A sermon idea based on Hosea 11:1-11.
Angle
The relevant topic I would be addressing, based on this text…
God will not give up on his people, no matter how much they act like spoiled children who take his goodness for granted.
Anchor
Information about the text that matters to the message…
In this portion of Hosea, the prophet speaks on God’s behalf, first making an assertion.
I have led you with kindness.
And having experienced tremendous rejection from his people, God then speaks through Hosea…
How can I turn you over to judgment?
God, at this point, is frustrated and angry that in spite of his love and kindness, the people of Israel have still rejected him.
It is impossible to know just how much God’s heart has been broken over the failure of his beloved people to listen to his call of love and kindness.
What we do know is that God, the Creator of all, has gone out of his way to try to make himself and his love known to us.
We know how the story continues – with the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. But there is a huge lesson to be learned from the prophecy of Hosea.
Application
The big call-to-action in the message…
The evidence of history, especially as recorded in scripture, is present for us – that God has gone out of his way to prove his love and his kindness. It is up to us to see his grace at work and to respond to it.
Millet, Jean François, 1814-1875. Man Turning Over the Soil, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.