Christ in Hosea

Week 9, Tuesday: The grace of God in His covenant
God bound Himself to Israel by an everlasting covenant of love. By that covenant He chose, redeemed, delivered, and saved Israel, so that, in His love and care, she might be a blessed people unto His glory and praise. But Israel scorned God’s covenant, choosing their own ways rather than His, and thus inviting on themselves the sanctions of that covenant, which God had warned about from the beginning.

Read Hosea 5 and 6

Meditate on the following passages from Hosea
1.  Hosea 6.4-7: God’s covenant is an agreement between Him and His people, designed to allow them to flourish within the parameters of His grace and truth. The essence of God’s covenant is to know, fear, love, and serve the Lord. How did Israel “transgress” this arrangement?

2.  Hosea 8.1-3: God’s Law was an integral part of His covenant with Israel. Can we truly know the Lord if we reject His Law? Explain.

3.  Hosea 10.4 and 12.1: Israel transgressed God’s covenant two ways. First, they falsely swore to keep covenant with the Lord. Second, they made a covenant with Assyria. Which did they really trust? To which did they look for their wellbeing, security, and prosperity? Do we ever do the same thing?

4.  Hosea 2.14-23: God promised Israel a “new covenant” day in the future. How broad would the scope of that covenant be? How much would it entail? How can you see that true knowledge of God would be at the heart of this covenant?

5.  Jesus is the Mediator of this new covenant (Heb. 8.1-13). How much of the Old Covenant continues in Jesus, and how does Jesus mediate this New Covenant so that it is better than the Old?

Summary
God’s covenant with Israel has a prominent place throughout the literature of the Old Testament. It was replaced by the New Covenant, not as a total substitute, but as a further development, since the people of God broke the Old Covenant. In Christ, the New Covenant fulfills the Old and ushers in the precious and very great promises such as we read in Hosea 2.14-23 (2 Pet. 1.4). All the hopes and promises of the New Covenant are “Yes!” in Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 1.20).

Closing Prayer
Remember this, that the enemy has reproached, O LORD,
And that a foolish people has blasphemed Your name.
Oh, do not deliver the life of Your turtledove to the wild beast!
Do not forget the life of Your poor forever.
Have respect to the covenant;
For the dark places of the earth are full of the haunts of cruelty.
Oh, do not let the oppressed return ashamed!
Let the poor and needy praise Your name.
Arise, O God, plead Your own cause;
Remember how the foolish man reproaches You daily.
Do not forget the voice of Your enemies;
The tumult of those who rise up against You increases continually.

Psalm 74.18-23

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 Weekby 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.