Hope for Change Hosea 11.1-13 22507095

Описание: Hosea chapter 11 as we've been studying the book of Hosea, I want to take a moment back up just a little bit so that we don't lose sight of what we've been studying. It's really easy when you are looking at the minor prophets to kind of lose sight of what was taking place. It is in the 700s B.C, so the 8th century, Hosea had a longer ministry as he was reminding Israel and Judah of the importance of doing right, of serving the Lord, of loving the Lord. I think sometimes, as we're looking at these minor prophets, and I've watched this over the years, I've even seen some people that when you're going through the Old Testament prophets, they stop coming to church. They say, I can't handle the pressure. I can't handle all the negativity. I need something I need New Testament, I need something that's encouraging to me. But when I found as we look at these especially the minor prophets, God is wanting us to get a glimpse of the ugliness of sin. When we see the ugliness of sin, it reminds us of the graciousness of God, but until we see the ugliness of sin, we really don't have any concept of what's the big deal? Why is this so important? So Hosea begins with, I would say, the ultimate object lesson. Cindy and I have talked about this, and it is hard to imagine that God would tell Hosea, I want you to marry a prostitute. I want you to marry someone who's not going to be faithful to you. And our focus immediately goes to Hosea, and we want to focus on the fact how awful, how terrible, how could a good God ever ask someone to do this? And we're missing the whole point. We get the ugliness of what Hosea was having to do, and we missed the point of what Israel was doing to God. It was that awful. It was that terrible. Most people, when you look at someone who's been unfaithful to them, the immediate response is the immediate response is, you just divorce them, you get rid of them, you never see that person again. I don't have to live in this. Hosea presents something that is amazing. Hosea not only married a woman who would not be faithful to him. Hosea went back and not only would woo her to come back to him, he had to pay her bills, had to get her current so that she could come back. And when she came back, he then gave her time to readjust. And he loved her, and he loved her, and he loved her. Hosea is all about the love of God and the ugliness of sin, and how God is constantly calling to Israel and saying, "Come back.Come back."