Hosea and Joel

Lesson number one, a door of hope.

Our truth, when we return to the Lord, he receives us with mercy and offers healing.

One reason I'm excited for you to teach this lesson is that there may be somebody in your class who's wondering whether the Lord still wants them close.

Perhaps they've struggled with the same weakness for years, or they've made choices that leave them feeling ashamed or unworthy of his love, his blessings.

The book of Hosea gives you an opportunity to help them to hear the Lord's loving invitation to anybody and everybody to return to him, regardless of what they've done in the past.

And who knows? Maybe somebody will leave your class with the courage to begin again.

That's a meaningful opportunity to have as a teacher.

What should the teacher know? Well, first, Hosea.

Who was he? Hosea prophesied to the northern kingdom of Israel around the time of Jeroboam II until the reign of King Hosea.

And in his book, you see Hosea attempt to help his people recognize their offenses and to turn back to God.

He sought to reassure them of his love and his willingness to accept them back into his good graces.

Unfortunately, Hosea was unsuccessful in turning the people back to God, and ultimately Israel will be conquered and lost.

But his message remains for all of us as we consider our own relationship to Jesus Christ and his constant beckoning for all of us to commit ourselves to him and to remain with him.

Marriage is the key metaphor and backdrop to this book of Scripture.

In fact, the book of Hosea begins with a marriage.

It's not your typical marriage story, though.

God commands Hosea to marry a certain kind of woman.

And it's a bit shocking.

What kind of woman does God command Hosea to marry in chapter 1, verse 2? It says, the beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea.

And the Lord said to Hosea, go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms.

For the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord.

He's asked to marry a wife of whoredoms, which means he wanted him to marry somebody who had lived a less than chaste life up to that point.

There is some debate as to how exactly this worked.

There's not a lot of detail given here, so we want to be careful not to speculate.

Was he really asking him to marry a prostitute? Or a woman who he knew had a checkered moral past? Maybe.