The Sunday School Lesson God, Faithful Husband and Father by David McGee
Dec 04, 2016
God, Faithful Husband and Father (33:41)
Referenced Scriptures: Hosea 1; Hosea 2; Hosea 3:1-5; Hosea 11:1-11
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Matthew 6:9 is familiar to most Christians, and many unbelievers as well. Yet in its familiarity, we must not lose sight of the profound truth it conveys: In the first line of the Lord's Prayer, Jesus identified God as Father to those in relationship with Him. As such, He is loving and tender, forgiving and kind. He holds us close as we travel through the difficult moments of life and fills us with joyful hope of life beyond this world.
In the Book of Hosea, we are reminded of two other characteristics of God: faithfulness and patience. The two are closely related. Hosea wrote to Israel when the nation had plumbed the depths of spiritual degradation through their idolatry. They had been unfaithful, yet God patiently continued to offer hope. Finally, however the time came for judgment. Yet even then God was loving, offering a hope that stirs Christians yet today.
The scriptures below are from the WEB Bible.
Hosea 1
1) The word of Yahweh 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 Yahweh spoke at the first by Hosea, Yahweh said to Hosea, Go, take to you a wife of prostitution and children of prostitution; for the land does commit great prostitution, [departing] from Yahweh.
3) So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; and she conceived, and bore him a son.
4) Yahweh said to him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, and will cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease.
5) It shall happen at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.
6) She conceived again, and bore a daughter. [Yahweh] said to him, Call her name Look-ruhamah; for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, that I should in any wise pardon them.
7) But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and will save them by Yahweh their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.
8) Now when she had weaned Look-ruhamah, she conceived, and bore a son.
9) [Yahweh] said, Call his name Look-ammi; for you are not my people, and I will not be your [God].
10) Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which can‘t be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass that, in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, it shall be said to them, [You are] the sons of the living God.
11) The children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint themselves one head, and shall go up from the land; for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
Hosea 2
1) Say you to your brothers, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.
2) Contend with your mother, contend; for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband; and let her put away her prostitution from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts;
3) lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and kill her with thirst.
4) Yes, on her children will I have no mercy; for they are children of prostitution;
5) for their mother has played the prostitute; she who conceived them has done shamefully; 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.
6) Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, that she shall not find her paths.
7) She shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.
8) For she did not know that I gave her the grain, and the new wine, and the oil, and multiplied to her silver and gold, which they used for Baal.
9) Therefore will I take back my grain in the time of it, and my new wine in the season of it, and will pluck away my wool and my flax which should have covered her nakedness.
10) Now will I uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of my hand.
11) I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feasts, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn assemblies.
12) I will lay waste her vines and her fig-trees, whereof she has said, These are my hire that my lovers have given me; and I will make them a forest, and the animals of the field shall eat them.
13) I will visit on her the days of the Baals, to which she burned incense, when she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot me, says Yahweh.
14) Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably to her.
15) I will give her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she shall make answer there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
16) It shall be at that day, says Yahweh, that you shall call me Ishi, and shall call me no more Baali.
17) For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and they shall no more be mentioned by their name.
18) In that day will I make a covenant for them with the animals of the field, and with the birds of the sky, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the land, and will make them to lie down safely.
19) I will betroth you to me forever; yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, and in justice, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.
20) I will even betroth you to me in faithfulness; and you shall know Yahweh.
21) It shall happen in that day, I will answer, says Yahweh, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth;
22) and the earth shall answer the grain, and the new wine, and the oil; and they shall answer Jezreel.
23) I will sow her to me in the earth; and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; and I will tell those who were not my people, You are my people; and they shall say, [You are] my God.
Hosea 3:1-5
1) Yahweh said to me, Go again, love a woman beloved of [her] friend, and an adulteress, even as Yahweh loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods, and love cakes of raisins.
2) So I bought her to me for fifteen [pieces] of silver, and a homer of barley, and a half-homer of barley;
3) and I said to her, You shall abide for me many days; you shall not play the prostitute, and you shall not be any man‘s wife: so will I also be toward you.
4) For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without pillar, and without ephod or teraphim:
5) afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek Yahweh their God, and David their king, and shall come with fear to Yahweh and to his goodness in the latter days.
Hosea 11:1-11
1) When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
2) The more [the prophets] called them, the more they went from them: they sacrificed to the Baals, and burned incense to engraved images.
3) Yet I taught Ephraim to walk; I took them on my arms; but they didn‘t know that I healed them.
4) I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love; and I was to them as those who lift up the yoke on their jaws; and I laid food before them.
5) They shall not return into the land of Egypt; but the Assyrian shall be their king, because they refused to return [to me].
6) The sword shall fall on their cities, and shall consume their bars, and devour [them], because of their own counsels.
7) My people are bent on backsliding from me: though they call them to [him who is] on high, none at all will exalt [him].
8) How shall I give you up, Ephraim? [how] shall I cast you off, Israel? how shall I make you as Admah? [how] shall I set you as Zeboiim? my heart is turned within me, my compassion is aroused.
9) I will not execute the fierceness of my anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of you; and I will not come in wrath.
10) They shall walk after Yahweh, who will roar like a lion; for he will roar, and the children shall come trembling from the west.
11) They shall come trembling as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria; and I will make them to dwell in their houses, says Yahweh.
The WEB Bible is provided by Public Domain.