Fri, 28 October, 2005: Today’s Bible readings.
1 The word of the LORD that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
2 When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.” 3 So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
4 And the LORD said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. 5 And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”
6 She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the LORD said to him, “Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. 7 But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the LORD their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”
8 When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. 9 And the LORD said, “Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”
10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.” 11 And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head. And they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
Hosea tells us the time of his ministry as prophet. He lived near the end of the northern kingdom. Hosea deals with the spiritual apostasy of the these final days of Israel. If fact, his marriage is an object lesson of Israel’s relationship to God, as he is commanded to marry a harlot, and name his children names signifying God’s coming judgment upon the unfaithful north.
In this promise of judgment, there is also a promise of hope, as God promises there will be a future restoration.
What do we learn from this?
The people who are called “Not my people” shall be called “Children of the living God”. Paul quotes this passage in Romans 9 to teach that God’s plan is to include the Gentiles in the church, as God takes those who are “not my people,” (Gentiles), and brings them into His church and makes them “Children of the living God.”
22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory– 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”
Where is Christ in this passage?
We were not the people of God. We were children of our father, the Devil, living in our sin and rebellion against God. But He has redeemed us by the perfect life and atoning death of His Son, Jesus Christ. It is through the Person and work of Jesus Christ that we are given faith to trust in Him, and are adopted into His family as children of the living God.
