This is the final devotion on Hosea. An old prophet has not only spoken into his generation but also to mine here in 2023.
I am committed to doing what the first hearers failed to do and to listen.
Hosea, in the north of Israel, prophesied around 755 to 710 BC at the same time as prophet Amos who with Isaiah and Micah were prophesying in the southern kingdom. Sadly Assyria did invade and destroy the northern kingdom in 722 BC, God’s people had not listened.
What is the book of Hosea all about? Here are 5 big themes.
- Spiritual decline
- The influential power of sin
- God faithfully loves us
- God is our Redeemer
- The cost of following is worth it. The cost of not doing so isn’t.
Can you imagine being Hosea?
I sat with a Pastor yesterday who was expressing how after a few years of trying they have begun to feel like a failure. I explained to them that a failure is someone who hasn’t gone when God said go.
Was Hosea a failure? His wife kept wandering away to other men and then the generation refused to listen to his message from God and destruction came.
When Hosea began his ministry, Jeroboam II (782-753 B.C.) was still reigning in Israel. Hosea’s ministry spans the last six kings of Israel from Zechariah (753 – 752 B.C.) to Hoshea (732-722 B.C.)
Of those, 4 were murdered and the last taken captive to Assyria; so confusion and decline characterized the last years of the northern kingdom.
Hosea was the last writing prophet to minister to the North before the fall to Assyria. We don’t know what happened to him or how he died.
In the world’s eyes he may be viewed a failure. He paid a high price. But the cost was worth it because he did what God asked of him and therefore he was a success.
“Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right, and the righteous will walk in them, but transgressors will stumble in them.” (Hosea 14:9)
Following God, walking in His ways, being a disciple of Jesus Christ is a choice.
You can enjoy the benefits of ministry without paying the cost of walking in His ways.
You can be known as a ‘nice Christian person’ you can be a member of a church and join the choir and never have made the choice of discipleship.
You can instruct others on being a disciple and be a great orator of the Bible without paying the cost of walking in His ways.
Those who pay the cost of walking in His ways carry a personal message that says, “It’s not about me.”
Those who pay the cost of walking in His ways carry a personal message that says, “I will lay my life down for others.”
Those who pay the cost of walking in His ways carry a personal message that says, “I don’t know it all”.
Successful kingdom followers pay the cost and walk in His ways. Failures don’t but they pay a higher cost.
What is the book of Hosea all about? Here are 5 big themes.
Spiritual decline
The influential power of sin
God faithfully loves us
God is our Redeemer
The cost of following is worth it. The cost of not doing so isn’t.
Missions Paul 