It is amazing how hard people’s hearts can get. Hosea proclaimed God’s messages for twenty or more years, but they never turned away from their sins. Isaiah, a contemporary of Hosea, received a similar message for Judah. “And He said, ‘Yes, go. But tell the people this: ‘Though you hear My words repeatedly, you won’t understand them. Though you watch and watch as I perform My miracles, still you won’t know what they mean’. Dull their understanding, close their ears, and shut their eyes. I don’t want them to see or hear or to understand, or to turn to Me to heal them.” (Isaiah 6).
Why would God say He didn’t want people to turn to Him? The answer is they weren’t doing what we might call “little sins”; they were actually worshipping other gods. Remember how King Solomon in his later life started worshipping his pagan wives’ gods? (1 Kings 11). The people of Judah and Israel should have known what would have happened. While Solomon repented, the people of Israel and Judah didn’t; Israel was destroyed in 722 BCE and Judah in 586 BCE.
In verse 7, God tells us the people’s response to His messengers. “The prophets are crazy”; “The inspired men are mad.” And in verse 8, God said, “I appointed the prophets to guard My people, but the people have blocked them at every turn and publicly declared their hatred, even in the Temple of the Lord.”
The Lord then gave Hosea a vision of what would happen. “In my vision I have seen the sons of Israel doomed. The fathers are forced to lead their sons to slaughter.” (Verse 13). And in verse 17, Hosea wrote, “My God will destroy the people of Israel because they will not listen or obey. They will be wandering Jews, homeless among the nations.”