False Joy: Rejoice Not, O Israel | Hosea 9

It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will take it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart his made glad. The heart of the wise is …

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False Worship: My God, We Know You | Hosea 8

I have obeyed the voice of the LORD. I have gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to …

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Let Us Press On to Know the LORD | Hosea 6-7

"There is one text in the Bible that, as God is my witness, I never read without trembling" (Morgan, Hosea, 72). That text is found in Judges 16. In that chapter, Samson is asked multiple times by Delilah to reveal the secret of his strength. Finally, after giving her false answers, verse 16 tells us …

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The Judgment Is for You | Hosea 5

As we have established, the two big sections of Hosea are chapters 1-3 and 4-14. The first three chapters give us the summary and the picture of Hosea and Gomer. Hosea 2 is the summary of Yahweh's plan of Israel. He will discipline them severely but ultimately bring them back to Himself. Chapter 1 and …

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My People Are Destroyed for Lack of Knowledge | Hosea 4

So far in the book of Hosea, the first three chapters gave us Hosea's marriage to Gomer, which represented Yahweh's covenant with Israel. Chapter 2 gave us God's plan for Israel in a nutshell: He would severely discipline her but ultimately bring her back to Himself. Chapter 3 gave us a picture of that predicted …

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Love Again | Hosea 3

In Hosea 1, God gave the prophet Hosea the assignment to marry a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom. This was to be a sign, a kind of living parable, of Israel's whoring after other gods. Hosea takes Gomer to be his wife and has three children: Jezreel, No Mercy, and Not My …

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I Will Betroth You to Me | Hosea 2:2-23

Discipline is an act of love. The author of Hebrews notes that all discipline is painful at first, "but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." Indeed, whenever God disciplines us, we ought to be encouraged that He is treating us like sons. The opposite of …

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A Great Sin | Exodus 32:15-35

https://youtu.be/j27KbAiFka0 After studying through the several chapters of instructions that Yahweh gave to Moses regarding the building and design of the tabernacle, our previous text brought our attention to what the Israelites were doing at the foot of Mount Sinai while Moses was meeting with God. Sadly, even while God was giving his prophet the …

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An Altar of Earth | Exodus 20:22-26

https://youtu.be/4mGffT2gdqI It is a tragedy that worship is one of the most divisive and conflict-filled areas within the church. Of course, it is also understandable. We tend to fight most fiercely over the things that are most important to us. If the chief end of man truly is to glorify God and to enjoy Him …

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Question 9: What Does God Require in the First, Second, and Third Commandments?

Having confessed the Ten Commandments as the summary of God's law in Question 8, Questions 9-12 now aim to give us a concise synopsis of each commandment. Here the first three commandments are fittingly presented together, for these first commandments deal directly with how we are to worship and honor God as the only true …

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