SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/6/2015
8:14 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Introduction
to Hosea 11-14
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Message of the
verses: In today’s SD we will look
at the introduction to chapters 11-14 of Hosea which will conclude the study of
this OT minor prophet, the first of the twelve Minor Prophets that we will
study. I have been following the
commentaries of Dr. Warren Wiersbe for many years and he has written what are
called “Be” books for all of the books of the Bible. The “Be” book that Hosea is a part of
includes six Minor Prophets so the commentary that is there is not as extensive
as when he writes a commentary on a book like Isaiah or like Ezekiel. Since I have never studied any of the Minor
Prophets this is probably a good way to begin.
He entitles this book of six Minor Prophets “Be Amazed” and I hope that
will be what we all are once we finish looking at Hosea, Joel, Jonah, Nahum,
Habakkuk, and Malachi, which we will not study until we have finished eleven of
the Minor Prophets.
Dr. Wiersbe entitles this third chapter of his commentary
on Hosea “Love So Amazing” and as I stated it covers chapters 11-14. We will look at three main points from this
chapter along with many sub-points under these main points.
We began the book of Hosea by looking at Hosea and the
wife that he had who was or turned into a harlot and had given him three
children. The question is how could his
wife doubt the love that he had for her as he eventually bought her back from a
slave market where she ended up because her “lover” had thrown her out of his
house and she had no more money. The
same is true with the children of Israel and their love for the Lord as it
certainly was nonexistent after all that the Lord had done for them. They not only broke the Law of God, but they
also broke the heart of God, so all that could be done was to teach them a
lesson which would one day bring them back to Him. Dr. Wiersbe writes “Hosea
reminded them of God’s compassion for His people, and he did it by presenting
three clear evidences of God’s love.” We
will look at those three evidences of God’s love for His people in these last
four chapters of Hosea.
The first evident was “God’s Mercies in the Past” and
that will cover chapter eleven of Hosea.
Dr. Wiersbe writes the following in his introductory comments for this
first main point: “At least fourteen
times in the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses used the word remember. Deuteronomy is
Moses’ farewell address to the new generation of Israelites as they were
preparing to enter the Promised Land.
But why would Moses ask these young people to look back when they were
getting ready to move forward? Because a
correct understanding of God’s dealings in the past is the best way to be
certain of success in the future.
Philosopher George Santayana expressed this truth succinctly: ‘Those who
do not remember the past are condemned to relive it.’”
As we look at the history of the continent of Europe over
the last 100 or so years we see that it was repeated a number of times,
especially during both world wars, and the sad thing is that they are doing the
same thing today that got them into trouble the first two times as they again
look for someone to lead them out of trouble.
That someone will be Antichrist as history will again repeat itself once
more. All one has to do is to look back
and see the mistakes that those behind them made and perhaps they will not make
those same mistakes again. 7/6/2015 8:41
PM
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