Old Testament

Hosea 4-5

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We’re going to pick up the pace a bit in our reading through Hosea. (We took our time with the first three chapters last week: we saw the contrast between Israel’s unfaithfulness and God’s undeserved love that sets out to win back his wife, depicted in the real-life object lesson of Hosea and Gomer.) The next few chapters are reasonably repetitive – and there’s a reason for that, which we’ll see. They focus on Israel’s spiritual adultery (chapters 4 & 5), her lack of repentance (chapters 6 & 7), and the certainty and totality of God’s coming judgement (chapters 8 to 10). So we’ll work through these quickly over three days – with a little less comment than usual – before slowing down again when we hit chapter 11.

The case for the prosecution

This chapter is often described as a “prophetic lawsuit,” in which Hosea delivers God’s opening statements for the prosecution. It begins with the announcement that God is bringing formal charges against Israel:

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Hosea 3

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The votes are in on “catch-up Friday”, and the majority still wants five days a week. But (in the spirit of compromise) they’ll often be a little shorter.

This week we’ve looked at the real-life object lesson Hosea acted out at God’s command: to marry a promiscuous woman, only for her to cheat on him, and then be the one to go and win her back. Just like God had done – and would do – for Israel. But there’s still a postscript to this story. Because there was quite a long wait for Israel in the 8th century before Jesus turned up. So Hosea’s little object lesson needed another chapter, to give Israel some hope:

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Hosea 2:14-23

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Yesterday, through the metaphor of Hosea’s marriage to unfaithful Gomer, God accused Israel of sleeping with other lovers: thinking that the Canaanite fertility gods and goddesses were the ones who were providing for her, rather than recognising that it all came from God, her husband. So he decided to withhold his providential care – leaving Israel to the mercy of her Canaanite “gods,” to let her find out how well that goes. Having experienced drought and famine, she might decide she was “better off” with God after all.

A hot date in the desert

But God isn’t leaving things to chance. Just as in chapter one we saw judgement followed by restoration, things abruptly change here in chapter two. You could be forgiven for thinking that Israel’s adultery means the marriage is over. Well, it is (see verse 2 from yesterday). But God’s not going to let it end that way.

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Hosea 2:2-13

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In our series in Hosea thus far, God has told Hosea to act out a prophetic sign against unfaithful Israel (the northern kingdom). In chapter one he was told to take a promiscuous woman as his wife, and to give his children names that symbolised the coming judgement on Israel, and the revoking of God’s covenant with (soon-to-be-not) his people. Yet there was also a message of hope that one day he would reunite his people under one leader, and again be their God.

In chapter two we see the same two-scene structure: judgement (verses 2-13, which we’ll look at today), followed by restoration (verses 14-23, tomorrow).

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Hosea 1:10-2:1

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Yesterday, we began a series in the Old Testament book of Hosea. You’ll need to read yesterday’s post for this one to make sense.

Quick recap of the story so far: in the 8th century BC, Israel (that is, the northern kingdom) has been persistently unfaithful to God, worshipping fertility gods/goddesses and making alliances with foreign nations, rather than trusting in God for their security. God has had enough. So he gets Hosea to act out a real-life object lesson. He tells him:

Find a promiscuous woman and marry her. Call the first kid “Jezreel” (referring to the place of slaughter where the previous ruling dynasty came to an end, and also meaning “scattered”) as a sign the kingdom of Israel is coming to an end, and about to be slaughtered and scattered. Call the second one “Lo-Ruhamah” (meaning not loved, or not shown mercy) as a sign I’m not going to be merciful to Israel any longer. And call the third one “Lo-Ammi” (meaning not my people), since I’m reversing the covenant I made back when I brought Israel out of Egypt – I’m not going to be their God any longer, and they won’t be my people.

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Hosea 1:1-9

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Prophets in the Old Testament got told to do some pretty outrageous things. And I think what God told Hosea to do is up there with the worst of them. What do you think?

In the first chapter of the book of Hosea – which we’ll be studying for the next couple of weeks – God gives his prophet one of the worst assignments you could imagine:

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Why Tithe? – Part Three (Deut 26)

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For the start of our year, we’re spending three days looking at the question Why Tithe? in light of Deuteronomy 26. On Wednesday we made three false starts that we thought we could find in the text:

  • we give to get rich/blessed
  • we give because God needs our money
  • we give to make God happy

Then yesterday we read the whole chapter in context, and saw that giving to God was intended to be an expression of joyful gratitude for what God has already done for us. (For Israel, in bringing them into the land; for us, in bringing us into union with Christ.) So what’s left to talk about?

Maybe we can redeem those three false starts. Because, as we said at the end of Wednesday’s post, they’re not entirely wrong. Each of them is not a reason to give – but to some extent, each is a result of giving to God out of gratitude.

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Why Tithe? – Part Two (Deut 26)

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To kick off the year, we’re spending three days looking at the question Why Tithe? in light of Deuteronomy 26. Yesterday we made three false starts that we thought we could find in the text:

  1. We give so that God will make us rich – which flies in the face of Jesus’ call to give up material possessions, take up our cross, and follow him… not to mention the experience of millions of faithful believers around the world who live in poverty.
  2. We give because God needs our money – which, despite cash-strapped churches struggling to support gospel workers and social programmes, is quite silly in light of the fact that God created the world and has access to far more resources than we could even imagine.
  3. We give to please God – which is heading in the right direction, but neglects the fact that we can’t please God by our works any more than Christ has already pleased the Father on our behalf.

But these three popular misunderstandings of why we tithe are all missing something. They’re missing the reason for tithing God gave Israel back at the start of the chapter – which we ignored yesterday, because we weren’t reading in context. Let’s see if we can pick up that reason, starting from verse 1:

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Why Tithe? – Part One (Deut 26)

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In Australia, the year began today.

If you’re from the Northern Hemisphere, you’ll think this is weird – 2016 has been underway for quite some time. But for us, December 25 ushers in the start of our long summer holidays. And January 26, the Australia Day public holiday, marks its end. School goes back this week, horrendous traffic returns to our roads, as we jump back on the treadmill of life.

So, too, Coffee with the King throws out the reheated summer dregs, and puts on a fresh, new pot. And what better way to start the year proper than to talk about money. About tithing. About how it is we’re going to use our financial resources this coming year in light of what God has to say on the matter. Over the next three days, we’ll be asking the question: why tithe? And we’ll be looking for the answers in Deuteronomy chapter 26.

You’ll need to read Deuteronomy 26 first, and then continue on below.

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Amos 9

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We’ve made it to the end of Amos! (We start 2 Timothy next week.) And as promised, it ends on a note of hope. But not before a bit more judgement…

Amos 9:1-4 I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and he said: “Strike the tops of the pillars so that the thresholds shake. Bring them down on the heads of all the people; those who are left I will kill with the sword. Not one will get away, none will escape. Though they dig down to the depths below, from there my hand will take them. Though they climb up to the heavens above, from there I will bring them down. Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, there I will hunt them down and seize them. Though they hide from my eyes at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent to bite them. Though they are driven into exile by their enemies, there I will command the sword to slay them. I will keep my eye on them for harm and not for good.”

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