The Times Hosea Lived In (Hosea 1:1)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/29/2015 8:52 AM

My Worship Time                                                                           Focus:  The Times of Hosea

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Hosea 1:1

            Message of the verse:  “¶  The word of the LORD which came to Hosea the son of Beeri, during the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.”

            Just to warn you we did go over some of the things from this verse in our introduction to the book of Hosea, but hopefully we will add some more insights. 

            We learned that Hosea named four kings of Judah and one king of Israel in this first verse to indicate when it was that he ministered to the God’s people and spoke a little bit about who these kings were.

            Let us take some time to look into more detail on who these kings were.  Now we know that all of the kings of Judah were descendants of King David as God has promised David that there would always be a king on the throne from his family.  Now remember we have just studied that Israel went into captivity as we looked at the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and also Daniel and we have also learned that the Lord Jesus Christ is a descendant of King David and thus is the King that will reign forever.  When we studied these OT prophets along with books like 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles we learned that many of the kings of Judah were wicked and all of the kings of the Northern Kingdom were wicked.

            Dr. Wiersbe writes on what happened to Israel after Jeroboam II died:  “his son Zechariah reigned only six months and was assassinated by his successor Shallum who himself was assassinated after reigning only one month.  Menahem reigned for ten years; his son Pekahiah ruled two years before being killed by Pekah who as able to keep the throne for twenty years.  He was slain by Hoshea, who reigned for ten years, the last of the kings of Israel.  During his evil reign, the nation was conquered by Assyria, the Jews intermingled with the foreigners and the Assyrians brought into the land, and the result was a mixed race known as the Samaritans. 

            “What a time to be serving the Lord!  Murder, idolatry, and immorality were rampant in the land, and nobody seemed to be interested in hearing the Word of the Lord!  On top of that, God told His prophet to get married and raise a family!”

            Tomorrow we will look at who Hosea married, which is one of the themes of this book.  But as we read of what was going on in Israel and also Judah during this time we know that it was soon after all these things that were evil that went on come the destruction of both Israel and then Judah.  God’s patience had run out.  I fear as I look at some of the same things happening to our country as our country is becoming a very dark place spiritually to live.  As things get darker in our country the bright light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ needs to shine so people will come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.

5/29/2015 9:10 AM