Fri Sep 26

Listen up, little ones

Especially for the littles in your household.

Listen for the words Lord and name.

Reading

Hosea 1:2-9—Abandoning the LORD

Keys for kids

Also for the littles. Young households might choose, after Keys for Kids, to go directly to praise and prayer.

Hosea, at God’s command, married an unfaithful wife.
Their children’s names showed God’s displeasure with Israel.
Even in his displeasure, God showed compassion.

Questions

(Some read the ?s before the notes/ ask them after.)

What did Hosea’s wife represent?
What did Hosea’s children’s names mean?
How was Israel unfaithful to God?

Notes

(See last day for authors. Today’s notes are all from the Reformation Study Bible)

The question of how to interpret the personal events of Hosea’s life that symbolically parallel his prophetic message has long perplexed readers of the Book of Hosea. Are the details given in chs. 1 and 3 about Hosea’s family life to be understood literally or allegorically? Because of the moral perplexity posed by the holy God’s command that Hosea marry a prostitute, throughout the ages there always have been interpreters who have understood the details of Hosea’s married life allegorically. Others, arguing that 1:2 refers to the future, reason that Gomer became a prostitute only after the birth of their first child. Still others, advocating a modified literal reading, argue that Gomer was not a common prostitute but rather a woman involved in cultic prostitution related to the fertility religion of Baal. However, the prophet’s actual marriage to an unfaithful wife would make the analogy with the Lord’s relationship to Israel most vivid, and this seems to be what the text intends.

Similarly, questions have been asked about Hosea’s children. Their names, like that of the child born to Isaiah and the prophetess in Is. 8:1–4, are intended to have symbolic significance (cf. Is. 7:3; Ezek. 23). The names given to Hosea’s children (Jezreel, Lo-ruhama, and Lo-ammi; 1:4, 6, 9 and notes) purposely illustrate Hosea’s message about God’s increasing displeasure with wayward Israel, but also convey the message of hope, renewal, love, and restoration (2:21–23 notes).

Swedish Method questions

See the Sunday notes for meaning of the symbols.

Praise

Psalm 80, 119t

Prayer

Confess to God your own unfaithfulness, asking His forgiveness.
Pray for the hearing of God’s word preached this Sunday.
Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.