Gospel Hope & Gospel Consequences
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Gospel Hope (1:10-11)
Gospel Hope (1:10-11)
9 And the Lord said, “Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”
Leaving off on this verse might leave us wondering if God was reacting like a heart-broken parent who is fed up with His child’s rebellion. Essentially declaring His son Israel has disgraced the family name and therefore wants nothing more to do with him. But thank God, this is not where it ends.
10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.” 11 And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head. And they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
So far, everything the Lord has said through Hosea has centered on the total depravity of the people.
“Yet” - וְ
“Yet” - וְ
a conjunction pronounced vey
Why is the gospel a message of hope to a people who will still face the consequences of their sin?
God’s covenant faithfulness is not contingent on His people’s obedience.
God’s covenant faithfulness is not contingent on His people’s obedience.
sand of the sea: God was referring to His promise to Abraham
Gen. 13:16; 22:17.
16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.
17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies,
In Hosea’s day, the people of Israel were not significantly numerous. This is why, in part, Assyria was such a threat.
And keep in mind that the judgement pronounced on Israel up to this point in Hosea promised that their number would be reduced even more in their exile.
Hosea 1:7 (ESV)
7 … I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.
Still God promises in verse 10 that His promise that their number will be beyond measure will be kept.
And their status was pronounced in verse 9
9 And the Lord said, “Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”
Not my people. God had promised Moses that Israel would be His people and He would be their God (Ex. 6:7).
Hosea in Romans
It was mentioned last week that the Apostle Paul quotes Hosea in his epistle to the Romans.
Romans 9:24-26.
24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ ”
26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ”
How does Paul’s quote of Hosea help us understand the message of Hosea?
The interpretive challenge is that in Hosea, the prophet is talking about the rejection and eventual restoration of the Jews of the ten northern tribes. In Romans, Paul is writing about Gentiles.
24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
Some would say that Paul is actually writing about the restoration of the Jews, which he does write about in Rom. 11.
26 And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,
“The Deliverer will come from Zion,
he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”;
It does appear to me that Paul is referring to a new people of God, comprised of Jews and Gentiles.
The verses that follow teach that the Gentiles, which were not a people, have now become the people of God along with the believing Jews.
The same idea shows up in 1 Peter
1 Pet. 2:10.
10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
He’s quoting Hosea 2:23 to describe the Gentiles.
So some would actually say that Paul was misusing Scripture here. I disagree.
Paul shows the way he understood the pronouncement of judgement that Hosea conveys in the names of the children in Hosea 1:4-9.
Jezreel
No Mercy
Not My People
Paul particularly focuses on Not my people, as can be seen in Rom. 9:26. I suggest that Paul’s point is that Not My People is not meant to be understood only as Israel as if they were no longer God’s people when, in fact they were. Rather it means that they became like the Gentiles so far as their relationship with God is concerned.
Israel, through their rejection of God became like the Gentiles. But the promise says that both Jews and Gentiles, that is, God’s people will be called children or sons of the living God.
So, I while I do not believe that ethnic distinctions have been eradicated (v. 24 - not the Jews only but also from the gentiles), spiritual adoption not physical descent becomes the mark of the New Covenant Community.
Considering this, while the people of the ten tribes of the northern kingdom became Not My People because of their rebellion against God, their hope was and is that God keeps His promises, and so both Jews and Gentiles are and will be children of the living God.
Why is the gospel a message of hope to a people who will still face the consequences of their sin?
God’s covenant faithfulness rests upon the promised Messiah.
God’s covenant faithfulness rests upon the promised Messiah.
Remember that Hosea’s ministry focuses on the northern kingdom of Israel, but he frequently declares that salvation will come through the kingly line of Judah.
The southern and northern kingdoms will be reunited, but through the head that is mentioned in verse 11.
So their restoration as a kingdom will come by the restoration of the kingship of the Davidic Messiah.
We don’t want to miss the application to us. We have been made aliens to God’s covenant through our sin, and there is nothing we can do to erase the record of our sin. God’s answer to this was to send the Messiah. Isaiah declared the same message as Hosea did:
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
It is through this one head that all who are not God’s people can become God’s people.
God’s covenant faithfulness grants His people new life.
God’s covenant faithfulness grants His people new life.
Were the 10 tribes that went into exile ever restored? Did they return to the land?
I don’t think we have record of that happening, and if that is the case, we need to understand what Hosea means by they shall go up from the land…
It seems best to understand this as referring to the return to the land from exile and resurrection from the dead of God’s people. This connection is made in Ezekiel:
Eze 37:12-14.
12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. 13 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. 14 And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”
This this a picture of what happens in our salvation but is also something yet to occur for the people of God. This will be the great day of Jezreel.
Back in 1:5, Jezreel had taken on the idea of blood shed because of the violence committed there. Jezreel actually means the sowing of seeds.
It seems to me what Hosea is declaring here is that this meaning will be restored to Jezreel. In other words, God’s people will be united in the great harvest through the resurrection of Christ.
So, God’s harvesting of His people began when Jesus rose from the dead. It continues to spread as the life-giving message of the gospel is proclaimed.
So, the great day of Jezreel will be when Jesus returns. He will gather His people to Himself, and one day the people of God will flourish in the land.