Jul 24, 2022
July 24: God’s Priority is Partnership
by IAN GREIG writing in THE LIVING WORD
• He wants to work with you and me, and us with Him
This is The Living Word Bible Study for small groups and individuals, for Sunday, July 24 (TLW29C)
Bible readings:
Hosea 1:2–10 — A time when the covenant with God was withdrawn
Luke 11:1–13 — Jesus teaches the fundamentals of kingdom prayer
Colossians 2:6–19 — How to live a full spiritual life in Christ
Theme: God’s covenant is an assurance to those who are His
• Read this week’s linked article Spiritual Confidence is Yours with a Little Practice
• And watch this week’s video which uses a storytelling approach woven through all the Bible readings (excerpted) touring the message
Psalm 85 excerpt vv. 4–9, 13
4 Restore us again, God our Saviour, and put away Your displeasure toward us.
5–6 Will You be angry with us forever? Will you prolong Your anger through all generations? Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?
7 Show us Your unfailing love, Lord, and grant us Your salvation.
8–9 I will listen to what God the Lord says; He promises peace to His people, His faithful servants — but let them not turn to folly. Surely His salvation is near those who fear Him, that His glory may dwell in our land.
13 Righteousness goes before Him and prepares the way for His steps.
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Hosea 1:2–10 — A time when the covenant with God was withdrawn
Foretelling God reversing His compassion for Israel owing to their errant ways
2–3 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.” So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
“When the Lord began to speak through Hosea” — a contemporary of Isaiah, Amos and Micah. Hosea prophesied to the northern kingdom of Israel during the reigns of its last seven kings.
4–5 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. In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.”
“Call him Jezreel” — the name “God scatters,” speaks of judgment on the ruling dynasty.
• For further study, Jehu’s actions at Jezreel, 2 Kings 9–10.
“In that day” — fulfilled in 733 BC when Assyrian King Tiglath-pileser III captured the Valley of Jezreel.
6–7 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. 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.”
“Lo-Ruhamah” — Hosea’s message through the names of his children foretells a reversal of the compassion that God had earlier shown to Israel, Exodus 33:19; Deut. 7:6–8.
“Yet…show love to Judah” — saw the Lord’s continuing protection from Assyria in 722–721 BC and again in 701, 2 Kings 19:32–36.
8–9 After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. 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.
Lo-Ammi — harshest judgment of all, withdrawing Israel’s covenant relationship with the Lord owing to their unfaithfulness.
I am not their God — lit. “I am not ‘I AM’ for you”, see Exodus 3:14.
10 “Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’
“Yet” — the threatened punishment would be for a time with blessing to follow. Also applied to the mission to the Gentiles in Romans 9:26, 1 Peter 2:10.
“They will be called” — here Hosea’s prophecy moves abruptly from judgment to hope.
Reflection
SUMMARY Hosea foretells a time when God will withhold His covenant with the northern kingdom of Israel owing to their persistent rebellion. Lacking divine protection, they were conquered at Jezreel, a place of historic sin by the ruling dynasty.
APPLICATION God revealed Himself to Moses as a partner, provider and protector of those who showed themselves to be His by unswerving loyalty and devotion. His ancient intention has not changed, but our way of relating to Him has.
QUESTION How do we now show ourselves to belong to God?
Luke 11:1–13 — Jesus teaches the fundamentals of kingdom prayer
An outline for talking to God in a personal and relational way of supplication
1 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
“One day Jesus was praying” — His lifestyle practice, Luke 5:16, Matt. 14:23, Mark 1:35.
“Lord, teach us to pray” — a revision of the teaching given as part of the Sermon on the Mount, Matt. 6:9–13 about praying in a relational way to ‘Father’ rather than reciting wordy phrases.
2–3 He said to them, “When you pray, say:
‘Father, hallowed be Your name…
“Father” — there was precedent for addressing God as Father in Isaiah but it was not usual, Isaiah 63:16, Isaiah 64:8.
“Hallowed be Your name” — reflecting God’s reputation and character while exhorting approaching God in faith for who He is.
…’Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread.
“Your kingdom come” — Matthew’s version of the model explains this with “Your will be done”. Praying down the kingdom is inaugurating God’s righteous, fair order for our world now, to come fully at the end time.
4 ‘Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation.’”
“Forgive us… we also forgive” — reading this (or Matt. 6:12) in a religious way where God forgives us, rewarding our forgiveness of others, is mistaken. Rather, repentant of our own failings, we extend grace to others.
5–6 Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’
“No food to offer” — a story of shameless boldness, starting with a householder unwilling to share food with a traveller, which would bring the whole village into disrepute.
7 “And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’
“Don’t bother me” — a parable of contrasts. How much more mighty is the Father, yet always approachable and generous.
8 “I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
“Because of your shameless audacity” — anaideia, lacking sensitivity to what is proper.
9 “So I say to you: ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
“Ask… seek…knock” — present imperatives, encouraging petition prayer as something we do continuously.
• For further study, see Deut. 4:29, Isa. 55:6; 65:1; Luke 11:5–8, Matt. 7:7–11; 1 Thess. 5:17.
10 “For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
11–12 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
“Asks for a fish… an egg” — a father would prioritise feeding his children. Snakes and scorpions were common dangers.
13 “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
“You, though you are evil” — exaggeration to draw out the comparison with the Father’s goodness, and generosity.
“Give the Holy Spirit to those who ask” — looks ahead to Pentecost and Luke 24:49, Acts 1:4, Acts 2:33 and the incomparable gift of new life through the Holy Spirit’s empowering of a believer.
• For further study, read Matt. 12:28; Luke 4:1, 14; Acts 1:8; Rom. 8:13–14, 26; 1 Cor. 12:11; Gal. 5:18.
Reflection
SUMMARY Jesus teaches His disciples a new way of relating to God and of praying to Him. Now the covenant assurance is about knowing and trusting God as Father, who wants the best for His children.
APPLICATION God’s character is such that He cannot disregard a sincere request for a need to be met. Our confidence in who He is and His gracious provision leads us to persist in petition while trusting Him for His answer.
QUESTION What is the relevance to this teaching of asking for the Holy Spirit? How were the first disciples changed following Pentecost?
Colossians 2:6–19 — How to live a full spiritual life in Christ
Why a wholehearted submission to Jesus as Lord gives us all we need
6–7 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
“In Him, rooted and built up in Him” — spiritual confidence comes from knowing our new identity “in Him”.
8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
“See… that no one takes you captive” — false teaching in Colossae was literally plundering the gospel from the church.
“Philosophy” — the Colossians’ heresy had tried to complicate the plain Christ-centred gospel truth into a religion of rules and action.
9–10 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.
“All the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” — for Greeks, who divided spirit and matter into good and evil, God taking on a human body was unthinkable. But Christ, Paul explains, is the full revelation of God in human form.
11–12 In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through your faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
“Buried with Him in baptism” — a new believer shares how Jesus became Lord of their life before submerging in the water of baptism, a symbolic death and ‘burial’ of the old flesh-led life; then rises out of the water, symbolising new life in Christ.
13–14 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; He has taken it away, nailing it to the Cross.
“Dead in… uncircumcision of the flesh” — as circumcision was a sign of the Jewish Covenant, baptism was the sign of entering into the New Covenant in Christ, with debt paid in full.
15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the Cross.
“Triumphing over them by the Cross” — like a Roman victory parade leading the humiliated enemy.
16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.
17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
“A shadow” — the OT rituals, which foreshadowed the reality of Christ, were now a distraction.
18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind.
“False humility” — any attempt to gain spiritual credibility by one’s own effort is false.
19 They have lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
“Lost connection with the Head” — failing to teach Christ Jesus loses the vital connection, and growth.
Reflection
SUMMARY This reminds us that in Christ Jesus, we have everything. We can’t add to that — to turn to religious works and rituals is to cease to rely on faith in the relationship.
APPLICATION Once we receive Jesus Christ as Lord, we are forgiven and accepted and made new in Him. Religious-minded people may seek to complicate what is a plain and simple faith; we should not let them.
QUESTION Where in our worship and discipleship has it become more about church than Jesus?
PRAYER Father God, we rejoice that we can know you personally through Jesus.
We are held and sustained by You in a new covenant.
We have Your promise to hear our intercession.
May we grow in confidence to declare Your kingdom over our lives and communities because we are Yours in Christ Jesus.
Amen.
