HOSEA:

Hosea has got to be one of the most interesting and most controversial people in the Bible.  Now it is true that only the Priests were forbidden to marry a harlot.  At the same time, it is also true that all the Israelites were commanded by God to be holy and keep themselves from impurity.  The Bible is also clear that when a man's wife has left him and slept with another he is not to take her back because she is defiled.  So, in a technical sense, Hosea did not violate the Mosaic law.    

It is also true that, if the society of Hosea's day had been as Obedient and God-fearing as it should have been, Hosea would not have been able to marry a prostitute - she would already have been stoned or burned to death.  The fact that he had no trouble finding one with whom to obey God's strange edict was a much an indictment of Israel's spiritual and moral condition as his spoken message.  Believe it or not, there have been some who discount Hosea because they cannot square what he did with what God has required of his followers.  

Yes, God's order to Hosea was indeed strange.  But, no stranger then what He ordered Ezekiel to do.  Certainly no different than Isaiah, who He commanded to walk around naked in public for three years.  

The correct answer to this question is found in the writings of one of the "minor" prophets:  "For I am the Lord, I do not change." (Malachi 3:6)  There are other references to this same truth in the scriptures, Old and New Testaments, but one will suffice for now.  

So, if God does not change there must be Biblical prophets still around today.  But, why?  We've got the "complete" Word of God, the Bible.  We have the Holy Spirit to inspire and illuminate the scriptures.  We have anointed teachers, preachers and evangelists to teach us the Word.  So, why prophets?  

It is safe to say that the situation is no different today then it was in the days of Amos.  Amos lived and ministered around 760 B.C.  Jeroboam II, the son of the man who would ever after be known as the one "who caused Israel to sin", was king in the Northern kingdom of 10 tribes, Israel.  Uzziah, the king who wanted to be a priest and died a leper because of it, was ruler in the Southern kingdom of two tribes, Judah.  It was a time of great prosperity for both kingdoms but one of great spiritual degradation.  Idolatry was at an all-time high, the judicial and religious systems were corrupted beyond measure, immorality of every kind was rife throughout the societies.  Judgment was coming and God wanted to let the people know that, even if they were not in a position of being willing to hear it. Amos tells us "Surely the Lord will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets."  

Now, doesn't the situation in Israel and Judah sound very familiar to that in the United States today?  We have just come through a period - which capped more than four decades of moral and spiritual decline - when people in the highest offices in this land, including the Oval Office, those who we are to look to for leadership, have shown such a lack of moral and spiritual leadership as to make us odious to even the most decadent nations in Europe.  Can we ignore the fact that God is a righteous God who must, in His good time, bring judgment where there is no repentance?  No, if God needed prophets in the days of Amos He certainly needs them today.  And if he revealed His secrets to His prophets back then, who can say that He Who does not change does not do the same today? 

So, it is certainly safe to say that "Yes, there are prophets around today."  

In the beginning of this study we stated the method was going to be to take a look at prophetic personages in the scriptures.  Well, stick with me folks and let's get on with it.