Israelites

Have you heard of the Israelites? Maybe you don’t know them by their name, but I bet you know and love a lot of Bible stories about the Israelites or Jewish people that God chose to love and care for throughout the Bible.  ... We love to focus on how awesome and cool God is in each of those stories! His power and might that is shown. And that’s a great thing to learn from those stories.  But there’s a pattern in these stories that I didn’t notice until I was older. The story of the Israelites has a pattern of God showing off His awesomeness, the people praising Him for a time and then guess what happens next? They forget about God. They turn away from Him. But the story never ends there. It’s a repeating pattern. God ALWAYS shows up again. So, here’s the pattern. God shows up, they forget God. God shows up again, then they forget God. And the pattern keeps going. Now, I read these stories and think that God should be pretty annoyed and mad at them if He keeps doing amazing things and the Israelites just keep forgetting and turning away from God. But… God isn’t like us. He loved the Israelites so much that we see God love them over and over even when they’ve turned away. Now, I should tell you that the Israelites faced some pretty bad consequences for turning away from God. But God still loved them with His whole heart and He kept showing up for them over and over again.  In the Bible, the book of Hosea shows the pattern of the Israelites turning their hearts from God and then God’s never-ending love for them. Hosea lists off lots of ways the Israelites tried to live their own way and not God’s way, which is sometimes called “waywardness.” It just means going opposite from God’s way, also called sin. And after all the things they had done opposite from God’s way, Hosea 14:4 is where God says, “I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.” We can be encouraged by the story of the Israelites. They saw the Lord do great things and then they chose to make a bad decision by turning away from God. But the story doesn’t end there! God still loves them EVEN when they make bad decisions. He restores them to right relationship with Him, which is what He wants to do with us today through Jesus.  Here are some questions to talk about. You can pause after each question and discuss. Oh, and there’s not wrong answer to these. So don’t overthink it!  1.     Do you ever make bad decisions? We all do! So, do you think God still loves you even after you made the wrong decision?  2.     What is the pattern of the story of the Israelites? What did they keep doing?  3.     Why would God love someone over and over even when they make bad decisions? One last time before we sign off, let’s practice our verse together. You can repeat after me. “I will heal their waywardness - and love them freely, - for my anger has turned away from them.” - Hosea 14:4 *Music: "Forest" by Vlad GulschenkoSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/backseat-bible-nuggets/donations