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Hosea 6:1-6 - Coggle Diagram
Hosea 6:1-6
Introduction
Adoption Illustration
The importance of understanding the difference between knowing about God, and knowing God through a faithful relationship of love.
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Just as there were two types of people in God's covenant community in the Old Testament, so there are also two types of people in God's new covenant community; the visible and invisible church.
Those who are a part of the invisible church are those who are true believers, God's elect. In Hosea's time this would be in parallel to those described as Jews inwardly due to a circumcision of the heart. The visible church on the other hand is comprised of all those who are outward professing Christians. However, within this group are those who make outward profession of faith, but who have hearts that are far from God. Those making mere outward professions, are akin to those Jews who were so only outwardly by the outward covenantal sign of circumcision.
And so, Hosea's call to God's covenantal people to return to their God and to know him as a wife knows her husband is an important passage for us to consider as members of his covenant community.
Regardless of where you stand this morning/evening, we all need to heed the call to return to the Lord and press on to knowing him more deeply.
This evening/morning let's look at three reasons why you should press on to know the Triune God. First, the text shows us that God loves his people and therefore disciplines them in order to restore them when they turn from him. Second, you will see God's steadfast love for his people even in the midst of our unfaithfulness to him. Lastly, our God call us to relate to him through a life-giving relationship over the performance of dead and vain religious rituals.
We should desire to turn to God and lovingly know him because of the grace he extends to us through his discipline. Vv1-2
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Romans 12:18,21,24, 28, 32
Not only that, but we should desire to turn to God and lovingly know him because he calls us to relate to him through a life-giving relationship over the performance of dead and vain religious rituals. V6
Here is the problem that the people of Hosea's time were committing that God's people are still making today: The Lord is not looking for some mere transaction. Instead, he is looking for a faithful loving relationship.
It wasn't like during the time of the Northern Kingdom the people paid no attention to God. They in fact did attempt to worship God, but they made two fatalistic mistakes.
First, they tried to worship God has they wanted. We don't have enough time to discuss this now, but hopefully the fact that they set up their own temples in Dan and Bethel as opposed to worshipping at the Temple appointed by God in Jerusalem, and the fact that they set up golden calves at these locations as a part of their worship, makes this claim clear.
The second issue was that they did not worship God alone. They attempted to worship the God of Israel along with Baal. Essentially, they were trying to cover their bases and were syncretistic in their worship.
In other words, they were attempting to use God. They would throw him a bone, so to speak, and then in return expect blessing from him for having made the transaction of worship through sacrifice.
In verse 6, God is not saying that the sacrificial system is not important, or that he no longer cares about it. Rather he is emphasizing that the first commitment when it comes to religious devotion is love and knowledge of God. Andrew Dearman rightly points out that the sacrificial system, when it is correctly understood, plays a supporting role in that first commitment of love and knowledge of God.
Andrew Dearman goes on to say, "Sacrificial practice, rightly understood, is neither magic nor coercive of its divine author, but is rather a gift to the covenant community intended as a means to greater ends."
The people of the OT were to see the sacrificial system as a divine gift that should be accompanied by great gratitude, as opposed to seeing it as a dead ritual that could be weaponized as a form of divine coercion.
Covenant children, does that hit a little too close to home this evening/morning? Are you coming to church and praying at home with your family, expecting that God now owes you?
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I want to draw your attention to the words steadfast love in this passage. In the Hebrew, the word is Hesed, and it describes the loyal and merciful covenantal love of God. He calls the lowly on whom he places his steadfast love, to love him in the same way.
That's the problem being brought to light by Hosea in this book. The people do not faithfully love God as they ought. That's why verse 4 serves as a contrast to this verse. The Hebrew word for love in verse four is Hesed. The way the people love God couldn't be more disconnected from the way he loves his people. They are not loving God, they are trying to use God, and the parable of the Prodigal Son helps us to see. They are using God by outwardly complying while inwardly having hearts that are far from him.
Unfortunately, this problem is still ongoing in the NT. Can you think of a group of people whose outward religious practice was spot on, but their hearts were far from God? (Pharisees)
Understanding that fact might make you appreciate all the more that Jesus is recorded in Scripture addressing this issue twice by referencing Hosea 6:6. Both times, he is addressing the Pharisees in Matthew 9 and 12.
In Matthew 9 the Pharisees take issue with Jesus sharing a meal with sinners and tax collectors. Jesus blasts the Pharisees with Hosea 6:6 as he shows them God's concern not for those who want to stand over him in judgment from a distance, but those who come to fellowship with him out of love.
In Matthew 12 the Pharisees are taking issue with Jesus' disciples picking grain on the Sabbath. In essence, they were trying to justify not loving and following after Jesus, by trying to make outward compliance to religious ritual the gold standard. Jesus shuts their foolish and dark thinking down by quoting Hosea 6:6.
We clearly see then, that the Lord is exalting those who return to him and press on to know him, as opposed to those who want to relate to him merely through dead ritualistic transactions.
We should desire to turn to God and lovingly know him because of his faithfulness to us in the midst of our unfaithfulness. Vv3-5
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Conclusion
I hope this evening/morning you have seen through this wonderful passage the importance of returning to God and pressing on after knowing him more deeply. This important lesson applies to all of us in God's covenantal community.
My prayer is that for those who are here and claim to be a part of God's church, but you are only going through the outward motions of religion, that you would take heed the warning Jesus gives in Matthew 7.
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Is doing the will of God first and foremost external religious action? That seems to be what those who respond had in mind when they respond in verse 22.
On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’
23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. - John 17:3
For those of you like me who are walking with the Lord and love him, yet find yourself at times distracted and wandering off, remember his covenantal steadfast love to you.
You may not love him with all of your heart, mind, and strength, but he loves you with a perfect everlasting love.
You may feel that your grip on him is weak, but his firm and never-failing grip on you is what holds you fast.
Your sins may seem many, but his mercy is more.
When your heart wanders and God brings you to your senses, be comforted by the fact that you are just as free to turn your heart to him and be welcomed with open arms as the first day you returned to him as a prodigal and received his warm embrace.
Raises the dead
Verse 2 of our passage reminds us that God raises his people up to new life on the third day. Scholars debate how much of a direct tie this has to Jesus.
While Calvin acknowledges that this is a possible tie, he thinks there is a better primary reason for mentioning of the third day, mainly indicating passage of time. However, Derek Kidner believes that the reference to Christ being raised on the third day in accordance to Scripture from 1 Corinthians 15:4 has this passage, along with the sign of Jonah in mind.
Regardless of whether or not this is a direct reference to Jesus' resurrection, I can't help but look back at this passage with fondness and gratitude as I agree with Derek Kidner when he states about this verse that "it is only in Christ's resurrection that his people are effectively raised up."
We, like the Israelites Hosea is addressing, have all been unfaithful to God. That includes our lives before coming to Christ, and after being adopted in Christ. We too deserve to be torn to pieces and to be struck down, but Jesus was the true Israelite who took on the covenantal curses as he hung on the tree bearing our guilt. And just as he was raised victorious over death because of his sinless life, so those of us who trust in Christ as our Lord and Savior have been raised to new life in him!
What a privilege it is for us to return to our redeeming Lord and to press in to growing in our knowledge of his infinite riches of goodness and steadfast love!