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The Scriptorium

Know the Lord

The call to Israel was ever the same.

Hosea 6

Week 5, Tuesday: The goal of returning

Since not knowing the Lord brought judgment on Israel, knowing the Lord must be that for which they long if they would return to Him. Again, the prophet gives the people the words to use, once judgment has done its work, to return to God on His terms.

Read Hosea 6

Meditate on Hosea 6.3

1.  Israel did not “know” the Lord. What does it mean to know God (cf. Jn. 17.3; 2 Pet. 3.18)? What does it look like when people know the Lord? How can we tell by observing someone that he or she knows the Lord?

2.  Knowing God is a continuous pursuit. What does that pursuit involve? What would Israel be doing when she pursued the knowledge of God? Is the knowledge of God something that is attained once, or must it be pursued and attained anew every day? Explain.

3.  God is as faithful as each new day (Lam. 3.22, 23). How should this guide and encourage us as we take up the pursuit of knowing God daily?

4.  How is God’s coming to us like the rain?

5.  How does pursuing the knowledge of God work to keep us from coming under the judgment of God?

Summary
Knowing God requires effort on our part. We must pursue the knowledge of God by all the means He prescribes, and to the depth of knowledge He requires. Knowing God is not just an intellectual activity. It involves our whole lives and selves. God waits to refresh and renew us in our relationship with Him, but we must be diligent pursuing knowing Him if these benefits would be ours.

Closing Prayer
O God, You are my God;
Early will I seek You;
My soul thirsts for You;
My flesh longs for You
In a dry and thirsty land
Where there is no water.
So I have looked for You in the sanctuary,
To see Your power and Your glory.
Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
My lips shall praise You.
Thus I will bless You while I live;
I will lift up my hands in Your name.

Psalm 63.1-4

T. M. Moore

The Week, T. M.’s weekly print and audio offering of worldview insights, musings, and reflections, is now available for a free subscription. You can subscribe to The Week by going to the website and, when the pop-up appears, put in your email, click on The Week, then click to update your subscriptions. You’ll be sent an email allowing you to add The Week to your list of subscriptions.

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.

T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in the Champlain Valley of Vermont.
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