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Some introductory notes to a sermon on Hosea 2 (To Know God)

23 Wednesday Jan 2019

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To Know God

Hosea 2

The judgment and blessing of God are measured to His purpose. God not judge from a senseless rage, and He does not bless without purpose:

Psalm 104:24 (NASB95)

O Lord, how many are Your works!

In wisdom You have made them all;

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom of God!” Romans 11:33. His every decision, from the fall of the sparrow to the fall of an emperor are purposed by the unsearchable wisdom of God.

 

God has promised that all things work together for good: God will bring honey from the carcass of a lion (Judges 14:8). That all things work together for good is not some vague statement that I will get a better job when I have lost one; it is not my cancer will bring about a cure. God’s goodness does not track our desires.

 

Yet, the goodness of God always works the purpose of God. Think carefully of the promise:

Romans 8:28 (NASB95)

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to Hispurpose.

There is the purpose of God embedded in the promise of God. What then is that purpose to which He calls? What is the end of this goodness of God? To be conformed to the image of His Son. Rom. 8:29. The goodness of God is shape, to form, to break and remake until the image of Christ is stamped upon the soul. The Son is so dear that the Father will see that image upon all the people called according to His purpose. What greater goodness could there be than to be made lovely to the Father?

In Colossians 3:10, Paul that the redeemed are being “being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.” There is a true knowledge of God that works upon and forms the redeemed: that knowledge of God makes one new; it stamps the image upon the soul

God has a purpose a plan in in the life of the redeemed: God seeks to remake them into the image to which they were called. God in his goodness seeks to conform all the people of God to Son of God. And as we gaze upon the glory of the Son of God, we are transformed into that glory. 2 Cor. 3:18

Where then will we look to see this glory? How is the glory of the Lord displayed? Will certainly the creation. Ps. 19:1 But there is a place in which the glory of God shines more brightly than elsewhere: in the Son. Hebrews 1 tells us that while God spoke previously through the prophets, in these last days He has spoken in His Son. That Son is the radiance of the glory of God. There is true glory of God shining with unvarnished beauty and brilliance.

And where would we look to see this glory? We could dare to look to where the Son of God is seated at the right hand of majesty on high – there he dwells in unimagined brilliance and glory.  For it is in Jesus Christ that the glory of God is displayed to all creation.

But the glory of God will not be seen by earthlings grasping at heaven. There is a view of this glory – a view beyond all delight – but that view can only be seen when one has passed the strait gate, when one has walked the narrow way.  You can see the majesty of the world from the top of Mount Everest – but only when you have climbed the mountain. And you will see Christ in his beauty; but only when you have passed the narrow gate.

That narrow gate passes through the cross of Christ and the tomb of Christ: death comes before resurrection, and resurrection before glory.

We come to the knowledge of God through the knowledge of Christ. Think of that most famous of all passages in the Bible, John 3:16

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son ….

Do not pass over the verb: He gave. The love of the Father is seen in the given Son, the Son delivered over to death for us all; the Son delivered over to death for our sin. We cannot see the love and glory of God outside of that terrible sight of our sin hung upon Christ, our sin which he bore in His body on the tree.

It is the good purpose of God that we should know God. It is the good purpose of God that we should be conformed to the image of the Son. But that knowledge is found in a gold mine, deep in the dark; that glory is found in the Valley of Humiliation; that glory is found in passing through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

But it is there, as the prophet Hosea says, that we will find the door of hope:

The Valley of Achor, the valley of trouble, the valley of judgment where the stones piled upon over Achan’s sin, there in the valley of Achor is the door of hope:

I will give her  — says the Lord –

The valley of Achor as a door of hope.

Hosea 2:15

Here look upon judgment, come look upon sin and its sad end, come here to the valley of Achor and I will open up a door of hope. Here in the narrow way, I will lead you out to the knowledge of God.

It is this passage from a knowledge of sin – a knowledge which Israel did not realize – that leads to a knowledge of God. That is the judgment and promise of this second chapter of Hosea

[the movement of the passage is from judgment, brought about because she does not know and has forgotten God to a blessing which is to know God and to say, You are my God! There is a movement of increasing despair of ourselves, which leads us finally to a knowledge of God]

{two quotes to be used later}

As the Spanish theologian Juan de Valdes (ca. 1509–1541) discovered, the only true knowledge of God is the knowledge of Christ, and this presupposes the experiences of the knowledge of sin through the law and the knowledge of grace through the gospel.156 Although it jolts what we might intuitively suppose, our experience not only of guilt but also of condemnation and despair is integral to knowing God. But of course there is no gospel at all if there is no redemption, and it is to this that Hosea now turns.

Duane A. Garrett, Hosea, Joel, vol. 19A, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1997), 87.

 

Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly,
Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision,
where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory.
Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells,
and the deeper the wells the brighter thy stars shine;
Let me find thy light in my darkness,
thy life in my death,
thy joy in my sorrow,
thy grace in my sin,
thy riches in my poverty,
thy glory in my valley.

 

 

 

Soren Kierkegaard, Christ is the Way, Part One

18 Friday Jan 2019

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The Ascension, John Singleton Copley, 1775

Christ is the Way is a Sermon Three Discourses published 1851. The translation is by Walter Lowrie (Princeton University Press 1941)

Christ is the Way Part One

Acts 1:1-12, Ascension Day

The prayer:

O Lord Jesus Christ, who didst behold Thy fate in advance and yet didst not draw back; This who didst suffer Thyself to be born int poverty and lowliness, and thereafter in poverty and lowliness didst bear the sin of the world, being ever a sufferer until, hated, forsaken, mocked, and spat upon, in the end deserted even by God, Thou didst bow Thy head in death of shame — oh, but Thou didst yet life it up again, Thou eternal victor, Thou who wast not, it is true, victorious over Thine enemies in this life, but in death wast victorious even over death; Thou didst lift up Thy head, for ever victorious, Thou who are ascended into heave! Would that we might follow Thee!

The sermon:

Christ is the way. This is His own work, so surely it must be true.

And this way is narrow.

 

He then makes the observations that the narrow way is set out in Christ’s own life: “thou hast only to look at him, and at once thou dost see that the way is narrow.” Yes, Christ said this – but Christ also lived this life: “this is much more solid and much more forcible proclamation that the way is narrow … than if his life had not expressed it.”

The life of Christ was a constant comment and illustration – a proof that the way is narrow.

SK then compares the life of Christ and his preaching – being one and the same – with the life and preaching of many who came later, “a man whose life …. expresses the exact opposite, then preaches Christianity for half an hour. Such preaching transforms Christianity into its exact opposite.”

How then was Christ’s life narrow:

It was narrow in his “poverty and wretchedness” of his birth young life. It was present in his life being assaulted with temptation.

It was narrow in that he had to work to avoid being king – when so many men (“the universal human trait to aspire to be regarded as something great”) – aspire to be king.

And think of his love:

Now he performs again a work of love towards this people (and His whole life was nothing else but this), but He knew at the same instant what it means, that also this work of love contributes to bring Him to the cross

His life only proceeds into narrower straits. One could live with something difficult knowing that things will improve: but to know that they will only become more difficult, more trying is a narrow way.  He could have defended himself. He could have ended his difficulty – and so it was narrow to know his difficulty, how it would end; to know that he could also end the suffering, and then to proceed.

Yes there is an ascension – but the Ascension does not come without death. There is a way to the Ascension but it is a narrow way that leads through death.

Some Further Notes on Hosea 2:14-15

11 Friday Jan 2019

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Hosea 2:14–15(ESV)

The Lord’s Mercy on Israel

14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,

and bring her into the wilderness,

and speak tenderly to her.

15  And there I will give her her vineyards

and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.

And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth,

as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

This comes to the next question: How does God speak?

This question actually breaks into two question: First, how does God in the sense of mode: What manner of speaking does God use? Does God speak from mountain? Does God send a prophet? Does God send an angel?  The second question concerns justice: How does God overcome the injustice of Israel? How can God do this thing and redeem this bride?

 How Does God Overcome Justice?

To take the last question first, we need to consider the problem. God is our judge and the offended party. Justice must be done by both and for both.

If I am slighted by you, I can certainly overlook the wrong. We all do this every day; someone is brusque: someone bumps you carelessly, someone cuts you off on the freeway, someone answers discourteously. There are a thousand minor insults we all suffer and all overlook.

Now let us consider more serious wrongs: some does you a serious wrong: someone steals from you, causes you physical injury; someone slanders you and ruins your reputation, runs off your friends and takes your job. When someone causes a substantial injury, a substantial reconciliation must take place. A simple, “Sorry!” won’t restore what has been lost.

But let us consider something even more substantial. You have suffered a true and terrible criminal wrong. Someone has murdered or raped. The culprit has been apprehended. Trial has been conducted, and the culprit has confessed. The wrong is real, the wrongdoer has been caught, and the judge is called to execute the sentence.

Think of the evil which would result if the judge simply ignored the fault. It would be morally wrong, it would be truly evil if the judge refused to bring justice to bear.

We all rightly know the outrage we feel when we see a true monster go free. Justice demands justice. It is not mere emotion: it is an objective need that justice right what is wrong. If the judge refuses to do justice, the judge himself has become unjust. A judge who lets a murderer go free, is a judge who taken part in the murder; the judge has joined himself to the murderer.

Israel’s wrongs were astounding: the wrongs went back centuries. The Israelites had become no better than the Canaanites whom the Lord had driven from the land. They were as depraved, vicious, perverse as those whom God removed. God could not be God, God could not be just, could not uphold his own word if God were to simply ignore Israel’s evil.

And this is perhaps the element which is hardest for us to understand – and yet it is the element which displays the greatest evil – Israel rejected the worship of the true God. Israel knowingly and purposefully refused to believe, trust, thank the one who had created and sustained them, the one who fed and protected them.  As Paul says in Romans 1

Romans 1:21 (ESV)

21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

They were not thankful.

What is God to do? This is not a mere matter of God overlooking their wrong: they have obliterated their duties, their affection, their relationship with God. They have trampled upon the Law and ignored justice. God would himself be unjust God to simply forgo justice in the name of mercy. That would be no mercy, but would rather be another round of injustice.

How is God to settle the score of Israel’s injustice and so speak tenderly to her?

How Does God in Fact Speak?

God does in fact speak from a mountain (but not a flaming mountain). God does send angels. God does send prophets. God does speak tenderly. God does speak to Israel in the wilderness. God does speak.

But where and how?

First, God speaks:

John 1:1–14 (ESV)

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

 

God did send angels:

Luke 2:8–21 (ESV)

8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

14         “Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

21 And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

 

God spoke from a mountain:

Matthew 5:1–2 (ESV)

5 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

 

But not a flaming mountain:

Hebrews 12:18–24 (ESV)

18 For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest 19 and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. 20 For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” 21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

 

God did send prophets:

Matthew 11:8–10 (ESV)

8 What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. 9 What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 This is he of whom it is written,

“ ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face,

who will prepare your way before you.’

 

Matthew 21:11 (ESV)

 

11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”

 

God did speak to Israel in the wilderness:

Mark 1:1–4 (ESV)

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,

“Behold, I send my messenger before your face,

who will prepare your way,

3           the voice of one crying in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight,’ ”

4 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

 

God did speak tenderly:

Matthew 23:37–39 (ESV)

37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 38 See, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ ”

 

And he is speaking now:

Hebrews 12:25 (ESV)

25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.

The Savior Who Bears Shame

17 Tuesday Apr 2018

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(This is the introduction to a sermon on Hosea 1-2)

The Savior Who Bears Shame

Hosea 1:2 (NASB95)

2          When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry; for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord.”

The story of Hosea is a story of the unyielding, unchanging grace and love of God. It is the story of love which undergirds the course of history. The love and grace of God form the architecture of the movement of time. The rebellion of Adam and failure of Israel could not unmake the love of God. “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more”. Rom. 5:20.

God’s grace brings life from death, for

1 Corinthians 1:27–29 (NASB95)

27        … God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,

            28        and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,

            29        so that no man may boast before God.

This love runs deep in the channels of time; it forms the steel frame of all the universe; it bears such strength that not even death, not even adultery can break the bond of God’s love. It is the love of a God which begins before God said, “Let there be light.”  As Paul tells Titus, God promised eternal life, “long ages ago.”  It is a love which stretch into all eternity, as Christ has promised, “Where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:3. It a transforming love which takes the one who is unlovely, and remakes him; it is love which presents the bride, “holy and blameless”.  Eph. 5:27

It is a love that will overcome all obstacles, so that not even the foulest rebellion will thwart his love:

For love is as strong as death

Jealousy is as severe as Sheol

It’s flashes are flashes of fire

The very fame of the Lord

Many waters cannot quench love

Nor will rivers overflow it

If a man were to give all the riches of his house for love

It would be utterly despised.

Song 8:6-7

But the story of God’s love in Hosea does not begin with the beauty of romance; with the hope and expectation of young love. The story begins with rank adultery, with spite, with unloved children, with war and chaos lurking at the horizon.

The book begins with this gunshot to the chest. We know nothing Hosea before — and little after — this command comes from the Lord:

Go take for yourself a wife of harlotry

Or as the King James aptly puts it

take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms

There is no preparation told us for this command. God comes and makes this command — and the personal commands of God cannot be avoided — a shocking command. Image come has come to you and says, You, marry that whore. Think of the confusion, the revulsion, the pain.

The command is almost inexplicable on its face. A variety of commentators have sought many explanations — and there are several explanations — but none of them can really get around the point of the disgust.

John Calvin, for instance, cannot believe that God would give such a command to the prophet. He draws out the trouble here: the wife to be is not “without blame in holiness before our God and Father”. She is no one’s “hope or joy or crown of exultation.” As Calvin writes, this woman

who has exposed herself to all, to gratify the wish of all, who has prostituted herself, not once or twice, nor to a few men, but to all.

This woman is not beguiling, not attractive. She is ruined with lust. Calvin cannot believe that God would bring such shame upon His prophet

for how could he expect to be received after having brought upon himself such disgrace.

Keep that question in mind, for that shame and disgrace are at the heart of the love of God. But for now just see this: God commands Hosea to marry a whore, because God himself is married to whore:

When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry;

Having given the command, God gives the reason:

for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord.”

The shame the Lord calls the prophet to bear is the shame which the Lord, himself, bears.

Sermon Outline: Isaiah 15-16

25 Thursday Aug 2016

Posted by in Acts, Isaiah, Preaching, Sermons, Uncategorized

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(Picture, “War & Poverty” by Kelly Short — I am using this picture because it provokes one to sympathy by seeing the horror of war — is one of the primary effects of Isaiah 15-16)

In reading Isaiah 15-16, I thought (1) How would I preach this passage? And (2) What is important in the manner of its composition: It is poetry, with a great deal of emphatic compression, repetition and imagery. Why is written like this and not as a narrative or as a didactic declaration?

I.  The Horror of Judgment

The overall tone is one of pathos. The repetition insists upon the horror and sorrow:

Ar of Moab is laid waste in a night

Kir of Moab is laid waste in a night

And so on. Every detail of the devastation is repeated and amplified. It is like a series of snapshots of broken walls, bodies and wailing. The destruction is absolute and goes down even to the earth. 16:8-10

There are refugees fleeing in all directions and the terror and sorrow spread in all directions like blood from the corpses:

Isaiah 15:8–9 (ESV)

8           For a cry has gone

around the land of Moab;

her wailing reaches to Eglaim;

her wailing reaches to Beer-elim.

9           For the waters of Dibon are full of blood;

for I will bring upon Dibon even more,

a lion for those of Moab who escape,

for the remnant of the land.

I can help thinking of all the millions pouring out of the Middle East who suffer loss and death and sorrow even as they flee. Any sermon must effectuate the sorrow and horror of the judgment or the sermon will have failed in its purpose.

II.  The Cause of Judgment

Second there is the cause of this devastation:

Isaiah 16:6–7 (ESV)

6           We have heard of the pride of Moab—

how proud he is!—

of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence;

in his idle boasting he is not right.

7           Therefore let Moab wail for Moab,

let everyone wail.

Mourn, utterly stricken,

for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth.

This reminds me of Obadiah 3 (which is interesting when you compare this to Amos 1:11-12 & 2:1-3).  So this horror has come about because of pride.

III.  The Escape from Judgment

Third, this is the real bite in the passage. God has destroyed Moab with a horror beyond belief.  But God mourns the destruction:

Isaiah 15:5 (ESV)

5           My heart cries out for Moab;

her fugitives flee to Zoar,

to Eglath-shelishiyah.

For at the ascent of Luhith

they go up weeping;

on the road to Horonaim

they raise a cry of destruction;

 

Isaiah 16:9 (ESV)

9           Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer

for the vine of Sibmah;

I drench you with my tears,

O Heshbon and Elealeh;

for over your summer fruit and your harvest

the shout has ceased.

God loves his enemies: God judges, and yet there is compassion for the necessity of the judgment:

Luke 19:41–44

41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

There is a command to shelter the refugees:

Isaiah 16:3–5 (ESV)

3           “Give counsel;

grant justice;

make your shade like night

at the height of noon;

shelter the outcasts;

do not reveal the fugitive;

4           let the outcasts of Moab

sojourn among you;

be a shelter to them

from the destroyer.

When the oppressor is no more,

and destruction has ceased,

and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land,

5           then a throne will be established in steadfast love,

and on it will sit in faithfulness

in the tent of David

one who judges and seeks justice

and is swift to do righteousness.”

Notice this command ends with the protection in the tent of David. This phrase “tent of David” matches (in the LXX) the language of Acts 15:16:

The citation from Amos 9:12 follows the LXX fairly closely, though this version differs from the Massoretic (Hebrew) text in significant ways.49 ‘Precisely the divergence of the LXX from the Hebrew enables the text to be used midrashically.’50 The purpose of this restoration of the Davidic rule is not simply to bless Israel but also ‘ “that the rest of humanity may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things” ’. James adds words possibly taken from Isaiah 45:21 ‘ “(things known from long ago” ’) as a gloss on the concluding words from Amos 9:12 (‘ “these things” ’).51 This addition strengthens the claim that God’s plan to save Gentiles along with Jews is no novelty, since it was part of his eternal purpose (cf. Rom. 15:8–12).

David G. Peterson, The Acts of the Apostles, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2009), 432.

The language of the throne coupled to the tent of David strengthens the tie to Jesus (and all of the cross-references to Jesus based upon this language).

The reason why the sorrow and terror are seen throughout the poem is that God intends to provoke the same sorrow and terror in the hearer. Moab is guilty. The judgment is justice, but it is sad, frightening event. God is calling upon his people to rescue the judged people of Moab.

It is interesting that it is not certain what attack is being foretold:

The first part of the prophecy, 15:1–9, tells of the devastating effect of the disaster which was to befall Moab. As noted above, the actual nature of the attack cannot be determined from the general account here. The major emphasis is upon the effect, which will be that the Moabites will be so demoralized that their only response will be weeping and flight.

John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 1–39, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1986), 336–337.

But by analogy, the lesser judgment all foretell the greater judgment to come. This would lend itself, by such analogy to a very evangelistic plea. The tie to seeking protection in the tent of David would strengthen the argument.

God foretells this judgment, primarily to the people of God, to provoke them with both the horror of the judgment and the sorrow of the victims (who deserve the judgment) so that they will reach out and rescue these people by bringing them into the tent of David.

If you have tasted that the Lord is good

02 Tuesday Feb 2016

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Why does Peter quote a Psalm of David to Christian believers in the First Century?

1 Peter 2:1–3 (ESV)

2 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Psalm 34:8(ESV)

8  Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!

Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!