Cheat

Sheet: Hosea
Summer 2012 Bible Study Series: Hosea 8/2/2012 Theme: Were spending our summer looking at the lives of different prophets and asking the question, what does it look like what God calls you to something? So as we read make special note of things that stand out. Reading: Hosea 1-3 Talking points: What happens in this story? Why does God tell Hosea to marry a promiscuous woman? o The people of Israel have been promiscuous in their love. o Points to the reality that the story between God and his people is a love story. o After the fall every persons tendency is to become an adulterer to give worship to those who are not gods. o What if God asked you to forsake a marriage to a faithful spouse and to faithfully love a whore? What is the significance of the names of Hoseas three children? o 1) Jezreel means God will disperse Israel is going into exile. o 2) Lo Ru-Hamah means Not loved For hundreds of years Israel has been loved, despite her unfaithfulness, but now the nation will feel Gods wrath at their idolatry. o 3) Lo Ammi means Not my people read Exodus 6:6-8. Israel was a nation set apart, literally taken out of Egypt, by God. His original promise to them was that they would be His people and He would be their God. Why is God angry with Israel? (Ch. 4: 1-3, 10-13) o By mixing worship of YHWH with worship of other gods (syncretism), the people started accepting other, evil, cultural practices. o God starts putting things in the way of their idols in 2:6-7, why does he do this? (2:14-23) o Has God ever blocked a path you wanted to go down, one that would have led to idolatry? If you were Hosea, how would you have responded to this command? Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. What does Hosea have to do with Jesus? Life Lessons from the life of Hosea: 1. For the prophets, there was no difference between saying Gods word and doing Gods word. Hoseas marriage to his wife and the names of his children became walking parables of Gods love for unfaithful people. As disciples of Jesus, God calls us not just to know how He loves us, but to go and live that love out. As weve seen this summer, this is not an easy calling, but it can change the world. 2. Gods love will never change or go away. There are still costs for rejecting that love though. Hosea had to pay another man to buy his wife back. Much later, Jesus bought his bride, the church, at the expense of his own life. God will seek you out if you wander but why wander from a love as great as this? 3. Dont look to other people for reasons to love people. Look to Jesus. He loves Gomers into Hoseas, so they can go love other Gomers into Hoseas.

www.improvlg.com