Historical Outline of Hosea's Time
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Expedience over Obedience
Expedience over Obedience
Hosea 1:1 (ESV)
The word of the Lord 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.
Hosea’s prophetic career probably stretched from around 760 B.C. to 710 B.C.
This is worth noting because Hosea would been witness to he fall of Israel to the Assyrians around 722 B.C.
This also makes Hosea a contemporary of Isaiah, Jonah, Joel, and Amos, all of whom spoke into the issues overtaking the tribes of Israel.
During this period, which is accounted in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, we see a succession of rulers who progressively become more corrupt.
While there are a few brief moments of repentance in the leadership of Judah (Jehoiada in 2 Chron. 23; Amaziah at the beginning of 2 Chron. 25), Israel’s leadership more consistently is described as “doing evil in the sight of the Lord.”
Take note of this distinction in the discussion of Judah and Israel (or Joseph/Ephraim) in Hosea.
2 Kings 14:23–25 (ESV)
In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, began to reign in Samaria, and he reigned forty-one years. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin. He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher.
This tension between political/military success and following the will of God defines the period in which Hosea served as prophet, but what exactly does that mean? What is meant by Hosea’s frequent use of the word “whoring”?
Let’s discuss three of Israel’s later Kings to see the world that Hosea’s prophecy addresses.
Jeroboam II
Jeroboam II
In a political sense, we have a ton of evidence of what Hosea might have meant by his use of harsh metaphor. This assessment however, seems to initially run contrary to the human understanding of success and failure.
Jeroboam II, by all worldly standards, would be considered a great King.
As we’ve already mentioned, he reclaimed lost territories of the Promised Land that had been lost under previous rulers.
His reign allowed for Israel to reach its most densely populated state.
Successful trade of products like wine and oil with Egypt and Assyria brought great wealth to the region. (Keep those products in mind as we study Hosea!!)
BUT...
The military successes under Jeroboam II also led to a general sense of haughtiness and pride among the citizenry of Israel, leading them to trust in their own capacities more than those of the Lord.
The great influx of foreign interest in the region also led to an influx of Israel’s interest in foreign forms of amusement and worship.
this wealth also brought great disparity and great exploitation of the poor.
2 Kings 17:16–17 (ESV)
And they abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made for themselves metal images of two calves; and they made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal. And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.
This period of worldly success would mark the beginning of the end of the Kingdom of Israel, and it is because of this regression to the mean that God allows their nation to suffer the consequences of expedience over obedience.
Pekah
Pekah
2 Kings 16:5–6 (ESV)
Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to wage war on Jerusalem, and they besieged Ahaz but could not conquer him. At that time Rezin the king of Syria recovered Elath for Syria and drove the men of Judah from Elath, and the Edomites came to Elath, where they dwell to this day.
Pekah is is distinct among the various corrupt rulers of this period because of his ruthlessness and his disloyalty.
Pekah not only assassinates Pekahiah to take the throne (2 Kings 15:25), but he also conspires against Judah with the Syrian King Rezin.
This act prompts Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria, who had made a vassal state of Judah during the reign of Menahem, to attack both Israel and Syria (Aram).
2 Kings 15:29 (ESV)
In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came and captured Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and he carried the people captive to Assyria.
Pekah’s treachery and maneuvering get the ball rolling for the coming Assyrian exile!
It is also worth noting just how similarly the Kings of Israel and Judah behave in relation to the kings of Assyria (which we discussed when we went through the book of Jonah).
We see that a “live by the sword, die by the sword” mentality continued to define Israeli politics right up to the exile.
Hoshea
Hoshea
2 Kings 15:30 (ESV)
Then Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah and struck him down and put him to death and reigned in his place, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah.
King Hoshea, the final King of Israel, completes the process that we see described in the work of the prophets, and his reign is defined by duplicity, treachery, and profound failure.
In 2 Kings 17, we see Hoshea make Israel a vassal-state to Assyria.
He then double deals, sending messengers to Egypt to try and foment an insurrection against their Assyrian overlord.
It is this action that leads to the siege and capture of Samaria, and the exile of tens of thousands of people into Assyria.