December 7
Hosea 6:1-9:17
3 John 1:1-14
Psalm 126:1-6
Proverbs 29:12-14
Hosea 6:1 – We’ve read so much about judgment in the previous chapters, we have hope in this verse. Return to the LORD and He will heal, He will bind us up.
Hosea 6:2 – While other commentators disagree, Matthew Henry sees this as pointing to the Resurrection!
But this seems to have a further reference to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let us admire the wisdom and goodness of God, that when the prophet foretold the deliverance of the church out of her troubles, he should point out our salvation by Christ; and now these words are fulfilled in the resurrection of Christ, it confirms our faith, that this is He that should come and we are to look for no other.
Hosea 6:6 – Notice this continuing theme in the Bible? Jesus used this verse to argue with the Pharisees that the disciples did not violate God’s Sabbath law, only man’s Sabbath extension, and that far from being “less holy” – the Pharisees were hypocrites.
Hosea 7:8 – “a cake not turned” gives us the picture of someone “half-baked.” He is weakened but “he knoweth it not” (Hosea 7:9).
Hosea 7:13 – Notice this imagery: God redeemed them, they lie against Him. God strengthened them, and they plot evil against Him.
Hosea 8:7 – This phrase has gone into popular culture:
The phrase was famously used by Arthur “Bomber” Harris in response to the Blitz of 1940 when he said:
The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everybody else, and nobody was going to bomb them.
At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw, and half a hundred other places, they put that rather naïve theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now, they are going to reap the whirlwind.[2]
Hosea 9:14-17 – God takes sin seriously.
3 John 2 – Is John creating a universal promise of the “prosperity gospel?” That we should be “healthy, wealthy, and rich?” Or is it just a greeting and expression of concern for his friend Gaius, similar to Paul’s request for the cloak at Troas (2 Timothy 4:13). The key is looking at the verse – Paul says “thou” not “you all” (or y’all as a Southerner might render it). Gaius must have been having health and financial issues, but Paul is encouraging him by recognizing that it’s more important that his soul prospers than his health prospers.
3 John 4 – In case you missed it – Paul is most excited by his children walking in truth, than in financial prosperity.
3 John 9-10 – We’re still in the first century and we have serious problems in the church! Thankfully we’re not alone in the stream of church history with problems!
Psalm 126:5 – Matt Black recorded a song based on this verse. “Someone prayed for me, They saw my agony, And they sowed with tears of sorrow for my soul. God did a work in me, Sin’s record he destroyed, Yes they that sow in tears shall reap in joy.”
Proverbs 29:12 – Interesting – the servants bear the guilt for the decisions of their ruler. Similarly we bear the guilt for Adam’s sin (Romans 5:12-14).
