Hosea 9—10: What Are You Planting?

Do you like it when your refrigerator and cupboard are full? Isn’t it great to have your debts paid and money in the bank? These are the times we thank and praise God. The Israelites were prosperous in the first part of Hosea’s ministry, but here Hosea tells the Israelites not to rejoice. Their fertility (having babies, growing crops, increasing livestock) was coming to an end. It was not that they had not planted, but that they planted the wrong things. What we sow, we will reap.

Warming Up to God

What are you planting in your life and in the lives of others? Consider whether you are letting God guide what you sow.

Read Hosea 9—10

Discovering the Word

• How do you see the theme of fertility in chapters 9—10?
• Festival days were to celebrate the Lord's goodness to Israel. Why then would God take away the joy of the celebration?
• Why was the prophet, God's lookout, considered a fool (9:7-8)?
• Hosea describes the people using farming metaphors. What images stand out to you (9:10, 13, 16; 10:1, 4, 7, 11-13)?
• How does the metaphor of planting describe the plight of Israel (10:11-15)?

Applying the Word

• When do you find yourself focused more on what the Lord has blessed you with than on the Blesser himself?
• How has the law of the farm—what you sow, you reap—shown itself in your life?
• No one likes listening to prophets because they call into question those things which make us comfortable. How can we (as individuals and as the church) learn to keep our ears open to the prophets in our lives?

Responding in Prayer

Ask God to help you to be a more faithful worker in the fields of your life, the church and the world.