DESCRIBE THE CONTEXT OF HOSEA, JOEL, AND AMOS

INTRODUCTION

Hosea, Joel and Amos are the first three books from twelve prophetic books and often called
the Minor Prophets not because of their importance but to their length. All three prophets
were contemporaries and started their ministries around 760 B.C.

HOSEA: THE LOVE OF YAHWEH

I. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

- one of the last prophets to the Northern Kingdom,

- he preached over four decades (760 to 720 BC)

-his name means “salvation,”  

- married to Gomer, a bride God described as “a wife of harlotry” (Hosea 1:2) is like Israel’s
infidelity to God.

- had three children (1:4, 6, 9) and their names form the basis for the symbolic narratives of
chapters 1–3,

II. HISTORICAL CONTEXT-

a. Setting and Dating:

-Hosea began his ministry during the reigns of Uzziah, king of Judah, and during the end of
the prosperous but morally declining reign of Jeroboam II, king of Israel.

- he prophesied until shortly after the fall of Samaria in 722 B.C.

b. Political Context

-Israel has experienced PEACE AND A GREAT TIME OF PROSPERITY.

-Unfortunately, the prosperity they’ve experienced was adulterously attributed to other gods
and not to the LORD.

-Hosea WARNED Israel against the POLITICAL ALLIANCES to Assyria and Egypt (Hos.
7:11). Israel’s political alliances was evidence of their DEFECTION TO YAHWEH.
c. Social and Economic Context: The social structure of Israel during this time,
encouraged power, greed, self-indulgence, corruption of justice, luxurious living among the
upper classes, and the decay of social unity. While the upper class were living lavishly, they
were oppressing the poor. Because of these, Hosea urged his people for a genuine repentance
and return to the Lord and by doing so, a loving God was ready to forgive and restore them.

d. Cultural/ Religious Context:

-Hosea also saw the people disregard their spiritual heritage.
- Israel worshiped the Lord and found no problem with also worshiping Baal and observing
the worship rituals in Baal’s honor.
-Religion of Israel was syncretistic worship that cost the people of Israel their national
integrity.

III. LITERARY CONTEXT

-the pattern is chiastic in nature. The back and forth from sin/judgment to invitation/renewal
served as a repeated literary appeal for God’s people to return to him via covenant renewal.

-there is a strong emphasis on husband/wife imagery. God’s instruction to marry a prostitute

should be taken metaphorically not literally.

IV. THEOLOGICAL CONTEXT- The relationship between Yahweh and Israel, with its
mutual obligations, is the framework for Hosea’s whole message.

Themes and Prophetic speeches

a. The Nation’s Sin- (4:13; 8:11-13; 10:1-2).

-The main ‘theology’ of the book is this: Israel’s idolatry was like adultery

-God’s people were engaged to syncretism, acculturation, and Realpolitik.

-They were entrapped by the materialism of the nation.

What was Yahweh’s response to Israel’s sin?

b. Yahweh’s Response in Judgment-

The Prophetic Speeches:

-The speech cycle from chapters 5-13, outlined God’s case against Israel’s sins that would
ultimately cause their destruction and would rouse his anger, resulting in punishment.

-Israel would suffer disgrace, humiliation, bloodshed, oppression, and oppression.

However, Yahweh envisions no end to the relationship and anticipates Israel’s repentance.

c. Yahweh’s Return to Israel with love-

- Israel’s spiritual harlotry will bring judgment of exile to the nation (1:1-9).

Israel’s Spiritual Harlotry = Israel’s Exile

-Yet the overriding theological truth is that of God’s tender love and mercy.

-The Lord’s great love will one day result in Israel’s forgiveness and that will bring his
people back home (1:10-11).

-Just as Hosea return to his unfaithful wife to bring her back, so the Lord pursues us with his
unfathomable love.

d. The Hope of Restoration-

Chapter 14:1-8 concludes the prophet’s speech

-a call to repentance

-a call for absolute loyalty to Yahweh and abandonment of Realpolitik

-Yahweh, the faithful lover (2:14-23; 14:5-8), will renew his love for the remnant with
greater zeal and commitment.

V. ESCATHOLOGICAL CONTEXT

a. The New People of God:

-The new people of God respond to God’s covenant renewal with conjugal fidelity. The
metaphor of marriage applies to covenant renewal: the Lord is the Bridegroom and the
covenant people, the bride. In the New Testament imagery of the church being the “bride of
Christ” (Eph. 5 and Rev. 21 & 22).

b. The Renewal of the Covenants: In the renewal of the covenant the creation and redemption
belong together and there is a restoration of a paradisiacal state of “shalom” (v. 18; 22-23).

c. The New Leadership: The leader under which the remnant will thrive is none other than a
Davidic king. He is God’s appointed means of blessing and peace. The prophetic promises
also extend to all who are in Christ Jesus, to both Jews and Gentiles (1 Pet. 2:10).

The coming eschatological age will hence be the crowning climax of Israel's history.

Summary:

The book of Hosea is a shadow of the painful process whereby sin is taken away through the
cross of the Savior. This is the love of Yahweh!

JOEL: THE DAY OF THE LORD AND THE SPIRIT OF

RESTORATION

I. INTRODUCTION:
- The identity of Joel and his era remains an enigma.

- The book of Joel emphasizes the central importance of threats to Jerusalem and its
deliverance from the nations on the Day of the Lord.

II. WHO IS JOEL?

-Nothing is known of this prophet except what is given in the opening verse of this book.
-He was the son of Pethuel.
-Joel’s name means Jehovah is God.
-His name also gives meaning that God is in control of every circumstance, and He got the
control over the nature as well as on all the kingdoms of the earth.
-he focused on the Southern Kingdom, Judah to warn Judah of God’s impending judgment
because of their sins and urge them to turn back to God.

II.HISTORICAL
a. Setting and Dating:
-The time of his ministry is equally uncertain because he did not set it in a clearly defined
historical context. Joel gave no explicit indication of his time period.

-There is much to be said in favor of a preexilic date (9th or 8th BC) and a postexilic date (630-
587 BC), but the prophecy itself is inconclusive.

-According to Calvin’s position: “...but as to Joel there is less need of this; for the import of
his doctrine is evident, though his time be obscure and uncertain. Joel’s message is universal.

-In any case the message of book of Joel is not significantly affected by its dating.

b. Political, economic, and social context:

-the occasion is the locust plague that cannot be located to ant particular point in history
-No kings are mentioned
- if the dating was preexilic, the king was King Joash of Judah
- the people of Judah had become prosperous and complacent. Taking God for granted, they
had turned to self-centeredness, idolatry, and sin.
-The locust plague affected all areas of life: wildlife, agriculture, husbandry, economics,
social life, religious life, the priesthood, and the temple.

III. LITERARY CONTEXT

-It is important to observe the literary art of Joel.

-It is liturgical and oratorical.
-Joel is familiar with
1. other prophetic writings
2. the creative use of earlier prophetic utterances, and a
3. reworking of prophetic motifs.
-Joel employs various literary devices like:

1. metaphor- an example is: the locust plague serves as a metaphor for the Day of the Lord.

2. symmetry- the call to repent is symmetrical with promise of the outpouring of the Spirit
Other Literary devices are:
3. catchwords
4. rhetorical devices
5. repetition
6. parallelism

IV. THEOLOGICAL CONTEXT

Joel used the occasion of locust plague to expound the meaning of covenant life and
suffering.
Themes and Message:

a. The Day of the Lord:

-is the major theme and the need for God’s people to be prepared.
What will be the Day of the Lord be like?
-It will be a terrible event and liberating experience.
-it is a period of judgment and restoration
-refers to different periods when God sent judgment to His people, but the main emphasis is
on the future “day of the Lord” when the nations will be judged, and Christ shall return to set
up His glorious kingdom.
-Joel refers to three important events, each of which he calls a “day of the Lord.”
1. He sees the plague of locusts as an immediate day of the Lord (Joel 1:1–20)- a
metaphorical army
2. the invasion of Judah as an imminent day of the Lord (2:1–27)- symbolize a real army
3. the final judgment of the world as the ultimate day of the Lord (2:28—3:21)- armies are
very real and very dangerous.
-He declared to the elders, tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children,
and their children to the next generation.
- The focus of his message is also on the Spirit of restoration as God’s sign of protection from
the eschatological Day of the Lord.
b. Today is the Day of Salvation:
-Joel declared this dreadful day of accountability and judgment to evoke a response of greater
devotion to the Lord.

- Return to radical discipleship opens up the eschatological era as an age of blessing and
salvation instead of curse and judgment (2:12).

- Chapter 2:13: The Lord is faithful; he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and
abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.

- God stood ready to forgive and restore all those who would come to him and turn away
from sin.

-God wanted to shower his people with his love and restore them to a proper relationship with
him.

c. The Spirit of Restoration:

-But how can they know that he is present in adversity?

-THE HOLY SPIRIT is the guarantee of God’s presence in suffering, of communion with
God and of the promised restoration.

-The prophecy of the Spirit of God is Yahweh’s guarantee of restoration, of the establishment
of his kingdom, and of the rest promised to his people (3:17-18; 20-21)

V. ESCATHOLOGICAL CONTEXT
The Democratization of Spirit:

-In Acts 2:17, 19, and 20 Peter quoted Prophet Joel’s prophecy in Chapter 2:28-31

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your
sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men
shall see visions.

Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit out of my Spirit in those
days

And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of
smoke.
 
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible
day of the LORD come.

- Prophet Joel proclaims a democratization of the Spirit; that is, a special endowment of the
Spirit in every member of the people of God.

-The assurance of the Spirit is given to all—regardless of sex, social standing, or age—who
find refuge in the Lord alone: “the name of the LORD...on Mount Zion...in Jerusalem” (Joel
2:32).

-The Lord assures his people that he is with them in blessing and protection, even when he

unleashes his judgments on the nations before and during the full inauguration of the Day of
the Lord.

-They need not fear, because he “will be a refuge for his people, a stronghold” (3:16).

-The democratization of the Spirit is the Holy Spirit gives Himself to the new, regenerated
heart to advance God’s cause: the full establishment of His kingdom on earth.

- The Holy Spirit is God’s eschatological gift from the Father and the Son to the new
community before the Day of the Lord.

- The Christian community must look beyond Joel’s time and beyond the present (the gift of
the Spirit of Christ) to the era of restoration: the New Jerusalem.

Summary:

Joel posits the grace and compassion of Yahweh as the ground of salvation and of the full
enjoyment of deliverance: joy, fulfillment, everlasting removal of disgrace, and God’s
presence (vv. 19 – 27). By the gift of his Spirit, the Lord assures all who call on his name;
male or female, slave or free, young or old, that he is their Protector (3:16), their King, and
their Benefactor.
 AMOS: YAHWEH IS THE AUTHOR OF DESOLATION AND
RESTORATION

I. INTRODUCTION

The Book of Amos is the third of the Twelve Minor Prophets in the Old Testament
(Tanakh) and the second in the Greek Septuagint tradition, making Amos the first prophetic
book of the Bible to be written.

II. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

-The prophet Amos lived among a group of shepherds in Tekoa, a small town approximately
ten miles south of Jerusalem.

- He is learned, intelligent and a businessman.

- Amos made clear in his writings that he did not come from a family of prophets, nor
did he even consider himself one. Rather, he was “a grower of sycamore figs” as well as a
shepherd (Amos 7:14–15).

-Amos’s connection to the simple life of the people made its way into the center of his
prophecies, as he showed a heart for the oppressed and the voiceless in the world.

-Amos is known as the 'prophet of doom'. His message came in the form of visions, with the
visions representing God's judgement on Israel.

III. HISTORICAL CONTEXT

a. Setting and Dating

- Amos prophesied “two years before the earthquake” (Amos 1:1; see also Zechariah 14:5),
just before the halfway point of the eighth century BC 8 BC), during the reigns of Uzziah,
king of Judah, and Jeroboam, king of Israel. Their reigns overlapped for fifteen years, from
767 BC to 753 BC.

-The prophet’s public prophetic utterances are accordingly placed within the chronological
limits of Jeroboam II’s regnal years.
b. Political, economic and Social Context

-Though he came from the southern kingdom of Judah, Amos delivered his prophecy against
the northern kingdom of Israel and the surrounding nations, leading to some resistance from
the prideful Israelites (Amos 7:12).
-The book of Amos that suggest a rich upper class and general economic progress, has been
coupled with ease to Jeroboam’s so-called golden years of “great prosperity and peace”.
-Reference to wealth and political stability in foreign affairs is seen as a reflection of the
prosperity and grandeur that was introduced by the eminently successful Jeroboam II, but
often without due recognition of the concurrent social injustice, perhaps even the seeds of
resistance and subversion, that is clearly and prominently portrayed in Amos
-Amos opposed Realpolitik and broadly proclaimed God’s message of universal judgment
and of salvation.

c. Cultural and Religious Context

-Amos believed that he was living in a time of wickedness, and he came to the belief that
God had given him the duty of preaching to the kingdom of Israel that, if they failed to
obey God's commandments and turn themselves from their evil ways, they would be judged
by God.
-God speaks against Israel and Judah because of their lies, their failure to keep God's
commandments, sexual impurity, and several other abominations like fertility cults and
immorality associated to pagan religious forms that God proclaimed that they committed.
-The Lord despised their tokens of religiosity because they corrupted the true worship and
love of one’s fellowman (4:4-5).
-Then, God tells Israel and Judah to abandon their evil ways in favor of good and to
begin establishing justice in their lands.

IV. LITERARY CONTEXT

-The Book of Amos is relatively short, spanning nine chapters. The book contains the
following literary forms

1. autobiographical narrative (7:10-17)

2. It is oratorical to reproach nations (1:3-2:16)

3. vision reports (7:1-8; 8:1-2; 9:1-4)

4. numerical sayings (1:3,6, 13; 2:1,6)

5. wisdom sayings (3:3-6,8)

6. irony (4:4-5; 6:12)

7. rhetorical questions (3:3-6, 8; 5:18-20; 9:7)

8. metaphors (2:13; 3:4 – 5; 4:12; 5:19, 24)

9. similes (2:9; 5:7; 6:12)

10. alliteration, parallelism, hymns (1:2; 4:13; 5:8 – 9; 9:5 – 6),

11. and the messenger formula (“this is what the LORD says,”)

The majority of modern scholars consider the genre of the Book of Amos to be a prophetic
book, many even believing that a specified genre that can unify the entire book and its themes
to be a 'covenant enforcement document,' where Amos utilized and developed the law of
Moses and its stipulations and punishments in forming the structure and form of his book.

V. THEOLOGICAL CONTEXT

By revelation Amos received visions of God’s judgment upon Israel (7:1-9:10).

This message moved him deeply, as he proclaimed the imminence of the Day of the Lord to
the northern kingdom. The urgency of his message characterizes his prophetic speech in
chapter 3:4-8.

Theme: Moral Injustice, Oppression of the Poor, Gods Judgement, Restoration of Israel

1. Members of the society at the time of Amos chose to be unjust and. to treat the
disadvantaged as they wished. Amos connects the. injustice he sees around him to a society
bent on wealth and. prosperity while being forgetful of the true worship of God.

2. The lesson is simple — God gives warnings for our blessing. Israel did not heed the
warnings of God and seek his forgiveness and received the consequence of its rejection of
God's mercy. God gives us warnings today and we often disregard them. We then receive the
consequences of our rejection of God's mercy.
3. Judgment. Undoubtedly, the text of Amos 5:18–20 is pregnant with the tone of punitive
judgment. A negative outcome is forecast. The theophany is attended by cosmic upheaval,
resulting in the undermining of human civilization.
4. Salvation. The Day of the Lord signifies annihilation of all sinful people and, at the same
time, the deliverance of those who are faithful to God. These loyal ones constitute the
remnant. Note the following: “It may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to
the remnant of Joseph” (5:15). Hence, deliverance and salvation are possible for those who
seek God and His will (5:4; 6:14). However, chapter 9:8 declares that God will not utterly
destroy the House of Jacob. Therefore, we may infer that the Day of the Lord is equal to
physical destruction of the kingdom, but a limited group will be saved. This salvific quality
must not be overlooked.

VI. ESCATHOLOGICAL CONTEXT

-The motif of light/darkness is an element of prophetic preaching with regard to the future.

-On the Day of the Lord the remnant would enjoy the renewal of the covenants.

-The benefits of the messianic era will extend to Israel and to the nations where God’s grand
plans to transform creation, richly bless the world and a permanent enjoyment of His people.
(9:13-15)

- The message of Amos further extends to the coming of our Lord, who has revealed his plans
to the prophets. (3:7; Rev. 10:7; 11:18)

- Jesus, the Savior and Messiah, is also the Divine Warrior who will establish his kingdom
through desolation of human kingdoms (Rev. 6:15-17; Amos 9:1)

Summary:

Amos directs attention to Yahweh’s power in desolation and restoration.

He also extended the judgment of God to Judah and to the nations, proclaiming most clearly
God’s sovereignty over creation.

Amos spoke of the certainty of judgment on all the nations, including Israel, while extending
hope to a remnant that would persevere in doing God’s will on earth.
CONCLUSION

The witness of these canonical prophets surpasses time and space. Hosea, Joel, and Amos
were God’s spokespersons to Israel and to Judah, and to God’s people before and after the
Exile. Though they directly addressed God’s ancient covenant people, the prophets still speak
to us in their writings. The historical context has changed, but their message is as valid today
as it was in the eighth, seventh, or fifth century B.C.