What Is Hosea?

Hosea was a Jewish prophet who wrote during the “twilight years” of the Northern Kingdom of Israel (755 B.C. – 715 B.C.), just prior to their capture and subsequent exile to Assyria. Israel’s decline into idolatry was its hallmark and thus their religiosity was marked by ceremony rather than sincerity and commitment (Youngblood, 2014).
In contrast, James, probably the half-brother of Jesus, a leader of a new sect of Judaism, the Way, wrote around 62 A.D., directed his focus to the Jewish believers in Christ which were scattered among the nations subsequent to severe persecutions leveled against their group (James 1: 1, Youngblood, 2014).
Hence, the immediate audiences for these writings were Jews and yet that is where the parallels end, at least from a cursory standpoint. However, this essay will examine using exegesis, to bare the common threads woven together from these separate by almost a thousand years of cultural, political and religious distinctions.
Background
Hosea, a committed prophet of Yahweh, entered the biblical scene at a height of Jewish apostasy in the Northern division of Israel. Yet Hosea’s overarching message from Jehovah announced his ongoing love for Jews and God’s desire for their return to his righteousness (Hosea 11:1-11). To illustrate God’s commitment to Israel and demonstrate how Israel had rejected God, God instructed Hosea to marry Gomer, an adulterous woman, who was continually unfaithful to Hosea and yet God would not allow Hosea to relent but sent him to retrieve and buy her back and restore her as his wife. Likewise, God declared a similar devotion to an adulterous Israel (Hosea 1 &