The prophet Hosea lived in a time of political turmoil, an era when the people of his nation were more concerned to serve the gods of power and material wealth than to walk in the ways of the God of Israel. They were, in a word, unfaithful.
Hosea is the unfortunate prophet called to deliver the unwelcome message that Israel’s unfaithfulness was a great grief to God.
Read More betrayal, love, restoration, unfaithfulness
“I will … make the Valley of Trouble a door of hope” (v 15).
This promise of hope comes in the context of a season of trouble caused by the wayward infidelity of God’s people. In Hosea’s metaphor, the unfaithful wife has been severely disciplined for her promiscuity; the nation of Israel for allowing Baal worship to flourish.
Read More hope, trouble, shameIn this short chapter, God again commands his prophet to attach himself to an unfaithful woman. Yet this was to be a relationship without benefits. The woman was to remain entirely chaste. Despite her adventurous history, she was to refrain from sexual relations, even with the man who brought her into his home.
Read More unfaithfulness, consequences, freedom“Come, let us return to the Lord … let us press on to know the Lord” (6:1,3).
It’s one thing to consider that God takes an interest in human beings, encouraging us to follow his paths and allowing negative consequences to occur when we don’t.
Read More love, reconciliation, returnImages of tenderness that reveal the merciful and compassionate nature of God saturate this passage, which also laments the habitual waywardness of God’s chosen people.
Hosea’s God is like a parent leading a child out of oppressive circumstances (v 1), coddling and healing them as they grow (v 3).
Read More restoration, compassion, tendernessHome, it’s been said, is the place where they have to take you back no matter what you’ve done. Not all homes are like that, of course, yet the sentiment works as a metaphor of God’s unending desire to restore his wandering children to their proper estate.
“Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity” (v 1).
Read More repentance, welcome, return
Who needs a message of hope? We all do, of course, yet hope has special meaning for people living under adverse conditions. The earliest audiences for the letter of 1 Peter were small groups of Christians under attack, little bands of exiled believers huddling in scattered communities.
Read More community, persecution, encouragement, hope“Live in reverent fear during the time of your exile” (1:17). Exile means living in a place not truly home. To be exiled is to be alienated, perhaps in conditions that sap our ability to actually be the person we long to be. What is the best way to behave in these circumstances?
Read More exile, discipline, intentionality
People who are in touch with the living God are not satisfied with things that blind us to godliness (pride and sensuality chief among them). Once we have a sense of our own frailty and mortality in the light of God’s perfection and saving grace, we will want to be more godlike. Spiritual growth is of more lasting importance than any riches or acclamation.
Read More love, kindness, desires of my heart, spiritual growthThe metaphors pile up as Peter works to provide insight into the character and role of Christian communities and their members. The people of God are pictured as stones, as building blocks in a spiritual house (2:5). They are, moreover, “God’s chosen and special people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation” (2:9).
Read More vocation, cornerstone, church, belonging, mercy