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Key Truth: God remains faithful to His covenant promises to preserve His people despite our forsaking of His historic warnings, offered mercy, and covenant love as if we were not His people.

Introduction:

Q: What are the key characteristics of a healthy marriage and family?

The Lord Speaks Through Hosea’s Marriage and Family:

Hosea 1:2-9

“Hosea is going to receive a God’s-eye view of God’s relationship with Israel. He is being called to experience the same emotions that God experiences with respect to his people. And as a prophet—of actions, not just words—all his dirty linen would be washed in public to help others.”

Krish Kandiah, Paradoxology: Why Christianity was Never Meant to be Simple

Q: Have you ever felt like the Lord removed His mercy from you and His commitment to you as if you were no longer part of His family? How did you respond to this?

The Lord Speaks Through His Faithful Commitment to His Covenant Love:

Hosea 1:10-11

“The divorce announced in chapter 1 is truly in force, but only for the Israel of Hosea’s generation. Divine mercy is not defeated by human sin, because God’s purposes to win a people for himself by sovereign grace.”

Raymond C. Ortlund, Jr., God’s Unfaithful Wife: A Biblical Theology of Spiritual Adultery

Q: What are some ways in which the Lord has shown His commitment to His covenant love for His people?

Hosea 1:2-11 teaches us that:

-we often forsake God’s historical warnings, offered mercy, and covenant love as if we were not His people

-God remains faithful to His covenant promises to preserve His people for His glory

“The prophecy of Hosea is a tapestry of grace. As the prophet loved a woman whose crudeness and brazenness must have hurt him deeply, so God’s grace comes to his people in their unloveliness. Our spiritual condition is never so low that God cannot woo and receive us back to himself as Hosea received Gomer.”

Thomas McComiskey, “Hosea” in The Minor Prophets: An Exegetical & Expository Commentary

Communion

Benediction:

Hosea 2:19-20