The first thing to remember about the book of Hosea is that the name Hosea means "salvation". Sometimes when we here this word we think of the word "save". It should be a good lesson to us about how we can mess up very badly and still turn to the Lord, who has always loved us and always will love us. The wickedness of Israel can be seen in the symbolism used in the marriage of Hosea to Gomer. She was a harlot. This explains through symbolism that Israel had completely betrayed the Lord. This must have been a very difficult calling for Hosea to fulfill, as the prophet of a nation that would not hear his words. Despite the Lord's love and kindness for so long, they willingly chose and sought after consolation with other nations and other gods. It's painful to study this and see so many chapters of wickedness and the consequences for that wickedness. But after reading the last few chapters, we have hope again. God loves us. Even when we sin, he loves us. But he is bound to give us the consequences that our actions incur. This could be blessings for obedience, or lack of blessings and protection for not obeying. Either way we know that he loves us and will never give up on us. He will give us as much mercy as is possible. But we must realize the relationship between our actions and the blessings from those actions (or lack of blessings). Again, we can refer to D&C 130:20-21 for a wonderful description of this.
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