Today’s passage: Hosea 4

Helpful thoughts:

• There was much sin with which the Israelites were rightly accused.  The Lord pointed out the origin of it all:
  • Verse 1 – There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land.
  • Verse 6 – My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me.  And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.
  • Verse 14 – A people without understanding will come to ruin.
• Romans 12:1-2 – I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
• Ephesians 4:17-24 – Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Questions to consider:

1. What role does biblical instruction and knowledge play in your spiritual growth?
2. What are some reasons why people do not get biblical instruction and knowledge (Both from within their own desires and also from others)?  Why do some people never pursue knowledge and instruction?  Why do some people have a hard time finding it even if they want it?
3. What are the consequences of ignorance?  How would the consequences vary for the person who does not believe and for the person who is a Christian but has not been discipled/taught biblically?

Today’s passage: Hosea 3

Helpful thoughts:

• God commands Hosea to go buy Gomer back.
  • Gomer is redeemed from her adultery.
  • Gomer’s adultery did not give her an identity (She was “Hosea’s wife”), it took her identity away (“A woman”).
    • Israel were “My people” and had become “Not my people”.
• It is believed the raisin cakes were part of the erotic, pagan worship going on at the time.
• Romans 5:8 – But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
• Since the actual King David was dead by the time of this prophecy, the throne of David is what the people would be looking for…this is their Messiah.

Questions to consider:

1. Which person in this chapter are we to most accurately associate with?  (Hints: It’s not God…and it’s not Hosea.)
2. What has been the path of Gomer in this book?  What was she doing in the beginning?  What did she do after she bore their children?  What has now happened to her which brought her back into relationship with Hosea?  How many parallels can you find in the history of Israel?
3. How would this chain of events be troubling or frustrating from Gomer’s perspective?  If she does not want to repent, what would she be thinking?  Why is repentance necessary for conversion?

Today’s passage: Hosea 2:14-23

Helpful thoughts:

• The Lord will draw Israel into the wilderness and there draw her to Himself.
  • See Revelation 12:6.
• Jezreel means, “God will sow”.
• God’s attributes on display as He redeems Israel in the end times:
  • Righteousness
  • Justice
  • Steadfast Love
  • Mercy
  • Faithfulness

Questions to consider:

1. How will God accomplish this change in Israel in that day? (Jeremiah 31:31-34, Ezekiel 36:26-27)
2. Who will be the one who makes all wars and fighting cease (Verse 18)?
3. How is it possible for God to show Israel (And you!) mercy while remaining righteous and just?  (Romans 3:21-26)

Today’s passage: Hosea 2:1-13

Helpful thoughts:

• Israel’s worship of other gods is compared to the acts of adultery and prostitution.
• Israel used the resources God had provided to ask false gods to give them more resources…
• The motivation for Israel’s adultery was their own gain.  Israel wanted to be “paid” for their adultery.  They committed “acts of worship” to these false gods in order to get produce, a good harvest, etc.

Questions to consider:

1. If an Israelite thought they were God’s people solely because they were Israelites, how would this passage correct them?  What has God called the children of this “mother” to do?
2. What would it look like for the land (The fertility that would have been sought in idolatry) to be “stripped naked”?  What was God using as a consequence for Israel?  And, what would happen when Israel was conquered?  Who would then enjoy the land’s produce?
3. What would repentance have looked like for Israel?  What was wrong in their thinking and desires that resulted in these actions?

Today’s passage: Hosea 1

Helpful thoughts:

• The timing given for Hosea’s prophetic ministry means he lived to see the fulfillment of the northern kingdom’s end as the city Samaria and Israel (The northern kingdom) fell in 722 B.C.
• In Hosea’s marriage to Gomer, Hosea is used to picture the Lord and Gomer represents Israel.
  • Israel’s forefather (Abraham) had been saved from his and his peoples’ idolatrous past.
  • Israel went back to idolatry even after God brought them out of their bondage in Egypt and into the Promised Land.
• In the midst of these prophesied judgments, God commits to keeping His promises (Verse 10).

Questions to consider:

1. What does the potential shock of Gomer’s past make us think concerning her marriage to Hosea?  How does the comparison of our condition in our sin before we became members of the Bride of Christ cause us to rethink that shock?  Or in other words, how might it be good for us to be a little shocked that God would love us this way?
2. Who was behind the estrangement between Israel and her God?  Who was behind the mercy and grace shown that allowed the Jewish people to have a future and be called the children of the living God?
3. Where does salvation come from?  Why would our bows and swords and efforts always fall short?  Who deserves all honor, glory and praise?