At what point is the weight too much for you to hold on anymore? Many marriages have to answer that question day in and day out. At the beginning of marriage, questions like: What would you do for your husband/wife? What lengths would you go to show them your love? are dumb. “I will love them no matter what.” And then no matter what happens and you have to figure out if you are going to hold on, or are you going to let go?
Many marriages are even based on the idea that God ordained the marriage. Everything happened so perfectly that there is no doubt that God had a hand in it. Yet that marriage struggles, and sometimes falls apart. Now, most will probably point towards their marriage as being God’s will based on circumstance rather than a burning bush saying that they should marry that other person.
Yet, there is one man, at least, who was told that God wanted him to marry someone. Hosea is one of the most interesting books in the Bible. Can you think of instances in the Bible where God has someone go through a life situation, and then at the end of it He says, “You see what I did there?” We are going to study the book of Hosea this month. We are going to see God put Hosea in a sticky situation and then shows him a truth from Hosea’s experience.
Lesson
Have everyone open the Bibles to Hosea
Read Hosea 1:1
Hosea begins his ministry during the end of the reign of Jeroboam II of Israel, which was a prosperous but morally void time.
Read Hosea 1:2-3
This goes against everything we stand for. Usually people get a wife/husband, and then that person becomes and adulterer. However, God is telling Hosea to get a wife who is an adulterer before the marriage even starts. What would you say in this situation?
Read Hosea 1:4-10
Note that we know for certain that Hosea was the father of ONE of the THREE children.
How does God go from seemingly breaking apart the covenant to hinting a restoration? He says I am not your God, and then God’s split personality comes out and then contradicts Himself. No, God is saying listen. Right now you are so far from who you are supposed to be I don’t even know you. And then in verse ten He changes to, but one day you will. One day something, someone is going to happen that will bring you back into your proper existence.
Application
Let’s start to put together some obvious symbols in the story: Adulterous Spouse=Us, Hosea=Jesus.
What seemingly ridiculous situations have you found yourself in only to find that God was using it as a teaching tool?
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