Amazing Love

The Book of Hosea is one of the most compelling books of the Bible for a number of reasons, one of which is because it's a love story, so it's bound to resonate with everyone on some level. So for this film, a camping trip is used to contextualize the story.

It begins with a few young Christians taken to the wilderness for a weekend by none other than Sean Astin, a great casting choice. The core group gets along well enough, but one character is outed because she's different on the surface. With that said, the characters aren't the selling point, but I think they do good enough of a job that they don't weigh down the meat of the story, which is the story of Hosea.

In it, we get an interesting depiction of Hosea, the trials he endured with his wife Gomer, and the relation it had to God and Israel (or His people in general.) We're taken through the story while the characters react to it in a way that I believe teens actually would. They don't agree with God's ways at first, but once they understand the depths of love He has for us, it seems to make more sense. Willingness to sacrifice. The acting and sets in the ancient scenes are also quite good.

The camping trip may seem to be the weaker element at first, but the characters grow on you because they experience their own changes and growth; but as for the depiction of Hosea and his life, those scenes are engaging and compelling. Additionally, the youth scenes contrast the more serious parts for the sake of pacing and variety, as well as relatability.

Overall, it's pretty good. Not perfect, but the message was what mattered because Hosea's story is touching and poignant.

First of all, this movie talks about how the Lord would do anything for you, even if you've turned your back against him, how much he cares for you, and how much he loves you. The Lord tells Hosea to marry a harlot, and Hosea being the good man he is, followed the Lord's instructions and didn't hesitate. The Lord would show how he felt, through Hosea. In my opinion, this movie skillfully portrays the lesson as to why the Lord did what he did, and with the modern-day story of the 5 kids, 2 of which hated each other, this lesson would stick to most people, and be applied to their daily lives, although this movie was not made as well as most, the lesson is still there for us to learn from.

Secondly, this movie sometimes paraphrases or goes into too much detail compared to the book of Hosea. In the book, it doesn't say how Hosea met Gomer, or things like that. And sometimes it skips important things that were mentioned in the bible, although it was mildly touched on, like the name of the three offsprings of Hosea and Gomer, and their names and what they represent.

My personal opinion is that the movie did a really good job retelling the story of Hosea the modern way and the biblical way. I liked how they did both a modern and a biblical version. How the unconditional love was displayed in the movie was very noticeable. In the movie, Ashley did not think that she needed Jesus and could solve her problems on her own. In the Bible when Israel turned from God saying we don't need you, everything is going good. His unconditional agape love will stay true and never fail unless I reject Him. Even then, He still doesn't stop loving us. If I reject Him, He leaves and lets us choose but still nudges us to go the right direction just like He used Hosea to nudge the people even though they didn't listen . If we listen, we can and will be saved and not be "enslaved" by sin.

This film is basically two movies in one: the story of modern teenagers on a Christian retreat in the woods, and the story of Hosea's struggles with his wife and his people in the Old Testament. The Hosea scenes have excellent acting, beautiful scenery, and a deep and powerful plot. The camping-teenagers scenes have cheesy dialogue and terrible acting. It's worth sitting (or fast-forwarding) through the one plot to get to the other. This movie is deep and mature, while still having little sex, violence, or profanity, which is not the case of so much trash produced these days. If you want a clean flick that will make you think, this one's a keeper. I typically dislike Christian movies despite being a devout Christian, because they typically have terrible acting and cheesy dialogue, but the Hosea parts are different. Note that though this movie is clean and is based on scripture, I don't think it's suited for young children. The plot deals with prostitution and adultery (none of it acted on-screen). Kids would just be confused.

I like the way the movie began with all those teenagers. Their characters were all different, some were mean and some were good. I like the man because he always shows respect to the teenagers. He help a lot to them that their personal lives were changed at the end because of hosea story. The bad thing for me was when the movie began with the girls hating each other, they were not getting along. It was tough for them, it took a long time for them to get along. But at the end they started talking to each other and started to telling each other about themselves. It was very nice.

Compare

Israel was not following God. God told Hosea to marry the unfaithful women. God told them to have 3 children named Jezreel, Lo-ammi, and Lo-ruhamah, and then She cheated with other men, after that she became a slave and Hosea bought her and they were together again.

Contrast

I thought she cheated Hosea because she was bored of him in the story and she didn't know anything about God, for the movie I saw was that she cheated for money at that time. When Gomer was a slave I thought Hosea bought from the men that Gomer was cheated with but Hosea bought her from another man. At the end they were together again with faith and they trusted each other.

Personal application

This movie teaches me about how much faith Hosea has on God and teaches Hosea how God feels when he has been rejected from his people. It was really hard for Hosea to go through those stuff that have happened to God. God just wants to teach us how much he loves them and show him how much he cares for those who rejected God.

Conclusion

It was a good ending. Some parts of the movie were not the same as the bible but it went great on it.