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THE KING’S BUSINESS
Jehovah Yearns Over Backsliding Israel DECEMBER 12, 1915. LESSON XI. Hosea 11:1-11 (Commit vs. 8 , 9). G olden T ex t : “I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love.”—Hos. 11 :4. DAILY BIBLE READINGS Mon., Dec. 6 —Hosea 11:1-11. (The Lesson). Tues., Dec. 7—2 Kings 13 :l-7, 22, 23.
Wed., Dec. 8 —Isaiah 55 :l-7. Thurs., Dec. 9—Joel 2:12-18. Fri., Dec. 10—Malachi 3 :7-12. Sat., Dec. 11—Lam. 3 :22-33. Sun., Dec. 12—Matt. 23:34-39. EXPOSITION AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
v. 1. “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt." To understand any portion of the book of Hosea, the hook should be studied as a whole. It is impossible to understand a book such as this by taking one chapter out of the book and studying it alone. Every student of this lesson is urged to read the entire-book through several times in connection with this lesson. The book contains a marvelous revelation of God’s tender, patient, yearning love on the one hand, and man’s persistent ingratitude in wandering from God on the other hand. What is said in this book of Israel, is equally true of men and women today. The verse we have printed above presents to us God’s love for Israel as a nation in the childhood of the nation. Israel is re garded as one person, and Jehovah says that when Israel was a child, just begin ning to be a nation, God loved him (cf; Deut. 7:7; Jer. 2:2; Mai. 1:2). The, love of God for Israel as a people is one of the most remarkable facts of revelation and of history. God’s dealings with Israel, even His -chastising dealings, as recorded not. only in the Bible, but in other history as well, is a proof of that love. It was be cause of God’s love to Israel that He called them out of Egypt, the land of. bondage and hardship, into Canaan, the land of lib erty and abundance, the land flowing with milk and honey. God’s love to Israel, shown in their redemption from Egypt, leaves Israel under peculiar obligations of loyalty to Jehovah, God, who called them, and redeemed them, and delivered them,
and blessed them. But Israel was laid under no such obligations to God as we are laid because of the greater redemption that God has provided for us through the death of His Son. God here calls Israel “My son” (cf. Ex. 4:22), but in a far higher sense have we a right to call our selves “sons of God” (1 John 3:1, 2), and the higher meaning of sonship as applied to us, lays-a higher obligation upon us. What is here said by the Prophet Hosea of Israel as a nation is applied by MattheW to that One who alone fully realized God’s purpose in Israel, Jesus of Nazareth, the only begotten Son of God (Matt. 2:15). Jesus of Nazareth was the ideal Israel, the one in whom God’s thought of Israel was realized, and so this prophecy has its com pletes! fulfillment in Him. He is the one in whom all Israel was really summed up, the one who was in the fullest and truest sense God’s Son. So the full significance of this prophecy was realized in our Lord Jesus, and Him alone, and Matthew is perfectly warranted in making the use he does of this prophecy. Indeed, it was the Holy Spirit (who inspired Matthew) that, led him to make this, use of the prophecy. v. 2. “As they called them, so they went from them : they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.” Here we have Israel’s wandering from Je hovah set in striking contrast with God’s redeeming love. Israel’s whole history was a history of going after false gods (1 Sam. 8:7-9; 2 Kings 17:13-15; 2 Chron. . 36:15, 16; Neh. 9:30; Isaiah 30:9-14; Zech. 1:4; 7 :11 ;* Acts 7:51; ch. 2:13; Judges
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