The prophet Hosea served God in days very much like our own among the Israelites. First, God’s people were divided into Israel [Ephraim] and Judah, and it seemed impossible that they could be united again; secondly, the people of God were attracted to alternative and immoral lifestyles and were adopting the ideas and practices of the surrounding cultures and countries that God had warned them not to intermingle with; and thirdly, those in power were not interested in maintaining God’s laws as the basis of society and they were making or going into confederacy with other nations contrary to God’s ordination. We can see easily that their degenerated and immoral lifestyle was similar to what obtains today.

Hosea, was a prophet and a preacher, and ordained by God to call upon the people to repent of their sins and return to the Lord. Here we have an invitation to return to the Lord just like many ministers have been commissioned today to ask people to come to the saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is a real sense in which the gospel makes us all equal. At the cross of Jesus, a wide diversity of people gathered. Present there were religious people, there were military people, there were criminals, there were the women who had followed Jesus from Galilee, and there was John the apostle.

If we were to ask the women or to ask John to say something to the others, what would they have said? They would not have started to grade the criminals as worse sinners than the others. Instead they would have said to all that were gathered there, “Come let us return to the Lord” And where was the Lord? He was hanging on the center cross, but although these different people had despised him in their own ways, they were all welcome to go to him as we all have equal opportunity today to return to the Lord to heal our backsliding or we accept Him as Lord and Savior anew.

Hosea the messenger was concerned about what would happen to those he was addressing. He had reason to be concerned because they had already tasted some aspects of divine judgment and the little they had endured was nothing in comparison to what was threatened. Such an apprehension is a mark of true repentance.

It is obvious that the instruction given was straight to the point. There is nothing complicated in the advice to return to the Lord from where they have fallen. Probably the prophet is passing on when he has said on numerous occasions before then. It is especially so with regard to the demands of the gospel which declares that we should repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand. The way the Bible presents the gospel and its requirements is very striking in its straightforwardness. There are many verses which reveal this.

“Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” Romans 10:13

“All whom the Father gives me shall come to me; and him that comes to me I will not cast out” John 6:37

“Repent and believe the gospel” Mark 1:15

This is a vivid picture of the Lord’s aggressive actions towards them in his prudence as he brought very hurtful experiences into their lives. The Lord often does this in the lives of people in order to bring them back to their senses, and to repent.

Yet the prophet goes on to say that the Lord who caused the wounds will also function as the healer. The Lord is the heavenly physician who is able to cure all kinds of diseases and heal all ailments. He is able to heal the souls and bodies of those who trust in Him. The problem is their sin, and the curer is the Lord. The Lord first dealt with the penalty of sin at the cross when Jesus took the place of sinners and suffered the wrath of God against sin. Then, during their lives on earth the Lord deals with the power of sin in their hearts, primarily by renewal and then by consecration. Finally He removes the presence of sin from us by the power of His blood shed on the cross.

The Father heals our separation from him by justifying and accepting us as righteous because of what Jesus did in his life and death, and at the same time God adopts us into his family. Jesus heals us by functioning as our prophet, priest and king; God does this as He teaches us, He sympathizes with us, and He protects us. The Holy Spirit quickens us by making us like Jesus as he produces the fruits of the Spirit in his people.

However the healing process begins with repentance. The Lord loves to see repentant sinners and welcome them into His family. He is like the Good Samaritan who bound up the wounds of the man left to die by religion. He is like the delighted Father who ran to embrace the returning prodigal or like the seeking shepherd who rejoiced to find the lost sheep [Luke 15].

It is true that Israelites left the worship and service of God to worship idols of heathen nations but we see the mercy and the love of God kick in to bring them back to Mount Zion where the Presence of God dwells. Though God pronounced judgment but it was interwoven with mercy for it is not the will of God that any should perish but that we all be endowed with eternal life.

Israel in the book of Hosea is defined as an unfaithful woman, stubborn heifer, a hot oven, burnt cake, useless vessel, a stray donkey, a worthless fruit, a bad vine and a disobedient child. God is depicted as one who brings judgment upon Israel thus: a moth that will eat the nation, a wild animal that devours, a hunter who traps a bird and a farmer who yokes Israel on an ox.