For now they shall say, We have no king, because we feared not the LORD; what then should a king do to us?
Hosea's prophecy was addressed to the northern kingdom, and his name means salvation, and he was the last of the great prophets of that kingdom. The saying belongs to the final years of the kingdom, when Israel was deeply wicked and its kings repeatedly fell through conspiracy, so that the loss of a king was bound up with failure to fear the Lord. Israel would come to acknowledge having no king because the people had not feared the Lord. In that condition of not fearing the Lord, a king could do nothing for them.
The surrounding message predicts the coming captivity of the tribes, warns against alliance with Egypt, and exposes sad moral conditions with degeneration and decay of the nation and gross iniquity of priests and princes. It uses Hosea's own painful personal history to symbolize Jehovah's separation from His people, and it closes with remonstrance and tender exhortation with rich promises of blessing from God as the result of repentance. The Lord's people can increase in number while sinning against Him, so numerical growth is no proof of spiritual strength.
Hosea's prophecy was addressed to the northern kingdom, and his name means salvation, and he was the last of the great prophets of that kingdom. The saying belongs to the final years of the kingdom, when Israel was deeply wicked and its kings repeatedly fell through conspiracy, so that the loss of a king was bound up with failure to fear the Lord. Israel would come to acknowledge having no king because the people had not feared the Lord. In that condition of not fearing the Lord, a king could do nothing for them.
The surrounding message predicts the coming captivity of the tribes, warns against alliance with Egypt, and exposes sad moral conditions with degeneration and decay of the nation and gross iniquity of priests and princes. It uses Hosea's own painful personal history to symbolize Jehovah's separation from His people, and it closes with remonstrance and tender exhortation with rich promises of blessing from God as the result of repentance. The Lord's people can increase in number while sinning against Him, so numerical growth is no proof of spiritual strength.