Conversations in the Pew: Helping Your Kids Understand Hosea

We want to help parents in the pew talk about the message of each sermon series with their children. Just as you may ask your child what they learned in Children’s Worship, we want them to ask you what you learned during the sermon! We also want to equip parents to have meaningful discussions with their kids who remain in the service for the sermon each week.

Today Pastor Erik will begin a new series in Hosea, a prophet in the Old Testament. Hosea is commanded by God to prophesy to Israel about her worship of other false gods. God’s people have abandoned him like a spouse abandons a marriage. In order to help Hosea know deeply the level of betrayal and cost of redeeming love, God commands Hosea to marry a woman who will repeatedly be unfaithful to him. It is a hard thing to love someone who does not love you back—to love someone who serially betrays you. But that is what God’s people are doing to the God who rescued and redeemed them in their false worship.

This prophetic book should fill us with great joy and deep hope! As one commentator notes: “As ugly as Israel’s adulterous faithlessness has been, it cannot extinguish God’s resilient redemptive love that defies human calculation or annulment.” 

The overarching metaphor of this prophetic book is that of adultery. We realize that children as young as eight or nine will be listening in on the sermons over the next few weeks and they might have questions for you! Though conversations about terms like “adultery” may be hard for you, you need to have them with your children. They desire to hear truth from you. Help them to understand sin better, and help them to know God’s amazing love in a richer way throughout this sermon series. 

Please take a few minutes to watch this video, which is made for children in order to better prepare yourself to talk about God’s Word, our sin, and Jesus’ love for sinners:

Hosea’s relationship with Gomer reminds us of God’s relationship with the people of Israel and with us. Even though God’s people are unfaithful and love other things more than they love God, God still loves us. God sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sin and bring us back to Him.

If you would like to even better understand the themes of the book of Hosea you can also watch this excellent video that is geared towards adults. 

Hosea is a rich book that has something to offer not only to the adults, but also to the children in our congregation! If you should have any questions or would like more resources along the way, please don’t hesitate to reach out!