Intermediate Lesson 20 - Book of Hosea

MESSAGE FOR PEOPLE TODAY FROM THE BOOK OF HOSEA

Church: Thyatira                              Lesson 25 out of 39 lessons                             Theme: Covenant

Background Information

ü  We asked in the book of 2 Samuel, “How can the creation know how to remain faithful to a covenant?"

ü  In Nehemiah we were awakened to learn how the world will try to confuse the message of Jesus’ sacrifice by teaching contractual unfaithfulness as opposed to covenant faithfulness.

ü  In the Song of Solomon, we learned from a man and woman how to remember to be a witness who can understand how to present our body as a living sacrifice by realizing that love is as powerful as death.

Statement of Faith to Say Amen to for the Book of Hosea:

I can be a witness who lines up my testimony with the Chief Cornerstone (the sacrifice Christ made) by remembering to forgive a person who repents with zeal.

Essential Question

Does the world teach us to repent with zeal when we are unfaithful to the new covenant?

Book of Hosea

Have students read pages 115-120 in The Pattern of Sound Teaching.

After students read the information ask them, "What do you want to talk about?"

Remember the Issue:

Realizing that Jesus made a sacrifice for our sin and how He can make an intercession for us is important. The world is not teaching us how to look to Jesus’ sacrifice and to remain faithful to the new covenant relationship.

Remember the Truth Jesus Brought:

We are not perfect and we will make mistakes. If someone is unfaithful in a new covenant relationship they need to beg for forgiveness and repent with zeal, and we can look at the sacrifice that Jesus made and realize how important forgiveness is to the new covenant.

When we are in a covenant with someone, we need to repent with zeal when we upset them. Also, when someone repents with zeal, we need to forgive them with zeal.

Remember the Rock God Established:

The word of God came to Hosea, and God told Hosea to go take a wife in the northern kingdom of Israel and have children with her. God only had one character trait that had to be met by the wife: A cheating whore. God wanted Hosea to understand how God loved someone who did not love Him back. Just as Gomer would cheat on Hosea by turning her heart away from Hosea to other men, the children of Israel, Judah, would cheat on God by turning her heart away from God and turning to other gods.

Gomer had cheated on Hosea. The Lord said He would put thorns around Gomer to be a wall. Gomer would go look for all her lovers, but they would turn on her. Gomer would then realize that life was better with Hosea. God told Hosea to go find Gomer and love her with all his heart just as God loved the children of Israel. Hosea then goes and finds Gomer. Gomer had become such a mess that she had gotten herself sold back into slavery, and it was then she realized that life was better with Hosea.

Hosea then bought her out of slavery for the second time. By the law, Gomer should have been stoned to death, but God said to go buy her back out of slavery. We are not told if Gomer repented with zeal or continued to cheat on Hosea again. In a covenant, each person says they will do what they promise even if the other person does not do what they promise. A covenant is built with love and sacrifice. To repair a covenant relationship a sacrifice is required. Now we are to look at the sacrifice Jesus made and forgive others the way He forgave our sin. A contract holds people responsible for the law. Under the law, people will abandon the relationship if they are not getting satisfaction. This is why love saves us and not the law. This is why the new covenant has better promises.

After King Solomon's death, the kingdom was split into the north and the south. The kings in the northern kingdom were always evil. Not one king had ever turned back to God in the northern kingdom to repent to follow God’s commandments; every king in the northern kingdom was bad. Hosea tells the northern kingdom that they spoke words, they swore falsely in making a covenant with God, and they were going to be slaves in Assyria. Just as a husband would tell a wife all that he had done for her, Hosea goes into a long retelling of the Old Testament to remind the northern kingdom of everything God had done for them. Hosea told them they had calves’ lips. This means that someone speaks words that do not match their actions. This relationship was interrupted from the inside.

There is also a message for Judah in the south. The southern kingdom was all about making money. The southern kingdom was unfaithful to God; the difference was that the southern kingdom had their covenant interrupted from the inside with their finances. There is a message to return to the Lord and render the calves of Israel’s lips. To turn to God with lips that speak from the heart a true enthusiastic zeal for God. The southern kingdom had some kings who did turn back and repent with zeal.

The new covenant relationships today are interrupted just as old covenant relationships were interrupted on the (1) inside by not building their covenant with God’s commandments and (2) outside by financial difficulties. We can refuse to repent and be in a relationship between a master and slave, or we can repent and follow Jesus, who has purchased us out of slavery to enter into the new covenant relationship such as the one between a husband and wife. Repenting with enthusiastic zeal is a way to enter into the new covenant with Jesus.

Activity:

The activity directions are located in Appendix 4.

Students will play a game called, “Who will I listen to?”

Conclusion:

Does the world teach us how God’s commandments and our finances affect the new covenant?

Next Lesson:

In the next lesson, Nahum, explains what repenting with calves’ lips looks like. This is an example of someone unfaithful to a covenant relationship. God loves us and wants us to turn to God. Hosea and Gomer are examples of how God will take us back when we repent with zeal. Having lips that do not speak from the heart is how someone will speak words that do not match their actions. Now with the new covenant, our behaviors are to match our words, and we will be held accountable for each word. A sinful behavior that bears lukewarm faith is repenting with calves’ lips: New Covenant Unfaithfulness. The next church, Sardis, will examine how the behaviors can spiral into listening to the Holy Spirit or the Jezebel spirit.