If you’ve read the “Old Testament Connection” you might remember the part of the story where the nation of Israel is divided into two kingdoms.  The Northern kingdom of Israel and the Southern kingdom of Judah.  You might also remember that both kingdoms eventually defected from God, though the Northern kingdom, Israel, defected sooner almost immediately setting up an alternate place of worship to God.  We recently finished Isaiah.  Isaiah was a prophet, or messenger for God, in the southern kingdom of Judah.  In our reading of Isaiah we saw Isaiah warning the people of Judah about their pride, lack of caring for each other, and about not honoring God.  In the beginning of his book, Isaiah mentions four kings of Judah and tells us that his message from God came to him during their reigns.  The four kings were Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah.  Uzziah reigned from 791-739 and Hezekiah reigned from 728-686 with the other two reigning in between.  If you read along with us in Isaiah, you might also remember that a lot of the book dealt with event during the reigns of Ahaz (743-715) and Hezekiah.  Often kings would share the rule with their sons, Ahaz and Hezekiah overlapped for 13 years also Ahaz share rule with his father, Jotham for 12 years at the beginning of his reign.  Interestingly Hosea mentions these same for kings in the beginning of his book (Hosea 1:1) along with one king of Israel, Jereboam.  Another thing you might remember is that Isaiah warned both Ahaz and Hezekiah about making alliances with neighboring nations.  God wanted the people of Judah to trust in him alone for protection.  Sadly, one of the nations that Judah needed to be protected from was Israel, their “brother” to the North.

In 745 BC to the east of Israel and Judah a new king began to rule over the Assyrian people, Tiglath-Pileser III (745-727).  He was a strong and capable king who expanded the Assyrian empire.  He made several invasions into the region where the Israelites lived and forced the submission of the people in the area.  At times kings of these small kingdoms, Including Israel and Judah, would honor the Assyrian rule and at times they would rebel.  Jereboam ruled Israel from 793-753.  He overlapped his father by 11 years so he became the supreme ruler in 782 BC.  When Jereboam died he was succeded by his son Zachariah (753 BC).  After six months of rule he was assassinated by Shallum.  After one month of rule Shallum was assassinated by one of the military rulers, Menahem, who then became king and ruled for ten years (752-742).  It was at the end of Menahem’s reign that Assyria began to rise in power.  In 743 he paid a tribute (sort of a tax or bribe honoring the invading king as a way to divert an invasion) to Tiglath-Pileser.  When Menahem died he was succeeded by his son, Pekahiah who ruled for two years (742-740).  It appears that at the time there was a rival king ruling Israel’s territory east of the Jordan River, Pekah.  Pekahiah made this rival ruler a captain in army.  In 740 Pekah raided the palace with 50 loyal troops and killed Pekahiah making himself ruler over all of the Northern kingdom.  Pekah was strongly anti-Assyrian and made an alliance with Rezin, king of Syria (often referred to as  Aram or Damascus).  Pekah and Rezin tried to persuade Ahaz to join their alliance but Ahaz was pro Assyria.  When Pekah and Rezin ploted to invade and overthrow Ahaz, Ahaz appealed to Tiglath-Pileser for protection.  In 734 Tiglath_Pileser entered the region and from 734-732 fought to put down the rebellion.  He killed Rezin king of Damascus.  Pekah was killed by an Israelite name Hoshea who then becam “king” of Israel with tiglath’s approval.  Much of Israel’s former territory was under control of the Assyrians with Hoshea ruling over a small region west of the Jordan River.  In 727 Tiglath-Pileser died and was succeded by his son Shalmaneser V.  Hoshea rrevolted against Shalmaneser who invaded Israel in response.  The war lasted from 724-722 Bc at which time the kingdom of Israel fell.  The Assyrian policy was to scatter conquered people throughout their empire to destroy their identity and loyalties.  Some  of the people from the 10 northern tribe who had made up the Northern kingdom, Israel, remained in the land but many new and foreign people were transplanted into the area.  Soon the policy of Assyria achieved it’s goal and Israel was no more.

It was at the beginning of and during this down hill slide that Hosea brought God’s message to the people of Israel.  Since he was a messenger of Yahweh, the God of Israel (the whole nation) he probably mentions the kings of Judah as  a way of honoring and pointing to the one true God.  In spite of political rivalries Jerusalem was the place where God had established true worship to Himself and Jerusalem was in the territory of Judah.  He also probably did not want to identify with the petty personally rivalries of the last few “kings” of Israel.  Men who were self made not God appointed.  As we will see Hosea’s message is one of  love and faithfulness, the love and faithfulness of God, but you will certainly be surprised by the creative way in which God makes his point to this unfaithful kingdom.