Hosea Matthews Quotes

Matthew has Jesus flee to Egypt to escape Herod’s massacre not because it happened, but because it fulfills the words of the prophet Hosea: “Out of Egypt I have called my son” (Hosea 11:1). The story is not meant to reveal any fact about Jesus; it is meant to reveal this truth: that Jesus is the new Moses, who survived Pharaoh’s massacre of the Israelites’ sons, and emerged from Egypt with a new law from God (Exodus 1:22).

Outrageous grace is God’s goodness that comes looking for you when you have nothing but a middle finger flipped in the face of God to offer in return. It’s a farmer paying a full day’s wages to a crew of deadbeat day laborers with only a single hour punched on their time cards (Matthew 20:1 – 16). It’s a man marrying an abandoned woman and then refusing to forsake his covenant with her when she turns out to be a whore (Ezekiel 16:8 – 63; Hosea 1:1 — 3:5). It’s the insanity of a shepherd who puts ninety-nine sheep at risk to rescue the single lamb that’s too stupid to stay with the flock (Luke 15:1 – 7). It’s the love of a father who hands over his finest rings and robes to a young man who has squandered his inheritance on drunken binges with his fair-weather friends (Luke 15:11 – 32). It’s God’s choice to save a slave trader knowing full well that it would take a decade for this man to recognize the wretchedness of his ways. It’s one-way love that calls you into the kingdom not because you’ve been good but because God has chosen you and made you his own. And now he is chasing you to the ends of the earth to keep you as his child, and nothing in heaven or hell can ever stop him.

Mercy I desire and not sacrifice”, he tells them, quoting the prophet Hosea (6:6), thus giving them their subject for meditation. The

It’s called the ‘fallow ground.’ It’s the ground purposely left unsown, unreaped, and unharvested. You see, if one works the same land the same way over and over again, the soil becomes depleted and the land grows less and less productive. Therefore, farmers would, every so often, allow a field to rest, to lie fallow, unsown and unreaped. So if we planted on ground that had been allowed to lie fallow, what might we expect to happen?” “It would become fruitful, more fruitful than other ground?” “Yes,” said the teacher. “And this is the law of the fallow ground, a law that contains one of the most important secrets of living a fruitful life. What is the fallow ground? It’s the ground that hasn’t been touched, worked, or cultivated. And what is the fallow ground in God? It’s the ground that hasn’t been touched by God. It’s every life, every heart, and every soul, that hasn’t allowed God to touch it, that hasn’t allowed God’s life to enter in. It is, therefore, crucial that you sow the Word and love of God to the fallow, to the lost, the unsaved, the unknowing, to the farthest and the most ungodly—to the fallow ground. And if they receive, they will bear much fruit.” “Does the law of the fallow ground also apply to those who know God?” “So much so,” he said, “that applying it can transform your life. Even for those who know and love the Lord there is fallow ground. Whatever part of your life has not been touched by God’s love and truth—that is your fallow ground. Whatever area of your life remains unchanged, unredeemed, ungodly, and dark, whether of actions, thoughts, habits, emotions, or ways—that is your fallow ground. And the law of the fallow ground says that it is that very thing, that very soil, that very area you haven’t allowed God to touch and change—that will bear the most fruit. It is that part you must plow, and sow, and water. For it is that ground that is waiting to bear a harvest. As it is written in the Prophets, ‘Break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the Lord.’” The Mission: Identify the fallow ground in your life. Open it up to this day, to the touch of God, His Word, and His will. Let it bear its harvest. Hosea 10:12; Matthew 13:23 Neru Lachem

The woman who was built from the man is now joined to him and they become “one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). This “one flesh” imagery is the basis for marriage being the union of one man and woman in a lifelong covenantal relationship (Matthew 19:4–6). The words “leave” (ʿāzab) and “hold fast” (dābaq) depict the fact that marriage is a covenantal relationship (see Deuteronomy 28:20; Hosea 4:10).

The woman who was built from the man is now joined to him and they become “one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). This “one flesh” imagery is the basis for marriage being the union of one man and woman in a lifelong covenantal relationship (Matthew 19:4–6). The words “leave” (ʿāzab) and “hold fast” (dābaq) depict the fact that marriage is a covenantal relationship (see Deuteronomy 28:20; Hosea 4:10). Marriage is not a social construct but is something that God ordained as a creation ordinance and institution.

However, the nation of Israel, collectively speaking, was felt to have failed to enact sufficiently the mission of glorifying God, as the wider context in Hosea makes clear: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the more they went from me; they were sacrificing to the Baals and were burning incense to idols” (11: 1–2).

The LORD says, “I will cure them of their unfaithfulness. I will love them freely. I will no longer be angry with them.” Hosea 14:4

In this chapter, Jesus repeatedly emphasizes how seeing and living in the new reality of His kingdom isn’t natural. In fact, God’s kingdom is so countercultural that Jesus describes it as “yeast” (v. 33), which in Scripture is typically seen as a symbol of corruption and evil (Hosea 7:4; Matthew 16:6, 11; 1 Corinthians 5:6–13). Jesus’s shocking use of this word would be similar to saying that the kingdom is like a virus or like saying, “It ruins everything.” And that’s exactly Jesus’s point. Truly experiencing His kingdom will not be comfortable or easy for any of us. It’ll ruin everything!—all our plans, all our assumptions, all our comfort. But it’s more than worth it. It’s the treasure that’s infinitely precious, the source of endless joy (Matthew 13:44–46). —Monica Brands