Sep 10, 2022
HOSEA 1-2:
We
have already heard that God considers the sin of idolatry to be
parallel and just as offensive as a wife being unfaithful to her
husband. Hosea is told by God to actually live out this situation.
He is told to marry Gomer, a prostitute. Through Hosea, God shows
just how ready He is to restore and be reconciled with His wayward
people. Hosea prophesied to the Northern kingdom during the same
time that Amos, Isaiah, and Micah were prophesying in the Southern
kingdom. This was during the reign of Jeroboam the 2nd. Hosea was
not a professional prophet trained in a school for prophets, but an
ordinary man. I imagine his ministry must have been very
lonely.
PROVERBS 23a:
The Book of Proverbs doesn’t always support
that being rich is better. Consider v.4 in the NLT:
Pro. 23:4 Don’t wear yourself
out trying to get rich.
Be
wise enough to know when to quit.
MATTHEW 4:
Yesterday we heard of the ministry of John the
Baptist, and Matthew is the only Gospel that records Jesus’ reply
to John, “This (baptising me) should be done, for we must carry out
all that God requires.”
GNT Translation
notes:
[It
sounds very odd in English for Hosea to be telling such a personal
story about himself using the third person. Like the CEV, I have
altered the pronouns in chapter 1 in verses 2-4, 6, and 9-10 so
that Hosea speaks of himself using the pronoun ‘I’ rather than
‘he’. Similarly, I have made it so that God speaks of himself using
the pronoun ‘I’ rather than the third person.]
Hos.
2:13 I will punish her for the times that she forgot me, when she
burned incense to Baal and put on her jewelry to go chasing after
her lovers. [I, the Lord, have//The Lord has]
spoken.
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Mat.
4:23 Jesus went all over Galilee, teaching in the synagogues,
preaching the Good News about the Kingdom, and healing people who
had all kinds of disease[s] and sickness[es].