2023_09_04 Insight Post- Kim Feld

This week’s reading may seem a little disjointed, but remember the overall section we are looking at right now is “Israel and Judah in Exile,” so we are reading about Israel’s fall to Assyria. Next week, we will read about the fall of Judah to Babylonia. Tucked within the reading is the prophecy and fulfillment of Immanuel, God with us. We have gotten an overview of the kings of both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms – some good, many bad. Although the kings of Israel were supposed to be precursors to the ultimate king coming in the Messiah, most didn’t even come close.

The reading in 1 Peter pulls much of this section together. Take a look at 1 Peter 2:9-10 (NIV):

⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

In verse 10, Peter quotes from Hosea (1:6, 9-10; 2:23) in using the words “not a people.” In the original context, God rejects Israel due to their disobedience but also looks forward to the grace He would extend. Look at the beautiful words of Hosea 2:23 (NIV):

I will plant her for myself in the land;
I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’
I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’;
and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”

The message for us as followers of Christ is that once, we were lost in our disobedience and rebellion, but now, we are God’s chosen people. We have received His mercy and are His special possession. The Greek word used for mercy in the verses from 1 Peter is eleeō. It means “to show mercy to, show pity to another who is in serious need, usually with a focus on an act of kindness that will help meet the need” (NIV Exhaustive Concordance Dictionary, 2015). This is the heart of the gospel message: God saw our serious need and poured out incredible kindness to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah.

We have much more to cover in our Bible reading plan this year as we look at the redemptive history of God’s pursuit for us. Over and over in the stories we are reading, we see a God who longs for our obedience and is quick to forgive once we repent. We are the people who have been called out of the darkness into His wonderful light.

Kim Feld
Executive Director of Education and Outreach

Reference: NIV Exhaustive Concordance Dictionary. (2015). Zondervan.