The Book of Hosea is one of the many books of the Jewish scriptures and appears as the first in the order of the twelve minor prophets. The term 'lesser' refers to the length and not the importance of the books compared to the books of Ezekiel, Isaiah and Jeremiah. All twelve minor books are Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Zechariah, Haggai, and Malachi (Feinberg, 1990). God ordered Hosea to marry a prostitute, named Gomer, who symbolized the covenant relationship between Israel and him (God). Hosea's prophecies were unique in that they were passed on through the names given to his children. This article attempts to give an illustrative description of the first chapter of the book of Hosea. The first chapter of Hosea has eleven verses. The first verse describes how Hosea obtained his prophecies, whose son he was, and in what period of history. The remaining verses are about his wife and children and can be summarized. According to Keil and Delitzsch (1989), Hosea 1-3 symbolized Israel's adultery. God commands Hosea to marry a promiscuous wife and have children with her. The land of Israel was compared to an adulterous woman because of her unfaithfulness. The child names that Hosea was instructed by God to give to his sons symbolized God's judgment. The first son was to be named Jezreel. This name referred to the Valley of Jezreel, where the founder of a dynasty named Jehu massacred all of Ahab's descendants and placed Jeroboam II on the throne (2 Kings 10:11). Israel did not learn from this massacre and therefore God would end his kingdom in the valley of Jezreel. The next baby born was a girl and was to be named as per... middle of paper... in the lamp holder is a representation of the Holy Spirit who provides light in our lives. This Holy Spirit is given to us as a gift of God's mercy. Without this oil in us, our lamps will slowly go out. Even though the church at Ephesus was doctrinally correct, it lacked love. Without love in us we can expect to be judged the same way Israel was judged (Beckham, n.d.). • The church in today's world has very low standards. We are ignoring the active sins of believers in churches and are not ready to take a stand and talk to them about it. As a result, churches encourage adultery, envy, conflict, unforgiveness, and a lack of love that drive us away from God on a daily basis. God will give us a time to repent, but one day He will judge the church and the nation just like Israel so that we return to him (Beckham, n.d.).