Hosea 1-7

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• I posted an overview LATE last night.  It is worth reading.
• This is 7 chapters:  BUT it is a 15-minute read.  So make some coffee. So I will try to keep this really short and ONLY point out the stuff that maybe wasn’t clear.

Chapter 1:

⁴ Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. ⁵ In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.”

(In the Valley of Jezreel Jehu killed Ahab’s family in a killing spree.  God said he would punish the Israel dynasty for their over-zealousness.  (is that a word, well you know what I mean).  (2 Kings 10)

¹¹ The people of Judah and the people of Israel will come together; they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.

Think of it like a split-screen newscast.  The same message twisted a few different says.  Jezreel means “to scatter”.  After the captivity, we know a remnant will come back to build the Temple (Reunited)….but no one ever asked me where the rest of them go???  Well, they scatter ALL around the Mediterranea Sea.  (God will use this in a mighty way…think how far Paul had to travel to deliver his letters to scatter the Gospel).

We too are scattered,  however,  we have been reunited through the life and death of Christ.

And the 3rd screen is the reuniting of HIS people through the 2nd coming.

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Chapter 2-This is a beautifully written story about Hosea and Gomer.  How Gomer will go looking for something better but does not find it. When Gomer realizes the grass wasn’t greener on the other side and tries to come back…that is when a person is teachable!  God will restore the relationship with His people.

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.’
⁸ She has not acknowledged that I was the one
    who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil,
who lavished on her the silver and gold—
    which they used for Baal.

Israel wants to come back but will not acknowledge at Lord has provided for them.  They still rely on themselves, or treaties, or horses, and chariots…you get my point.😢

So God basically puts them in “Time Out” and takes away all their video games to show them that He was the buyer the whole time.  (He ALLOWS them be captured by another nation)  I think of it this way:  He took his hand of protection OFF of them.  Kind of like letting “natural consequences” happen to our children, so you can say “I told you so”.  😂😂😂

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Chapter 3- LOVE!  HE BUYS THEM BACK!  He pays a price for HIS people.

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Chapters 4-7 Are the charges against Israel-we have been reading for months and we will be able to put this in historical context.  We have seen the “cycle” of sin, and when His people return to him they never truly “go back”.  These chapters will reveal the unfaithfulness of Gomer (HIS people) and the discipline (the captivity) that is coming.  Why?? So we they will return to HIM.  While you are reading this don’t miss the “inside message” that we are HIS priesthood.

⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:9

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Note: Chapter 6 verse 2

² After two days he will revive us;
    on the third day he will restore us,
    that we may live in his presence.
³ Let us acknowledge the Lord;
    let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises,
    he will appear;
he will come to us like the winter rains,
    like the spring rains that water the earth.”

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