Hosea 1

Week 2, Saturday: A coming day of restoration
Hosea’s message to the people of Israel is bleak and terrifying, as we shall see. But what’s coming upon them is no more than what they’ve chosen. Israel chose to come under divine wrath, rather than to live within the blessings of God. And God promised to honor their choice, with all the dire consequences that would entail.

But this did not by any means suggest that God’s promises and covenant would fall to the ground.

Read Hosea 1

Meditate on Hosea 1.10
1. Note the language of the first part of this verse. We’ve seen it before (Gen. 22.17). What is God saying by reaching all the way back to Genesis and applying that language to “the children of Israel”?

2. A message is coming to the children of Israel, outlined here in verse 10. What is the substance of that message?

3. That message would be delivered by speaking, and it would be delivered in the same place – the same geographic location – in which God had pronounced judgment on His people. What are the implications of this for Hosea’s calling? For some time in the future?

4. A day is coming when God will declare “the children of Israel” to be “sons of the living God.” Is it necessary to understand by “the children of Israel” only those of Jewish descent (cf. Rom. 9.6-8)? According to John, who has the right to become a child of God (Jn. 1.12)?

5. Hosea could not have understood the full Gospel scope of this message. Nevertheless, it must have filled him with hope, and it must have shaped all the rest of his preaching and ministry. Yes, Israel was wicked, and judgment was coming. But God holds out hope for His people, and He sends faithful prophets to declare that hope to them. In what ways is our own calling as witnesses for Jesus Christ similar to Hosea’s calling as a prophet?

Summary
Only God can restore people to His favor, and He does this by speaking a message to them, a message of forgiveness and hope. How should you expect to see this work of God coming to light in your own daily experience?

Closing Prayer
The LORD is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the strength of my life;
Of whom shall I be afraid?
When the wicked came against me
To eat up my flesh,
My enemies and foes,
They stumbled and fell.
Though an army may encamp against me,
My heart shall not fear;
Though war may rise against me,
In this I will be confident.
One thing I have desired of the LORD,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the LORD
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the LORD,
And to inquire in His temple.

Psalm 27.1-4

T. M. Moore

Each week’s studies in our Scriptorium column are available in a free PDF form, suitable for personal or group use. For all available studies in Hosea, click here.

A primary theme of the book of Hosea is Israel’s failure to keep covenant with the Lord. God’s covenant is a central theme and provides the organizing motif for all of Scripture. Learn more about God’s covenant by ordering a copy of T. M.’s book, I Will Be Your God, from our online store (click here).

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.