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The Scriptorium

God's Sovereignty

Hosea's preaching of God's sovereignty points to Jesus.

Christ in Hosea

Week 9, Monday: God’s great plan revealed in His sovereignty
God reminded Israel that He is sovereign over all things – crops, weather, nations, everything. His rule of all things points us beyond the mundane events and activities of life, summoning us to worship and serve the God Who rules and blesses according to His good pleasure. Jesus showed, again and again, that He was this sovereign God to Whom Hosea and all the prophets bore witness.

Read Hosea 1 and 2

Meditate on the following passages from Hosea

1.  Hosea 2.9-13: How many ways does God point out His sovereignty? What was He expecting of His people because of this (vv. 12, 13)?

2.  Hosea 7.11, 12: God speaks to His sovereignty over His people, even though they reject and flee from Him. Can we break free of our obligations to God, simply because we choose not to obey Him? Explain.

3.  Hosea 9.10-17: God is sovereign over life itself. He is the Giver of life, and He withholds life as He chooses. The very fact of life – our lives and the lives of people and creatures we see each day – should direct our thoughts and worship to God. Is this what God saw in Israel? Is it what He sees in us?

4.  Hosea 11.5-7: God uses the nations according to His plan for His people. How did He use Israel’s enemies?

5.  Jesus reveals the sovereign God (Heb. 1.3); all the prophets thus point to Him. In His earthly ministry, and in the book of Acts, Jesus tapped into Israel’s knowledge of God’s sovereignty to validate His claims of being the Son of God. In what ways can you see Jesus embodying the sovereignty of God:

-        over all creation?

-        over His people, even when they deny Him?

-        over life itself?

-        over the nations, even those who are enemies of His people?

Summary
Hosea and all the prophets taught that God is sovereign over all things. Jesus made a point to demonstrate, especially in His miracles, that He is the God of Whom the prophets spoke. He rules creation, His rebellious people, all of life, and all nations. He is King of kings and Lord of lords!

Closing Prayer
By the word of the LORD the heavens were made,
And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.
He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap;
He lays up the deep in storehouses.
Let all the earth fear the LORD;
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
For He spoke, and it was done;
He commanded, and it stood fast.
The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect.
The counsel of the LORD stands forever,
The plans of His heart to all generations.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
The people He has chosen as His own inheritance.

Psalm 33.6-12

T. M. Moore

The Week, T. M.’s daily 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 www.ailbe.org, 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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