I don’t know about you, but I dislike reading boring stuff.

Not so long ago, there were several parts of the Bible which I didn’t understand, and thought (to be very honest) were rather dull. 

And now that I've learned so much more, I've discovered how amazing and useful all these books are - I vastly underestimated the value of them. Is it a coincidence that the same books of the Bible which I thought were the least interesting are now among the same ones I find the most helpful, useful, and practical?

I'm not sure. (I’ll ask in the Kingdom.) But Hosea is one of those books - the message is unquestioningly relevant for today. In fact, Hosea has now become a mainstay in my personal faith walk, along with books like Jeremiah (which I wrote about previously) and Malachi.

It's that significant.

What did I discover? What did I learn?

First, to provide a quick overview, Amos and Hosea were both sent to the northern Kingdom of Israel at about the same time, but their messages were quite different. (We'll discuss Amos in another post. More gems are found in that book, too.)

Hosea is divided into two sections: chapters 1-3, and 4-14.

Chapters 1-3 portray the nation of Israel as being relatively peaceful, although Hosea's life turns upside down. Not getting into details, Hosea married Gomer, who bore three children, and then deserted Hosea. Later Hosea redeemed Gomer and brought her back to live faithfully with him, portraying Israel's return to the Lord..

In chapters 4-14 of Hosea, which occurs later on, we see the nation having descended into bloodshed, idol worship, corruption at every level, and rampant injustice.

Chapters 4-13 go like this:

• Sins of the Nation (ch 4)

• Sins of the Priests and Leaders (ch 5)

• More Sins of the Nation, with more lessons (ch 6-8)

• Israel's destruction is coming, and necessary because of how sinful and godless they have become (ch 9-11)

• Observations on how the nation's ingratitude and faithlessness is nothing new (ch 12-13)

• Chapter 14 is about restoration.

Now that we’ve established the layout of the book, here’s what is unique and beautiful about Hosea.

Firstly, a key starting point is the stomach-churning and depraved attitude of the nation of Israel - so serious because people knew better.   

Furthermore, throughout the entire book, every single king sought to strengthen himself by allying with different foreign kings. Yet not a single king of Israel risked strengthening himself by seeking the Lord God. Not one.

The nation of Israel had no desire to be saved. They had no desire to turn back to God. What they desired was to go their own way, so God let them live out the results of their decisions. 

And Hosea was heartbroken by this decision. Utterly heartbroken. (This is a key point.) He pleaded and reached out over and over and over, just like Jeremiah, to a people that simply didn't want to hear. They had no use for Hosea's message whatsoever.

From this heartbreak comes a touching lesson: God feels the same way Hosea did. This lesson is repeated throughout Hosea. The depth of feeling Hosea expressed in yearning for the people to love God, was the same way God expressed His yearning for the people to turn to Him.

As heartbroken as Hosea was, so was God. 

God felt the pain as deeply as Hosea did. 

God's love is expressed in a manner so earnest and so deeply in this book. It's something we scarcely find so tenderly described elsewhere. It's in Hosea where we have greater details and insight into how God feels when people descend to wickedness, as well as the unbridled joy God feels when people return to Him and are faithful.

God deeply feels what we feel. Both in joy and in pain.

It’s not only Jesus who relates in a close and connected way to both our joys as well as our sorrows. It’s also our Heavenly Father who relates intimately to where our heart is at, regardless of whether we’re dealing with extended and overflowing joy, or heart-rending sorrow. 

We learn just how much God loves us, in a fuller, more relatable way, in addition to the sacrifice of His Son. It provides an even bigger picture of God's love for us.

And there’s another beautiful lesson gleaned from across the whole book of Hosea: 

You can’t get the knowledge of God from any kind of ritual, nor be a person trying to do their own thing. You get it by listening to what God says in the Bible, doing it, and walking in patience and faith. 

We learn all this through Hosea. I can't wait to meet Hosea in person.

Ruthanne and Alan Giordano are Section Leaders for FaithLaunch starting this Fall. To find out more check out https://wcfoundation.org/faithlaunch