Hosea The problem was that Israel did not know their God (Hosea 4:1) and so God tells a man named Hosea to marry a prostitute. Hosea marries her but she leaves him and commits adultery. Then God tells him to go after her and bring her back. Hosea’s marriage is symbolic of God’s covenant relationship with Israel. Through Hosea, the Lord tells the story of Israel’s disobedience, His discipline, and His steadfast, faithful love. Joel When God was delivering Israel from slavery in Egypt, He sent a plague of locusts on the Egyptians’ crops. Hundreds of years later, He is judging His people with the same kind of plague for straying from Him. But God also sends His prophet Joel who explains to the people what the Lord wants from them: repentance.