Senior High-Steve Briggs, Junior High-John Baker
Introduction
Have the students get in two groups. They each will have one White-Out bottle and will be asked to go through an article laced with typographical errors. They are to change/erase anything that is wrong. At the end of the time, come together and see who caught the most errors.
Today, we are finishing our series on Hosea. We’ve covered a lot of material the last three weeks. We started out in Hosea 1, which showed us God telling Hosea to take for himself an adulterous wife. We find that the wife, Gomer, continued to cheat on him and we only know that Hosea is the father to one of the children that Gomer has. The next week we looked at Hosea 2—3, where God shows Hosea that the Israelites were quite like Gomer. They were supposed to be in a covenant relationship with God, but they had decided to suit their own interests and likings. At the end of the lesson, we see God instructing Hosea to go to Gomer, and to stick with her, telling her to turn from her ways. Last week was a little gloomy. We went through God’s speech to the Israelites, telling them about all the wrong that they had done to Him. We find that there are many parallels between the Israelites of that time, and the Church today.
Today, we are going to look at the final restoration that God has for the Israelites. See, God invented White-Out. He has, even with a huge list of transgressions, forgiving His people when they saw the error in their ways and repented. He sent His Son to die on the cross so that we can be forgiven, and that we can be made white as snow.
Lesson
Have the students get out their Bibles and turn to Hosea 11
Read Hosea 11:1-11
Take a look at verse nine. God knows His creation all too well. He knows that their first instinct when someone wrongs them is to go in anger towards the one who wronged them. God says, I’m not like you. I am holy. With this verse in mind, how do you view statements made by Christian conservatives who say that Hurricane Katrina and the Haitian earthquake were results of God’s wrath against people for not following Him?
Another lesson that we can take out of this verse is the fact that many people mold God into thinking exactly like they do. They want God to react in the same manner. God does not conform to our image of Him. He is holy and is not bound by human emotion or theories.
God, for the next two chapters resorts to calling out the Israelites for their wickedness and adultery against Him. However, these are a little different, because they are prefaced by the love of God. He wants to reiterate the fact that He always loved the Israelites. ALWAYS. He goes back to what they have done. Kind of a “I love you, and I want you to know that, but look what you have done to me”
Read Hosea 14:1-3
Hosea makes a plea to the Israelites. He tells them to ask God to forgive them, but also turns from their ways. Repentance is kind of a Christian-ese word. It’s something that we have said so many times but we rarely live it out. How many times do you ask for forgiveness but not do anything about it?
Read Hosea 14:4-8
Let’s go through and show the symbols that God uses there and say what they mean: Dew=Representation of a new day, Water to a dry heart. Green Pine Tree= Everlasting God
Read Hosea 14:9
This sounds a little like a proverb. Who are the people who are stumbling in the ways of the Lord? Allow them to answer, but point out that nowhere in this book did God talk to anyone who was not already a believer. God is talking about believers who are stumbling around because they continue to do what they want instead of what God wants.
Another question we could ask is this, can we tell people who are not living right without seeing their actions?
Application
What is the evangelistic message that was given to the world through Hosea? (That no matter what you have done and how long you have been running, God is still there waiting to use White Out).
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