This Book - Hands to the Plow

About tHe Cover
Creating a cover illustration for this study was an interesting challenge. Tom and I talked about it at length. What
would be an appropriate cover for a study of the book of Hosea? What image captures the essence of this Old
Testament story? Certain images immediately jump to mind—none of them very pleasant. Do we depict the
wayward actions of Hosea’s wife, Gomer? Do we show her leaving her family for another man? Or selling herself
for false love, food and money, or possibly show her being sold into slavery? Of course, there is the redemptive
image of Hosea buying his wife back - which is truly symbolic of an adulterous people being bought back by God
through the sacrifice of his son, Jesus. And that idea is what brought us to the final concept. While spiritual adultery
is certainly a theme of the book, that isn’t the essence of this book. Rather, this book is about the cure for Israel’s
spiritual adultery. We wanted to portray the cure rather than the problem. The cure is Jesus. (reflected here
by the open tomb). This book, as you’ll see as you study its contents, has no meaning apart from the death and
resurrection of Jesus. He is the hero of this story. This book, as with every book in the Bible, is meant to draw
attention to him. As you study this book, our prayer is that you will be drawn to Jesus.
A disciple of the living God,
Mark Yaeger