Our reading today begins with shouts of praise to God for his salvation. What a blessing that Almighty God forgives our sins and then comforts us.

“In that day you will say, ‘I will praise you, Lord. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me.” Isaiah 12:1

When we come to God, sinful, broken, deserving his holy wrath, he greets us with absolute forgiveness and draws us into his embrace to comfort us.

“Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world. Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.” Isaiah 12:4-6

Throughout the book of Isaiah we find these cries of joy and gratitude mingled with the dire prophecies of coming disaster. This has been true since the beginning of time: God’s wrath against sin and his overwhelming desire to forgive are simultaneously present in him.

His wrath is unstoppable once it’s unleashed. But when people ask for God’s forgiveness, his mercy rushes in like an ocean wave and engulfs them with salvation.

Damascus and Israel

The past few days we read about the fall of Damascus to the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser while the Aramean King Rezin was away helping Israel attack Judah. Isaiah now prophesied what would come next. Israel was going to meet the same fate as Damascus.

“See, Damascus will no longer be a city but will become a heap of ruins . . . The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, the royal power from Damascus . . . In that day the glory of Jacob will fade; the fat of his body will waste away.” Isaiah 17:1, 3, 4

Damascus and Israel were going to fall, but there was not going to be a complete destruction of the people. God knew who belonged to him and he planned to preserve them, in this time and in eternity.

“‘Yet some gleanings will remain, as when an olive tree is beaten, leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches, four or five on the fruitful boughs,’ declares the Lord, the God of Israel. In that day people will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel. They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands, and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles and the incense altars their fingers have made.”

The Sin of King Ahaz

Judah’s King Ahaz had an urgent need to seek an alliance with Assyria. Judah had been attacked and crippled by Israel and Aram who destroyed fortifications near Judah’s northern border and took two hundred thousand Judean women and children captive. The Edomites attacked Judah from the south and carried away prisoners, and Philistines invaded from the west and occupied the Negev, southwest of Jerusalem. So, “At that time King Ahaz sent to the kings of Assyria for help.” 2 Chronicles 28:16

The growing empire of Assyria was the biggest player on the scene, so Ahaz took treasure from Jerusalem to try and buy Assyria as an ally.

“Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria. He saw an altar in Damascus and sent to Uriah the priest a sketch of the altar, with detailed plans for its construction.” 2 Kings 16:10

Ahaz Betrays God

In his zeal to win Assyria’s favor King Ahaz decided to replace the God of the Israelites with the gods of Assyria. He came home and started using the replica of the altar he saw in Damascus. He moved away the bronze altar of God where atonement was made for sin, and dismantled the basins of water for ritual cleansing. He ordered the priest Uriah to use the new pagan altar for the morning and evening sacrifices and this incredible insult to God made him angry.

“Ahaz gathered together the furnishings from the temple of God and cut them in pieces. He shut the doors of the Lord’s temple and set up altars at every street corner in Jerusalem. In every town in Judah he built high places to burn sacrifices to other gods and aroused the anger of the Lord, the God of his ancestors.” 2 Chronicles 28:24-25

King Hezekiah

Hezekiah followed his father Ahaz to Judah’s throne at an interesting time. He watched the events of his father’s reign and they influenced his decisions about how to worship God. As soon as he came to power he undid what Ahaz had done.

“He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles.” 2 kings 18:4

Hezekiah even cut up the bronze snake Moses made in the wilderness because people had turned it into an idol.

“Hezekiah trusted the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the Lord and did not stop following him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. And the Lord was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.” 2 Kings 18:5-7

Once again, a king turned his nation around in one generation by trusting God and obeying his commands.

King Pekah and King Hoshea

King Pekah of Israel failed as a king. He drew his people more deeply into idolatry, led them into useless, costly military campaigns, and left them exposed to future attack from the Assyrian empire. It’s no surprise that Hoshea, a captain in Pekah’s army assassinated him and took his place as king in Israel for the next nine years.

King Hoshea did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but was not as vile as the kings who came before him. His main interest was in protecting Israel, so he bought peace with Assyria by paying heavy tribute to them. This worked until Hoshea formed a diplomatic relationship with Egypt and stopped sending tribute to Assyria. The Assyrian king Shalmaneser seized King Hoshea and put him in prison.

Israel now had no king to lead them and they were completely exposed to invasion. In a couple of days we will read what happened next in one of the saddest chapters in the Bible. We will learn what happened to a nation that practiced injustice, forsook the law of the Lord, and worshiped idols.

The Prophet Hosea

In the midst of all this turmoil, God raised up a prophet named Hosea and through his life experiences God sent powerful messages to Israel. In fact, the only way to really understand the book of Hosea is to read it in context with God’s relationship with Israel at this time.

As you read Hosea, keep in mind that God is telling the story of his relationship with unfaithful Israel. Once again, it was not easy to be the prophet through whom God spoke. Hosea was an ordinary man who married a promiscuous woman named Gomer. He must have loved her because he willingly lived with her and had children with her.

After three children, Jezreel, Lo-Ruhamah, and Lo-Ammi were born, Gomer was unfaithful to Hosea. He told his children to rebuke their mother “for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband.” Hosea 2:2

This seems like a terrible way to speak to children about their mother, but notice that Hosea didn’t reject his sons and daughter. Together with them he simply recognized her for who she was.

The heartbreak Hosea experienced with Gomer was a pale reflection of what God felt about Israel. In Hosea 2:1-13 God was very explicit about his own heartbreak and the actions he would take against his adulterous people if they didn’t repent and return to him.

“I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals; she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but me she forgot.” Hosea 2:13

God’s Broken Heart

We might have sympathy for a man who loved a broken woman and married her to save her, only to have her betray him again, but what about God?

God has reached out and saved broken people millions of times, only to have them fail him again. How does he feel about that? The Book of Hosea helps us see how God feels and what he does when people break his heart.