Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1 to 25 of 105 results

Hosea 1:1-2:1

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

In a sense, chapters 1 through 3 in Hosea’s book serve as a summary of his entire message. Centered around the “sign” of Hosea’s marriage to Gomer, they prepare for and condense all that follows after in the story of God’s poignant love affair with the people of Israel in the eighth century BC. Perhaps they originally circulated in Judean circles independently of chapters 4–14. But whoever placed ...

2. Israel Punished and Restored

Hosea 2:2-23

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

Once again the disciple who arranged chapters 1–3 has included a passage that serves as a summary of much of Hosea’s preaching (2:16–14:9). All of 2:2–15 represents genuine oracles of Hosea, but it is possible that this unit as a whole has been put together from originally independent oracles, such as 2:2–4; 2:5–7a; 2:7c–10; 2:11–13; and 2:14–15. As it now stands, however, the pericope forms a rhe...

3. Hosea's Reconciliation With His Wife

Hosea 3:1-5

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

3:1–5 This short prose piece, composed by Hosea himself (in contrast to 1:2–9, which comes from another hand) is really an explication, through a symbolic action on the prophet’s part, of the meaning of 2:2–23. It spells out in relation to one individual wife what Yahweh will do to his wife Israel as a whole, and indeed, it initiates that action. Thus, it may have been performed at the same time t...

4. The Charge Against Israel

Hosea 4:1-19

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

The redactor of Hosea’s book summarized the prophet’s message for us by collecting together the material in chapters 1–3 and placing it at the beginning of the work. The redactor’s intention with such a collection was that we read chapters 4–14 in the light of that introductory summary. With chapter 4, however, we begin an examination of the separate oracles delivered by the prophet. But they too...

5. Judgment Against Israel

Hosea 5:1-15

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

In this oracle, Hosea describes the deeds of his three addressees in the exact reverse of their order in verse 1a–c. First, he tells of the murderous ways of the royal house, verses 1e–2a. Then he discusses the captivity of the Israelites to a spirit of harlotry, verses 3c–5. Finally, he turns to the cult where the priests officiate, verses 6–7b. And after each description, the punishment for such...

6. Israel Unrepentant

Hosea 6:1--7:16

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

Contrary to the LXX, which connects this passage with 5:15 by the addition of the word, “saying” (as in the RSV), this pericope is complete in itself as one more record of Israel’s deceitful ways toward God. Overcome by Assyria’s engulfment of them (see the comment on 5:8–15), the Israelites call a day of repentance in the effort to secure for themselves God’s aid once again. Such fasts of repent...

7. Israel to Reap the Whirlwind

Hosea 8:1-14

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

As is frequently the case with Hosea, it is very difficult to know how to divide chapter 8 into its separate oracles. From a form-critical standpoint, verses 1–3 could form an independent unit because they include summons, accusation, and judgment. But they are intimately linked to what follows by their subject matter. Verse 4 spells out the two primary ways in which Israel has rejected what is go...

8. Punishment for Israel

Hosea 9:1--10:15

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

Some commentators would regard 9:1–9 as the first complete unit in this chapter. Others would point to 9:1–6. Judging on the basis of rhetorical criticism, it seems best to divide the chapter into five separate oracles: verses 1–4, 5–6, 7–9, 10–14, 15–17. What we have here are several oracles, strung together by the redactor/disciple of Hosea on the basis of the common theme of the loss of vitalit...

9. God's Love for Israel

Hosea 11:1-11

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

The almost hidden note of hope with which chapter 10 ended is here sounded at full volume: God cannot give up this people! (Cf. my son v. 1; my people v. 7.) The principal theological question that this passage raises is, What finally will be the factor that determines the outcome of human history? And certainly the prophetic answer to that is “God.” As the Lord of all history, God will make the ...

10. Israel's Sin

Hosea 11:12--12:14

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

Originally, this passage was probably not one unit. Verses 11:12 and 12:1 both appear to be isolated accusations with no following announcement of judgment. And it could be argued that 12:2–6, 12:7–9, and 12:10–14 all form complete units in themselves. However, as the passage now stands, whether as the result of Hosea’s arrangement or of a redactor/disciple’s, it is a unified whole centered around...

11. The Lord's Anger Against Israel

Hosea 13:1-16

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

Chapter 13 is clearly made up of four originally separate oracles—verses 1–3, 4–8, 9–11, and 12–16. All four oracles probably date from the last years of Hosea’s ministry and from the last years of Hoshea ben Imla’s reign, around 724 BC. Thus, they have probably been set in their present place by a disciple/redactor of the prophet’s work. Shalmaneser V is on the throne of Assyria, soon to be repla...

12. Repentance to Bring Blessing

Hosea 14:1-9

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

We can reasonably consider this oracle to be the last message delivered by Hosea in his prophetic career, and therefore to be properly placed by the redactor at the end of the Hosianic collection. The NIV paraphrases verse 1b. The Hebrew of that line reads, “You have stumbled in your iniquity.” Israel has stumbled. It is already falling, and its end is near. Hosea has announced that inevitable en...

13. An Invasion of Locusts

Joel 1:1-12

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

1:1 It may be that the name Joel is more than just the proper name of the prophet. In the Hebrew, “Joel” combines two words, Yah, which is an abbreviated form of Yahweh, the Hebrew name for the Lord, and ʾēl, which means god. Thus, the name “Joel” signifies “Yahweh is God,” and while many pious parents could have affirmed their faith by giving their son that name, “Joel” may also point to one of t...

14. A Call to Repentance

Joel 1:13-20

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

This entire section, which may be divided into five strophes (vv. 13, 14, 15–16, 17–18, 19–20) is directed at the priests in the Jerusalem temple, for if communion with God has been lost in Judah, the priests are those primarily responsible. 1:13 It was the priests’ duty in biblical Israel to teach and maintain their people in the ways of the Torah. But that did not mean simply teaching the peopl...

15. The Day of the Lord

Joel 2:1-11

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

Sometime between 500 and 350 B.C., post-exilic Israel experienced a devastating locust plague, followed by a drought. That experience is described in Joel chapter 1. And certainly the people suffered under the dreadful effects of those disasters. But the message of the prophet Joel — prompted not by the natural disasters, but given him as a revelation from the Lord — is that the Israelites face a ...

16. An Army of Locusts

Joel 2:1-11

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

2:1–11 In 1:15, Joel announced the imminence of the day of the Lord. He now tells what that day will be like. Some scholars have maintained that this section does not concern God’s final judgment and is instead a description of the invasion of the locusts of chapter 1. In such a view, the locust plague would be not a past event, but a present one. Several features of this passage would, on the fa...

17. Return to the Father

Joel 2:12-17

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

Karl Barth once remarked that the greatest tragedy in human life would be to come to the end of our days and to realize that we have been totally worthless in the purpose of God. Or in the thought of our Epistle lesson, at the end to realize that God has poured out his grace on us through all our years, and yet we have done nothing with it (2 Corinthians 6:1). It is that "end" that the prophet Jo...

18. Rend Your Heart

Joel 2:12-17

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

2:12–14 This is one passage in Joel where it is absolutely necessary that we understand what the original Hebrew says, because the NIV translation has missed the force of the opening words. Verse 12 begins with “But even now,” the “but” being translated from what is known as a waw adversative, and it is that “but” that is all important. If God had not said “but” in human history, the human race w...

19. The Lord's Answer

Joel 2:18-27

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

2:18–20 We now come to the turning point of the book of Joel—the point at which God’s jealousy leads to pity for the chosen people. God removes both the everyday judgments and the threat of final judgment from their lives, verse 18. This passage too, however, is not to be understood in terms of some sort of self-seeking on God’s part. Rather, God’s “jealousy” could also be translated as God’s “ze...

20. The Day of the Lord

Joel 2:28-32

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

2:28–32 The promise of abundant life and rescue from the judgment of the day of the Lord has been given out of the free grace of God (2:18–27). Joel now turns to tell of the signs that will precede the coming of the day. Thus, afterward in 2:28 refers not to events that will take place after the coming of the day, but before its imminent arrival (cf. before in v. 31). As found also in NT traditio...

21. The Nations Judged

Joel 3:1-16

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

3:1–3 The NIV has eliminated two important words in the translation of verse 1. In the Hebrew, the verse begins, “For behold,” which not only connects this passage with the preceding poem, but also emphasizes the content of verses 1–4. In 2:28–32, Joel has announced those signs that will precede the coming of the day of the Lord. He now tells what will happen at the time of the day itself. When th...

22. Blessings for God's People

Joel 3:17-21

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

Joel ends his book by portraying the glorious future that awaits the people of God. Their enemies have been destroyed, and peace reigns on the earth (cf. Ps. 46:8–11). In the place of the catastrophes that they knew in the past, they have become inheritors of abundant life. Indeed, Joel’s portrayals of that life, borrowing partially from Amos 9:13, pick up the themes of his first chapter and show ...

23. Judgment of Israel's Neighbors

Amos 1:1-2:5

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

1:1 Amos is introduced to us by a number of editors, probably from Judah, who have, over a period of time, formulated the superscription as we now have it. Probably the original heading of the book read something like, “The words of Amos from Tekoa.” The NIV mistakenly connects the shepherds with Tekoa, but of Tekoa modifies Amos, and the reference to the shepherds simply states Amos’s occupation....

24. Judgment on Israel

Amos 2:6-16

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

In the prophetic corpora, oracles of judgment against the foreign nations usually follow a prophet’s oracles to his own people (Jer. 46–51; Ezek. 25–32). Here in Amos, however, the prophet begins with the announcement of judgment on the foreign peoples immediately surrounding Israel, and his purpose in doing so is entirely theological. These foreign nations posed no serious threat to Israel’s life...

25. Witnesses Summoned Against Israel

Amos 3:1-15

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

By including both Israel and Judah in the series of oracles against the foreign nations in 1:3–2:16, Amos has shown that the people of God have joined with the rest of the nations in a common rebellion against the lordship of Yahweh, thereby profaning God’s holy name. The prophet will then in 3:13–4:13 spell out the specific indictment against Israel. But before he does so, as Amos’s book is now a...

Showing 1 to 25 of 105 results