Bible Studies
Who We Are; The People of God (Hos. 3:1-5)
Series: Lessons on IdolatryIntroduction:
1. The book of Hosea is filled with powerful images. These images reflect God’s relationship with His people, O.T. Israel. And sometimes we leave the text there in a remote place in the past. 2. But I believe the images include us. I believe that God is looking through history and is revealing things about us and our relationship with Him. This is certainly the way the N.T. writers interpret the message of Hosea. 3. In this lesson I want to look with you at the text of Hosea and the interpretations given by certain N.T. writers. Our attempt will be to see ourselves in these texts that we might better understand who were are as “The People of God.”Discussion:
I. A survey of chapters 1-3 of Hosea.A. Hosea received the word of the Lord during the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. This dates Hosea between 800 and 700 B.C. just before the Assyrian captivity and makes him contemporary with Isaiah, the prophet.
B. When the Lord first spoke to Hosea he said, “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry; for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord” (1:2).
1. Hosea’s wife, Gomer, had three children.
a. The first was a son and said to have been borne to Hosea.
b. The second was a daughter, probably not Hosea’s.
c. The third was a son, his name meant, “Not my people.”
2. God had betrothed Israel to Himself forever.
a. This meant that even though she was unfaithful to Him He would ultimately manifest compassion on them.
b. This does not mean that God would overlook her sin. Hosea 2 reflects on the consequences of her sin. Cf. Lo-ruhamah = “without mercy.”
c. Her restoration was dependent upon her repentance and upon her returning in faithfulness to the Lord (2:14ff).
C. Chapter 3 opens with God telling Hosea to “love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the sons of Israel though they turn to other gods.”
1. The woman is probably Gomer, Hosea’s wife.
2. God loved Israel even though she was an adulteress. The following descriptions are in chapter 4.
a. She is described as “destroyed for lack of knowledge.”
b. “A people without understanding and therefore ruined.”
c. “Stubborn like a stubborn heifer.
D. It is easy to see in this description Israel’s unfaithfulness, the coming captivity and the return from captivity. So what does the passage have to do with us?
II. N.T. writers, Peter and Paul, see beyond the return from the exile, and apply these passages in an eschatological way.A. The term “eschaton” refers to the “last days.”
1. While some may think of the “last days” as those days, yet future, immediately preceeding the second coming (premillenialism), Scripture has a different view.
2. Scripture sees the last days as those beginning with the first coming of Christ and then going forward from there.
3. Thus, we are going to use the word “eschaton” to refer to those days.
4. This means that the birth of Christ, the preaching of the gospel and all the days since then are to be considered “the last days.”
5. This means that we are living in the last days, not the days before a premillennial kingdom is set up, but the days between the first and second coming of Christ.
6. This is the conclusion. Let’s go back now and look at what Paul and Peter say.
B. In Rom. 9 Paul interprets the inclusion of believing Gentiles among the people of God on the basis of the Hosea 2:23.
1. In Romans 1-8 Paul condemned both Gentiles and Jews of sin. All believers, no matter whether they are Jews or Gentiles can be saved by faith in Jesus Christ.
2. Romans 9-10-11 focus attention on the important place that the nation of Israel had in the great plan of God.
3. But now Gentiles, also can be numbered among the people of God (9:6-7,22-26). But this does not mean that Israelites are now excluded (9:27-29). Indeed through the grace of God all sinners can be forgiven by faith and become the people of God.
C. Paul has reasoned in this same way in other texts.
1. Eph. 2:11-3:6.
2. Gal. 3:7-9, 29; 6:16
3. This is the implication of the conclusions reached in Acts 15.
D. In 1 Pet. 2:9-10 Peter interprets the inclusion of believing Jews of the diaspora on the basis of Hosea 1:10.
III. Hosea 3:4-5 interpreted.A. The sons of Israel will remain many days without king or prince (there would be none to sit on the throne), without sacrifice or sacred pillar (they will not have the benefits of their temple) and without ephod (they will not have the benefits of a priest) or household idols (will not be able to defile their relationship with God with idols).
B. Afterward the sons of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king; and they will come trembling to the Lord and to His goodness in the last days.
1. After Israel was forsaken to captivity there was a return and a seeking after God.
2. Jesus Christ is presented in the gospel accounts as descended from David. Peter announces him as seated at the right hand of God both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:29-36).
3. Thus Hosea 3:5 refers to the current dispensation.
IV. Who are we?A. We are the people of God. Those who formerly were adulterers! Those who practiced idolatry! Jews and Gentiles who had given themselves to sin! Now touched by the love of God and drawn into relationship with Him! People of a new covenant! The Israel of God!
B. How our behavior is different.
1. Immediately following his interpretation of Hos. 1:10 Peter begins to address the moral implications. See 1 Pet. 2:11ff.
2. Immediately following Paul’s interpretation of Hos. 2:23 and his address concerning Israel he addresses the moral implications. See Rom. 12:1-2.
C. We are the culmination of God’s plan of redemption. We are the bride. The covenant people. The faithful.
D. Read 1 Pet. 1:17-21.
Conclusion:
1. Knowing who we are what sort of people ought we to be? 2. How should we then live? 3. Faithfully!!
