May 11 2024

Throughout time, many have fallen helplessly, “head over heels” in love. Paris, France is known as the “City of Love.” Each year, an entire day is devoted to cards, flowers, chocolate, and candlelit dinners. Love and commitment are an integral part of marriage, but what if that wasn’t the case? What if it had nothing to do with choosing a spouse? What if you had to accept unfaithfulness as part of the deal? Sounds far-fetched, but that’s what our lesson today is about.

Go online to one of the big garden retailers and collect pictures of all your favorite vegetables.  They have instructions on when to plant, how to plant, how long it takes to grow, whether the plant is disease resistant, drought tolerant, and many other characteristics.

There are several such sites, but here are two of the oldest and most popular:

www.gurneys.com

www.burpee.com

With your students, discuss when to plant, how much water it takes for a garden to grow, and what to plant. Ask them which of their favorite fruits or vegetables they would like to plant and whether it would grow where you live.

Today’s lesson can be a little difficult to understand. Why would God ask anyone to marry a prostitute? It doesn’t make sense, right? Marriage is about love, devotion, and commitment.  People fall in love. Hosea, as you will see, isn’t a normal love story, but hold on a moment, we’re getting ahead of the lesson.

Read Hosea 1:1-3

1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel:

2 When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.” 3 So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. 

Read Hosea 1:4-9

4 Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. 5 In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.”

6 Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means “not loved”), for I will no longer show love to Israel, that I should at all forgive them. 7 Yet I will show love to Judah; and I will save them—not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but I, the Lord their God, will save them.”

8 After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. 9 Then the Lord said, “Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God. 

Discuss one or more of the following love stories. You may or may not need to find it in the Bible.

Read Ephesians 5:25-29

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church.

Read Hosea 3:1-5

1 The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”

2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. 3 Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you.”

4 For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or household gods. 5 Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days.

Read Hosea 1:10-11

10 When I please, I will punish them; nations will be gathered against them to put them in bonds for their double sin.

11 Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh; so I will put a yoke on her fair neck. I will drive Ephraim, Judah must plow, and Jacob must break up the ground.

Read Hosea 6:1-5

“Come, let us return to the Lord.  He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. 2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence. 3 Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.” 4 “What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears. 5 Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth then my judgments go forth like the sun. 

Chapters 7 through 13 describe the cycle of unfaithfulness and restoration of Israel. Chapter 14 describes the restoration of Israel and what God will do to restore them.

Now let’s read Hosea 14:4-9

4 “I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them. 5 I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down his roots; 

6 his young shoots will grow. His splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon. 7 People will dwell again in his shade; they will flourish like the grain, they will blossom like the vine Israel’s fame will be like the wine of Lebanon. 8 Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? I will answer him and care for him. I am like a flourishing juniper; your fruitfulness comes from me.” 9 Who is wise? Let them realize these things. Who is discerning? Let them understand. The ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them. 

At the beginning of the lesson, you were asked about gardening. It must have seemed rather random, but it really wasn’t. Marriage and falling in love are a lot like a garden. It takes thought, planning, care, and preparation in order for it to be successful and for a bountiful harvest. For most, falling in love is the easy part, but marriage takes work and dedication in order for the love to last. The rewards of tending a marriage, keeping the spark alive, and living to please someone other than yourself are amazing, which is why Christ on several occasions described His relationship with us as a marriage. God never gave up on His people. Over and over in the Old Testament, He forgave His people and sought them out, so that the relationship could be restored. 

The story of Hosea and Gomer is really an amazing love story. Over and over, Hosea goes and gets Gomer, brings her home, and restores her as his wife. Again and again, Gomer leaves and goes back to her other life. This story is a demonstration of how God treats us! What an amazing picture of God!  

In your family or church, think about an older couple who has been married a long time. Call them and ask the following questions:

Hosea 2:2-23

For a Relational Bible Study (RBS) you’ll want to get into the Scripture passage and encourage the youth to imagine participating in the story while it’s happening. Then you will be able to better apply it to your own situation today.

You will need to ask God for the Holy Spirit to be present as your small group discusses the questions (no more than 3-6 people in a group is recommended). Start with the opening question. It is a personal question and the answer is unique for each individual. There is no right answer and nobody is an expert here, so don’t be surprised when you hear different responses. You are depending on the Holy Spirit to be present and to speak through your group. Say what God prompts you to say, and listen to what others share.

Take turns reading the chapter out loud. Follow that with giving the students some time to individually mark their responses to the questions (a PDF version of the handout is available as a download). This gives each person a starting point for responding when you start to share as a group. Next, begin the discussion by asking the students to share what they marked and why on each question as you work your way through. Feel free to take more time on some questions than others as discussion warrants.

Encourage each person in the group to apply what is discussed to their personal lives and to share with the group what they believe God wants them to do. Then ask them to pray that God will help each of them to follow through in doing so. Remind them to expect that God will show them ways to live out the message of this passage in the coming week, and that they are free to ask others in the group to help hold them accountable.

Be sure everyone takes time for personal applications before you end your Sabbath School time together.

Can you find the book of Hosea in your Bible? It’s not as well-known as the book we studied last week—Jonah—even though Hosea has 14 chapters compared to Jonah’s four chapters. If people know anything about Hosea, it’s usually that he married a prostitute. What is your reaction to that?

It’s one thing to discover that your spouse has cheated on you, but it’s even more extreme to purposely marry someone who you know will not be faithful to you. This seems so far-fetched that some Bible scholars consider the story in Hosea to be a parable rather than something that really happened. They can’t imagine that God would ask one of His prophets to knowingly marry a prostitute just to get the attention of His wayward people. Do you think it’s more unbelievable that God would do this, or that God’s people would actually cheat on God?

Read Hosea 2:2-23.

2 “Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.

3 Otherwise I will strip her naked and make her as bare as on the day she was born; I will make her like a desert, turn her into a parched land, and slay her with thirst.

4 I will not show my love to her children, because they are the children of adultery.

5 Their mother has been unfaithful and has conceived them in disgrace. She said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.’

6 Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way. 7 She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.’

8 She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold which they used for Baal.

9 “Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens, and my new wine when it is ready. I will take back my wool and my linen, intended to cover her naked body.

10 So now I will expose her lewdness before the eyes of her lovers; no one will take her out of my hands.

11 I will stop all her celebrations: her yearly festivals, her New Moons, her Sabbath days—all her appointed festivals.

12 I will ruin her vines and her fig trees, which she said were her pay from her lovers; I will make them a thicket, and wild animals will devour them.

13 I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals; she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but me she forgot,” declares the Lord.

14 “Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her.

15 There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor n a door of hope. There she will respond o as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

16 “In that day,” declares the Lord, “you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master.’

17 I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked.

18 In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety.

19 I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion.

20 I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord.

21 “In that day I will respond,” declares the Lord “I will respond to the skies, and they will respond to the earth;

22 and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and the olive oil, and they will respond to Jezreel. 

23 I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one. g’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’ ”

Recount a time when you were embarrassed by something one of your parents did.

1.  What would you tell others about your mother or father if they were a prostitute?

2. How would you react to someone who betrayed you?

3.  What blessings that God provides are easy to take for granted?

4.  How does God show us that He loves us?

5.  What thoughts or memories does God need to blot from your mind (vs. 17)?

6.  What makes you part of God’s people? What stops or removes you from being part of God’s people?

7.  When you are part of God’s people, how are other people, places, and things blessed by your presence?

8.  What makes God “your God”?  What stops God from being “your God”?

This topic can easily make us feel highly uncomfortable because of the subject matter—God telling a prophet to marry a prostitute. Beyond the shock value, this story shows God’s desire to be in a loving relationship with us. That’s why it pains Him when we ignore, disrespect, or even replace Him with other loves. He created us to be in love with Him. When we misdirect what He gave us, it messes up everything. Something is clearly wrong! And yet God continues to pursue us, woo us, and draw us back to Him. And even more, there are those who cheat on God in other ways. The question for us is how we will respond to God today, no matter what is in our past.

This week’s lesson shows how much God loves us, no matter what we do.  And just about all of us are, or have been, guilty of being unfaithful to God. This is our call to stop and to return to God.

Here are some applications that can get you going. The same Holy Spirit that was present in this Relational Bible Study is the one who can lead you to apply this to your life.

Part 1: “I’m sorry.” Sometimes this is very, very hard to say. And it can be even harder to mean it! This gift from God can change your heart so that instead of wanting what’s wrong, God can actually change your desires to want to do what is right. Looking at what your selfish attitudes and actions toward God do to Him sometimes awakens a desire for the change God has in mind for you.

Part 2: “I don’t want to ever do that again.” Once again, this gift must come from God because our actions don’t always carry out our intentions or promises. We’re talking about a change of heart and a change of action. When our heart and actions get in line with God, the next stage is a change in habits to repeatedly do what’s right instead of what’s wrong.

By Steve Case

Want some small group discussion starters? Use these prompts to get your group going.
Steve Case draws on his love for Scripture, personal experiences, and training by taking a passage of Scripture and offering questions that draw out the meanings that lead to personal applications of the Bible.

You won’t find pat answers or cookie-cutter spirituality. Instead, you’ll discover new possibilities to engage with familiar and not-so-familiar portions of God’s Word, interact with God and others, and wrestle with how to live as a follower of Jesus Christ here and now.

Each of the 52 Bible studies starts with an ice-breaker question that “levels the playing field” so everyone in your group has equal access to God and vice versa. Multiple-choice options will stretch you to think in new ways, sometimes bringing a smile to your face or a surprise to your mind and heart. Deeper questions conclude each study and move participants from talk into action.
Small group leaders will appreciate the content and flexibility of these Bible studies. Use this resource to make copies for others in your group or provide a copy for each person. Tap into the portion that includes keys for leading small groups and prayer possibilities.

If you want to talk about Jesus, here’s a great way to begin the conversation.

PURCHASE BOOK

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