015 Hosea 6

This passage starts with a raw prayer from Hosea for his fellow people to return to God. God has done these things to the nation to redeem them. Describe a time in your life (preferably recently) when you prayed with this kind of fervor, whether for yourself or someone else. 

Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth." Hosea 6:3 ESV

The history of the people of God, from Abraham to the present day, can be described in terms of how we are pressing on to know the Lord. Talk with your group about what that phrase means, ‘to know the lord.’ Next, read 1 John 2:4 and talk about what this means for us now. 

In verse 4, the prophet cuts deep when says of Israel, “your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away.” Their love is inconsistent and fleeting. Does this describe you? Is your love of God fleeting? Is it based on your current circumstance, whether good or bad?

“I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

Wait, what?!? The sacrificial system is crucial to Israel! It's been ingrained in their lives for generations! The whole Levitical system was established by God! How can this be?!? This is a groundbreaking statement - enough so that Jesus points back to it in Matthew's gospel. So let's be sure we're on the same page before we ask a question. The whole of the sacrificial system is a means to an end. The end is a relationship with God, which is a revolutionary thought at the time. God used the sacrificial system as a means to that end because it was something that would be easily understood in that day, with that people. We see this truth in this passage that Israel had made a religion out of the means and missed the end. God desires a steadfast love and a knowledge of him.

So, now the hard question. Where do you see this pattern in your life? Where have you forgotten that the end is a relationship with God, and instead created a religion out of some means (even a God-given one?) Some practical thoughts if this seems too abstract:
Have you given up the freedom we find in God for being enslaved to consumerism and consumption rather than being creators as we were created to be?

Have you given up the love we see in Christ for being cold, angry, or distant towards other believers with whom you disagree about an open-handed doctrine rather than being known by your love for others?

Have you given up the great lengths we see God taking to restore his people for being insulated and only loving toward people in your small group, or only people at COTW, or only other believers, rather than being loving toward all?

Have you given up your identity as a son or daughter of the living God who created everything? We see and know from the smallest particle we can detect to the largest cluster of galaxies stretching across billions of light years, for being more concerned with an online identity you've created that feeds your ego with the likes, shares, and comments from people you don't know, rather than identifying primarily as being his?

Have you adopted a set of doctrines or a systematic theology, not as a means to the end of knowing God, but for the sake of having answers to any question, or a rebuttal to any argument, or as a way of always being right, rather than admitting there are things we cannot know or understand about a God who is infinitely greater than us and finding fellowship with your brothers and sisters who are in the same place?

Will you settle for the religion you have created or will you plead with him the way Hosea does at the beginning of this passage to overwhelm you with his truth and presence as we seek to press on to know the Lord?