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Hosea 2
Aug 29, 2008 15:18:47 GMT -8
Post by Josh on Aug 29, 2008 15:18:47 GMT -8
Post your comments/ questions/ discussion starters on Hosea chapter 2 as replies to this post.
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Hosea 2
Aug 29, 2008 15:30:00 GMT -8
Post by Josh on Aug 29, 2008 15:30:00 GMT -8
Hosea 2:7 She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will say, 'I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.'This part of chapter 2 reads like the "prodigal wife story". I wonder if Jesus had this verse in mind when he told the prodigal son story: Luke 15:17-18 "When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. Here are some other parts I liked: 14 "Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her.
15 There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.God comes across as double-minded as a heartbroken, jilted lover- alternating between anger and hope, wanting to walk away but unable to tear Himself away from His love. 16 "In that day," declares the LORD, "you will call me 'my husband'; you will no longer call me 'my master. 'This is wonderful... maybe it should go on the Women's role in the home/ church threads too . This was fulfilled in Christ, embodied in these words in John: John 15:15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.We are the heirs of this kind of relationship with God. The Church is the true Israel (Jew and Gentile, male and female, slave and free, etc..), the Bride of Christ.
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Hosea 2
Aug 29, 2008 17:31:59 GMT -8
Post by Margot on Aug 29, 2008 17:31:59 GMT -8
I also definitely heard the themes of the prodigal son and the passage in John where Christ refers to us as friends. The continuity of the Bible is amazing, isn't it? We are always The Lost and God always The Finder.
The following verses struck me the most: 2:5 "For she said, I will go after my lovers Who give me my bread and my water, My wool and my flax, my oil and my drink."[/i] 2:11-13 "I will also put an end to all her gaiety, Her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths, And all her festal assemblies. And I will destroy her vines and fig trees, Of which she said, "These are my wages Which my lovers have given me...And I will punish her for the days of the Baals When she used to...follow her lovers so that she forgot Me, declares the Lord.
This sounds so much like us, wrapped up in believing we have somehow "earned" these things we are surrounded with in our secure little Western lives. As if our hard work was the key and we have been the architects of our success. Israel had convinced itself her "lovers" had supplied its needs and forgotten the One who was really responsible. How many times do we boast of being self-made people who have good things because we worked hard or persevered or---whatever?
2:8 "For she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the new wine and the oil."
Convicting stuff.
I was also struck by the God who is justifiably angry and jealous (verses 1-13) and the God who loves and forgives and restores (verses 14 -23.) and how quickly He is willing to move from one to the other.
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Hosea 2
Sept 2, 2008 21:18:18 GMT -8
Post by michelle on Sept 2, 2008 21:18:18 GMT -8
I was most impacted by how Hosea's wife wanted to wondering and do whatever she wanted, but then she realized nothing is as good as being with a good husband who is faithful to her. I know this is something I have experienced with God about a billion times. I always want to do things on my own and then I realize, "what the crap am I doing?"
I love the way that God is ready to "divorce" Israel because of her unfaithfulness, but in the same breath He is willing to take her right back and give her all of His faithful love.
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