These books were written 14‐16 years after the Jews went back to the land after their captivity. The return itself was a glorious work of God.
Once in the land, there were challenges when the surrounding people tried to stop them, but God intervened there also. The Israelites had seen God conquer and give victory in much greater problems and He took care of this situation also and they got permission from the king to continue building.
But they didn’t—even though God miraculously provided permission for them to continue building the temple, they got distracted, a lot like we do from the work God gives us to do. [Read more…]
The setting for this lesson is that—time has run out. After hundreds of years of warnings and challenges, it’s over for Judah.
When God delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt, they met God at Mt. Sinai and there God not only gave them the 10 Commandments and His other laws for how to live, but He offered them a covenant, an agreement with Him that if they would obey and follow His commands, they would be His people, His treasured possession who He would bless. 
Just before Hosea appears, God sent the prophet Amos to condemn the sins of Israel. Amos preached forceful, harsh messages for about 3 years.
Reading the prophets can be confusing and to help, and Bible805 did a preliminary lesson to help you understand them, 
We all know about the fish swallowing Jonah, but there is more in the book including the answers to these questions:
When people think of the Old Testament prophets, most often two areas come to mind:
After studying the life of David, we couldn’t have a greater contrast between his life as a man “after God’s own heart,” and what we find in his son Solomon. 
The Bible calls David, a man “after God’s own heart.” This phrase is part of a sermon of Paul’s in Acts 13:22—where he is talking about the history of Israel, and Paul says, “After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’ 
Have you recently had someone say to you, “You aren’t listening to me?”