Week Thirty-Eight Reading Assignment:
Daniel 2 - Hosea 12
"The reason that the God of all threatens punishment, you see, is not to inflict it on those he threatens but to strike them with fear and lead them to repentance, and by ridding them of their wicked behavior extend to them salvation. After all, if he wanted to punish, he would not threaten punishment; instead, by threatening he makes clear that he longs to save and not to punish. Accordingly he sends blessed Hosea to foretell what would happen..."
(Theodoret of Cyr, Commentary on Hosea, Introduction)
(Theodoret of Cyr, Commentary on Hosea, Introduction)
This Week's Teaching Video: What's Wrong with the People of God?
Charting Our Progress
Good Book Review: Prevailing People, Prevailing PurposeThe Book of Daniel is best known for two stories.
Most famous is the story of Daniel in the lions’ den. From the time we were child-ren, we knew this cherished account of both Daniel’s unflinching faithfulness and God’s saving power. And, in a similar vein, there is the story of Daniel’s friends — Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego — who survive the fiery furnace. Both stories bear witness to God’s prevailing people. These men are all exiles — captives, first of the terrible Babylonians and, subsequently, of the Persians. They live in a pagan context, and they suffer the animosity and threats of leaders who oppose their devotion to the Lord. Still, as in the story of Joseph back in Genesis, the cream rises to the top. The godly ways of these men are vindicated, they are miraculously rescued from their persecutors, and their faithfulness combines with God’s deliverance to make some converts along the way. Beyond those two familiar stores, the Book of Daniel records other dealings of Daniel with the emperors of Babylon and Persia. Their dreams and visions, Daniel’s interpretations, and Daniel’s own visions all bear witness to a universal God who prevails in history. It is a remarkable theme given the context: God’s own people are exiled in foreign, pagan lands. Yet their God is the King of kings. He rules all of the earth. And His kingdom will dominate in the end. |
Good Book Review: God's MarriageWe recognize a wide variety of things that God calls His people to do. We think of missionaries and ministers. We think of youth leaders and Sunday School teachers. We think of our callings to give, to serve, to meet needs, and to share the gospel.
Churches sometimes list ways that their members might serve God — in worship leadership, in missions, in evangelism, in helping hands service, in administrative responsibilities, and on and on. But here is something new. Here is an uncommon calling. The prophet Hosea is called upon to serve God by marrying a whore. Hosea was a prophet in 8th-century B.C. Israel — shortly after the time of Amos and leading up to the fall of Samaria to the Assyrian Empire. He preached a message of God’s imminent judgment on his people. The profound beauty of Hosea’s strange calling is that he was being asked by God to share in God’s own experience. For the Lord, too, you see, had loved an unfaithful wife. Just as Hosea’s wife, Gomer, had cheated on him, so had Israel, the people with whom God had a covenant relationship, been unfaithful to Him. Hosea is counted among the judgment prophets — i.e., those men whose primary message and purpose was warning people about the coming judgment of God. But while Hosea’s message is sober and sad, it is born out of a context of love and heartbreak: for that is the experience of God Himself. |