From today’s reading in the One Year Chronological Bible dated 6/25:

First a brief update on the kings and then we meet the prophet Hosea.

Judah – So Ahaz, king of Judah, travels to Damascus to meet his new overlord, Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, whom Ahaz relies on for protection instead of trusting the Lord. Ahaz picks up a little something while there…their pagan worship. 🤦‍♀️ Ahaz believes that by worshipping their false gods he will also have battle success. Therefore, Ahaz cuts up the pieces of the articles of the house of God and shuts the doors. King Ahaz is a total disgrace to the Lord but one thing good comes from him; his son, Hezekiah, who becomes the next king.

King Hezekiah does what is right in the sight of the Lord. (Maybe his mama brought him up right in the ways of the Lord bc it sure wasn’t his daddy.) Hezekiah trusts in the Lord and there were no other kings of Judah like him “For he held fast to the Lord…”

Northern Israel – Over in Israel, Hoshea leads a conspiracy against Pekah, king of Israel. King Pekah is killed and Hoshea is now sitting on the throne as the last king of Northern Israel.

Hosea – Hosea, a prophet to Northern Israel, begins his ministry when Jeroboam II is king of Israel and ends in the final days of Israel before they are destroyed by the Assyrians. The Lord tells Hosea to marry Gomer, whom God knows is going to be unfaithful. She is a wife of harlotry and symbolizes Israel’s unfaithfulness to the Lord through their worship of Baal and other false gods, and through their sexual sin and use of that sexual sin even as a practice of worship. 😳

So Hosea marries Gomer and they have 3 children. The Lord gives symbolic names to each child: 1) Jezreel – the location where Ahab and Jezebel shed so much blood and a prediction of the place of future destruction. 2) Lo-Ruhamah – translated “not pitied” meaning that God would no longer have pity on Israel. 3) Lo-Ammi – translated “not my people” meaning that the Lord will remove His favor upon His people and there will be a separation between God and Israel. The Lord then lays out pretty clearly the shame, humiliation, and consequences that come with adulterous relationships; both for Hosea and Gomer & God and Israel.

Tomorrow Hosea calls the people to repent. Keep reading.

(Isaiah 12:1-6, Isaiah 17:1-14, 2 Chronicles 28:16-21, 2 Kings 16:10-18, 2 Chronicles 28:22-25, 2 Kings 18:1-8, 2 Chronicles 29:1-2, 2 Kings 15:30-31, 2 Kings 17:1-4, Hosea 1:1-2:13)

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