Sermon Discussion Questions
Hosea 10:3-4, 11-15
1. Read verses 3 through 4. Hosea rightly predicts that the northern monarchy will fall due to Israel’s infidelity and growing sin. Can you recall when the people sinned in asking for a king? What was wrong with asking for a king? (Answer: think of Saul’s appointment as king. The people wanted a king because they refused to depend upon God as their king).
2. What will be their punishment for trusting in human kings above God according to verse 3?
3. How does speaking mere words and making empty promises lead to “poisonous weeds?” Why do you think Hosea uses that particular agricultural image?
4. Read Hosea 10:11-15. What themes do you see in these verses?
5. Verse 11 briefly summarizes the history of God‘s relationship with his people. How did it start out and how has it progressed? What does this metaphor of the calf teach us about obedience to God and discipline? Why would God choose to put a yoke on an animal that once worked freely?
6. Verse 12 offers the principle of sowing and reaping. Why do we fail to see that our current thoughts, actions and attitudes will bear fruit accordingly in the future?
7. Read Matthew 11:28-30. How does the gospel make it possible for us to sow righteousness, break up the hard, fallow soil of our hearts, and seek the Lord? (Fallow simply means soil that is not cultivated and where crops have not been planted).
8. How have you been seeking to do things your own way, apart from God? How might the grace of the gospel be softening the hard places in your heart through repentance?
9. Spend some time in prayer that we as individuals, as a group, and as a church might be repenting and seeking the Lord while we still have time. Pray for God to show us new ways of sowing righteousness that we might reap steadfast love.