Hosea 2

Week 3, Friday: The day of restoration is coming
Hosea’s message, like the message of all the prophets, will sound ominous, threatening, and terrible. But the Word of judgment is an essential part of God’s covenant and thus of the message of His preachers. But God’s last Word to His people is the Word of hope, the promise of restoration and renewal in the eternal covenant of the Lord. Here, and in the last part of chapter 2 and all of chapter 3, God makes this message clear and dramatic.

Read Hosea 2

Meditate on Hosea 2.16-18
1.  Francis Schaeffer was once asked why it is today that, for so many Christians, their practice of faith just doesn’t seem real. He explained that the reason for this is “While we say we believe one thing, we allow the spirit of the naturalism of the age to creep into our thinking, unrecognized.” Israel in Hosea’s day had become so compromised in her religion that she referred even to God by the name, Baal (v. 16, “My Master” or Baali).Baal, as we’ve seen, was the pagan fertility god and a primary focus of Israel’s religion. Here is a classic example of how the surrounding culture can leach into true religion without being recognized. The forms and terms of false religion are brought into the practice of true religion, corrupting and transforming the latter, while we remain largely unaware of what we’re doing. Is there a warning here for today’s churches?

2.  What is implied by the promise that Israel will once again refer to God as “My Husband”?

3.  Notice in verse 17, that God Himself will do a work in His people in order to bring them to restoration. He is going to work on their minds (inner persons) and their speech (outer person), so that they no longer are rebelling against Him. Meditate on Philippians 2.12, 13. How do what God does and what He requires of us work together to bring about restoration?

4.  God’s covenant with His people is obviously powerful to work in their souls and lives. But according to verse 18, how large is the scope of God’s covenant? Meditate on Psalm 119.89-91. What does it mean to say that the creation “serves” God? This chapter began with us seeing the scope of God’s sovereignty in judgment (vv. 1-12). How does that compare with how this chapter is ending?

5.  Verse 18 relies on several of the psalms for its power. Meditate on Psalms 8, 23, and 46. What does this suggest about the role of the psalms in the life of faith and the hope of restoration?

Summary
God’s covenant with His people is as wide as all of life and creation. As His judgment would fall upon Israel in a comprehensive manner, so His covenant would be renewed with them in just the same way. The writer of Hebrews refers to our possessing “so great a salvation” (Heb. 2.3). How was Israel guilty of “neglecting” so great a salvation? How can we tell when we are?

Closing Prayer
You visit the earth and water it,
You greatly enrich it;
The river of God is full of water;
You provide their grain,
For so You have prepared it.
You water its ridges abundantly,
You settle its furrows;
You make it soft with showers,
You bless its growth.
You crown the year with Your goodness,
And Your paths drip with abundance.
They drop on the pastures of the wilderness,
And the little hills rejoice on every side.
The pastures are clothed with flocks;
The valleys also are covered with grain;
They shout for joy, they also sing.

Psalm 65.9-13

T. M. Moore

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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.