterly destroy you. I will preserve a remnant. I will come like a lion and roar, and when the lion roars, I will call my sons from afar. I will bring them from the nations among whom they have been scattered." That's a beautiful, beautiful section. And yet, it's a section about judgment. It's a section about justice. But it's set within the context of God's love and compassion as a father and a husband to His people. Now, a third theme that we see recurring in the book is that Hosea speaks of Israel's sin primarily in terms of adultery and prostitution. We've mentioned this already, but I need to emphasize the difference here between covenantal sin and the sin that men commit who are outside of the covenant of grace. These terms, adultery and prostitution, are used by Hosea as metaphors for covenant breaking. Now, we don't doubt that The sexual immorality of that kind was also rampant in Hosea's day, but his emphasis is on the spiritual infidelity of which they are guilty. Their devotion to their idols and to the lusts of their flesh was an act of infidelity against the God to whom they belonged by covenant. Rather than forsaking all others in order to serve Him, Israel had forsaken God, and they had pursued all others. But the satisfaction that they sought in these idolatrous and adulterous liaisons would never be obtained. Their sin would be their undoing. Their pursuit of pleasure would result in pain and destruction. The promise of their idols and of their lust would prove to be a lie, because Israel would never be fulfilled in that way. But unfortunately, they would not listen to Yahweh or to His prophet. They would not believe His word, and soon it would be too late. Look with me at chapter 9 now to illustrate this idea. Hosea chapter 9, beginning at verse 1. Do not rejoice, O Israel, with joy like other peoples, for you have played the harlot against your God. You have made love for hire on every threshing floor. The threshing floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her. They shall not dwell in Yahweh's land, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and shall eat unclean things in Assyria. They shall not offer wine offerings to Yahweh, nor shall their sacrifices be pleasing to him. It shall be like bread of mourners to them. All who eat it shall be defiled, for their bread shall be for their own life. It shall not come into the house of Yahweh." So you see that they're seeking pleasure and satisfaction in wine and bread and feasting and in all of these adulterous liaisons with false gods. But the Lord says, I'm going to hand you over to those things and you're going to find that they are not satisfying to you. Instead, they will become your masters and they will be tyrannical lords. Hosea emphasizes, finally, the love, or knowing, loving, and serving God. The love that God's people ought to have for Him through a covenantal communion. Now, knowing God, in this case, means not merely knowing about Him, although Israel, admittedly, doesn't know much about God at this point either. They have forgotten God's law. His word, Hosea says, is regarded as a strange and unfamiliar thing. But when Hosea speaks about knowing God, he is using that verb in the sense of relational intimacy. It's the way that the verb is used back in the book of Genesis when it says, Adam knew Eve, his wife. God knows His people. Now the idea obviously is not sexual in the case of Yahweh's relation to Israel, but it is just as intimate, it is just as personal, because the husband's relationship to his wife is a picture, Paul says, analogically, it's a picture of the covenant relation, the covenant union between God and His church. And so God's people must come to know God once again. But they must not only know Him, they must learn to love Him. They have loved their lust, they have loved their selfish pleasures, they have loved false gods. It's interesting, if you look at every use of the word love in the book of Hosea, Hosea talks about Israel's love for their lovers, and he talks about God's love for them. He never mentions Israel's love for God. He never describes Israel loving Yahweh. And the implication is that Israel must learn how to love their proper husband. The defiled and adulterous wife has to be brought home and reminded who is her true companion, as we see Hosea do with Gomer in chapter 3. And then God's people must also learn how to serve Yahweh. Jehu may have destroyed the cult of Baal, but Israel was still worshiping Yahweh as if he were one of the Baals. They are treating the true God as if he were like all of the false gods and the idols of the nations around them. It was not formal and outward exercises of religion that would please the true God. God must be known, believed, and loved. He's not merely feeding on their sacrifices like a pagan God would. He is pursuing a relationship with His chosen people. Now before we close, I want to offer a pastoral application of what we've seen in this introduction thus far. And I want to suggest that we see God more clearly in Hosea with the lens of a broken heart. One commentator says it this way, quote, Through his own broken heart over the conduct of Gomer and the realization that his children were actually not his own, Hosea could see God and Israel through tear-dimmed eyes and a broken heart in an experience not unlike that of the Lord." There is an aspect of Israel's sin and God's judgment that we may not perceive or may fail to appreciate until we study the book of Hosea. We know that our sin is great and worthy of punishment. We know that God is holy and righteous and will certainly judge the wicked. But do we see God's judgment in the context of His love and covenant mercy? Do we see His judgment as an expression of His anguished desire to reclaim us? Some of you have found a deeper and clearer insight into the love of God through very painful circumstances. betrayal, infidelity, estrangement from loved ones, brokenness. These are sometimes the experiences by which the Lord draws us closer to Himself and enables us to see Him more clearly than we ever did before. And that is what we will learn in Hosea. The prophet's own pain helps him minister to those who have wronged God in a way similar to, although far beyond, the way that Hosea's wife had wronged him. Do we see our sin against God the way that we would see adultery and betrayal like Gomer committed? I tend to think that we don't. I tend to think that if Hosea was our friend and we observed the betrayal of his wife, we would be appalled. We would be incensed. But when we see our sin against God, we're not appalled. We're not incensed in the same way. We're willing to kind of give ourselves a pass and treat it as if it were a far less offense, when in fact, it's a far greater one. Do we see God's righteous anger in terms of the covenant that has been broken? It's not an arbitrary anger that God has. It's a righteous jealousy that He has for those who are wed to Him. Do we see the Lord's love and His invitation to return home as an anguished husband, crying out, despite all that his wife has done, crying out, inviting her and welcoming her return? Yahweh put Hosea through a personal, painful, experiential course in practical theology. He used the trauma and heartbreak of the prophet's marriage to prepare his heart and mind for the message that God sent him to proclaim. The contents of this book were not merely academic for Hosea, and they should not be for us either. The Lord intended Hosea to see his God more clearly with a broken heart. And that is what he intends us to see as we begin to study this sacred text. Well, we have not read Hosea correctly if we have not seen Jesus in it. He is the bridegroom whose wife has forsaken him. He is the husband who goes to rescue and redeem his bride from the bondage of her sin. He is the righteous lover who allures the woman who had been seduced and led astray and who had herself become a seductress. And He is the Son of God who comes out of Egypt, who brings God's people out of bondage and death, and in whom they return to Him and dwell in His house forevermore. All of those are images that come directly out of the book of Hosea. The promises of this book remain unfulfilled unless and until Christ comes to secure and accomplish them. Hosea's ministry, therefore, is a proclamation of the gospel, and we will find Christ in these pages again and again. Amen.