Hosea, Amos and Micah

In the eighth century before Christ, Israel and Judah were enjoying a time of economic prosperity and apparent religiosity. The temples were full, the feasts were celebrated with pomp and the rich built houses of ivory. But beneath that surface lay idolatry, corruption, injustice against the poor and unfaithfulness to God. In that setting God raised up several prophets. In this episode we meet three of them: Hosea, the prophet of wounded love; Amos, the shepherd who cried out for justice; and Micah, who announced the birth of the Messiah in Bethlehem.

The setting: prosperity and decay

Under King Jeroboam II, the northern kingdom of Israel lived through one of its most prosperous periods. In the south, the kingdom of Judah also flourished under King Uzziah. But wealth was concentrated in a few hands. The powerful seized the land of small farmers, bribed judges and oppressed the poor, while offering sacrifices at the sanctuaries. The worship of Baal and other gods was also mixed with the worship of the Lord. On the horizon the threat of Assyria was growing; in 722 BC it would destroy Samaria and deport the northern kingdom.

Hosea: the prophet of wounded love

Hosea’s life became a message. God asked him to marry Gomer, a woman who would be unfaithful to him. They had children whom God told them to give symbolic names: Jezreel, Lo-ruhamah (“not pitied”) and Lo-ammi (“not my people”), announcing judgment. Gomer left Hosea and went after other lovers, until she ended up sold as a slave.

Then God told Hosea something astonishing: “Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods” (Hosea 3:1). Hosea bought her for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer and a half of barley, and took her back.

Hosea’s story is a living parable of God’s love for Israel. The people had been unfaithful, chasing Baal like a wife seeking other lovers. God, like a wounded husband, suffered at that betrayal, but did not stop loving. One of the tenderest passages in the Bible is in Hosea:

“When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images. I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them. I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.”

Hosea 11:1-4

God describes himself as a father who taught his son to walk, took him in his arms and bent down to feed him. And when judgment seemed inevitable, God’s heart is moved: “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?… mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together” (Hosea 11:8).

Hosea also denounced empty religion: “For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6). And the book ends with an invitation to return: “O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God… I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely” (Hosea 14:1, 4).

Amos: the shepherd who cried out for justice

Amos was not a professional prophet. He said so himself: “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit” (Amos 7:14). He was a shepherd and grower of wild figs from Tekoa, a village of Judah on the edge of the desert. But God sent him to the northern kingdom, to Bethel, the royal sanctuary, to deliver an uncomfortable message.

Amos began by denouncing the sins of the neighbouring nations: Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon and Moab. His listeners probably applauded. But then he turned to Judah and finally to Israel itself: “they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes.” He denounced those who trampled the poor, judges who took bribes, the rich women of Samaria who oppressed the needy, and those who lay on beds of ivory and drank wine in bowls while ignoring their people’s suffering.

Amos also criticised a religion content with rituals that forgot justice. God says through him: “I hate, I despise your feast days… Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs.” And then he utters one of the sentences most quoted by those who have fought for justice:

“But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.”

Amos 5:24

The priest of Bethel, Amaziah, accused Amos of conspiracy and ordered him back to Judah. But Amos would not be silent. Even so, his book ends with a promise of restoration: God would raise up the fallen tabernacle of David, and his people would again plant vineyards and dwell in their land (Amos 9:11-15). Centuries later James would quote this prophecy at the council of Jerusalem to show that God was calling the Gentiles too (Acts 15:16-17).

Micah: justice, mercy and humility

Micah came from Moresheth, a rural village in southern Judah, and prophesied in the days of Kings Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. Like Amos, he denounced the powerful who coveted fields and seized them, judges who judged for reward, priests who taught for hire and prophets who cried peace to those who fed them. He even announced that Jerusalem would be ploughed like a field. A century later, in Jeremiah’s time, the elders recalled this prophecy and how King Hezekiah repented on hearing it (Jeremiah 26:18-19).

Micah summed up what God requires of human beings in one of the most beautiful verses of the Old Testament:

“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”

Micah 6:8

But Micah is especially remembered for a messianic prophecy. Amid announcements of judgment, God promised that from a small town would come an eternal ruler:

“But thou, Beth–lehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”

Micah 5:2

More than seven hundred years later, when the wise men from the East asked in Jerusalem where the Christ was to be born, the priests and scribes answered by quoting precisely this prophecy: in Bethlehem of Judea (Matthew 2:5-6). Micah also shared with Isaiah a vision of universal peace: the nations “shall beat their swords into plowshares”, and everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make them afraid (Micah 4:3-4).

The book ends with a confession of God’s character: “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity…? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy… thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:18-19).

Places in the story

Interesting facts

Lessons for our lives

God loves with a faithful love, even when we are unfaithful. Religion without justice does not please God. God cares for the poor and oppressed. God can use ordinary people, like a shepherd from Tekoa. What God requires is clear: justice, mercy and humility. There is always a way back.

On the road to Jesus

These three prophets point to Jesus in complementary ways. Hosea shows the love of a God who buys back his unfaithful wife; Jesus Christ redeemed us not with silver but with his own blood, and presents the Church as his bride. Amos announced the restoration of David’s tabernacle, fulfilled in Christ, the Son of David, who opens the doors to all nations. And Micah named the exact place of his birth: Bethlehem, from which would come one “whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting”, that is, one who existed from eternity. Jesus lived out fully what Micah 6:8 requires: he did justly, loved mercy and walked humbly with God.

In the next episode we will meet Isaiah, the great prophet of the Messiah.

Prayer

Lord, thank you for your faithful love, which does not abandon me even when I have been unfaithful. Make me a stream of justice and mercy. Teach me to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with you. Thank you for Jesus, born in Bethlehem, who casts my sins into the depths of the sea. Amen.