Wednesday: Ammi “My People”
In Romans 9:25 Paul quotes Hosea 2:23, and in Romans 9:26 he quotes Hosea 1:10. The background is that God instructed Hosea to take “a wife of whoredoms” (Hos. 1:2) as an illustration of God’s relationship with Israel, because the nation had gone after strange gods.
Image © Rolf Jansson from GoodSalt.com
The children born to this marriage were given names signifying God’s rejection and punishment of idolatrous Israel. The third child was named Loammi (Hos. 1:9), meaning literally “not my people.”
Yet, amid all this, Hosea predicted that the day would come when, after punishing His people, God would restore their fortunes, take away their false gods, and make a covenant with them. (see Hos. 2:11-19). At this point those who were Loammi, “not my people,” would become Ammi, “my people.”
In Paul’s day, the Ammi were “even us, . . . not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles” (Rom. 9:24). What a clear and powerful presentation of the gospel, a gospel that from the start was intended for the whole world. No wonder we as Adventists take part of our calling from Revelation 14:6: “Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth – to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people” (NKJV). Today, as in Paul’s day, and as in the days of ancient Israel, the good news of salvation is to be spread throughout the world.
Read Romans 9:25-29. Notice how much Paul quotes the Old Testament to make his point about the things that were happening in his day. What is the basic message found in this passage? What hope is being offered there to his readers?
The fact that some of Paul’s kinsmen rejected the appeal of the gospel gave him “great heaviness and continual sorrow” in his heart (Rom. 9:2). But at least there was a remnant. God’s promises do not fail, even when humans do. The hope we can have is that, in the end, God’s promises will be fulfilled, and if we claim those promises for ourselves, they will be fulfilled in us, as well.
| How often have people failed you? How often have you failed yourself and others? Probably more times than you can count, right? What lessons can you learn from these failures about where your ultimate trust must lie? |
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Our ultimate trust must lie on God only! Jesus must be our safe port! We must "hide" ourselves in Him!
Amen! Praise the Living God!
God is able to save every soul that turns to Him in faith, believing His "exceeding great and precious promises" and trusting in the Lamb of God to take away their sins. Through Hosea we see again that our earthly heritage cannot save us, but only through faith in the world's Redeemer. The promises to Abraham came with conditions, and "if" we meet these conditions by faith, those promises are ours to claim.
It’s good to hear from you again Robert. The “if” conditions that you speak of only include faith. We are saved by faith in CHRIST by his righteousness and this faith is a gift from HIM! There are conditions, yes, James 4:17. But Paul explains the conditions well in 2Timothy 4:8, last sentence. Even obedience is a gift. The really good news is if you want to go to heaven you will!…Royce
Well said Royce. The only condition for salvation is acceptance of the gift offered freely to all (Romans 6:23). Everything good we do as a result is "fruit" of accepting that gift, not a precondition for it.
Obedience, repentance, good works and the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) are the result of accepting the gift of salvation (through faith), not the cause of it.
We are all chosen of God, but we still have a choice. We are only called the sons of the living God,if we choose to be in the Spirit rather than in the flesh. Romans 8 and 9. Choose life or death said Moses in: Deuteronomy 30:19. Christ says come unto Me, abide in me. Matthew 11:28, John 15:4. Christ would not be giving us the invitations, if He had not given us the power of choice. Choose ye this day whom ye will serve, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Joshua 24:15. "And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have CHOSEN you the Lord , to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses." Joshua 24:22. It is Biblical to have a power of choice. Christ wept for His people, who choose, and have chosen to to reject Him. When you choose to follow Christ, He gives you the power to follow through. There is no proof on Pauls writings either, that choice is non existant. Now I have the choice to surender my will to Christ, once I have surrendered my will does not mean I have taken my free will away, rather I have given it to Christ for safe keeping, and it means I have put God in control. I do that, I die daily in Christ. My position is clearly stated, enough said.
Even King David in Psalm 40:11,12 mentions God's loving kindness and mercy as being his continual preservation. And in the previous 5 verses in that same Psalm 40:6-10 he is quite clear about what that "loving kindness and mercy of God" consisted of: His only begotten son becoming one of us, living for us, and dying for us, and rising from the dead for us, and interceding for us in heaven until He comes again to reclaim His eternal kingdom and His people.
If we look at the first paragraph in today's lesson and had a prophet like Hosea, in our church today, and he told us God told him to take a wife like God told Hosea to take one, would we accept him as a true prophet from God?
A good introspective question. The Bible doesn't say Hosea went and played with a bunch of prostitutes. If that was the story, we would do well to not accept him. He behaved and related appropriately to his wife, she was the one who didn't. What would we do today? I hope we would see things in their proper light and not judge, but would we?
On the other hand there is Samson. His record is less stellar. Yet he was called and chosen of God, and will be saved. But he paid a steep price, humanly, for his poor choices, and was not able to do what God could have done through him had he made better choices.
Gordon your question is an interesting one indeed! We don't have to go that far, because I have been a member of several churches where the pastor was acceptable, but his spouse was not, or vice versa! And E G White remains controversial in many churches.
In the context of this week's lessons, I seek an explanation for the verse that ends with "For many are called, but few are chosen." Many chose to heed the call, but were not chosen! Did they (we) have the wrong motives or reasons, or were they (we) more concerned with self-preservation? Were they (we) fish out of water?
Gilbert, I believe you are referring to Matt 22:14 which is not explicitly mentioned in the lesson. If you will keep reading, it is evident that the text is the take-away point from the parable Christ just told - the parable of the wedding of the King's Son and all those who refused the call and the guest who refused to wear the wedding garment provided.
From the parable it becomes clear that pretty well everyone is "called" to the feast. Most do not respond to the call because they do not value it. Only some come, and they are "chosen," provided they wear the garment provided by the King Himself. Any who come in their own garment (righteousness) are thrown out aka "not chosen."